Hails My Metal Legions, it’s time to “Heben Sie Ihre Faust” or as we say in English, “RAISE YOUR FIST” because today is the 30th Anniversary of the Warlock album “Triumph and Agony” which was released on this day care of Mercury Records. The album, while their fourth and final release, was probably the one that the fans of this type of music first learned of the band and their rocking leader – The Amazing Doro Pesch. The group was popular in their native Germany but back then it was very hard to break a band over in this part of the globe. We had Helloween of course, but even they didn’t come over here for touring all that much to my recollection. The album would feature a completely new lineup for the group and its signature, and most iconic track is the anthemic “All We Are”. I’ll go over some more about the tracks after reminding how like most of our toasts, this is a personal reflection more than its line by line analysis since that stuff has long been done on the albums Wikipedia entry.
Warlock’s new lineup consisted of Niko Arvanitis and Tommy Bolan on guitar, Tommy Henriksen on bass while Michael Eurich handled the drums. I found it interesting to learn that there were also three guest drummers on the release that included the late great Cozy Powell (a personal favorite player), Rich Richman and Sterling Campbell. The latter two I am unfamiliar with any work from across my Metal mainframe. Bolan and Henricksen would add an American Metal flair to the previously full German based band that was found delivering “True As Steel” (the preceding album). Some of the Metal fans that were more “in the know” about what was happening elsewhere in the world got into them care of that album but as I’ve said for the larger side its “Triumph and Agony” all the way. Though my copy of the original is a long unsolved mystery in terms of its location, I do have a copy of this on CD which allows me to blast it at maximum volume once more for its anniversary. I still enjoy the whole release, but like most albums there are some songs that I absolutely love from the session. Let’s take a look at the full track listing down below from the original album.
Continue reading “Es Wird Gefeiert”; Warlock’s “Triumph and Agony” Hits 30 (1987-2017)
