Great Metal Albums of 1986: Warlock- True As Steel
Another great thing about 1986 was that heavy metal was truly becoming international. In the case of Germany, although it was only West Germany at the time, The Scorpions had already been a worldwide hit and Accept was getting lots of attention. In addition, some great thrash bands were coming out of the country such as Kreator. All of this made it possible for an up and coming German band to step into the metal spotlight, that band was Warlock.
My introduction to Warlock came when I saw them at the 1986 Donington Festival and I was very impressed. It could have been partially down to the fact that fronting the band was this blonde bombshell named Doro Pesch who tingled my 25 year old hormones at the time. Okay, she still does it to my nearly 60 year old ones too but not only that, even then I knew she had a stupendous voice and a great band backing her. I was converted to Warlock that day.

Naturally, Warlock’s performance at Donington made me check out her 1986 “True As Steel” album and the magic they produced on stage shone through on the album. The two songs which still capture my attention all these years later are “Fight for the Rock” and “Love in the Danger Zone,” both were released as singles. I also remember “Fight for the Rock” getting played at the metal club in East London I would venture to on Friday nights.
The two mentioned tracks are among the first four on the album which go ripping through at a steady metal pace. If your attention isn’t grabbed after those four songs, then it never will be. Then they change things up a bit on “Midnight in China.” It goes for a more heavy blues sound and has a great guitar solo trade-off between guitarists Niko Arvanitis and Peter Szigeti. This song has an anthem type feel where if played live would be a good audience participation song. Unfortunately, I don’t recall it happening at Donington. It’s the hidden gem on this album.
Things go very fast after with “Vorwarts, All Right.” It accelerates to speed metal proportions and the band pull it off very well. Then after the powerful title track, another anthem type song, comes a song which really intrigues me. I used to wonder what Doro was actually singing about in “Lady in a Rock and Roll Hell.” Part of me was hoping that she was singing out against the sexism that was around in heavy metal at the time, it hasn’t totally gone away. No, it’s about needing a man. Still a good song though and right after comes a genuine power ballad in “Love Song.” Again, it’s done very well. It could be argued that it should be the album closer but after the rather amusing “Igloo on the Moon,” the album is closed out by the instrumental “T.O.L.,” which does close things out nicely.
Track Listing:
- Mr. Gold
- Fight for the Rock
- Love in the Danger Zone
- Speed of Sound
- Midnight in China
- Vorwarts, All Right
- True as Steel
- Lady in a Rock and Roll Hell
- Love Song
- Igloo on the Moon (Reckless)
- T.O.L.
Doro Pesch- lead vocals
Niko Arvanitis- guitar
Peter Szigeti- guitar
Frank Rittel- bass
Michael Eurich- drums
I think that in 1986, Germany was welcomed as a full on contributor to the heavy metal world. With this album, Warlock would extend its conquests beyond Europe and get the recognition is so richly deserved.
Next post: Motorhead- Orgasmatron
To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com
This entry was posted on October 25, 2020 at 11:11 am and is filed under 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags Accept, Classic Rock, Doro Pesch, Germany, hard rock, Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock, Kreator, The 1980s, The Scorpions, Warlock. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
8 Responses to “Great Metal Albums of 1986: Warlock- True As Steel”
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October 25, 2020 at 11:18 am
Funny enough I never got much into Doro and Warlock, though I do own a couple of tracks like Only You.
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October 25, 2020 at 12:56 pm
Not too late to start.
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October 25, 2020 at 1:02 pm
Very true sir — thanks to you guys I’ve been getting into a lot of metal bands later in life, like Saxon.
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October 25, 2020 at 11:41 pm
That’s what we’re here for.
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October 25, 2020 at 2:43 pm
Great article, I am selling off my LP collection on Ebay and I forgot about White Wolf, Triumph, Saxon and others. Just wish I still had my record player..
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October 25, 2020 at 11:39 pm
Thanks, it’s a shame you have to sell them. There are some good bands there.
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February 25, 2021 at 7:18 pm
Almost completely forgot about this band! I never knew that Warlock was from Germany though, well, I didn’t actually know much of anything back then..lol 🙂
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February 26, 2021 at 10:12 am
I’ve been writing this blog for over ten years and I am still amazed at the things I’m learning about music history. Warlock were a good band and I’ve seen Doro twice since she went solo and she still sings a lot of their material.
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