Warlord

Few American heavy metal acts of the early 1980s have a story as tangled as Warlord's. Formed in Los Angeles in 1980 by guitarist Bill Tsamis and drummer Mark Zonder, who had moved south from San Jose, the band drew on a semi-progressive sound shaped by Rainbow, Angel Witch and Jethro Tull. Little is documented about their origins, and their work was largely overshadowed by Armored Saint, Slayer and Metallica, who rose at the same moment.

Metal Blade's Brian Slagel put them on the Metal Massacre II compilation in 1982 with 'Lucifer's Hammer', and 'Mrs. Victoria' followed on Metal Massacre III before the Deliver Us mini-album in 1983. Their only live show, staged at the Raymond Theatre without an audience, was captured for the debut full-length And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun..., released in October 1984. The line-up proved hard to hold together, and the band stopped in 1986, the year Metal Blade issued the compilation Thy Kingdom Come. Zonder later joined Fates Warning, while Tsamis and Zonder revived the band in 2002 with HammerFall vocalist Joacim Cans, releasing Rising Out of the Ashes.