During the early 1980’s, the North American heavy rock scene splintered into two groups who seemed to be the antithesis of one another—thrash metal and mainstream glam. However, before these musical forms took over the decade, another mutant strain of rock crawled out to claim it’s place in the underground—the classically-influenced style called medieval power metal. The leaders of the pack for this genre included such metal titans as JAG PANZER, FATES WARNING, LIEGE LORD, VIRGIN STEELE, and many others. Although the band never established itself like the others, WARLORD was also a major player in shaping this under-appreciated musical form. A changing musical climate and label problems forced WARLORD to break up before they got their due, though they remained a cult favorite. Flash forward to the year 1997: Swedish supergroup HAMMERFALL, led by the charismatic vocalist (and WARLORD fan), Joacim Cans, single-handedly reinvented the genre paving the way for literally hundreds of bands and proved that this patented musical style can still sell out arenas across the world (except for the ultra-trendy U.S., of course).

Following the success of HAMMERFALL, those previously mentioned medieval power bands from the 1980’s like JAG PANZER, ARMORED SAINT, AGENT STEEL, OMEN, etc. have all returned to claim their slice of the metal pie. Clearly, the enthusiastic fan response and the musician’s desire to return to this musical form have brought back many bands long thought dead. Add progressive metal pioneers WARLORD to that category, as they returned to form in 2001 with their reunion album, RISE FROM THE ASHES, featuring none other than Joacim Cans himself on lead vocals. Finally, the prominent underground label Metal Blade signed the band and one of their initial releases is the DVD release of WARLORD’s 1984 concert performance, WARLORD BOOK I: AND THE CANNONS OF DESTRUCTION HAVE BEGUN.

Besides the unique vocal delivery of Joacim Cans, WARLORD consists of founding members Mark Zonder and Bill Tsamis. After the demise of WARLORD, progressive metal titans FATES WARNING wisely snagged Mark Zonder, one of few technical drummers who could keep up with their style. And guitarist Bill Tsamis studied medieval and classical renaissance styles, which creeps into his shredding guitarwork. Since the concert on WARLORD BOOK I: AND THE CANNONS OF DESTRUCTION HAVE BEGUN was originally taped in 1984, Joacim Cans was not in the band at that time. Instead the vocals here are handled by WARLORD’s second vocalist, Rick Cunningham. Dave Watry assumed bass duties for the group. The live performance on this DVD was self-produced by the band, and is therefore limited in terms of production and scope. However, the musical performances here are what counts and even at this young stage of their career, WARLORD shines. The musicians are razor sharp with their adeptness, and vocalist Rick Cunningham’s melodic voice takes center stage. However, Cunninhgam’s preening stage presence makes one think of Bret Michaels and that ilk. This problem aside, WARLORD delve into their classic tunes, including:

• Lucifer’s Hammer
• Lost and Lonely Days
• Black Mass
• Soliloquy
• Aliens
• MCMLXXXIV
• Child of the Damned
• Deliver Us From Evil

Metal Blade presents WARLORD BOOK I: AND THE CANNONS OF DESTRUCTION HAVE BEGUN in the full frame 1.33.1 ratio. Keep in mind that this performance was taped on an extremely low budget and filmed by amateur cameramen, and you won’t be disappointed by this video presentation. The picture quality is rather sharp, with good contrast and bold colors. Ditto, the minor light show benefits from this good mastering job. The black levels are perfectly tweaked. Again nothing spectacular, but it could have been a lot worse considering the vintage of this taping. One area where Metal Blade dropped the ball, is in not remastering the sound into Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. I don’t know what they were thinking, whether the suits at Metal Blade felt that WARLORD wasn’t worth the effort, or that they didn’t want to spend the money remastering the audio for such an old concert. Instead its just a Dolby Stereo mix, which is actually quite good, with CD-like precision and fidelity. However, it lacks the power, depth, and range that a 5.1 remix would have added. Metal Blade also cheaped out on the extras, as there are nothing on here, not even liner notes of any kind (or even a Web link)! They did include a bonus CD, with the remastered WARLORD tracks Deliver Us From Evil, Winter Tears, Child of the Damned, Penny For A Poor Man, Black Mass, Lucifer’s Hammer, and the rare track Mrs. Victoria.

Bill Tsamis and Mark Zonder staged this show and recorded it to show the music industry that they can jam with the best of them, and they succeeded in capturing the musical intensity that is WARLORD. Watching WARLORD BOOK I: AND THE CANNONS OF DESTRUCTION HAVE BEGUN is like a history lesson; as in taking a time machine back to these formative years of hard rock and metal. Even Metal Blade’s cheap and generic treatment of this DVD can’t spoil the musical prowess of these pioneers of the progressive medieval scene. Let’s hope that Metal Blade doesn’t cheap out when they get around to putting out a live concert DVD with the new WARLORD 2001 lineup.