Black vinyl with poster and insert.

Legendary US Metal band Warlord was formed in 1981 by MarkZonder and William J. Tsamis. One year later, in 1982, the songLucifer’s Hammer (based on a novel by Larry Niven and JerryPournelle) appeared on the prestigious compilation album MetalMassacre II. This resulted in a deal with Metal Blade Records, withWarlord recording their debut mini-album. Deliver Us was releasedin 1983 and is today considered as the blueprint for what was laterto be called Epic Metal. Deliver Us was followed by And The CannonsOf Destruction Have Begun in 1984. After a long hiatus, Rising OutOf The Ashes appeared as the comeback album for Warlord in 2002,while it took another eleven years for the follow-up The HolyEmpire to see the light of day in 2013. Up until the present day,The Holy Empire would remain the last Warlord studio album with allnew material, as William J. Tsamis sadly passed away on 13th of May2021 at the age of 60. However, with Free Spirit Soar, a brand-newstudio album by Warlord with all songs having been recorded betweenMarch and September 2023, it’s Drummer Mark Zonder and singer GilesLavery paying tribute to the musical heritage of Bill Tsamis. Theyare joined by Jimmy Waldo on keyboards/synthesizer, Phillip Bynoeon bass and Eric Juris on guitars. We wanted to finish these piecesof music ‘for Bill’, explains Lavery, and the material we felt wascertainly strong enough to inspire us to do so. Regarding theguitar parts he specifies: Bill is there where we could pull histracks off the demo recordings, in much the same way the Beatleswere recently able to rescue John Lennon’s voice from an old demotape. Eric does most of the heavy lifting on guitar, but all musicwas written by Bill and we stayed very very faithful to what hewrote. All in all, Giles Lavery is very satisfied with how FreeSpirit Soar turned out: It was a bit of an uncharted adventuredelving into Bill’s demos and unfinished music, and also having towrite lyrics and vocal melodies to the songs – the only twoexceptions being the two Lordian Guard songs that we selected toWarlord-ize …as has been tradition on every Warlord album sinceRising Out Of The Ashes. Everything but two songs have vocals forthe first time, so that entire area of the composition is new … Iwrote lyrics and vocal melodies for seven songs and had my friendSteve Blaze from Lillian Axe write lyrics and a vocal melody forone other song. As for the music, I think much of it is unheard, afew bits and pieces you might recognize from some of the catalogreissues, instrumental bonus tracks etc. (which I am sure very fewpeople have listened to intently as they are extras really, onlyfor the most die-hard fan), but even in those cases we worked fromeither alternate versions that had different arrangements, or wehad to arrange the songs from the start as the demos/ideas werejust musical themes and parts, not actual developed songs … Asproducer of the album it was my job to sort through all the piecesand pull together songs. He continues: Free Spirit Soar was thesong most difficult to sing because it required a very very highharmony/double in the chorus. I could only go that high in asomewhat soft voice, so I layered it, it’s about 25 vocal tracks atonce. The song was never completed with lyrics, and our version isa different arrangement, however, you will hear that we kept all ofBill’s musical parts. On Conquerors Giles Lavery’s voice soundsquite a bit like Michael Kiske. Also musically Conquerors has a bitof a Helloween Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I vibe going, possiblyit’s the happiest sounding song on Free Spirit Soar. That’s quite acompliment, beams Giles Lavery, I guess a main influence of minewas Bruce Dickinson, whom Michael also sounds a bit like (Iremember some people said Kiske should replace Bruce in IronMaiden, but they got the amazing Blaze Bayley instead so all wasokay in the end), so maybe Michael is somewhere in my vocal DNA,but not purposefully … If the song sounds happy’ then it is becausethose are the chords that Bill used on his demo, while I wrote thevocal melody and lyrics, there was no getting away from the chordshe used. The last number on Free Spirit Soar is called Revelation,it’s an old Lordian Guard number (first recorded for Woe To TheInhabitants Of The Earth… in 1995), featured here in a new versioncalled Revelation XIX. How would Giles interpret the lyrics? Arethey Christian, or just relating to the bible (in some shape orform)? The song includes passages like Christ is the Life and theWay – we hail to the Lord, our King … His answer is short andstraight to the point: Bill was a Christian academic, therefore Ido consider them Christian, the lyrics themselves obviously are aretelling of a biblical story. One thing a lot of people tend toforget is that apart from Bill Tsamis there was (and is) anothermusician being of utmost importance for Warlord: drummer MarkZonder. Giles Lavery speaks: Listen to the two Lordian Guardre-recordings, or any of Bill’s Lordian Guard songs Warlord haveredone on past albums, notice how the moment you add Mark’s drumsit sounds like Warlord? And without his drums it sounds likeLordian Guard … While Bill was the songwriter, Mark’s stylecompletes it as Warlord – they were very much partners. One thingnot many people know is that Mark handled everything to do withWarlord, from the first day, he facilitated everything from wherethe band originally rehearsed, to dealing with the labels toco-ordinating the whole thing day to day. So it was very muchMark’s baby too. There would be no Cannons Of Destruction video ifnot for Mark, there would have been no studio to record Deliver Usif not for Mark. Bill was talented beyond comprehension, but he wasnot a business guy or logistics co-ordinator, nor did he wish orclaim to be.

Track list:
1. Behold A Pale Horse
2. The Rider
3. Conquerors
4. Worms Of The Earth
5. Free Spirit Soar
6. The Bell Tolls
7. Alarm
8. Revelation XIX

Condition cover: nm

Condition vinyl: nm

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