The biggest disappointment of the year so far - this is my conclusion about Manowar's "Gods of War". And although in the past decade we got used to songs which are almost the same, we succeeded in hearing a few new things, with something interesting and different among them. Now even the cover artwork is just a reworked version of the old ones, and the content of the songs is full of power-epic stereotypes that are hard to stand. Sixteen songs are trying to convince us that Manowar have given their best in experimenting with a new concept, as they actually said it would be. But there's no surprise at all. To Odin's majesty are dedicated most of the compositions and his name can be found in four of the song titles. The rest of the tracks - how original - is full of words like kings, blood, war, blood brothers, oath, victory... repeated frequently... And I, like other fans, I guess, was hoping that this theme-copying won't affect the music and it will be more powerful and full-blooded than ever, but nothing of this is true in this album. The concept of the CD is constructed as an endless speech. In one moment it's hard to decide if Manowar are joking with us about their new album... The "real" songs in "Gods of War" are only four or five. One of them is already known from the band's latest EP, "King of Kings", and the other is a bonus song which is the only one that does not correspond to the album concept. I still liked Manowar while they were releaseing new DVDs, but "Gods of War" - for me, as a fan - is a true derision. I prefer the same video recordings of old songs to such a ridiculous "concept". I even think sometimes that the musicians themselves don't believe in all of this. Actually, I hope that it is only one well made-up joke, but... I doubt it.