Some legendary bands from the 1980s who are still around live off their legacy from the days of yore. But no one brought that to perfection like the Epic Metal pioneers WARLORD did. From their formation in 1980 to their temporary split, the band, centred around guitar player and mastermind William “Destroyer” Tsamis, was really creative and wrote a lot of songs they recorded on demo tapes. Asides from that, they released some records as well, that granted them a loyal following which grew over the years. The songs from these records are concerned masterpieces of Epic Metal with great justice. Tsamis’ unique way to play the guitar and the atmospheric keyboards made songs like ‘Deliver Us From Evil’, ‘Child Of The Damned’ or ‘Lost And Lonely Days’ stand outs of the Metal genre. In 1986, WARLORD called their quits for once. Drummer Mark “Thunderchild” Zonder joined FATES WARNING and William J Tsamis continued with the short-lived LORDIAN WINDS, who later became the project LORDIAN GUARD, where he played the instruments and his wife did the vocals, both continuing and advancing the style of WARLORD. At the end of the 1990s, the popularity of WARLORD was boosted thanks to HAMMERFALL doing a cover of ‘Child Of The Damned’ on their debut album. This revived popularity resulted in a reunion of WARLORD with Joacim Cans of said HAMMERFALL, taking over the always vacant slot of the singer for the comeback album “Rising Out Of The Ashes”. This one already featured mainly old material from the early years and LORDIAN GUARD, but failed to catch the spirit of those times in my opinion. Over the years following, the world saw a lot of releases under the WARLORD moniker again, albums with mainly old (sometimes well-known) material, re-recorded or compilations with old recordings. The passing of William J Tsamis in 2021 seemed to be the end of WARLORD, yet Mark Zonder re-started the band two years later to keep the legacy of the band alive. This even led to the new album “Free Spirit Soar” last year which passed me by completely. And now it’s 2025 and we have another (more or less) new WARLORD record. “The Lost Archangel” is a compilation of 13 recordings with the new singer Giles Lavery, who already filled in for live duties earlier. In best tradition, this compilation features no new songs, but old stuff in new clothes. First we have four songs that were released as digital singles last year, now available physically for the first time. ‘Golgotha (The Place Of The Skull)’, ‘Lost Archangel’ and ‘Stygian Passage’ are songs that William J Tsamis originally recorded with LORDIAN GUARD in the 1990s, while ‘The Rainbow’ is from a 1982 demo recording. The latter is kind of a semi-ballad that might have fitted on the old WARLORD records as a counterweight to the heavier songs. But the rearranged LORDIAN GUARD songs still sound too pathetic to be “real” WARLORD stuff in my opinion. Next we have some newer songs that were re-recorded as well, but neither the new version of ‘Enemy Mind’ (originally the only new song on “Rising Out Of The Ashes”), nor the too lame songs ‘70,000 Sorrows’ and ‘Night Of The Fury’ (both originally released in 2013) really left an impact on me. The second part of the album consists of live recordings. Three songs are from a show WARLORD played in Athens in 2013. And these are the lowlight of the compilation, not due to a poor sound or a bad performance, but due to the songs. Both ‘Father’ and ‘Glory’ are so pathetic, it’s really cheesy and corny. Thankfully ‘Soliloquy’ is a little bit more Metal than these two, yet still far beyond being a highlight in the history of WARLORD. After nine disappointments in the first ten songs it’s up to the final three live songs to save the day at least a little bit. Chances were good beforehand, as these songs are real WARLORD classics: ‘Lucifer’s Hammer’, ‘Black Mass’ and ‘Child Of The Damned’, all of them recorded live in 2024. And finally I was satisfied, yet not overwhelmed, as we get very solid versions of songs that are US Metal master class. Despite the propitiating finish, I still can’t recommend “The Lost Archangel” to anyone who is not a die hard WARLORD maniac and needs any note they ever recorded. If you’re not familiar with the band, check out the “Best Of Warlord” compilation that their former record company Metal Blade released in 1989 or the “Anthology” double disc from 2012, as they feature the original recordings of WARLORD that build the reputation of this band. For more info, go to www.facebook.com/officialwarlord or www.facebook.com/hrrecords