1. Autumn Fear Brings Winter Doom2. Salvage What You Can of the Night3. The Fall of a Once Great House4. Mark of the Stormborn Riders5. Wild Rites and Ancient Songs6. Troubadours of the Final Quarrel7. The Coming Tide of Yule
I have been following BLAZON RITE since their debut Mini LP. Their next full length was also a remarkable release for my musical taste and I can easily admit that I would stay into the same positive background about their new release as well.
Combining the classic Heavy Metal forms with arcane Epic Metal this band delivers a very special type of music that opens a wide range of escapism back to ancient quests, dark realms and moonlight rides.
Solid guitar riffing, vocals that are progressively blessing all the songs with a touch of obscurity and in many cases some remarkable proto-Epic references that add to the overall atmosphere of the record.
To tell you the truth I was a little bit skeptical when I first learned about the Warlord tribute project set by drummer and founding member Mark Zonder and singer Giles Lavery to honor the music and memory of founder guitarist William J Tsamis who unfortunately passed away back in 2021. I was looking at the facts very closely, reading announcements about forthcoming live shows, new line up and a new album. The response from the fans was massive including both positive and negative (or very negative) comments about the above facts. "How can Warlord exist without Bill Tsamis?", they were asking. One afternoon I got a call from Giles Lavery himself asking me if I wanted to do an advance review of the forthcoming Warlord album. I replied positively still being in this skeptical mood. It all went away after the first listen... William J Tsamis was there. His music, his legend, his compositions, evolved into complete songs. In total excitement I texted Giles a single message "Bill is alive". The very next evening found Mark, Giles and I talking about the album, about Bill, about the music and the legacy. It was late at night when we ended the call. I asked them if I can publish our conversation and they got no problem. So here it is again: Me talking with Warlord. The usual stuff I am doing the last 25 years for various reasons. But this time I would not call this conversation an interview. To my eyes this is a big ethical, artistic and soulful statement, by some people who want to keep the Dream, alive.
