Based out of Tehachapi, a mountain city between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, The Warriors formed in 2002. Alongside bands like Terror and Stick to Your Guns, The Warriors were an integral part of the Southern California hardcore scene in the early 2000s.
While the band's career has had extended hiatus periods throughout the years, The Warriors have still managed to release five studio albums along the way, including their most recent, Monomyt, which came out in 2019. Their influence reached wide, but their most well-known fans are undoubtedly the guys in Knocked Loose who showed love via a cover of The Warriors' "Slings and Arrows" on the Kentucky outfit's Mistakes Like Fractures EP.
The original version of that song opens War Is Hell, The Warriors' debut album which was released by Eulogy Records, one of the bigger hardcore labels of its day. The band's current label, Pure Noise Records, has issued a 20th anniversary version of the LP on vinyl, so I spoke with Warriors vocalist Marshall Lichtenwaldt and drummer Donny Phillips to get their thoughts on the making of the record, their personal paths to hardcore music, and some other trivia I know No Echo readers will appreciate.
Looking back at your roots, how did growing up in Tehachapi influence your music and the band’s overall ethos? What do you remember most about the hardcore scene in the early 2000s there?
(Marshall Lichtenwaldt, vocals): I grew up skateboarding. I embraced everything about it: the art, the attitude, and of course, the music. Watching skate videos and pausing VHS tapes during the credits to find out what songs and artists our favorite skaters were skating to.
Around 1999, my friend Scott Baker let me borrow a demo tape from his brother Terrence’s band, Diehard Youth, Rip It Up '99. I wore that cassette tape out from playing it so much. Went to my first Diehard Youth show in Tehachapi, that’s where I met Andy Diehard. He was a huge influence on all of us and the main pusher for us starting The Warriors. He showed us hardcore and what it was all about.
Andy had a great record collection and always let me borrow whatever. That’s where I discovered all the classic Youth Crew and California hardcore bands, NYHC, the Victory, New Age, Equal Vision, Youngblood, and Nardcore bands. A few of us drove and we would just pile in our cars and ride to shows all over SoCal every single weekend. I remember Terror starting up, their first shows and the electric energy that surrounded that powerhouse.
Carry On did an East Coast tour and brought back the East Coast dancing style to the West Coast. American Nightmare and Striking Distance played their first west coast tour, those shows were crazy. But most of all, I remember the reality of friendship. Making friends in the music scene everywhere you went. Hardcore is all about friendship.
(Donny Phillips, drums): Yes indeed. If it wasn’t for Andy and Diehard Youth opening up the world of hardcore to us we might all be doing meth under a bridge right now. Or even worse– playing in a pop-punk band [laughs]. The SoCal hardcore scene was vibrant at that time. To piggyback Marshall, I would just add In Control and Internal Affairs to that killer list of bands. All those guys were all key in putting us on shows and showing us the ropes.
Being from a small town shaped our band’s ethos in that we knew we’d have to work that much harder to garner any sort of attention. We’d have to drive farther, play harder and really make it count every time we played a show.
How did the local community respond to the band’s success back in the day, and are you still connected with your hometown’s music scene?
(Marshall): We had a very grass-roots beginnings. At school, I went around at lunch time asking dudes I knew played instruments if they wanted to start a band. Danny and Donny are twin brothers and I knew they jammed. I remember walking by a portable classroom one time and the door was open. I saw Donny in front of his class jamming guitar wearing a Korn shirt. Later that day, I approached him and Danny about wanting to start a band and they were down. So we have guitar and drums covered.
Mike [Pricendorfer] played bass and always wore Judge and Trial shirts and he was down. Next was our friend Graeme who had some sick riffs so now we had a full band. We started jamming, recorded a demo tape and jumped on our first local show with Carry On and Good Clean Fun.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing but the response was pretty well received. There were certainly some haters from our school and honestly that kind of bullshit drove me even harder. 22 years later, and the Tehachapi scene is doing awesome. Check out Ill Communication, War Is Hell (the band), Step By Step, and Out of Line.
READ MORE: 12 Newer Hardcore Bands to Check Out in 2025
(Donny): The early, local shows in Tehachapi and Bakersfield were a ton of fun. We were terrible, but our friends were very forgiving and supportive, always. Branching out and playing shows in Los Angeles, Oxnard, and San Diego was a big deal and required a ton of work to get to that point. Javier Zarate from Oxnard joined the band, replacing Graeme, and this opened up a new world to us, as Javi was a very active member of that scene.
How did the band end up working with John and Ian at Eulogy Recordings? Did they have any input in terms of the making of the album outside of its financing?
