Battleaxe (formerly Warrior) released their fantastic debut album, Burn This Town, in 1983.  Interestingly, the record company asked the band for some ideas for the cover, so the guys asked a friend and local artist named Arthur Ball if he could come up with anything. He quickly drew the Burn this Town cover as you see it now, but only as a 'rough proof', as he intended to redraw it properly if the record company approved. As you might have guessed, Roadrunner went ahead and printed the album cover as it was anyway.  Their second album, Power From The Universe, was released the following year (with a 'proper' cover this time), albeit with a new drummer, Ian McCormack. (The original drummer, Ian Thompson, was busy recovering from a skull fracture produced by an iron bar to the head.)   Unfortunately, this album suffered slightly from the dreaded sophomore slump, in my opinion.  There are some good jams on here, but not quite up to the standard set by the debut.  Nevertheless, the band went on tour with Saxon on their Crusader tour, but guitarist Steve Hardy, for reasons unknown, quit the band with no notice, effectively ending Battleaxe.

​

​