Voyager

Manilla Road have been around for 30 years now (well, counting a nine-year hiatus...) and as such have produced an absolutely massive body of work, this being their 14th studio album. They're one of the most consistent bands about, and I don't think they've made a record without at least one song I liked. Voyager's predecessor Gates Of Fire, was Manilla Road's most epic release, with the band writing two of their longest most complex songs to date. I was hoping that the band would carry this momentum through on to their next release, and as such this was one of my most anticipated records of 2008. It's rather disappointing then, that this is possibly Manilla Road's weakest album to date (I'm not counting The Circus Maximus as it really isn't a proper Manilla Road album). It all starts off promisingly enough, with a very atmospheric intro leading us into Butchers Of The Sea (although it is combined with intro Tomb Of The Serpent King as one track). You'll notice that this is probably the slowest the band have gone to date, the song being a rather stately trudge. There's none of the speed and catchiness of Necropolis here, that's for sure. I can't really level this as a complaint against the band, as they've been doing songs like this for years. What I feel is a genuine complaint is that the album is far too content to stay in the realm of doominess throughout its 64-minute running time. The long songs on Gates Of Fire worked because they shifted and changed, but these just stay in one gear. A major piece of the Manilla Road puzzle post-reunion has been backing vocalist Bryan “Hellroadie” Patrick. It's fair to say that Mark Shelton has not got the voice he had an 1983, and Patrick more youthful, powerful vocals have buttressed the impact of the band since Atlantis Rising. Unfortunately he's inexplicably absent here, and Mark Shelton has to carry the songs by himself. It's a bit of a detriment, as on this record his singing doesn't grab the listener's attention at all, it's just, well, there. He's had problems with his voice for over 20 years, and you can certainly hear the strain here. The high, raspy screams that made an appearance on previous albums are gone here, as are much of the soaring choruses of old. I feel I've been a little overly negative on this record, and there really are some good points here. Mark Shelton is one of the best riff-writers around, and if you're prepared to really, really listen, the riffs are just as good as anything else they've written. It's just a shame they don't fit together in a way that forms interesting songs. All that really endures here is Frost And Fire, one of the most old-school tracks on the album, Blood Eagle, where Shelton actually sounds like he's properly singing, and thrasher Conquest, which is a much needed change of pace, and the only track to include some full-on shredding and (yes!) Mark Shelton's wonderful sounding rasp. The rest is a patchwork of songs where you'll find yourself tuning in occasionally and thinking “Yeah, this is pretty good, I guess...” and there are cool bits like the acoustic intro to Totentanz (The Dance Of Death) where you really take notice. But before all too long it's back to staring at the song timer and wondering when the song is going to end. There's nothing particularly wrong with Voyager, just not a whole not right either, and from a band with so many great albums, that's really not good enough.