18. Manilla Road The Deluge 1986 (Black Dragon)
Heavy Metal
Travelling down that darkly lit road.
The Lowdown
Often regarded as the final album of the ‘Great Manilla Road Trilogy’
The Deluge released in 1986 combines the styles of their highly reputable and cryptic
Crystal Logic album, with the more accessible metal of their
Open the Gates album (see both reviews) The essence of the album is a concept based around typical Manilla Road fantasy offerings that include ‘The Fall of Atlantis” but for my mind the whole thing at times feels like something inspired by the writings of H.P Lovecraft covering terrifying creatures and tormented souls, and the album cover itself looks like something out of Lovecraft as well. Album opener “Delirium” quickly re-introduces the listener to the vocals of frontman Mark Shelton, in one of the most instant vocal song introdutions of the year and around him the instruments swirl away in true Manilla Road style. There are songs like “Shadow in the Black” which after a slow start soon emerge as hyperactive efforts thrashy style which again test the mettle of the band’s components, where these guys kind of jam out Rush style throughout large sections of the album. Songs like “Divine Victim” with its bass intro is a song that attacks religion and again shows that heavy link between the band and their 1970s influences and Mark Shelton is soon singing ‘I’m not a victim of Christianity…..’ The song and lyrics here in many ways kind of reminded me of something of Jethro Tull and
Aqualung albeit in a much more metal style, as that was an album based around animosity to religion. “Divine Victim” is then followed by “Hammer of the Witches” its sister track in terms of subject matter but it's a very different ball game altogether, and it’s a track that is clearly modern day metal with crushing riffs with the fill crunchy metal coating. “Friction in Mass” is again another track that reveals itself to be another effort that mixes in various styles and it also has a highlighted extended spoken section. The sub 2-minute instrumental “Morbid Tabernacle” helps glue things together and kind of reminds me of a neat early days video game soundtrack to something like ‘Ghost ‘n Goblins’ and this instrumental is much later joined by an even shorter one in "Rest in Pieces". “Isle of the Dead” which automatically made me think of the Val Lewton horror classic with Boris Karloff, is a song where the band use a cleaner musical atmospheric tone and where the sinister subject matter is displayed in great style, before the whole thing is speeded up. “Taken By Storm” is probably one of the heaviest workings on the album and as expected it relies of fast riffs that again bring the band into purer thrash territory. Finally there is the 8 minute title track which clearly again reveals the proggy roots of the band and is a song that heavily features the fantasy city of Atlantis one of the themes of the album, an area that the band would address in more detail in the distant future. In many ways
The Deluge would be one of the final albums of any real quality in the Manilla Road discography based on what I've heard over the years and forms a cryptic and obscure essential trilogy of albums.
Mark Shelton – Guitar/Vocals
Scott Park – Bass
Randy Foxe – Drums
Production- Manilla Road