MANOWAR BIOGRAPHY

MANOWAR
Biography

Manowar is an American heavy metal band formed in 1980. It began when the bassist Joey DeMaio, a member of Black Sabbath's touring crew, met the guitarist Ross the Boss, who was playing in Shakin' Street, one of Black Sabbath's support acts, and the two were joined by a singer from DeMaio's home town of Auburn, New York, Eric Adams. After its debut, Battle Hymns, in 1982, the band moved from one label to the next, Megaforce Records and Music for Nations, 10 Records, Atlantic Records, Geffen Records and Nuclear Blast, and released records such as Kings of Metal (1988), The Triumph of Steel (1992) and Warriors of the World (2002). Since 2006 its records have come out on its own label, Magic Circle Music, and in Germany it has held a festival of its own, the Magic Circle Festival. In 2016 it announced The Final Battle as its last tour, but in 2019 DeMaio said that the band had never announced its end, and anniversary tours followed. DeMaio and Adams have been in the band since the beginning.

Formation and Battle Hymns (1980-1982)

Ross the Boss had played in the punk band the Dictators before joining Shakin' Street, a band from France. In 1980 Shakin' Street opened for Black Sabbath on the British tour for Heaven and Hell, and on that tour Ross the Boss met Joey DeMaio, who looked after the bass equipment and the pyrotechnics as part of Black Sabbath's crew (the label's description of the 2020 box set; Ultimate Guitar, 2022). Metal Hammer places their first meeting at a Black Sabbath show at Newcastle City Hall (Louder, 2020).

As Ross the Boss remembered it, it was Black Sabbath's singer, Ronnie James Dio, who brought them together: after a soundcheck Dio told him that the crew included a young man who played the bass in an unusual way. The two began jamming in the dressing room while Black Sabbath were on stage, and by the end of the tour it had been settled that Ross the Boss would leave Shakin' Street and that the two would start a band together (truemetal.it, 2021).

They wrote songs such as "Shell Shock" and "Gates of Valhalla" and recorded a demo with money put up by Bob Currie. Ross the Boss went to DeMaio's home town of Auburn, where Carl Canedy of the Rods sat in on drums and a well-known local singer, Louis Marullo, took the vocals. It was Ross the Boss who urged Marullo to take a stage name, and the one they settled on, Eric Adams, came from the names of his sons, Eric and Adam. The demo led to a contract with EMI. The man who built and modified the band's instruments and gear was John Stillwell, known as Dawk, and according to Ross the Boss it was Stillwell who suggested the name Manowar after the other candidates had been exhausted (truemetal.it, 2021).

The first line-up was DeMaio, Ross the Boss, Adams and the drummer Donnie Hamzik (Louder, 2026; Blabbermouth, 2017). The debut album, Battle Hymns, came out on Liberty Records in 1982 (the band's website; MusicBrainz). Ross the Boss and DeMaio produced it (the band's website), and the narration on "Dark Avenger" was spoken by Orson Welles, the actor who had been the band's first choice for it (the band's website, 2024).

Signed in blood, and England (1983-1984)

In 1983 the second album, Into Glory Ride, was released by Megaforce Records in the United States and by Music for Nations in Britain (MusicBrainz). Scott Columbus took over the drums from this record on (the label's description of the 2020 box set; MusicRadar, 2011). Metal Hammer remembers these first years as a time of trouble with labels and of indifference in the band's own country (Louder, 2020). It was in 1983 that the band signed a contract in its own blood; DeMaio later said he had done it so that the world would know Manowar would never let its fans down (Blabbermouth, 2019).

Hail to England, released in 1984, was recorded in Toronto (truemetal.it, 2021). According to Ross the Boss, the band's first shows had been in England, and the album's title was its thanks to the British critics and fans who had backed it early. The album reached number 83 on the UK albums chart, and on that year's Spectacle of Might tour the band played eleven shows in England (Louder, 2020).

Sign of the Hammer followed on 10 Records in the same year (MusicBrainz). Ross the Boss recalled that the band always recorded more songs than it needed, at the Battle Hymns and Hail to England sessions alike, so that when Virgin showed an interest and the band signed with it, the songs were already there; the only ones it had to record fresh for this album were the title track and, as he remembered, "Mountains" (truemetal.it, 2021).

