Warlord
The Holy Empire

Talking about Warlord is equivalent to talking about epic metal, so it's important to clarify right away what this genre is. In fact, many people don't clearly understand it and make mistakes; the error usually leads to disdain and criticism, but it's understandable because if one believes that epic metal is that cheerful, bubbly, sugary, symphonic, elven, and merry German, Italian, or Finnish power metal that flourished around the turn of the millennium, they are rightly justified.
First and foremost, epic metal is heavy metal, but what distinguishes it from classic metal? Only the sensation experienced by the listener, thus there's no clear demarcation but rather a subtle and changeable distinction. So are Iron Maiden epic? No. And Warlord? Yes. Manowar? Yes, but only in the first four albums, then no more. Instead, Cirith Ungol, Manilla Road, Omen, and Medieval Steel are epic. NWOBHM bands and American power bands from the '80s are not epic. Are Sanctuary epic? No, I'm sorry. However, Battle Angels rocks! I know, what can you do. For some, the early Queensrÿche are epic, for others, the early Candlemass, which the whole world considers among the pillars of doom. The Viking period of Bathory is also taken into consideration. Why is all this?
Maybe because epic is born from absence and melancholy. It's no coincidence, in my opinion, that it's essentially an American genre, with Americans narrating the feats of Achaeans, Athenians, and Spartans, of medieval knights and rough barbarians—basically a glorified past that doesn't belong to them, it belonged to their migrant ancestors, no longer to them. This sense of loss transforms into an underlying melancholy that permeates all the songs, whether they are fast and grandiose, like Warlord, or slow and dark, like Cirith Ungol, or possess a little of all these characteristics, like Manilla Road. Epic looks to the past, lives in the past, is not self-referential, is subdued and sad. And Manowar then? They are certainly the reference point for hedonism and self-exaltation, but truth be told, at first, it wasn't exaggerated, it’s only from the fifth album onward that they became the clowns everyone knows, before they had a minimum of restraint.
For Europeans, on the other hand, epic hasn't really caught on, except for Quorthon, but thinking about it, Bathory is sad because they mourn the death of what they consider Scandinavian culture, at the hands of Christians, so it's always about loss in a far-off past. The same can't be said for Rhapsody, Hammerfall, and company; at most, they might have lost their Magic cards.

After this exhausting but necessary introduction, let's move on to the album with which Warlord returned to the scene in 2013, after about a decade. The first sensation during listening is that the album seems to have emerged from the eighties, with two songs composed entirely in that decade, as if guitarist William Tsamis found an old recording while tidying up the attic. The production is intentionally old-fashioned, a necessary and obligatory choice (Nuclear Blast, stay away!), and the group's style remains almost unchanged, the usual dreamy and airy melodies, except for the fact that they proceed with the handbrake much more tightly applied, as if there is no longer the urgency to prove their skill and energy. The vocalist's performance is directed entirely in this direction, resulting in a striking calmness, never over the top, and conveys serenity and a sense of peace of mind, a new spiritual balance achieved with the wisdom of age. The whole album gives the impression of immutability and detachment from time, like in those stories where some explorer discovers an ancient civilization unchanged for millennia living at the edge of the world. Always the same as itself.

In conclusion, it can be said that this was the perfect album for Warlord, in the already distant 2013, a much-appreciated return that raises questions about the future: will they return, emerging from the ancient sands of time, to continue their work as bards and minstrels?