At one point during the guitar solo in “Tomes of Clay,” something big but obvious occurred to me. Granted, it was nothing that I hadn’t thought of while listening to any of Manilla Road’s 15 (or 16, depending on how you count) previous studio albums, or even some of the other songs on The Blessed Curse. But something about that smooth, drawn-out, moving-in-and-out-of-the-main-theme lead got to me, producing a feeling somewhat similar – if not quite equal – to the chills induced by one’s first spinning of “The Ninth Wave.”
Mainly, I just really, really like hearing Mark “The Shark” Shelton play the guitar…
…to which the long time Manilla Road fan says, “Well, no shit.” After all, through all of Shelton’s achievements in heightening the heft and intensity of traditional metal in the ’80s, or raising the bar for his own epic sound during the Road’s aughties comeback, the one constant has always been the soulful, communicating-something-deeper nature of his guitar playing. In fact, even those detractors that harp on the vocals or production inconsistencies can’t deny the guitar. The Shark is, after all, a shark.
Reliable as always, Shelton and the Road deliver on The Blessed Curse. More than just delivering, however, the album sees the band at their best in years. Recent offerings such as Playground of the Damned and Mysterium were fine on their own – the latter in particular boasted a handful of great tracks – but they definitely felt like “quality veteran albums.” The Blessed Curse aims and achieves higher, becoming Road’s first album since 2008’s Voyager to feel truly complete, as if it was conceived of and executed as a whole.
Not that it necessarily does anything particularly new, it just does That Timeless Manilla Road Thing really damn well — “timeless” being the key term. Tell a long time follower that this came from recently unearthed tapes, and said fan would be as likely to place it in 2010 as in 1985, as it boasts everything from the triumphs of Open the Gates and power-thrashing of Mystification to the heftier, menacing material of Atlantis Rising.
However, the opening title track begins not with said menace but with a melodic light/dark ease, resulting in both a great individual song and fitting introduction for the varying music that follows. There’s plenty of chugging heft (“The Dead Still Speak”), the band’s signature epic metal (the aforementioned and glorious “Tomes of Clay”), and dynamic, multifaceted material (“The Muses Kiss”). It all carries a feeling of heightened purpose, not to mention heaps upon heaps of Shelton’s inimitable lead work, which certainly never hurts. When all else fails, pepper the damn thing with solos, I say.
Some of it inevitably reminds of earlier material – such is the curse of having an easily identifiable sound – but most of it soars, and the current Manilla Road lineup is really syncing as a unit. Beyond just the work of The Shark, Bryan Patrick’s vocal contributions are typically massive (and generally impossible to tell apart from Shelton’s), while bassist Josh Castillo provides equal parts backdrop and countermelody. Drummer Andreas “Neudi” Neuderth is particularly on point, finding as much time to resemble Road legend Randy Foxe as he does an extra-heavy Neil Peart.
But that’s just The Blessed Curse. In actuality, this is a double album, with After the Muse encompassing the second of two discs. And it is in this pairing where the album attains even greater heights. Muse is largely a softer affair, with plenty of acoustic material and some drifty, soothing soloing. (The leads in “Life Goes On” might even make you do a Silver Bullet double take.) It’s definitely a foray into for-fans-only territory, and the decision to include not one but two versions of “All Hallows Eve” was a curious one (it’s a killer tune, but two versions amount to over 25 minutes of music), but it’s not hard to hear it as a reflection of The Blessed Curse. Manilla Road has played such material in the past, but they’ve never before sounded so contemplative, so at peace.
In truth, it isn’t just the second disc of this collection that is a for-fans-only affair; Manilla Road has long been making music for their insanely dedicated following, and The Blessed Curse / After the Muse is not going to change that. But with each year added to their nearly 40-year journey, such unwavering dedication to both their craft and fans adds more numbers to this following. Just as much as their status as a blistering live act, Manilla Road’s ability to still put out great albums is a huge reason why.
Up the hammers, again and again, and never stop playing those solos longer than logic would dictate.
