page_title: Warlord (band)
section_title: Post-Warlord activities
hierarchical_section_title: Warlord (band) / History / Post-Warlord activities
caption_attribution_description: English: Joacim Cans performing with Hammerfall at The Electric Ballroom in London, 6th May 2010
context_page_description: Warlord is an American heavy metal band, formed in 1980 and based in Los Angeles, California. Since its formation the band has been led by guitarist William J Tsamis and drummer Mark Zonder.
context_section_description: The inability to retain a working line-up, that is the difficulty in procuring a sure-fire vocalist led to inner tensions and despair, thus Warlord finally ground to a halt in 1986, with Tsamis moving from California to Florida and eventually undergoing a spiritual conversion.  The band's label, Metal Blade, would issue Thy Kingdom Come, a quasi Best Of, in December of that same year. An extended version, including the whole Deliver Us EP, followed in 1989, titled Best of Warlord.  It was the first time the band's music had been issued on compact disc.
  Tsamis initially recorded an acoustic demo under the name Lordian Winds and worked for years on a project called 'My Name Is Man' (a 75-minute music video concept): an epic story based on John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and similar to Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey'. Hopes of turning it into a proper movie never came to fruition as no producer could be found to take on the project. Tsamis next formed a new Christian apocalyptic-themed venture called Lordian Guard with his wife, Vidonne Sayre Riemenschneider, serving as lead vocalist. Lordian Guard issued two albums, Lordian Guard (1995) and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1997) through Germany's Hellion Records. Many of the songs, especially those on the self-titled record, had originally been planned for inclusion on the unreleased My Name Is Man album or a second Warlord full-length. A third album, titled The Holy Empire, was planned but never materialized as the project was disbanded.
  Following Warlord's demise, drummer Mark Zonder would retain the band's practice facility in the San Fernando Valley, expanding and building it into one of the top rehearsal spots in the Northern Los Angeles area over the next several years. He also kept busy as a studio drum consultant and in-demand session player, including a stint with Animotion offshoot Plane English, and eventually joined Metal Blade recording artists, Fates Warning, in time for 1989's Perfect Symmetry. Zonder's association with Fates would last a decade and a half covering a total of six studio and two live albums. In 2004, Zonder announced that FWX would be his last album with the band and he left the following year. He began to collaborate with fellow San Diego, CA-based multi-instrumentalist Wayne Findlay (Michael Schenker Group, Vinnie Moore) in a new band called Temple Within who released their eponymous debut album under the name Slavior in 2007 on Inside Out Music.
  Retaining a considerable underground following as a much beloved cult band over the years, Warlord reformed in 2002. Original members Tsamis and Zonder were joined by HammerFall vocalist Joacim Cans, a long-time Warlord admirer whose band had in fact covered the Deliver Us classic 'Child of the Damned' on their debut album, Glory to the Brave, in 1997. Warlord issued Rising Out of the Ashes via Italian Athreia Records (which in turn sub licensed it to German Drakkar Records, re-recording several tracks that had previously appeared on the Lordian Guard albums, however with the traditional heavier sound of Warlord. That same year, Tsamis, Zonder and Cans, backed by members of the Italian band Black Jester, played their first ever live shows at the Wacken Open Air festival.
  Until 2011 no further activities had taken place but vocalist Joacim Cans stated in a February 2009 interview with the Italian metal magazine, Metal Maniac, that another album might be in the realm of possibility should there be sufficient label interest. The continued demand for Warlord has been evidenced by numerous invitations to play concerts in Germany, Italy and Greece, most importantly to headline the summer 2009 festival Headbangers Open Air in Hamburg; however, Tsamis and Zonder declined for various reasons. Nevertheless, the musical legacy of 'Warlord' continued to live through its cult following in Europe despite the passing of years.
caption: Former vocalist Joacim Cans
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