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Review: Manilla Road - Out of the Abyss
Manilla Road
www.manillaroad.net
Out of the Abyss

Label: Black Dragon Records
Year released: 1988
Duration: 42:35
Tracks: 9
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: November 13, 2004
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4.26/5 (85.28%) (53 Votes)
Review

Well here we have Manilla Road's fastest and hardest album to date. This was the band's eighth full-length album, and it marks a severe departure from the songwriting on both the previous "Mystification" and the following "The Courts Of Chaos". Considering that this was released in the deeps of the Thrash Years, I do not find this fact surprising at all.

At the time this came out, the 'Road got some flak from longtime fans over 'selling out' to the then-dominant Thrash sound, but that's really not the case here. Mark Shelton has said more than once that rather than a conscious attempt to sound like anyone else, this was just a reflection of the music they were listening to at the time. But the fact remains that this is largely devoid of the textured melodies that are my favorite thing about this band. This is an album of fast and dirty metal-hammer tunes like the bludgeoning opener "Whitechapel" and the sharper "Rites Of Blood". It's track four "Return Of The Old Ones" before you get a taste of the gloomy epic side of the band, which has always been my favorite. Mark Shelton's vocals are almost entirely harsh on this album, and in fact he states that the strain he caused his voice recording this is the reason why he can't really sing much anymore.

This is not a bad album – I don't think MR could ever record a bad album – but it does represent the 'Road at their most pugilistic. If you like the faster, meaner songs in this band's playlist like "Death By The Hammer" or "Vlad The Impaler", then you will like this album a lot. But if you love this band for their weird, epic ballads, then this one is a bit of a disappointment. Not a big one, as this is still a fine album. But it just can't rank with their best.

More about Manilla Road...
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Review: Atlantis Rising (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Crystal Logic (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Crystal Logic (reviewed by Ulysses)
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Review: Mysterium (reviewed by MetalMike)
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Review: Open The Gates (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Playground of the Damned (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Playground of the Damned (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Spiral Castle (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Blessed Curse (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Blessed Curse (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Blessed Curse Tour (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Courts Of Chaos (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Deluge (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: To Kill a King (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: To Kill a King (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Voyager (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Interview with guitarist/vocalist Mark "The Shark" Shelton on June 22, 2013 (Interviewed by MetalMike)
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