?Classics? of power metal #1: MANILLA ROAD - Open The Gates (1985), early impressions

[These "early impressions" posts are generally going to be after listening to the record twice, give or take.]

Past exposure to this band/record:  None other than half-listening to a track on YouTube when designing this project.  

                        

To add to the above, I had somehow never even heard of Manilla Road, despite their clearly big shadow across a fairly large plain of metal.  This prolific band from Kansas was the last addition to my list of bands to cover in response to a Reddit comment suggesting that some semblance of "epic metal" should get some love in a survey of power metal.  I will not attempt to regurgitate my brief reading about how exactly epic metal is defined, and how it has a heavy overlap with but is not completely nested within power metal... suffice to say that the bands that got tagged with this power-adjacent label generally worship Manilla Road.  Especially MR's fourth and fifth records, made during a time before "power metal" (let alone "epic metal") was even a defined subgenre with traits and "rules."  I mean, this was before Helloween even put out Walls Of Jericho, FFS, so, we're in the primordial phase here.

As a 2025 listener, I admit that my immediate response was still to try to pigeonhole Manilla Road into a subgenre and start making comparisons to other bands.  Coming in, I was lead to believe that this would be a traditional heavy metal record but a little more chill, with traces of whatever "space rock" is.  The genre narrative is that the band had recently completed its transition to full-on "heavy metal" after starting as "hard rock," and that now this next record would be the first that was heavily seasoned with the sounds of this new "power metal" thing that all of the kids were into.*  Instead, Gates chooses to lead off with a song called either "Metalstorm" or "Metalström"*** that very much sounds to me like a different sub-genre big in the '80s - "thrash metal."  A relentless riff attacks the listener, the sound is bass heavy as rhythm section Scott Park and Randy Foxe basically establish the backbone, and mastermind Mark Shelton then provides his vocals in a gruff barking style.  My first impression of Mark was a comparison to other vocalists of the time with similar ranges like '80s Dave Mustaine of Megadeth or, over in Germany, '80s Kai Hansen of Helloween.  Let me be clear: this is not a compliment.  So, yeah, my first impression of Mark's vocals was that the big thing he has in common with Kai is that he cannot fucking sing.  And my further impression was that, much as despite its charms Walls Of Jericho will never be an all-time classic for me for want of a singer who can carry a tune, I couldn't imagine becoming a Manilla Road die-hard.  I do not dislike "Metalström" - it's perfectly fine for what it is.  But this is not the sort of song I can love.

And so the opener, so Open The Gates?  Well... a funny thing happened the first time I listened to the title track.  I was brushing past the cheesy passive-tense lyrics about Excalibur when the chorus hit.  Two measures build up an open chord, and then Mark's guitar goes one way, his voice goes the other way - "open the gates!"  It's a hook!  The kind one wants to shout to the heavens.  If power metal is all about moments like that, well, here's a moment.  My mood is better when I'm listening to "Open The Gates" (the song).  Rather than dissect whether this particular track does or does not qualify as power metal as I'm used to thinking of it (still sounds more thrash than anything else), let's just say that it has the heart-stirring effect that a good power metal track should.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Open The Gates is full of hooks, but I will say that they're there, and especially on second listen I was appreciating the way they pop up.  "Astonomica" is especially well placed right after "Open The Gates," leaning more heavily on a softer melodic verse in which Mark can sound like he actually believes that magic can change our lives or whatever without straining his voice. 

So, as the record moved onto songs I liked better, how did I do with Mark's vocal work?  Well, I'll throw in some faint praise to the damning above.  I very quickly came to appreciate Mark Shelton for on this record displaying the single most important trait of a rock singer who can't really sing: he knows what his voice can and cannot do.  You won't hear him trying and failing to sing Dio-style parts, because he is under no delusions of being Dio.  He mostly sticks to the mid range where the gravelly vocals work, and even when he goes for higher notes it's usually a snarl rather than a scream.  If anything, Mark lets his guitar do the talking - such as in the epic and almost lyrical solo in "The Fires Of Mars."  The guitar soars to places that the throat dreams about. 

A little less immediately attention-grabbing for me are the longer epics, especially the nearly ten minute "The Ninth Wave."  My first thought was that now that they'd proven they can rock, here was the band hanging out where they were most comfortable, in a slower Sabbathy groove.  On second listen I'm starting to think that they're equally comfortable everywhere and are just enjoying stretching out.  "The Ninth Wave" first paints a swirling ominous background (later tracks will also display MR's skill for building a background hum out of bass and drums that can sound like being tossed around by waves or like the open skies over Mars, depending on the context). It then introduces a decent verse and chorus, and it then just sits on a few guitar and bass parts whilst Randy on drums tries to see how completely he can own a song.  (Randy stands out a lot on the whole record, really powering the songs and setting the tone.)  When my mind keeps wanting the tempo to speed up or a big solo, instead TNW just layers the existing rhythms on top of each other.  The band don't need to go full-on power if they don't want to - they're painting a musical picture here, and will not kowtow to the usual conventions of song structure if they don't want to.  And hey, listener, after we get past the dopey "Heavy Metal To The World," there'll be plenty of more tracks with standard guitar solos and bridges to come.

At this early stage the song I'm most excited by in the back half is "Road Of Kings."  Still sounds a lot like the others yet it does do what my oh-so-basic ears want from a song; ROK builds from a wordy but hooky chorus into a complementary solo that also serves as a build up, into a different chant that serves as the outro.  Good stuff.  At this early stage, the track I'm finding most frustrating is "Hour Of The Dragon" because it's so close to being there, but I can't not feel that it needs to kick into epic high gear at the end, the kind of thing you need a real singer for, and just... doesn't, because Mark can't sing what would be required and is not about to try.  Also, "Witches Brew" dabbles with being a chant along fit for a drinking song ("we drink!  Witches' brew!") before deciding not to go that route, and I really wish it did.

As best as I can tell from cursory listening, the lyrical ambition on display here runs the gamut from raising a sword to battle amongst knights in an Aurthurian setting to raising a sword to battle against hordes of monsters to raising a sword to battle a dragon.  Let's just say that Open The Gates is doing nothing to challenge my belief that there's always going to be a certain amount of nose-holding from me when it comes to power metal lyrics.

Obviously haven't fully absorbed this one yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic about it.  After two listens I'm starting to feel myself getting drawn into Manilla Road's particular groove.  I'm not shouting along to the songs, here, but my sword arm is twitching a little.

Favorite track (prelim):  "Open The Gates"

Runner up:  "Road Of Kings"

Least favorite track:  "Heavy Metal To The Nations"

Very preliminary rating:   3.5/5

Next:  More listening to Open The Gates, whenever I get around to it!

* Speaking as a child of the '90s living in the 2020s, I cannot imagine that power metal was ever for even a second considered "cool"** by the zeitgeist, and I doubt I can be convinced otherwise.

**or even "not complete nerd shit"

***Surprisingly hard to get a straight answer in the streaming era!  Album sleeve has the latter