For the past 3 years, Datis and Lea Alaee have been dedicated to the Warriors of Metal Festival in central Ohio and established Warriors of Metal Inc., an OH-registered nonprofit organization. Now they need your help with funding the festival's 7th annual event on June 27th & 28th at O'Sheckys LIVE venue in Columbus, OH.

For our Warriors Of Metal Fest VII in 2014 we have assembled an exceptionally high quality lineup of Power Metal bands from all over the US and 1 from Australia (DARKER HALF) on their very first trip to the US. This unprecedented lineup has now garnered the attention of the internationally recognized NIGHTMARE RECORDS from Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota to join our WOM Fest Metal Vendors' Guild as a Metal Music Vendor. The other vendors include Wolf & Hammer Leather Crafters from Columbus, Ohio, Mexican Steel from Mexico, Generation Metal Mailorder from Defiance, Ohio and Thundersteel Armoury from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

We will host 2 special reunions during this year’s show. The first is the coming together of Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Progressive Speed Metal band ZEPHANIAH after a 4 year hiatus for their very first public performance on the evening of Friday, June 27th and the second is the one and only Exclusive 25 year reunion performance of the Columbus, Ohio Power / Speed Metal band RESTLESS BREED on the evening of Saturday, June 28th. We will also have a number of “Firsts” at this year’s festival. These include the first ever appearance of a well known underground Power Metal band from Massachusetts called ARMORY with fans from all over the world that has never played outside of their state since its inception in 2001 and they have chosen to perform their one and only exclusive Metal festival engagement in the Midwestern United States at our festival in 2014. Additionally we will host the only duo performance of the famed CHASTAIN vocalist Leather Leone along with Arizona’s BENEDICTUM vocalist, the world renowned Veronica Freeman. And the exclusive Midwestern US engagement in 2014 of the Houston, Texas Power / Speed Metal legends of HELSTAR with a 30-year anniversary special performance of their 1984 album “Burning Star”. The line up and set times of this year’s event are as follows:

Thursday, June 26th, Pre-Fest Showcase @ O’Sheckys LIVE in Columbus, Ohio.  Music starts at 6:00 pm.

06:00 - 06:30 (30 mins) DETHRATS (Defiance, Ohio)
06:40 – 07:20 (40 mins) AUTOMATON (Cincinnati, Ohio)
07:30 – 08:10 (40 mins) SPLIT THE ABYSS (Cincinnati, Ohio)
08:20 – 09:05 (45 mins) LOWER 13 (Cleveland, Ohio)
09:15 – 10:30 (45 mins) WINTERHYMN (Cincinnati, Ohio)
10:40 – 11:25 (45 mins) DEADIRON (Cleveland, Ohio)
11:35 – 12:40 (65 mins) ETERNAL LEGACY (Headliner) (Parma, Ohio)
12:50 – 01:45 (55 mins) GRAVE ROBBER (Direct Support) (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

Friday June 27th, 2014 Day 1 @ O’Sheckys LIVE in Columbus, Ohio

Noon – 12:40  (40 mins) ENGINE OF CHAOS (Dayton, OH)
12:50 – 01:35 (45 mins) NOBLE BEAST (St. Paul, MN)
01:45 – 02:30 (45 mins) VALHALLA (Ft. Wayne, IN)
02:40 – 03:25 (45 mins) VERMITHRAX (Pittsburgh, PA)
03:35 – 04:25 (50 mins) SHALLOW GROUND (Meriden, CT)
04:35 – 05:25 (50 mins) CELLADOR (Denver, CO)
05:35 – 06:25 (50 mins) ARMORY (Townsend, MA)
06:35 – 07:25 (50 mins) BURNING SHADOWS (Rockville, MD)
07:35 – 08:25 (50 mins) BEYOND FALLEN (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
08:35 – 09:25 (50 mins) BAD KARMA (Boston, MA)
09:35 – 10:35 (60 mins) LORDS OF THE TRIDENT (Madison, WI)
10:45 – 11:55 (70 mins) ZEPHANIAH (Direct Support) (Ft. Wayne, IN)
12:05 – 01:40 (95 mins) ASKA (HEADLINER) (Dallas, TX)