(Marshall): We recorded a couple of new songs with Vic DiCara from Inside Out for a split 7” with With Or Without You. We sent those songs out in a package to a handful of labels. Eulogy hit us back with an offer and we took it.
(Donny): Eulogy was very supportive. We almost recorded War Is Hell with Vic DiCara after he did the 7”, but switched gears and recorded with Roger Camero, who was in No Motiv at the time and is now a permanent member of the band. Vic did not take this news well. He was pissed and it broke my heart.
Vic was (and still is) in our pantheon of hardcore "gods," so this was a tough decision to make, but in retrospect it was the right one, as Roger is an essential component to this band… the understatement of the century.
What are some memories that stand out to you from the making of the War Is Hell album? How many days did you have in the studio and were you guys disciplined enough to get the most out of the limited time there?
(Donny): The pressure was on. We took the opportunity Eulogy [Records] gave us very, very seriously. It was all-consuming. We had a handful of songs from the 7 inches that we would re-record, but the bulk of the songwriting happened during a very stressful time of transition for all of us.
We had just graduated high school and we moved down to Los Angeles. We had just started college and had this opportunity to sign to a label that was going to pay for our record, a van, and put us on the road. This was a collective dream come true so we all dropped out of school and put everything we had into this record. We were so determined to write an album that stood the test of time that everything else fell to the wayside– school, relationships, sleep, everything.
(Marshall): I remember Roger’s studio was very, very hot. We were all stuffed in on the second level of a carpeted rehearsal space made of cinder block and sound board. It felt like the entire band was crammed into a 10’ by 12’ control room and a 10’ by 16’ live room. Danny and Donny were very animated in their playing together for the tracking of the music.
(Donny): My twin brother Danny and I really held each other to the fire. I’m grateful for how hard he pushed me. We had a very peculiar way of communicating with each other. I think everyone thought we were insane. Maybe we still are insane [laughs].
(Marshall): We wanted this album to be heavier than the 7”s, so we played everything in drop C. We slowed the songs way down. I remember just screaming at the top of my lungs the entire time for every song. I did these deep death growls too that I thought sounded cool. I guess it was the energy I felt at the time and I just wanted the lyrics to be felt in the same way.
War Is Hell was a landmark album for The Warriors and the hardcore scene in Southern California for that decade. How did you feel about its reception back in 2004?
(Donny): Thank you for saying so. Honestly, we had no real metric to gauge “success” at the time. I remember selling a ton of CDs of War Is Hell at every show. The guys at Eulogy would give us verbal pats on the back, but we didn’t know how we were stacking up to any other band on the label or in the scene as a whole. The shows were fucking electric, though. That was the only metric we needed.
We caught a lot of static from bands that had a more traditional hardcore sound. We were always "too metal" for traditional hardcore kids and "too hardcore" more metal kids. I desperately wanted to fit in with bands like Carry On and Over My Dead Body, but we loved bands like Snapcase, 108, Helmet, and Rage Against the Machine just as much as any Youth Crew bands, so this was inextricably in the DNA of the music we wrote as the Warriors.
(Marshall): When War Is Hell came out we went on our first U.S. tour with Shattered Realm, On Broken Wings, Black My Heart, and The Judas Cradle. They called it The Eulogy Tour. When we got back home we were actually getting offers to play shows instead of us asking to play them for the first time ever. Soon enough, we got offered to headline the Showcase Theatre for the first time and that was a huge deal for us. I still have that show poster framed in my basement.
We headlined Chain Reaction, same deal there. We were just like “wow!” When I hear people talk about how War Is Hell was a big influence for them I’m really taken back because when we first started this band I personally never set any goals for this thing. I wanted to do vocals for a very selfish reason: because it made me feel good, like therapy in a dysfunctional sort of way. At that time, I never thought anyone would really care that much about what we were doing.
Are there any particular tracks from War Is Hell that hold extra significance for you today? If so, why, and how do they connect with where the band is now?
(Marshall): I’m a big Warzone fan. The first song off Fight For Justice is called “Locked Out.” When we first started the band, I was listening to that record every day and I love the lyrics to that song in particular. Much like the lyrical content of that song, I wrote “Scene Celebrity.”
I’ll never forget when I was first getting into hardcore music and embracing the scene. There’s always going to be those “too hardcore for hardcore dudes.” You know the type. The ones who make fun of everyone and just have a shitty attitude in general. Jaded because they’ve been around a while and they still begrudgingly go to shows, but why? I would get really pissed off at dudes like that and wanted to make it clear that to me they look like a skid mark on the scene.
"Scene Celebrity" is a reality check to look out for the new blood and show them how it’s done properly. That’s how this culture survives.
