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Brand new and sealed. The photo used is the stock photo for this version of the record. 
MANILLA ROAD The Circus Maximus DLP BLACK VINYL
High Roller Records, reissue 2024, black vinyl, ltd 200, downfold gatefold, insert, new 45rpm cutting, mastered by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony

MANILLA ROAD - The Circus Maximus DLP

Mark Shelton - Guitars, Vocals Andrew Coss - Bass, Keyboards, Vocals Aaron Brown - Drums, Vocals
01 Throne of Blood 02 Lux Aeterna 03 Spider 04 Murder by Degrees 05 No Sign from Above 06 In Gein We Trust 07 Flesh and Fury 08 No Touch 09 Hack It Off 10 Forbidden Zone 11 She's Fading


Everybody who is familiar with Manilla Road's fine and criminally underrated body of work will know that 1992's »Circus Maximus« is the odd one out. Originally the album was supposed to be released as a Mark Shelton solo album. But this was not to be … The Shark explains: “Yes, that is primarily true. It was supposed to be a solo project of mine at first. Then after we started writing and working on the songs each of the other guys kept finding songs that they wanted to sing on and write the lyrics for. So it became more of a band project after a bit and we decided to give the whole thing a band name and that is when we came up with the name Circus Maximus. But when we signed it to Black Dragon Records it was to be a Circus Maximus album and then just before release they decided they would try to insure good sales by calling it a Manilla Road album. None of us were happy about that and it sort of caused us to not really pursue anything else in the future with that band.” According to Mark there was a reason behind NOT releasing the album under the Manilla Road moniker: “»Circus Maximus« did not sound like a Manilla Road album at all, not even close. There are only one or two songs on the project that even remotely sound like Manilla Road. It was much more progressive and accessible music than what the Road does. I would have never even dreamed of calling it a Manilla Road album. I did this album specifically to get away from doing Manilla Road type material. Obviously anything that I write will have my signature style in it to a degree but the Circus Maximus was more of a chance for me to stretch out and do something completely different from the Road and that is why it was a bit disturbing to have it released as a Manilla Road album. But even now with the reissue I would not want to change it from a Manilla Road album because I think that would just add to the confusion, so it will remain a Manilla Road album even with the reissues.” “Manilla Road had already disbanded by the time I started working on the Circus Maximus project,” states Mark. “I have never really considered it a Manilla Road album, so in my mind the band had already broken up before this album was released. I started the Road back up with Randy Foxe and Harvey Patrick after Circus Maximus had disbanded. Manilla Road did some live shows for a few years with that line up but we never did any recordings and at the time it appeared to us that Manilla Road's recording career might be over. We had no real label support from anywhere and the metal scene in general in the US had sort of died.” The future did indeed look bleak for Mark Shelton around 1992. “We never toured, so to speak,” he states. “We just did shows in our local area in Kansas. But we were sort of the kings of the progressive rock front in Wichita at the time. Andy and Aaron were both very well-known musicians from our area as well was I. So we had a lot of people showing up at our live gigs just to see what the buzz was about. Most of the people that saw the band live were completely amazed because we actually played all the songs live just the way they were on the album. I mean even down to the guitar solos being note for note the same as the solos on the release. People were pretty freaked out about how tight the band was and we developed a rather large local following very fast. But Circus was never meant to be a long lasting band. It started out as a solo project of mine that traversed into the realms of a band and it was our original intent to just record the album and not even do live shows. But after we got the album finished we liked playing together so much that we chose to do some local live shows and that continued for about two years. It was after that when we called it quits with Circus Maximus and to tell you the truth, I am surprised that we kept it going that long considering we all three had other projects that we were interested in doing more than Circus.” Consequently, Manilla Road proper did not even once perform a song off the »Circus Maximus« album live on stage. Mark Shelton: “Only with the band Circus Maximus. And by the way, we never did play live as Manilla Road. We always billed ourselves as Circus Maximus. When Circus was doing live shows we did every single song from the album in our live performances. It was a really fun band to be in and a big challenge for me because the other two musicians in that band were and are extremely talented and in many ways much better musicians than I. It was fun and an honor to play with those guys. They made it very challenging for me, so I had to work extra hard to keep up with them on a performance level. It was a great experience for me and opened my eyes to many other techniques in writing and performing music.” So it is probably fair to say that »Circus Maximus« is kind of an "undiscovered" album. “Yeah, you might say that,” confirms the Shark. “It is not widely promoted or talked about like many of the other Manilla Road albums are. But that is understandable since it really does not sound