The Lord of Steel is the eleventh studio album of the American heavy metal band Manowar. It was first released as a download on June 16, 2012 and the limited-edition pre-release special edition CD of the British heavy metal magazine Metal Hammer on June 26, 2012. The retail edition of the album was available as CD, limited-edition vinyl and digital album. It featured cover art by Ken Kelly who has worked on many previous Manowar covers. It marks a change in the band's sound, moving away from the symphonic sound of Gods of War and going back to the style of Louder than Hell with the production quality of Thunder in the Sky.

Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy and mythology, as well as numerous songs celebrating the genre and its core audience. The band is also known for a loud and emphatic sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "these days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras... so it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that". In 1984, the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on two occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for five hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008. They also have been known for their slogan "Death to false metal".