Joey DeMaio — born in the United States in 1954 — is Manowar's bassist, founder and main composer, and the author of one of the most inflexible identities in heavy metal history. His way into the business was from behind the stage: he worked as a bass technician and pyrotechnics man on Black Sabbath's 1980 tour. It was there that he met Ross the Boss, then guitarist in a support band, and the two decided to form a group that would take heavy metal to the extreme of its conventions rather than soften them. What he built was a complete aesthetic project with no middle ground: lyrics about battles, Norse mythology, steel and fire; sleeves of warriors; and a declared refusal of any commercial concession, summed up in the motto "death to false metal". In the 1980s, when American metal was becoming ever more palatable to radio, Manowar went the opposite way — and gained for it a fanatical following, above all in Europe. As an instrumentalist, DeMaio uses a short-scale bass tuned to a high register, which lets him play solos and melodic lines that would normally fall to the guitar. And volume is part of the doctrine: the band set a Guinness record as loudest group in 1984, and measured 139 decibels at a soundcheck in 2008.
Metalicks is a community-run informational and cultural portal. The information on this page — texts, images, logos, cover art and other materials — is credited to their respective authors, artists, bands, labels and rights holders. Metalicks does not claim ownership over any of the works portrayed here, and all rights remain with their rightful owners. Content is gathered from public sources and community contributions; any inaccuracies can be corrected using the button below. Rights holders who wish to request a correction or removal of any content may do so at any time.
