Manowar / Rhapsody

B.B. King's Blues Club, New York, NY
June 19th, 2005

The B.B. King Blues Club has presented some popular metal acts for some time now. This venue has offered such exceptional acts as NIGHTWISH and ICED EARTH, to name a few. Now the club has had the guts to house the almighty RHAPSODY and the kings of metal, MANOWAR!

Diving right in, the show started with a new band called HOLY HELL. The band featured Joe Stump on guitars, Maria Breon on vocals and (I might have heard wrong when Maria was introducing everyone) Rhino on drums. 

HOLY HELL’s music can be described as DIO meets MANOWAR’s lyrics. From what I got from their songs, there’s a concept story about Hell and some battle going on, and the vocals? Without hyping her at all, Maria had impressive vocals, which made me want to hear this unreleased album even more.

A part worth mentioning is HOLY HELL’s cover of “The Phantom of the Opera.” The song was pretty much standard, except for one major exception - the male part was sung by none other than Eric Adams himself! With a rose in his hand, Eric sung with Maria and created a lot of energy within the crowd. 

By now, the crowd was chanting for RHAPSODY and this event was to mark their first appearance in the US (as well as their first show in New York City). RHAPSODY was, to put it simply - exceptional and also cleared any doubt that they couldn’t play live. Fabio Lione entertained the crowd and the fans sung along to several of their songs.

To everyone’s delight, “Emerald Sword” was the final song played and marked one of the great highlights for the show. Unfortunately, (as any RHAPSODY fan should know) the symphony aspect of their music has to be played on a track, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it does feel more like listening to the album at times and less of a live show.

One more thing to add is that the techs used too much fog juice! RHAPSODY at times completely disappeared from so much fog being spewed out. Other than that, seeing RHAPSODY play for the first time was a rockin’ good time and hopefully they’ll return in the near future. 

Now, for MANOWAR.

They were AMAZING!! I do not have to tell you that! Having seen MANOWAR 3 years ago, I must say that they still have the same immense energy as ever before, and they spun the fans into a frenzy.   

MANOWAR’s set list was pretty much the same from 3 years ago, with the exception of “House of Death” and “Brothers of Metal Pt 1” which was enough for me since I enjoy hearing the songs from their set list again and again and again, etc.

Karl Logan ’s solo was pretty sweet as well as Joey DeMaio’s “Sting of the Bumblebee” which while always be a favorite of mine. Never mind, all the songs were my favorite!

And what’s a MANOWAR show without Joey giving a speech while holding a can of beer? Yup, it would be no show at all. Joey talked about how MANOWAR provided their own equipment into the club and how they were in the Guinness books three times, etc, etc. I’ve heard him state the same phrases over and over again. I think it’s been smashed into the fans’ heads that MANOWAR will always be there and remain the kings of metal (we know!), so, with that said, I’m taking what Joey said that night as oath and hope to see them again in the near future.

Oh, and to wrap this up, the show ended gloriously with Joey pulling strings out of his bass and then smashing it into the stage floor…that’s so metal!!    

Rock On!

Official Manowar website: http://www.manowar.com/
Official Rhapsody website: http://www.mightyrhapsody.com/