Manilla Road - Open the Gates (10/10) Dark, scary, a short speech, pumping bass, drum-fills, dark riffs, an imploring voice, this is how the godz of Epic Metal start their masterpiece "Open The Gates". You simply must listen to the disc to say afterwards "I've kissed the sun and didn't notice"! Every single song is a masterpiece itself. 90% of all heavy rockers would give a lot just to make something that's just about that great. For a hymn like "The Ninth Wave" a band like SEASONS OF THE WOLF would kiss the dust. (But if they carry on like they did so far they will soon be welcomed in the rows of MANILLA ROAD...). Or let's talk about "Heavy Metal To The World", an up-tempo smasher with a super catchy chorus that should be considered a highlight on every SLOUGH FEG-album. Songs like the immortal "Road Of Kings" or the great "Witches Brew" are just as magnificent. And about the class of "Hour Of The Dragon" I could chat for hours. Summed up, you could say: HAIL TO THE MIGHTY KINGS OF EPIC POWER METAL - MANILLA ROAD!!! Actually EVERY album should be in your collection but at least this one. It is the best one! Or so it seems to me, although I know that other fans might prefer other CDs. No matter if "Mystification" or "The Courts Of Chaos", "The Deluge" or "Atlantis Rising", they're all timeless monuments of Hard Rock! Epic, dramatic, I need it! - HAWK

SILENT SCREAM ZINE

The Italian and enterprising Dragonheart offers us the re-release of "Open the Gates" by Manilla Road, an album that dates back to 1984 under Black Dragon records, and that nowadays presents two live bonus tracks to enrich it furtherly. Coming from '70 hard rock (in particular from the dark tunes of holy monsters like Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult and High Tide), Manilla Road developed in the middle of the eighties a mediated metal sound between certain Judas Priest and the most epic and majestic NWOBHM. If then you add the wide musical culture of Mark Shelton (that played everything, from piano to drums, and that started with little jazz and country bands), we have a rather exhaustive picture of the Manilla Road sound. It is epic and proud heavy metal, characterized by the raw, powerful and raged voice of Shelton and by dark and majestic atmospheres. Not casually the album is focused onto the saga of King Arthur and, in general, it owns that aura of mystery and mysticism only the old concept albums used to have. The album begins with the fast "Metalstorm", a furious and resounding up-tempo. The title track is focused onto the dramatic and mercyless vocal performance by Shelton, while "Astronomica" encircles itself with an untouchable carpet of obscurity, brutalizing the fundamental rules of blues music through means of metal weapons. "Weavers of the web" is a proto-epic metal with a vague prog flavour, while "The ninth wave" reaches the artistical top in the CD: a long (nine minutes and a half!) song wich owns an anguishing and mesmerizing atmosphere thanks to its disturbing cyclical walking. "The fires of Mars" proceeds along solemn involving mid-tempos while "Witches brew" is a further example of dark-epic-metal of great class. The Dragonheart edition of "Open the Gates" , remastered digitally at Cornerstone studios by Steve Falke and that enjoys the fantastic original frontcover by Eric Larnoy is an excellent manner to revalue (or discover) a cult-band that would deserve more. Flavio Ignelzi