Manilla Road - After Midnight

All Manilla Road fans (including me), time to rejoice! After some… archaeological excavations, the explorer’s pickaxe came across a real Manilla Road relic. An unreleased live recording from 1979! After 31 (!) years, a live recording of Manilla Road’s appearance on KMUW radio, on Sherry Avett’s “After Midnight” show is finally made available to hardcore Manilla Road fans.
\r\nThe recording took place sometime in December 1979, after the band had made their first real recording, their demo entitled “Underground”, and just a few days before their first official album “Invasion” was released. The album covers the second part of that live appearance, with four up to now unreleased and unheard songs, plus “Herman Hill” which appeared on the “Underground” demo, while the first part, which is yet to be discovered, consisted of songs from the “Invasion” album.
\r\nOn the clearly musical field now, the listener will have the opportunity to hear how different Manilla Road sounded back then, when the Hawkwind and Rush influences, along with the American hard rock sound were the name of the game for the three young lads from Wichita and no one, even the band themselves would imagine that a few years later the name Manilla Road would become the synonym to epic metal. The truth however is that none of the songs is, lets say, sensational, even though they are generally good and easy to listen, especially for a Manilla Road fan. Moreover, the recording has been restored by Mark Shelton himself, who chose not to mess with the sound and deliver the recording as it should be, no overdubs or effects, just the raw live sound that the trio gave away that night, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of that cold December night in that studio. As one can understand, the sound quality is not the best possible, nonetheless is at least descent, besides in releases like this I don’t think that the technical issues are those of interest.
\r\nGenerally, “After Midnight” is a good live heavy rock album of historical significance rather than musical, since it should mainly concern the band’s fans that want to go deep in the roots of  Manilla Road, while at the same time some others might want to check it out mainly for encyclopedic reasons.
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\r\nP.S.: The album rating is for fans only!
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\r\nLambros “Metalshock” Panetas
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