The Atlantic years and a changing line-up (1987-1992)

In 1987 the band signed to Atlantic Records and released Fighting the World. It was the first of its albums with a cover painting by the fantasy artist Ken Kelly, also known for his covers for Kiss and Rainbow (the label's description of the 2020 box set). Ross the Boss recalled that Eddie Kramer worked with the band on pre-production, making demos of "Carry On" and "Blow Your Speakers", but did not go on to produce the album (truemetal.it, 2021).

Kings of Metal followed on Atlantic in 1988, with "Wheels of Fire" and "Kings of Metal" released as singles, and the tour for it went on for three years and took the band around the world (the label's description of the 2020 box set). It was the last album Ross the Boss played on; he left the band in 1988 (Blabbermouth, 2026; Louder, 2026). In a 2021 interview Ross the Boss put the split down to DeMaio starting to tell him how to dress and how to speak (truemetal.it, 2021). His successor, David Shankle, was picked from about 150 guitarists and joined in 1988; he was present for the mixing of Kings of Metal and played on the tour for it (Blabbermouth, 2018).

The Triumph of Steel (1992) is the only album by the line-up with Shankle on guitar and Rhino (Kenny Earl Edwards), who had replaced Scott Columbus, on drums. It opens with "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts", a suite of nearly thirty minutes, and "Metal Warriors" was released as a single (the label's description of the 2020 box set). Shankle has said that he wrote about half of the album's material (Blabbermouth, 2018).

From Geffen Records to Magic Circle Music (1994-2009)

In 1994 the guitarist Karl Logan took Shankle's place (Blabbermouth, 2018), and Columbus came back on drums in 1995 (MusicRadar, 2011). Louder Than Hell came out on Geffen Records in 1996 (MusicBrainz). The live albums of these years are Hell on Wheels (1997) and Hell on Stage Live (1999) (the band's website).

Warriors of the World (2002) was released by Nuclear Blast in Europe and by Metal Blade Records in the United States (MusicBrainz). In 2005 DeMaio said that the band's time with Nuclear Blast had brought the label its first gold record in its home country, Germany (Blabbermouth, 2005).

In these years the band set up a label of its own, Magic Circle Music. In March 2003 it was announced that Rhapsody would release records on SPV's label Steamhammer through an arrangement with Manowar's Magic Circle Music, and the announcement noted that Rhapsody's new management team also represented Manowar (Blabbermouth, 2003). In March 2005 Magic Circle Music signed a worldwide distribution deal with SPV for Manowar's records, and DeMaio said that since forming their own label the band felt the same responsibility towards its other artists as towards Manowar itself (Blabbermouth, 2005). On 23 July 2005 Manowar played Earthshaker Fest 2005 in Geiselwind, Germany, together with other Magic Circle Music bands (Blabbermouth, 2005; the band's website).

After the EP The Sons of Odin in 2006, Gods of War came out on Magic Circle Music in 2007 (MusicBrainz). The band held a festival of its own, the Magic Circle Festival, at Bad Arolsen in Germany, and the video release Magic Circle Festival Volume I captured it in 2007. The second edition, from 9 to 12 July 2008, drew 35,000 people, and to mark the twentieth anniversary of Kings of Metal the band played its first six albums in full over the four days (the band's website). The band says fans came to the festival from more than forty countries (the band's website).

On 5 July 2008, at the Kaliakra Rock Festival in Kavarna, Bulgaria, the band played for five hours and one minute, in an attempt to beat the record for the longest heavy metal concert that it had set at the same festival the year before; representatives of the Guinness book of records had been invited to witness it, according to the report (Blabbermouth, 2008). The 2009 EP Thunder in the Sky includes the power ballad "Father", which, the band says, it recorded in eighteen languages (the band's website).

