With "The Deluge" (originally released on Black Dragon Reords in 1986) High Roller Records is kick-starting a campaign to re-release the whole Manilla Road back catalogue on vinyl. "The Deluge" was a very important album in the history of the mighty Manilla Road. Mark "The Shark" Shelton travels back in time: "It was, at the time of its release, the most intricate and complex project that Manilla Road had ever done. The production was better than any of our previous releases and the musicianship was also. 'Open The Gates' had been very successful for us and we were riding high at the time. It was maybe one of the most fun albums to record back in that era. We were all brothers in arms and the world was there for our taking and that's exactly what we tried to do with 'The Deluge': take over the world. I think every aspect of the band was coming together for us very nicely at that time and with all the good feelings about ourselves it was not much of a surprise to us that the album turned out really good. As for the albums that we did after that, 'The Deluge' helped set a higher standard for production and musicianship as well as the composition. It also lead us lyrically into even more historical realms than we had ever traversed before. More literary topics and lyrics and it also helped set the pace for how much research we put into a project. After 'The Deluge' we continued to work more and more in the framework of literature, art and philosophy meets Heavy Metal. I think 'The Deluge' was our first really big step towards becoming a truly epic band."