much like Manilla Road. Black Dragon had terrible distribution by the time of its release and so it did not make much of a stir when it was first released. The one thing that I have really noticed about the project is that if someone really takes the time to listen to the album, they tend to really like it, even though it is not necessarily what they expected from a Manilla Road album.” Circus Maximus only lasted for one album. “It was 1994, I think, when I put Manilla Road back in action with Randy and Harvey,” explains Mark. “Harvey later on became the bass player for the Road on »Gates Of Fire« and »Voyager« and then again left the fold sometime after »Voyager«. I never wanted to disband Manilla Road in the first place but the truth is that it was becoming impossible for Randy and Scott to work together and it took me some time before I could even imagine having Manilla Road exist without Scott since he was the last founding member of the band besides myself. But somewhere along the way someone convinced me that it was alright for me to continue with the Road with myself being the only original member since I was the primary writer and singer for the band. Man, I tell you, I am glad that whoever that was convinced me to continue on with Manilla Road. I'm pretty sure it was Bryan (Hellroadie) Patrick (Harvey's brother) that convinced me of that!” Matthias Mader  Manilla Road Article Talk Read Edit View history Tools From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Manilla Road Manilla Road performing in 2013 Manilla Road performing in 2013 Background information OriginWichita, Kansas, U.S. Genres Heavy metalpower metalthrash metalprogressive metal Years active1977–1992, 1994–2018 Labels Golden Core-ZYXShadow KingdomMy GraveyardHigh RollerBattle CryMonsterIron GloryLeviathanBlack DragonRoadster MembersBryan "Hellroadie" Patrick Andreas "Neudi" Neuderth Phil Ross Past membersMark "The Shark" Shelton Scott "Scooter" Park Randy "Thrasher" Foxe Rick "Ziggy" Fisher Josh Castillo Cory "Hardcore" Christner Vince Goleman Harvey "Crow" Patrick Scott Peters Mark Anderson Myles Sype Websitemanillaroad.net Manilla Road was an American heavy metal band from Wichita, Kansas, founded by Mark "The Shark" Shelton (vocals, guitar) and Scott "Scooter" Park (bass). Beginning in 1977, the early years of Manilla Road were spent playing mostly progressive rock and space rock but eventually became noticeably heavier with time, the band's later heavy metal sound becoming more and more apparent with the release of Metal in 1982. Achieving moderate success in the mid-80s with several well-received releases such as Crystal Logic (1983), Open the Gates (1985) and The Deluge (1986), the band became known for both the nasal voice of vocalist Mark Shelton and his eclectic style of songwriting, with many of his compositions taking place in fantastical universes combining elements of ancient mythologies and of popular culture mythos such as Robert E. Howard's Conan and H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu. After a major breakup in 1992, the band was reformed by Shelton in the mid-90s, although without co-founder Scott Park and a record label. The following years for Manilla Road were spent mostly by taking gigs in underground mid-western shows without the release of any new material. Seemingly forgotten, Manilla Road was re-discovered by the metal scene after performing at the Bang Your Head festival in 2000,[1] which resulted in the band signing a new record deal and the eventual releases of Atlantis Rising in 2001[2] and Spiral Castle in 2002.[3] This second era of Manilla Road continued until the death of founder Mark Shelton, who died in 2018 the day after the band played in an outdoor festival in Germany.[4] History Early years (1977–1982) Manilla Road was created by guitarist and vocalist Mark Shelton in 1977[5] along with fellow roommates Scott Park at the bass, Benny Munkirs at the drums and Robert Park playing rhythm guitar. The band name "Manilla Road" came to be one night when Shelton and Munkirs were both drinking while watching Monty Python's Flying Circus. After playing in local bars around Wichita, the group first gained attention with their song "Herman Hill", inspired by the Herman Hill riot. Following an accident that took the life of the band's head sound and light engineer, drummer Benny Munkirs decided to leave the band along with Robert and was replaced by Myles Sype on drums. The band then proceeded to record a three-songs demo in 1979 titled Manilla Road Underground, which around a hundred copies on cassette were distributed to local radio stations and simply anyone who would listen. Unhappy with Sype's drumming, the rest of the band found a replacement in Rick Fisher, a high school friend of Shelton. It was with this early lineup that Manilla Road released their first studio album Invasion in 1980 on the band's own label, Roadster Records. Between this time and their next release the band recorded material in 1981 for an album to be tentatively titled Dreams of Eschaton, however this was not released until 2002 by Monster Records (under the name Mark of the Beast) as Shelton was not happy with the sound. Shelton has since been quoted as saying the music was "not metal enough" and "sounded like shit". Despite this, Mark of the Beast was critically well-received when it was eventually released. Together with Invasion, these early albums have more in common with progressive rock and space rock than the band's later heavy metal sound. The next studio album was Metal in 1982, which began to define the future musical direction of Manilla Road. Their "classic" sound was truly solidified with the release of Crystal Logic in 1983.