U.K. thrash vets Onslaught are coming back to North America in March for the first time in well over a decade, and they’re making it count. The band is billing the run as a “Force From Hell” set, leaning hard on their first two albums—Power From Hell and The Force—with a setlist built to satisfy anyone who wants the raw, early ’80s edge.
The shows also double as a celebration of vocalist Sy Keeler’s return, with the band promising plenty of fan favorites from his era alongside the deep cuts pulled from those seminal records.
Co-headlining the tour are cult epic metal heroes Warlord, and their angle is just as specific: they’ll play Deliver Us in full, plus more classic-era material. Wildly, this marks Warlord’s first proper North American tour, despite the band being Los Angeles-based and active (in various forms) for more than four decades. Both bands will kick things off after a special set at Houston’s Hell’s Heroes festival.
Onslaught guitarist Nige Rockett put it plainly, with the focus on the long wait and the band’s current lineup: “Super stoked to be returning to the States for our first full tour in 11 years and with Sy Keeler back at the helm, it’s gonna be mega! This is just Part 1. We’re bringing this tour to the entire USA so that nobody gets to miss out on this epic setlist! See you in the pit!”
On Warlord’s side, drummer Mark Zonder explained just how strange their live history has been for an American band, and why this run is being treated like a long-delayed “what should have been.”
“Although Warlord is an American band, formed in 1980… in those 45 years since, we never once performed live in the USA (our first gig ever was actually in Germany in 2002). This year we will set forth on our first-ever tour of North America, performing the set that fans would have seen from us if we had done this all those years ago, the full ‘Deliver Us’ mini LP, ‘Cannons’ tracks, ‘Lost And Lonely Days’ EP, and more.”
See the tour itinerary below and get your tickets here:
03/18 – Houston, TX – Hell’s Heroes
03/19 – Dallas, TX – Trees
03/20 – Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live
03/22 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
03/24 – Los Angeles, CA – 1720
03/25 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
03/26 – Sacramento, CA – Colonial Theatre
03/27 – Felton, CA – Felton Music Hall
03/29 – Portland, OR – Star Theatre
03/30 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
03/31 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
04/02 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon
04/03 – Denver, CO – Marquis
04/04 – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre
04/06 – Chicago, IL – WC Social Club
04/08 – Kansas City, MO – Warehouse on Broadway
04/09 – St Louis, MO – Red Flag
04/10 – Murfreesboro, TN – Hop Springs
04/12 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
For Onslaught, Power From Hell (1985) and The Force (1986) sit near the foundation of extreme thrash records that helped shape the harsher end of the genre and still get cited by bands that came after. The band formed in Bristol in 1982, came out of a hardcore punk background, and built their name on speed, aggression, and political bite. They also recently reintroduced Sy Keeler onstage, playing their first concert with him back in the lineup on November 9, 2025, at the U.K.’s Damnation Festival at the BEC Arena in Manchester.
For Warlord, this tour comes with history and loss attached. The band began as the project of guitarist/songwriter William J Tsamis and drummer Mark Zonder, and they’re widely viewed as pioneers of epic metal. Tsamis passed away in May 2021, and the group has continued with Zonder alongside longtime member Giles Lavery, plus Jimmy Waldo, Eric Juris, Diego Pires, and Stefano Pascolino. Now they’re finally doing the one thing their legacy never matched on paper: taking their classic material on the road in North America.
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