(Donny): For me, the song “Set the Stage” is significant. It has remained a main-stay in the set for decades now. When we wrote the song, it didn’t start with the vocal hook. I would start the song with a loud hi-hat count and we’d bust into the first riff. It was a last minute call in the studio to start the track with Marshall’s voice. I remember writing the “set the stage…” lyric wondering if it’d be too much of a tongue twister to be a ‘good’ singalong. I think most people still mumble through those last few lines when they sing along live, but it works!
Knocked Loose covered the opening track from War Is Hell, "Slings and Arrows," on their Mistakes Like Fractures EP in 2019. What was your reaction when you heard about it, and have you ever met anyone in the band?
(Marshall): I was really blown away. I couldn’t believe anyone actually cared enough to not only cover one of our songs but also record it onto their EP. A couple years ago, we played with them at Anaheim House of Blues. It was Knocked Loose, Stick to Your Guns, Rotting Out, The Warriors, Candy, and See You Space Cowboy. I spoke with the Knocked Loose dudes after the gig and they were all really chill. Heavy band.
(Donny): When I first heard Knocked Loose, I was stuck by how similar Bryan sounded to Marshall’s War Is Hell-era screaming voice. We were all so honored that they covered that track– a track we wrote in my bedroom as 17-year-old kids, eating Otter Pops [laughs].
I think the lead Danny wrote on the track is iconic. It’s 108 worship, 100%, but that track really helped us define “our” sound at the time. Too bad they didn’t bust this out on their Jimmy Kimmel performance [laughs].
The 20th-anniversary vinyl re-release of War Is Hell is significant for both the band and its fans. What was it like revisiting the album after all these years? Did you discover anything new about the songs?
(Marshall): Honestly, I hadn’t listened to that record in years. The music sounds phenomenal but I kind of hate my vocals on it. It was my first time doing a real recording and I didn’t really know what I was doing. If I could go back and redo it, I would. Just me being my own worst critic, I guess.
But through sitting down and actually re-listening to it all the way through, it catapults me back to that pivotal time in my life. We were young and broke yet it was the most free and happy I’ve ever been in my entire life.
(Donny): We’re all so excited that this record still resonates with people, and honored to still be in the conversation (thank you, No Echo!). My tenure as a drummer and songwriter in The Warriors was mired with imposter syndrome. It’s a mental illness, really.
It ultimately got the better of me and I quit to pursue a career in music, doing album packaging. It’s been a great run, but quitting the band after the second record has always left me with a big “what if…”. I’ve been on deck as a contributing member ever since, so I’m grateful to have this band as a creative outlet 20 years later.
Hardcore has seen a resurgence in recent years, with younger generations gravitating towards it in new ways. What are your thoughts on the current hardcore scene, and how do you feel about The Warriors' place within it now?
(Marshall): I stay in the loop and still go to shows when I can. I stay up on new bands and new releases, keeping track on who’s on tour and where. It’s refreshing to see younger bands popping off and making a claim. Hardcore is something that has given me so much in the way of worldwide friendships. I could never abandon this culture. Hardcore rules.
(Donny): It’s also incredible to see bands going strong into their second or even third decade of being a band. When we were first getting into hardcore, this was unheard of. Bands like Sick of It All were celebrating perhaps a 15th year anniversary and we thought that was amazing… and completely unattainable. But we are seeing this type of carrier longevity more often.
The hardcore scene has more infrastructure now– built on the backs of multiple generations of hard-working, innovative and enterprising minds. It’s so cool to see this happen over the years.
What’s next for The Warriors? Can fans expect any new material, especially with the War Is Hell anniversary reissue as a potential spark?
(Donny): We’ll be dropping our sixth studio album on Pure Noise Records this year! It’s the most Danny and I have been involved in the songwriting process since we left the band after Beyond the Noise. The result is a killer blend of all the various elements that "worked" on the previous five albums. We shed blood for these new songs and we can’t wait to share them.
(Marshall): We also have a handful of shows announced for early 2025 and beyond. To be clear, It was never our goal to capitalize off the War Is Hell re-release. We are simply acknowledging its 20-year anniversary, but are now moving forward. And I can say, with no ego, the new album is our best material yet.
***
War Is Hell 20th anniversary vinyl is out now (order here).
The Warriors tour dates:
02/07/2025 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
02/08/2025 - Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone Craft Beer & Live Music
02/28/2025 - Tacoma, WA @ Airport Tavern
03/01/2025 - Tacoma, WA @ Airport Tavern
03/02/2025 - Tacoma, WA @ Airport Tavern
Tagged: the warriors