[6] The reception of the Crystal Logic album resulted in the band getting exposure in Europe, which in turn landed them an overseas record deal with French label Black Dragon Records. Second lineup (1982–1991) Manilla Road's second lineup; from left to right: Scott Park, Randy Foxe, Mark Shelton Despite the success of Crystal Logic, drummer Rick Fisher did not feel at ease with the way the band was evolving musically. With Fisher agreeing to step down, Shelton and Park went searching for a drummer who could play double bass drums, in accordance with their newly evolving sound. Drummer Randy Foxe auditioned and was promptly added to the band after demonstrating his ability on the double bass. This second lineup would stay together for the next five Manilla Road studio albums (along with a live release, Roadkill, in 1988). Along with Crystal Logic, the new lineup's first two albums, Open the Gates (1985) and The Deluge (1986) are generally considered to be classics in the field of early epic heavy metal. Lyrics began to feature more and more of Shelton's recurrent allusions to fantastic elements from Norse mythology, Arthurian legend and other literary sources. The Open the Gates studio album in 1985 was the first one to receive significant promotion from the start due to the efforts of their new label Black Dragon. According to an interview done by Mark Shelton in 2017, tens of thousand of copies were sold in the first months following the release. Their next studio album, The Deluge in 1986, followed up on that success. While commercial success never was a main goal for Shelton, the band's popularity in Europe at the time reached a career peak.[7] The release of Mystification in 1987 coincided with the beginning of long-term financial troubles for Black Dragon Records in Europe, who soon after lost their distribution partners in both North America and Europe. Marketing malpractices by Black Dragon also resulted in several bands signed under them getting blacklisted by distributors in North America. Problems also began to surface for Manilla Road as Mystification suffered from exceptionally poor production quality, a result from the substandard equipment used at a new studio the band hoped would improve their sound. Modern re-issues of the album have since fixed this problem to a large extent. After Mystification came Out of the Abyss in 1988. The album was initially released by American label Leviathan Records (David Chastain's) instead of Black Dragon due to their distribution issues. Selling significantly better than Mystification, the album nevertheless was criticized at the time for its overt-thrash metal influences but has since become more appreciated by the band's present-day audience. The next studio album, The Courts of Chaos, was released in 1990. The release of the album was unusual in that it was done by both Black Dragon Records, for the European market, and Leviathan Records, for the North American market. The North American release of The Courts of Chaos was also done under the name "Mark Shelton" instead of "Manilla Road" due to the blacklisting of bands signed under Black Dragon Records at the time by North American distributors. The album featured a more "classical" Manilla Road sound and was therefore better received by critics at the time. One point of contention was the use of programmed drum samples by drummer Randy Foxe during production. The Courts of Chaos would end up being the last Manilla Road release to feature both Randy Foxe and Scott Park. The Circus Maximus (1992–1994) In 1991, personal tensions in the band while touring were beginning to surface, particularly between Foxe and Park. Combined with the recent distribution issues in North America, the band members decided to take a hiatus and go their separate ways. Mark Shelton formed a band signed under Black Dragon Records called The Circus Maximus along with Andrew Coss and Aaron Brown, who did the front cover artwork for both Out of the Abyss and The Courts of Chaos. Despite never having been intended to be a Manilla Road project due to the lack of musical coherence with the previous releases, the album was nevertheless released in 1992 under the name "Manilla Road" in Europe at Black Dragon's insistence, a move that created great upset to Mark Shelton and the other two members of Manilla Road, Randy Foxe and Scott Park. Together with the bad reception of the album by critics and fans alike, the incident convinced Shelton to go on a recording hiatus that would last for nearly a decade. Reformation (1994–2001) Shelton continued to do live gigs with the other two members of Circus Maximus until the group disbanded in 1994. He soon after decided to reform Manilla Road along with Randy Foxe at the drums and Harvey Patrick at the bass, who was the brother of the band's road manager Bryan Patrick. Unable to attract any attention for a record deal and refusing to do anymore business with Black Dragon Records, the band was reduced to perform at local shows for several years in relative obscurity. This reformation period for Manilla Road also had its first lineup change with Harvey Patrick leaving the band and Mark Anderson taking his place at the bass. This period of uncertainty continued up until the year 2000 when the band was invited to perform at the Bang Your Head!!! festival in Germany. Sensing an opportunity they could not afford to pass up, Shelton agreed and booked the festival but was forced to replace Randy Foxe at the drums with Troy Olson when the former notified Shelton that he would not be able to attend. The show in Germany was a huge morale booster for the band, with many European fans coming to show their support for Manilla Road despite years of seeming inactivity. It was also while the band was playing in Europe that a new, long-awaited record deal was signed, this time with German label Iron Glory Records. Once back to the United States, the band parted ways with Troy Olson and invited in Scott Peters to be the band's new permanent drummer along with Bryan Patrick, who acted as a second vocalist onstage in order to complement Shelton. It was with this lineup that the Atlantis Rising studio album was released in 2001, ending nine years of recording drought.