Saturday June 28th, 2014 Day 2 @ O’Sheckys LIVE in Columbus, Ohio

Noon – 12:40  (40 mins) SANS FEAR (Columbus, OH)
12:50 – 01:30 (40 mins) SHADOWSTRIKE (Long Island, NY)
01:40 – 02:25 (45 mins) CRUSADER (Chicago, IL)
02:35 – 03:20 (45 mins) MITHRIDIUM (Columbus, OH)
03:30 – 04:25 (55 mins) A TORTURED SOUL (Milwaukee, WI)
04:35 – 05:25 (50 mins) A SOUND OF THUNDER (Washington, DC)
05:35 – 06:25 (50 mins) DARKER HALF (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)
06:35 – 07:30 (55 mins) RESTLESS BREED (Columbus, OH)
07:40 – 08:40 (60 mins) STEEL ASSASSIN (Boston, MA)
08:50 - 10:20  (90 mins) BENEDICTUM (Direct Support) (Phoenix, AZ)
Special Guest Performer LEATHER LEONE (San Fran, CA)
10:30 – 11:00 HELSTAR Sound Check & Prep
11:00 – 01:00 (2 Hours) HELSTAR (HEADLINER) (Houston, TX)

The Warriors Of Metal Festival has had a difficult journey up to this point in time. It all started as a 1 day regional showcase of Ohio Metal bands in the summer of 2008 in Chillicothe, Ohio and expanded its scope to a 2 day Open Air festival by the summer of 2009. Whereas we were mere fans of 494 Productions which put on the show that first year and the owners of the label to which the headlining band (LUNARIUM) was signed with, we took a more active role in 2009 by sponsoring the first national act, ASKA from Dallas, TX to headline the first day of the 2009 Warriors Of Metal Fest II Open Air. By this time the 2nd worst economic downturn in US history had already started so the financial losses we were faced with had to be floated by us and our promoter friend. But we were happy to help as we all love Metal music and have been intent on helping to keep it alive in the US.

By the summer of 2010 we had assembled an impressive lineup of Traditional / True Metal bands headlined by OMEN as the headliner of the first night and ASKA & CAGE as co-headliners of the 2nd night. We had a better turnout but overall we had to float a hefty financial loss despite a remarkably quality lineup of bands being showcased. By the end of 2010 we organized the Warriors of Metal, Inc. non-profit organization and as our promoter friend had to step away from organizing the festival due to personal reasons, Lea and I stepped forward to carry the torch and in 2011 we produced Warriors Of Metal Fest IV Open Air with WIDOW as the Friday headliner and SHOK PARIS & ASKA as the Saturday co-headliners. However, despite the improvements we enacted, the show had to move away from the home base of the Festival's fans and support crew and so despite another quality lineup, better venue and facilities, professional sound and excellent performances, the event ended up being a big financial burden for us.

We knew that Traditional / True Metal Festivals have always struggled in the US so we were not surprised by this turn of events but we were not deterred by it either. By this time a great lineup had already come together for our 5th year anniversary show in 2012 and with the help of more fan sponsors we decided to go on with the show. In 2012 we hosted the grandmasters of the US Epic Metal with their 35 year history, MANILLA ROAD as our Friday night headliner after a 28 year absence in Ohio and we also brought HELSTAR as our Saturday night headliner after a 26 year absence from Ohio.......and then we were hit with a freak storm which caused a massive power outage to some 3,000,000 people in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois along with many fatalities in our tri-state area, though thankfully nobody at our show. Needless to say in the aftermath of the storm on Friday afternoon many people assumed the Festival was going to be cancelled and they did not show up to the event. Our show DID go on after a 5 hour delay for 2 bands including Manilla Road to play and all the bands on Saturday played as well. But again, the financial losses due to lack of attendance we were hoping for hit our budget hard. Finally in 2013 with the launch of James Rivera's solo career performance as our Friday night headliner and Flotsam and Jetsam as our Saturday headliner we had to borrow $5000 make sure everything went smoothly for Warriors Of Metal Fest VI Open Air. Therefore this year we hope to raise at least $5000 through this crowd funding campaign so that we may indeed turn this year's show into a fund raiser in order to keep Warriors of Metal Fest Alive!