Artist Manowar

Release Battle Hymns

Year 1982

Label Liberty # LBG 30349

Format LP · Album

Country USA

Language English

Songs here 2 in the archive

1982 · Album · Liberty # LBG 30349 · USA

Manowar, an American Heavy Metal / US Power Metal band, formed in 1980 in Auburn, NY, with a revolving line-up, but consistently headed by the lead singer Eric Adams and the bass and keyboard player Joey DeMaio. Battle Hymn (Liberty Records # LBG 30349), the first album they recorded, included a couple post-war Vietnam related songs. Also note that their 1987 album Fighting the World, discussed below, featured the Vietnam song "Violence and Bloodshed" , which referenced P.O.W.s.

Firstly, the song "Death Tone" , narrated in the first person, told the story of a Vietnam veteran wounded in the war: "ridin' on two wheels" . The veteran complained that while others "were sittin' at home" , he "got sent to Nam" - presumably a reference to the draft. Back home he struggled to find work and needed assistance: "my social worker's got me on a chain, keeps me out of jail" . He said that his "unemployment checks run out next week" and would thus be living on the streets again. So the song portrayed the struggles of a wounded Vietnam vet, trying to re-adjust to society outside of the army and surviving / adapting to life with a major disability.

Secondly, the album included the song "Shell Shock" , which also looked at the negative psychological impact of the war on a Vietnam veteran. As the title suggested, the narrator suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The song also included references to the chemical weapon Napalm B, the Purple Heart (a US military decoration), and the military classification 'Missing in Action' (M.I.A.). The lyrics started with a man drafted into the army, who then tells the listener that "I live in Saigon, we've got a team of special forces, we deliver napalm" . As previously discussed, the US government extensively used napalm during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973.¹²³ While in Vietnam, the soldier wrote a letter to his sweetheart which mentioned his fear of becoming M.I.A.: "if they tell you that I'm M.I.A., think a little less about me" . The soldier then returned home. He had received "a purple heart to show the world I'm brave" but he felt "shell shocked" . The veteran criticised the "businessmen" who "sat at home" making money, while he had to fight the war.

The songs