Warlord Deliver Us 1983 (Metal Blade)
Heavy Metal
Californian metal beyond the ability of others.
The Verdict
Los Angeles based Warlord were without doubt one of the shining lights not just of Metal Blade but of their current American generation. In many ways the band reminded me talent wise of both Diamond Head and Angel Witch, two other bands that were well beyond many of their contemporaries, but never had the direction or luck to captalise on that talent. Warlord stylistically reminded me of Dream Theater long before that band ever put out an album, in that here was essentially a melodic style band that set their music against a metal backdrop. For the sake of metal these metal ingredients were strong in Warlord and for that reason they got onto Metal Blade. For anybody putting on this debut album (it has been referred to as a EP as well and I see it as that due to it length and the reason why it’s here and not on the main album list) will probably notice a strong Rush influence across a number of the tracks and this becomes evident on the opening title track “Deliver Us” a swirling introductory track and you soon realize that they have a more metal bite than Rush of course. The jewels of this album are surely tracks like “Winter Tears” an almost European sounding power metal epic before most bands knew what that even was and it happens to be one of my favourite songs given the amount of times that I play it. “Penny for a Poor Man” is a virtual lesson on how to write a melodic, addictive and powerful album track and “Mrs.Victoria” is an epic closer, even though it didn’t appear on the original EP/album. There is also the galloping power metal of “Child of the Damned” and quality tracks like “Lucifer’s Hammer” and band members like Bill Tsamis and Mike Zonder who would go onto join Fate’s Warning not only had a great musical and writing ability, but also knew how to use atmospherics subtly at the start and end of some of the songs. Warlord were a band capable or writing epic metal and were a classic example of a band that missed their moment and it must’ve been frustrating for them, that the California audiences that they played for were only really interested in glam or thrash at this time. But the band probably know that a whole load of diverse metal bands from the 80s and later would’ve got hot and excited listening to some of their material, as it wasn't everyday that you got to run across such an accomplished sounding band. The following year the band would release what many people saw as their first full-length album
And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun, which contained one or two tracks from
Deliver Us, but the album lacked that special fele that
Deliver Us had.