Re-recordings and The Lord of Steel (2010-2014)

In 2010 the band's original drummer, Donnie Hamzik, returned (Blabbermouth, 2017). That year Columbus told Classic Rock that he had left the band around April 2008 (Blabbermouth, 2011). Also in 2010 came Battle Hymns MMXI, a complete re-recording of the debut album for its thirtieth anniversary. Orson Welles's narration on "Dark Avenger" was recorded anew by Christopher Lee at Abbey Road Studios in London, and the record adds live versions of "Death Tone" and "Fast Taker" taped at the band's very first concerts in 1982 (the band's website).

Scott Columbus died on 4 April 2011, at the age of 54 (Blabbermouth; MusicRadar, 2011). At its concert in Madrid on 10 April the band played "Gates of Valhalla" in his memory (Blabbermouth, 2011).

The Lord of Steel, which the band counts as its twelfth studio album, came out in 2012 (the band's website). Its Hammer Edition has mixes, arrangements and artwork made especially for the CD that came with a limited variant of the British magazine Metal Hammer, issue 233 (the band's website). The live EP The Lord of Steel Live, with highlights of the world tour for the album in 2012 and 2013, followed in 2013 (the band's website; MusicBrainz).

In 2014 the band released Kings of Metal MMXIV, a complete re-recording of Kings of Metal, first as a digital album in February and then as a double CD in March. Hamzik played the drums, Logan the guitar and Adams sang, and DeMaio recorded his bass solo anew as "The Sting Of The Bumblebee MMXIV". The digital release coincided with the start of a world tour that opened in the United States (the band's website, 2014).

The Final Battle (2016-2019)

In May 2016 the band announced that its next tour, after the Gods and Kings tour, would be its last. Presented as the moment to say thank you and farewell to the fans, The Final Battle World Tour opened in Norrköping, Sweden, on 15 November 2017 (the band's website, 2016 and 2017). From that first night the Brazilian-born drummer Marcus Castellani stood in for Donnie Hamzik; Castellani had played in Kings of Steel, a Manowar tribute band in Brazil (the band's website; Blabbermouth, 2017).

On 26 October 2018 the band announced, in view of the arrest of the guitarist Karl Logan and the charges against him, that Logan would not perform with Manowar, and that the new album and the tour would not be affected (the band's website, 2018). Logan later entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to prison in July 2022 (Blabbermouth, 2022).

On 1 January 2019 the band announced that the guitarist E.V. Martel would join it on tour, introducing him as a guitarist who had played for years in the only official Manowar tribute band in the world (the band's website, 2019). The 2019 tour opened in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 25 February and took the band for the first time to cities across Russia such as Novosibirsk and Vladivostok, to Kyiv in Ukraine and to Longyearbyen in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle (the band's website; Blabbermouth, 2019). From the show in Brno, Czech Republic, on 25 March the drummer was the Swede Anders Johansson, formerly of HammerFall (Blabbermouth, 2019).

From the Frankfurt show on 29 March, a new EP, The Final Battle I, was sold first at the merchandise stand and on iTunes. It holds four songs and was presented as the first of a trilogy of EPs; DeMaio himself sings lead on "You Shall Die Before I Die" (the band's website; Blabbermouth, 2019). On the same tour the band also sold the Imperial Edition MMXIX of Hail to England and of Into Glory Ride, remixed from the original master tapes (Blabbermouth, 2019).

Despite the tour's name, DeMaio said in May 2019 that the band had never announced the end of Manowar and had only said it was time for a break (Blabbermouth, 2019). The band's set at Hellfest in France on 21 June 2019 was called off a few hours before it was due to start. The organisers said that the band members had left the site; the band answered that the show had been cancelled by the organisers, not by the band, and that the organisers had not honoured their contractual obligations (Blabbermouth, 2019). On stage in Istanbul on 20 July DeMaio said that the band had filed a lawsuit against the organisers (Blabbermouth, 2019). Also in 2019 DeMaio took the band's history on the road alone, with photos and film, as the Joey DeMaio Spoken Word Tour 2019 (the band's website).

