By: Manilla Road

Original Date: December 1984

Rating: 4.5/5

Compared to the albums that preceeded it, Open the Gates takes a slightly different direction. Far from being the upbeat, somewhat noodle happy guitar riff-fest we had before, this album is a grittier and harsher with distinct thrash influences that occasionally crop up.

Once more Manilla Road scoffs at formula and repetition, while the riffs aren’t the most varied and progressive if you played me three seconds from any song on this album, I would instantly be able to name the song its from. Each song has its own tone and feel, and with tracks like “Witch’s Brew” and “the Ninth Wave”, Manilla Road make it clear that they can still produce brooding and somewhat sinister tracks for the sake of narrative purpose.

“What of the lyrics?” I hear readers ask. “Does Manilla road still engage in their usual pulpy cheese when they compose their lyrics?” Well if you are inclined to only take a band seriously who write serious lyrics, then yes, you will not be disappointed with Manilla Road’s Open the Gates. The lyrics are a bubbling druidic cauldron of inspiration with reagents taken from Viking myth alongside Arthurian lore and even astrology. There is even a few references to Roman mythology. If we look at the kind of influences Manilla Road was associated with later in their career, this album is the point where that world-building begins.

As on all their past albums, Shelton delivers the vocals with conviction and confidence, and even if his voice isn’t the most pleasant on the ears, its honesty and flair is unmistakable. The production here isn’t as raw as the other extreme albums that came out around this era, and that just shows how much care Shelton and co took to deliver the best product possible. With it being an underground release from a small record label, it would be too easy to go for that cold raw feel of the First Wave of Black Metal, but instead all the instruments can be heard and the atmosphere hits home when it needs to.

We also need to address the beginning of the change in the band’s musical direction. I don’t think it is a conscious change in sound to make the music more accessible. There is still too much of their trademark sound for that to be the case. I think Manilla Road has always been entrenched in the sound and mindset of “true metal”, and between the dominant forms of extreme metal developing at the time of this album’s release – the most clearly defined and firmly entrenched in Metal was Thrash Metal. Stuff like Death Metal was still largely experimental, and Manilla Road would never stoop to Hair Rock.

Open the Gates is a great album, not as memorable or as iconic as Crystal Logic but it too punches way above its weight class in pound for pound intensity. I would recommend a listen to anybody as this is also part of Manilla Road’s peak as a band. If you enjoy good high voltage Metal, this is the Manilla Road release for you. No progressive frills, all gritty underground Metal.