Warlord - Deliver Us LP

High Roller Records, 180g black vinyl, ltd 500, 2 bonus tracks (Mrs. Victoria + Lucifer's Hammer), 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, poster, A5 photocard, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony.

Warlord's debut mini-album, 1983's Deliver Us, served up modest examples of British-bred L.A. metal in line with, but not exactly of equal caliber to, contemporary work executed by scene rivals Armored Saint and Agent Steel. But that's not to say that classic metal fare like "Deliver Us from Evil," "Child of the Damned," and the Metal Massacre, Vol. 2 favorite "Lucifer's Hammer" lacked their fair share of promise. Had they been recorded with a little more attention to production and studio finesse, the band's advanced musical and compositional skills might have been revealed, and there's no telling how far the group might have gone. In any event, they didn't go far, but this release remains an important building block of America's early-'80s metal community. -All Music Guide