Anniversary tours and a new line-up (2020-2026)

In May 2020 the band announced a tour for its fortieth anniversary, to be played in Germany and the Netherlands in April 2021 (the band's website, 2020). The pandemic pushed the dates back to April 2022, and the tour was recast to mark milestone anniversaries of six albums, beginning with the fortieth of Battle Hymns (the band's website, 2021). The tour that began in 2022 was named the Crushing The Enemies Of Metal Anniversary Tour (the band's website, 2022).

On 4 June 2022 it was announced that the Los Angeles-based drummer Dave Chedrick would play in place of Anders Johansson, who was putting his family first; Chedrick names Scott Columbus as his biggest influence (the band's website, 2022). On 2 September E.V. Martel said that he was stepping away from touring for personal reasons, and on the same day the band announced that the Chicago-born guitarist Michael Angelo Batio would play with it from February 2023 (the band's website, 2022).

In 2022 the band released the EP Highlights From The Revenge of Odysseus, with a new anthem, "Immortal", a power ballad and narrations in Ancient Greek by the Greek actors Kostas and Konstantinos Kazakos and by Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ (the band's website). On 10 February 2023 a new song dedicated to the band's German fans, "Laut und hart, stark und schnell", came out first as a digital release. It was recorded at the band's newly completed Asgard Studios in New York, and the four players on it are Adams, DeMaio, Batio and Chedrick (the band's website, 2023).

In October 2023 the band announced that a new studio album would come out early in 2025 and that it would re-record Sign of the Hammer in full (the band's website, 2023). In October 2025 DeMaio explained that the re-recording had been completed once but that the band had not been satisfied with the sound, had rebuilt its studio set-up and recorded again, and he said that both the re-recorded album and new music would be released (the band's website, 2025). As of October 2026 no release date had been given for either.

On The Blood of Our Enemies Tour 2025 the band played its two albums of 1984, Hail to England and Sign of the Hammer, in full on alternate nights (the band's website, 2023). Summer shows followed the winter tour, and the show at the O2 Academy Brixton in London on 19 July was billed as a Hail to England night (MetalTalk, 2025). On 19 November 2025 the band announced the Kings of Metal Fighting the World Tour 2027, with a new production and Kings of Metal or Fighting the World played in full on alternate nights (the band's website, 2025).

Ross the Boss, one of the band's founders, made public in February 2026 that he had been diagnosed with ALS (Blabbermouth, 2026). He died the following month at the age of 72; his death was announced on 27 March in a statement from the Metal Hall of Fame (Blabbermouth; Loudwire, 2026).

On 18 September 2026 the band announced that eight shows in Iceland, Norway and Sweden that had been set for November were moved to dates between 4 and 17 December. In his statement DeMaio gave as the reason the sudden death of a very close member of his immediate family and asked for his family's privacy to be respected. Each city kept its two nights, a Kings of Metal night and a Fighting the World night, and the dates from 15 January 2027 onwards were unchanged (the band's website, 2026).

The loudest band in the world, by its own account

The band calls itself the loudest band in the world, a record it says it has broken on three separate occasions. Among its other achievements it lists being the first metal band to bring sword-and-sorcery imagery into both its lyrics and its album covers, the only band ever to record with Orson Welles, and the first band to design and build its own speaker cabinets (the band's website). In 2016 Ultimate Classic Rock wrote that Manowar overtook the Who's record in 1984 and then beat its own figure twice, with 129.5 decibels in 1994 and 139 decibels in 2008, the latter at a soundcheck. The same article noted that Guinness had stopped treating loudness as an achievement before the 1994 show, for fear of encouraging bands to damage their fans' hearing (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2016).

Members

The last time the band named its full line-up was in February 2023, and it is these four (the band's website, 2023). In July 2025 DeMaio again spoke of the four of them, mentioning that he and Adams had been in the band for its whole 45 years and that Batio would be on stage (MetalTalk, 2025).

