Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, all hail Manowar.

Just the way it should be, Manowar came on to give the last concert of the Magic Circle Festival 2008.
Actually, because of yet another patch of rain they came on 40 minutes late for this show. Meanwhile a spontaneous Warriors Prayer had broken out in the audience, and soon all visitors of the festival joined in. I even saw Jack Starr (Burning Starr) and Joe Stump (Holyhell) walk by at one point.

Last night we had been given the first three albums of Manowar's career to listen to, and for this show the time had come for Sign Of The Hammer, Fighting The World and Kings Of Metal, considered by many to be some of Manowar's most memorable albums. What could be better than this when you're in the mood for Manowar?

Just like the night before they started their set with the self-titled song Manowar. We couldn't agree on if this was the way it should be since they always open with this song, or if it was out of place since they had opened with the night before as well and that it is not on any this nights albums. Either way you choose to look at it however, it still is a great opening track.
After this followed all the songs in the same order as on the albums, just in the same way they had set the previous set together. And of course more speeches made by Joey DeMaio. Again the sponsors were thanked, and the guy whose responsible for the Manowar internet forum.
Apart from these things the show held a few more surprises up its sleeve. We were at one point treated to a nice-looking fire show, after which the local fire-chief was invited on stage to judge if the girls who had performed were hot enough for a Manowar show. The answer was, without a moment of hesitation, a big yes!
There was also a sing-a-long for Eric Adams since this was his birthday, after which he said that he couldn't think of a better way to spend it than this, together with all the fans.
Then let's not forget the ultimate subject of envy; the presentation of the winners of the Manowar Motorcycle Competition. Actually, they had a bit of trouble finding the winner of Eric's bike, so Eric tried to sneak off with it. He was quickly caught by Joey however; obviously there are things not even a birthday makes you entitled to do.

One of the biggest non-music related events of this show was when Joey announced that there was a girl who had begged him to let her propose to her boyfriend on stage to a Manowar concert. Of course this was held in the most noble of Manowar ways, where the groom-to-be was treated to stripshows and lapdances on stage, while Manowar played Pleasure Slave. Possibly still high on the marriage from two days ago, Joey pronounced them husband and wife right then and there; but only after making the girl promise that the guy would be free to do basically whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted to do it with.

After a few more songs, the time had come for the promised announcement that would fry certain parts of our body-hair; the announcement of what we had to expect for next year's Magic Circle Festival.
The promises started with smaller things like better organisation, a longer time open, more time to get things signed by your favourite bands, and (here my notes get a bit blurry, possible reason: intoxication) 25000 wonderful freibeer. Hmm, maybe it was only 2500, but as I said, I was in my happy place at that moment.
The big thing was that at that time the new Manowar album would be out, and it was to be followed by a book, a film and a computer game. The book was to be written by a German fantasy-writer named Wolfgang Hohlbein, and he was invited on stage to say Hi to the fans. There he announced that he had, while sitting backstage during the show, written the first lines of the book, and they went something like this;
"If he ever had a name, he had forgotten it
If he ever had parents, he had forgotten them
If he ever had been born, he had forgotten it"
From this I gathered that it will be a story about a guy with amnesia, but who knows. Time will tell.

Then it was time for the grand finale, which was The Crown And The Ring (Lament Of The Kings) played live with the aid of a great choir. This was, to put it simply, breathtaking! After this, there was really nothing more needed.

All in all, this was definitely the better of the two shows, as it held more of my Manowar favourite songs, and the band also seemed more (if possible) lively than the day before. Another good thing was also that they did not leave the stage as often as they had done at the first concert, which resulted in a more complete feel of the show. The only negative thing to say about was that they chose to play the same encore songs as they had done before. I can understand about Die With Honor, since it is the new single and all, but why play Warriors Of The World again. Ok, it's a great song, and it got everyone going just as it had the night before, but Manowar has several more songs to choose from which could have done that.
No matter, it was still an excellent show, and a perfect way to round up the end of our vacation.

Setlist:

Manowar
All Men Play On Ten
Animals
Thor (The Powerhead)
Mountains
Sign Of The Hammer
The Oath
Thunderpick
Guyana (Cult Of The Damned)
Fighting The World
Blow Your Speakers
Carry On
Violence And Bloodshed
Defender
Drums Of Doom
Holy War
Master Of Revenge
Black Wind, Fire And Steel
Wheels Of Fire
Kings Of Metal
Sting Of The Bumblebee
Pleasure Slave
The Warrior's Prayer
Blood Of The Kings
Kingdom Come
Heart Of Steel
Hail And Kill
Die With Honor
Warriors Of The World
The Crown And The Ring (Lament Of The Kings)