WarlockTexas

The roots of Texas Metal Legends, WARLOCK, are tracable to the earliest primal stirrings of the Lone Star State’s embryonic metal music scene. There were rock bands playing the club circuit before Warlock emerged in 1981 and some of these bands would occasionally play an Iron Maiden or Ozzy song between their Bob Seger and Loverboy tunes. Pantera was among these cover bands and leaned heavier than some but their sets consisted of mostly party rock songs from Van Halen, Def Leppard, etc. Warlock was the first local band to be all metal, all the time and, by metal, we mean the hardest, rawest, most uncompromising metal in the early 80s, following the same course as bands like Motorhead, Venom, Exciter, Priest, Saxon, Holocaust, Raven, etc. WARLOCK covered all of these bands. The original line up of WARLOCK included Jerry Warden - singer, his brother, David - guitar, Casey Orr - bass and Harden Harrison - drums. Jerry is a true Texas metal pioneer, who's mission since the late 70s was to promote metal throughout his beloved state of Texas and his mission continues to this day. Among his accomplishments: he hosted one of the first metal radio shows on KNON as well as DJing at satellite station Z Rock, an early metal 'zine Cut Throat Press, N. Texas’ first metal club, Rascals, the infamous Tombstone Factory, Joe’s Garage & Hotel Hell. He is currently working to establish the world’s official Heavy Metal Hall of Fame in Arlington, TX. In the early 80s, he was known for hosting illicit metal keg parties at 4 dif. outdoor locales called Heavy Meadows and fronting D/FW’s first leather and spike wearing, skull and inverted cross brandishing, sex, drugs and heavy fucking metal band WARLOCK. WARLOCK were undeniably metal madmen They jammed, partied, and fought relentlessly. The first line-up played several parties/gigs before an argument put them on temporary hiatus. When they re-grouped, they added Rick Perry as a second guitarist. This line-up split after a wild night of partying ended with knives drawing blood and musical instruments thrown into Lake Arlington. Harrison and Orr left to form Rigor Mortis while Jerry, David and Rick enlisted Les Choate on drums w/ Billy Blade on bass and began playing shows within several months. The first show was at a teen club in Burleson, TX called Dalton's Corner. This show in March of 1984 ended in a riot with the band being escorted out of town for their own protection and/or the protection of local cowboys. After a few more line-up shuffles including the departure of Jerry’s brother, David, Rick became the lone guitarist while Eric Roy replaced Billy Blade on bass and the classic Warlock line up of Jerry Warden – singer, Rick Perry – guitar, Eric Roy – bass, and Les Choate – drums was complete. WARLOCK played anywhere & everywhere including the A level rock clubs of the time along with apartment complex party rooms, teen clubs and halls from different social organizations to host their own concerts. Jerry booked and later owned a small club called Rascals in N. Arlington, which became the first metal club in Texas and featured WARLOCK as the house band along with Pantera, Nasty Savage, Rotting Corpse and many other local metal bands. Jerry began booking out of town bands into Rascals like Austin’s Watchtower, Militia and Sithian Oath and those bands would return the favor. In this way, WARLOCK played in Austin, Shreveport and San Antonio. WARLOCK began writing/performing original songs and incorporating them into their live shows. A four song demo was recorded in 1985 at Pantego Sound Studios, engineered by Jerry Abbott (father of Darrell and Vince Abbott and the producer of Pantera’s first four independent albums). This demo received airplay on local radio programs. In 1986, they recorded a five song demo at Planet Dallas Studios with Rick Rooney engineering. This demo displayed a harder & faster WARLOCK sound. WARLOCK broke new ground by being the first metal band to cross over into the Dallas punk scene, playing shows at the Twilight Room and Circle A Ranch. At the same time, WARLOCK opened for other underground metal bands like Metal Church, Discharge, Celtic Frost, VoiVod, and The Mentors. At the height of their popularity in the Texas metal underground and their demo tapes beginning to get strong reviews in overseas metal magazines such as Aardshok and Metal Forces, disagreements and infighting led to the band’s demise. Jerry's post Warlock bands were Jett Sett, Crime Scene and Warden. Rick's post Warlock bands were Gammacide, Puncture and Warbeast. Eric Roy was murdered in 2001. In 2011, Jerry Warden and Rick Perry reformed Warlock. The demos have been mastered by Kerry Crafton and are ready for release. WARLOCK hosted their reunion show on Sat., Aug. 2, 2014 at Diamond Jim's Saloon in their hometown of Arlington, TX and subsequently played NYE at The Boiler Room in Deep Ellum the same year. In Feb. of 2015, Rick Perry left the band and Jerry Warden is in the process of replacing him. U haven't heard the last of the ORIGINAL UNDERGROUND KINGS OF THE D/FW METALPLEX!! CLASSIC LINE-UP: JERRY WARDEN - SINGER RICK PERRY - GUITAR ERIC ROY - BASS LES CHOATE - DRUMS ORIGINAL LINE-UP: JERRY WARDEN - SINGER DAVID WARDEN - GUITAR CASEY ORR - BASS HARDEN HARRISON - DRUMS OTHER BAND MEMBERS: NIKKI KHAN - GUITAR BILLY BLADE J.T. PELTON - GUITAR DANNY JARVIS - DRUMS TONY MARTIN - DRUMS JIM NORRIS - DRUMS CLAY MCCARTY - BASS RANDY COOKE - DRUMS The Original Underground Kings of the D/FW Metalplex