Member	Role	Years
Eric Adams (real name Louis Marullo)	Vocals	1980-
Joey DeMaio	Bass	1980-
Michael Angelo Batio	Guitar	2022- (on stage from February 2023)
Dave Chedrick	Drums	2022-

Former members (the band's website; Blabbermouth; MusicRadar; Louder; the label's description of the 2020 box set):

Member	Role	Years
Ross the Boss	Guitar	1980-1988 (died March 2026)
Donnie Hamzik	Drums	From the start to Battle Hymns; 2010-2017
Scott Columbus	Drums	1983-1991; 1995-2008 (died April 2011)
David Shankle	Guitar	1988-1994
Rhino (Kenny Earl Edwards)	Drums	The Triumph of Steel period (1992)
Karl Logan	Guitar	1994-2018
Marcus Castellani	Drums	November 2017-2019
E.V. Martel	Guitar	2019-2022
Anders Johansson	Drums	March 2019-2022

Concerts in Japan

In Japan, an LP of Battle Hymns manufactured by King Record Co. came out in 1982 under a Japanese title of its own (Disk Union; CDJournal). The Triumph of Steel came out on EastWest Japan in 1992, also under a Japanese title, and in 2014 Warner Music Japan reissued Fighting the World, Kings of Metal and The Triumph of Steel as limited editions for the 30th anniversary of the magazine BURRN!. The Japanese CDs of the first four albums and of Louder Than Hell came out on MCA Victor and Toshiba EMI between 1993 and 1996, Warriors of the World on BIG M.F. in 2002, and Gods of War and The Sons of Odin on Marquee/Avalon in 2007 (Oricon; Tower Records).

Manowar played in Japan in 1993. Reporting the Japanese releases of Gods of War and the live album Gods of War Live in 2007, CDJournal noted twice that the band had not given a concert in Japan since that year (CDJournal, 2007).

On 19 March 2014 the band announced that it would return to Japan as a headliner of Loud Park 14, the festival held at Saitama Super Arena on 18 and 19 October, with an anniversary show from its Kings of Metal MMXIV world tour; Joey DeMaio recalled having promised the Japanese fans that the band would come back bigger and stronger. Its slot was set for 18 October (the band's website, 2014).

On 10 October the appearance was called off. According to the band's statement, a large fire at the Port of Los Angeles had delayed the cargo ship carrying the band's container, and even the backup vessel could not arrive in time. The promoter's notice said that using substitute equipment had been discussed with the band's side, but that both agreed a true Manowar show needed the band's own gear, so the appearance was cancelled; tickets were not refunded (the band's website; Creativeman Productions' concert page; rockinon.com, 2014). DeMaio said that a solution amounting to less than one hundred per cent Manowar would have been unfair to the Japanese fans (the band's website, 2014).

In its place, Creativeman Productions put on two concerts of the band's own at Zepp DiverCity in Odaiba, Tokyo, on 29 and 30 October. Doors opened at 18:00 and the show started at 19:00 on both nights; tickets were 8,000 yen, all standing, tax included and a drink extra, on general sale from 23 October. Holders of a Loud Park 14 ticket for 18 October, or of a two-day ticket, could buy a ticket for one of the two nights for 3,000 yen, and after the concerts those who had not been able to attend were offered the band's official merchandise at half price (Creativeman Productions' concert page; rockinon.com, 2014). On 1 November the band thanked its Japanese fans for two nights in Tokyo, and an announcement of 17 November called the visit its long-awaited return to Japan (the band's website, 2014).

Date	Venue	Show
29 October 2014	Zepp DiverCity (Tokyo)	Headline show in place of the Loud Park 14 appearance (Creativeman Productions)
30 October 2014	Zepp DiverCity (Tokyo)	The second night

About the sources

The sources are Manowar's official website (manowar.com), with its biography, its news from 2014 to 2026, its release and video pages and its FAQ; the label's description of the 2020 box set of the three Atlantic albums (HNE); Blabbermouth.net; Louder (including Metal Hammer features); Loudwire; Ultimate Classic Rock; Ultimate Guitar; MusicRadar; MetalTalk; and a 2021 interview with Ross the Boss published by the Italian site truemetal.it. The labels of the records and the years of the singles and compilations were checked against MusicBrainz. For the Japanese editions and the concerts in Japan, Oricon, Tower Records, Disk Union, CDJournal, Creativeman Productions' concert page and rockinon.com were also consulted.