First of all, out of an eleven-tracks platter, only seven are new, actual songs the remaining four tracks split between two orchestral interludes and two covers. That said, "Warriors of the World" is a fantastic album, but it does have some flaws. The production, as mentioned before, is much cleaner and aggressive than in previous releases, thus perfectly complementing the change in the style of the compositions the whole album sounds extremely epic, bombastic and anthemic, and the heroic, patriotic and macho lyricism furtherly underlines the general mood of the songs. Guitarist Karl Logan shines at his best, performing stellar solos, rock-solid rhytms and providing walls of feedback in the title track, thus proving to be a real master of the axe. The late Scott Columbus provided one of his best performances here: his style is raw, but it perfectly complements the compositions, and his ability with the double bass is unquestionable. Joey De Maio doesn't shred as much as in previous albums, but still he complements the songs with some really nice bass arrangements and he often embellishes his lines with stylish phrasings, as seen in "Call to Arms", "Hand of Doom" or in "Warriors of the World United", where he displays his trademark fast slide technique spot on his bass tone as well. "Warriors of the World" set the blueprint for the sound of third millennium Manowar, and remains to this day their best opus among their most recent output: the guitars are downtuned to D standard tuning, the riffs are somewhat simpler and rawer, but still effective the sound is much more polished and extreme than in the past, the guitars sound more distorted, there is a much wider inclusion of choirs and a shift towards a symphonic direction, testified by the inclusion of orchestral elements the overall sound is more bombastic, epic and extreme than ever, also due to Eric Adam's shift to a lower, grittier register, which often trespasses in a sort of roar nonetheless, he is still perfectly capable of belting some really high notes, his vibrato is as strong as ever and his high pitched screams sound more ferocious than ever before: his performance is simply stellar, both on a technical and interpretative/expressive level. "Warriors of the World" marked Manowar's triumphal entry in the 21st century, and what an entry it was! After six years since the previous "Louder than Hell", Manowar signed a contract with Nuclear Blast, releasing what is to this day probably the most famous and commercially successful album of their career.
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