REVIEW: WARLORD “FREE SPIRIT SOAR”

A somewhat diminished return

Legendary US Metal band WARLORD was formed in 1981 by Mark Zonder and William J. Tsamis. One year later, in 1982, the song “Lucifer’s Hammer” (based on a novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) appeared on the prestigious compilation album “Metal Massacre II”. This resulted in a deal with Metal Blade Records, with WARLORD recording their debut mini-album. “Deliver Us” was released in 1983 and is today considered as the blueprint for what was later to be called “Epic Metal”. “Deliver Us” was followed by “And The Cannons Of Destruction Have Begun…” in 1984.

After a long hiatus, »Rising Out Of The Ashes« appeared as the comeback album for Warlord in 2002, while it took another eleven years for the follow-up “The Holy Empire” to see the light of day in 2013.
Up until the present day, “The Holy Empire” would remain the last WARLORD studio album with all new material, as William J. Tsamis sadly passed away on 13th of May 2021 at the age of 60.

However, with »Free Spirit Soar«, a brand new studio album by WARLORD with all songs having been recorded between March and September 2023, it’s Drummer Mark Zonder and singer Giles Lavery paying tribute to the musical heritage of Bill Tsamis. They are joined by Jimmy Waldo on keyboards/synthesizer, Phillip Bynoe on bass and Eric Juris on guitars. “We wanted to finish these pieces of music ‘for Bill’,” explains Lavery, “and the material we felt was certainly strong enough to inspire us to do so.” Regarding the guitar parts he specifies: “Bill is there where we could pull his tracks off the demo recordings, in much the same way the Beatles were recently able to rescue John Lennon’s voice from an old demo tape. Eric does most of the heavy lifting on guitar, but all music was written by Bill and we stayed very very faithful to what he wrote.”

All in all, Giles Lavery is very satisfied with how »Free Spirit Soar« turned out: “It was a bit of an uncharted adventure delving into Bill’s demos and unfinished music, and also having to write lyrics and vocal melodies to the songs – the only two exceptions being the two Lordian Guard songs that we selected to ‘Warlord-ize’ …as has been tradition on every WARLORD album since »Rising Out Of The Ashes«. Everything but two songs have vocals for the first time, so that entire area of the composition is new … As for the music, I think much of it is unheard, a few bits and pieces you might recognise from some of the catalogue reissues, instrumental bonus tracks etc. As producer of the album it was my job to sort through all the pieces and pull together songs.”

LINE-UP
Giles Lavery – Vocals
Eric Juris – Guitars
Philip Bynoe – Bass
Jimmy Waldo – Keys
Mark Zonder – Drums

REVIEW

WARLORD are cult legends in the heavy metal scene, known and highly esteemed by the most devoted of metalheads, but largely unknown to the casual audience. Even among those metalheads though, the breadth of WARLORD tends to stop after their landmark 1983 debut EP Deliver Us. I must admit that I am one such metalhead, but I am very happy to change that for their new album (their first since the passing of lead guitarist and founding member William J Tsamis in 2021).

WARLORD’s logo has long been a favorite of mine. The overly flourished W, and the spiky and aggressive linework. It’s so very well done, and in that glorious red as well. As a sucker for album covers that are paintings or that look like them, that’s a winner for me as well. I also see some similarities between it and the cover for the aforementioned Deliver Us EP.

NOTE: The CD edition of Free Spirit Soar, features two additional bonus tracks, “The Watchman” and “Twin”. This review does not include those two tracks.

We kick things off with “Behold a Pale Horse”, which starts off with some unique sounding (almost tribal) drums. It’s nothing technically flashy, but it is unique for this genre. Great melodic guitar-work ushers us further, reminding me of an army marching to battle. Lavery’s vocals finally come in, after about a minute or so, and they’re very much subdued at first, not in a bad sense, just more in the ‘storytelling’ perspective. Once the chorus kicked in, I got some serious MAIDEN vibes (I am making it my mission to shoehorn Iron Maiden references into everything). I love the consistent groove throughout the track from the guitars, and the keyboard and flute(?) infused interlude was a nice shock. I always mark out for classical instruments in my metal. To conclude this track, I’d like to say that the Pale Horse rides ahead strong.

Our second track was “The Rider”. A very nifty keyboard piece opens us up, it very much reminded me of the film scores of 80s sci-fi films. Into this second track, I have to say that Lavery’s vocals were both not doing it for me, while simultaneously doing it for me. Guitar players Eric Juris, of CRYSTAL VIPER fame, and Diego Pires, whose only other credit on the Metal Archives is for a Brazilian band called NOMIN from 2007, but they both do a great job at taking up the mantle left by William J Tsamis (Remember, he didn’t use a period after the J).

Third up was “Conquerors”, and a really nice riff kicks things off, though I have to admit that it got a touch repetitive by the 40 second mark when it was still going, but it does give away to another neat keyboard section. Lavery’s vocals feel the best to me so far on this track, as evidenced when he begins to belt it out a bit after the song crosses 2 minutes. Very almost Ancient Egyptian sounding riff a bit after 3 minutes that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Then, to close out half one, we had “Worms of the Earth”, and some chanting briefly starts us off (it reminded me of Soviet-era military marches), but a melodious guitar riff soon overtakes it, before breaking into a pretty solid riff. While I do love the way Lavery delivers the chorus, there’s something about the album thus far that I’m not particularly fond of. Maybe it’s the production or the mixing, or maybe I’m thinking that the band is playing it a bit too safe. Regardless this track has a great guitar solo about 3 minutes in that was a real show-stealer.

The title track, “Free Spirit Soar”, kicks off the second half of the album, and does so with some wonderful keys, which have proven to be a consistent standout across the whole album thus far. Once the guitars kicked in, there’s a sequence that was very sci-fi movie score, and I loved that. Lavery’s vocals were really clicking with me in this one, and it quickly became my favorite track on the album.

“The Bell Tolls” was next up, and began with more great drumming from Mark Zonder. Something I will give this album is that I like that each member of WARLORD gets a moment in the sun. The bass has been a constant presence in the background, but not overbearingly so. Ooh, that title drop at 2:30 right before the solo was electric. This was a banger for sure, much like the previous track.

Our penultimate track was “Alarm”, beginning with some chanting that persists the opening as the instruments take over. This one wasn’t clicking with me, though it did remind me of one of my favorite power metal bands THRESHOLD. Beyond that, this one just felt a touch too generic for my taste. Thought the melodic guitar bit at around the 4 minute mark was a pleasure to hear.

Finally, we come to “Revelation XIX”, a near 8 minute closer. The intro keyboard section was very reminiscent of late 70s prog or AOR stuff (think like YES or JOURNEY). A tasty riff at about 1:30 into the song, not long before Lavery enters the fray. His vox in this one have that storyteller cadence to them, that I’m always a huge sucker for. With Biblical lyrics that evoke powerful imagery, this track verged close to epic levels.

CONCLUSION

This was a bit of a backloaded record for me. The first half of the album didn’t really click with me all that much, but the second half had some really solid stuff peppered throughout. As an album that was their first release without a core founding member, it’s great, but as a modern heavy/power album, it’s more just sort of there. That being said, it did feel like the perfect album that would grow on me, so my opinion might change over time.

TheNWOTHM Score: 6.5/10

WARLORD “Free Spirit Soar” releases on 10 May, 2024
!!Order/Pre-Order Here!!

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