[8] A concept album blending many elements from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos with Greek and Norse mythology, the sound was much more consistent with the Manilla Road of old and was well-received by critics and fans despite some technical hiccups in the album's production. Post-reformation (2002–2018) Manilla Road at Metal Magic 2016 The next studio album, Spiral Castle, was released in 2002 and received a similar positive reaction. From this album going forward (with the exception of Voyager), co-singer Bryan Patrick began to be much more implicated in the singing of the songs, eventually more or less splitting the workload with Shelton. The success the re-emerging band was enjoying however was not enough to prevent yet another round of lineup changes, with drummer Scott Peters and bassist Mark Anderson both leaving and getting replaced by Cory Christner at the drums and Harvey Patrick returning to the fold at the bass. Under this new lineup, the epic-themed Gates of Fire studio album was released in 2005 and the subsequent Viking-themed Voyager studio album in 2008, although co-singer Bryan Patrick had to sit out of Voyager due to personal issues. The Gates of Fire album was also the last one with Iron Glory Records (now Battle Cry Records) and a new record deal was signed with Italian label My Graveyard Productions for the release of Voyager. With both Gates of Fire and Voyager receiving again praise in the metal community, the band put out their fifteenth studio album in 2011 titled Playground of the Damned. More changes were made to the band's lineup, with Bryan Patrick returning but his brother Harvey leaving. Bassist Vince Goleman was invited in but was forced to leave during the album's recording after he was diagnosed with Ménière's disease. Josh Castillo handled the rest of the recording sessions at the bass. A new record deal was signed for the release of Playground of the Damned, this time with American label Shadow Kingdom Records. A European tour took place in late 2011, where Manilla Road was invited to perform at the Hammer of Doom VII festival in Germany. After the festival, Andreas "Neudi" Neuderth started his role as the band's new drummer as Christner became unable to tour anymore with the band. A long-time fan of Manilla Road, Neuderth was also the webmaster of Manilla Road's first official website and would later take charge of remastering several of the band's previous releases to better fit modern sound quality standards. On September 22, 2012, a major record deal was signed with Golden Core, a subsidiary label of ZYX Music. Soon after, Mysterium, the band's sixteenth studio album, was released on February 1, 2013. The 11-minute song serving as the album's title track is a retelling of the last days of Shelton's great-great-great uncle, Ludwig Leichhardt, a 19th-century German explorer who vanished in the Australian interior during an expedition. The next and penultimate studio album for Manilla Road, The Blessed Curse, was released on February 13, 2015, and is a Sumerian-themed double album. With a length surpassing 98 minutes, The Blessed Curse would become Manilla Road's longest studio album. A double CD reissue of the Mark of the Beast album (bundled with the 1979 demo Manilla Road Underground and After Midnight in-studio live performance) was released in 2016 by High Roller Records, this time under the correct original 1981 title Dreams of Eschaton. A final change was made to the lineup right after The Blessed Curse, with Phil Ross replacing Josh Castillo at the bass. On May 26, 2017, the band released their first ever single, "In the Wake". This was followed with the release of To Kill a King, Manilla Road's final studio album. On July 27, 2018, a week before the band was booked to perform at Wacken 2018, band founder Mark Shelton died in a German hospital the day after the band played in the Headbangers Open Air festival the previous night. The cause of death was attributed to a heart attack having been precipitated by severe heat exhaustion. A GoFundMe campaign established to help fund Shelton's body repatriation to the United States and subsequent funeral expenses was met with quick success with over US$40,000 raised in less than 48 hours. A memorial service in his honor was held on September 22, 2018, at the Cotillion Ballroom in Wichita, Kansas.[4][9][10] Members Mark "The Shark" Shelton (1957–2018) Final lineup Mark "The Shark" Shelton – guitar, lead vocals (1977–1992, 1994–2018; died 2018) Bryan "Hellroadie" Patrick – lead vocals (1999–2005, 2007–2018) Andreas Neuderth – drums (2011–2018) Phil Ross – bass (2016–2018) Past members Scott "Scooter" Park – bass (1977–1990) Ben Munkirs – drums (1977–1978; died 2008) Robert Park – guitar (1977–1979; died 2000) Myles Sipe – drums (1979) Rick "Ziggy" Fisher – drums (1979–1984) Randy "Thrasher" Foxe – drums (1984–1990, 1994–2000), keyboards (1994–2000), guitar (1990) Andrew Coss – bass, keyboards, vocals (1991–1992) Aaron Brown – drums (1991–1992) Harvey "The Crow" Patrick – bass (1994–1999, 2003–2007) Mark Anderson – bass (2000–2002) Scott Peters – drums (2000–2003) Cory "Hardcore" Christner – drums (2004–2011) Vince Golman – bass (2007–2010) Josh Castillo – bass (2010–2016)