Axemaster

Joe was the restless sort and pursued other projects during this time including The Awakening (essentially a re-organized version of Axemaster also featuring a slightly different sound style), where he released the "best of..." compilation Axemaster & The Awakening 1985 - 1995 (1999) under 'Unisound Records' (Greece). The album was essentially a re-issue of selected songs from the previous four releases with three additional new tracks by The Awakening. The re-release of Death Before Dishonor (2002), also on Greece's 'Unisound', would follow; this CD featuring formerly unreleased material. The band also got a musical appearance on the comedy/horror movie Killer Nerd (produced by Entertech Productions and stars the former MTV personality Toby Radloff) before they split.

In 2006, after a falling out with his other band, Dream Or Nightmare, Joe would rejoin the now reforming Axemaster. The band had recently tried the efforts of Mike Hissam (drums) before seeing the original line-up come back together to release Blessing In The Skies (2007) on the 'Burning Star Records' (Greece) label, a sort of retrospective digi-pak album compilation of their so-called "classic era" on the late 1980's featuring songs from 1986-1989 with an introduction written by multimedia author (and Diskery website founder) Derek McDonald, as well as the act's video for Slave To The Blade, the same version featured on McDonald's Polishing of Metal CD-ROM the year before. The next move for the act would be in 2008 with Dan Kaisk now assuming the vocals. In the end, this reunion was short-lived, however, and the remaining members moved on to do a studio project under a different name.

In 2010, Sims re-launched Axemaster and over the next couple years, started work on a new album with a lineup that included Jim Curtis (bass) and Geoff McGraw (vocals). In 2014, the band, with drummer Denny Archer, signed a deal with 'Pure Steel Records' to release Overture to Madness in the following year.

After taking a year to play shows in support of Overture to Madness, as well as adding lead guitar Damin Bennett to the lineup (now offering the band a dual 'axe' attack), Crawling Chaos followed in 2017 featuring the signature Axemaster style of a mix of traditional metal, doom metal and thrash metal.

Shortly in advance of the new album, 'Pure Steel' re-released a collection of the band's material from the 80's and early 90's as a collectible remastered vinyl two record set titled Blessing in the Skies (and other cuts from the chamber). The album included all the material from Blessing in the Skies and 5 Demons...", as well as several additional bonus tracks. The collection helped prove that Axemaster's unique blend of styles has proven to be a combination that appeals to metal fans from two generations.