By Martin Popoff
As I've alluded, the album has an odd unready vibe to it. The sound is close to the death tones Manowar would perfect on record #3, Hail To England, but many of the songs sound like mid to late '70s American metal. If they had been around for awhile, Eric ain't 'fessing to it.
"Actually, no. We got together and Battle Hymns was on his mind and we all sat down. He had the framework of it and we all put our two cents in. 'Shell Shock' was another one and it just came together really quick. It was just one of those things. There was magic in the air and it just happened. Because it was magic, because it was all new and fresh to us, I think that's why it came out on record so hot."
And where did this image come from?
"Well, we got sick and tired at looking at the images of these other bands, relying more on stage props than they were on talent. And we thought Jesus Christ, we have to do something about getting back to where it's supposed to be. Let people know that it's all about the music at the end of the day and go back to our roots. So we thought, well, back to man's roots were the skins, the animal skins, I, and we said let's start with that. So we got the swords, using the sword idea for the power in the songs. That's how battle took place in those days. And we said let's go right back to the roots. We wanted to let everybody know that we were thinking about music, that we weren't thinking about all the bullshit and gimmicks on stage, and at the end of the day, you buy your ticket and your T-shirt to support music. It ended up the people were supporting monsters that blew up during the show, and that was the biggest part of the night. So please! We decided f**k all this bullshit. When the monster that blows up at the back of the stage gets a bigger applause than the band themselves, what the f**k is going on? We all sat down and said listen, our stage set is going to be nothing but f**king power and that's what we're going to come out and do."
MANOWAR - Ancient Battles Page 3