They call themselves “The Loudest Band in the World”, and claim to hold the Guinness World Record for 129dB on-stage heavy metal. Reinforced exclusively by NEXO, American band Manowar has recently completed an ear-splitting tour of Europe, playing 35 shows in 11 countries to audiences of up to 8000 people.
The sound was provided by leading German PA company Ultraschall, a 36-stack NEXO Alpha system with 24 CAMCO Vortex 6 digital amplifiers, all controlled from a Yamaha PM4000 front-of-house desk by Manowar’s own engineer Jeff Hair.
“Manowar is one of the biggest US acts to be serviced by a German sound company this year,” explains Ultraschall’s sound designer Jesko Purmann. “This tour has been a great success for us. Manowar frontman Joey DeMaio has commended our crew, particularly PA Tech. Michael “Miwe” Wengerter and Monitor Tech. Ingo Thürauf, for their work, and Jeff Hair has been really impressed by the powerful, precise and clear sound of the Alpha rig.”
The shows attracted positive notices from the critics; “….by god what a sound. Extremely loud and clear. Even louder than the tours before…” wrote German magazine Break Out.
Manowar’s PA system consisted of 36 Nexo Alpha M3, 36 Alpha B1 and 18 Alpha S2 sub-bass units, all controlled by NX241 digital processors. On stage, the band used Alpha-E single-18s, M Tops and PS15s for monitoring, again powered by CAMCO Vortex 6 and DL3000s.
Ultraschall is now one of the largest users of NEXO systems in Germany, having added a new GEO T tangent array system to its Alpha and GEO S inventory.
