‘Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time‘
Dave Brock: vocals, guitar, synth, and also bass on Opa-Loka Nik Turner: vocals, saxophones, flute Lemmy: bass, vocals Simon House: VCS3 synth, keyboards, piano, mellotron, violin Simon King & Alan Powell: drums. timpani, percussion Michael Moorcock: guest vocals
It’s one of Hawkwind’s biggest albums – a concept loosely based on Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books; it’s also one of only two (along with Space Ritual) that the band have played all the way through live, albeit many years after the original release. It was the last album for United Artists (though Atco got it in America) and it is dominated by three of Hawkwind’s big hitters in Assault And Battery, The Golden Void and Magnu. All three have made regular appearances in the live set over the decades with the first two being standard inclusions.
The line-up is a strong one too – two or three years after Space Ritual and we have lost the quirky contributions of Dik Mik (audio generator) and Del Dettmar (synth) plus the wild-card that was poet and vocalist Robert Calvert. But we do still have a band with its strongest ever musical core. The Brock/ Lemmy/ King rhythm section is intact and the addition of Alan Powell added an extra layer to that. Never established though is how King and Powell split the drums and percussion parts so this remains open to conjecture. Simon House, meanwhile, comes into his own – the album has so many examples of his musicality and brilliance on violin, synths, keyboards and mellotron. Even Nik Turner, whose sax playing could be irksome at times, has one of his finest hours here – his sax and flute enhances nearly everything he appears on.
The album works well as a continuous listen. While (as noted) there are stand-out cuts there are several which don’t reach those peaks, yet somehow are fine when played as part of the album. The obvious candidates for the weaker tracks are the three spoken word pieces. Two of them – The Wizard Blew His Horn & Standing At The Edge – I would never single out to play but I can tolerate them within the context of the album. Much better is Warriors which has real menace and bite, not only from Moorcock’s Dalek-like guest vocals (c/o of a ring modulator and echo unit), but also the excellent backing track conjured up by House, King and Powell.
That leaves the songs themselves. Opener Assault And Battery is a real call to arms, with the memorable bass riff from Lemmy, which pulls me in and lifts me immediately every time, and House excelling on mellotron. He made a big impact on his first album with the band, the excellent, but somewhat weary sounding, Hall Of The Mountain Grill. Assault And Battery has a strong uplifting spirit to it, which comes over well in Brock’s vocals. He ‘borrowed’ the lyrics of the first verse wholesale from Longfellow’s poem Psalm Of Life and they were a good choice. Turner’s flute is lyrically beautiful too, playing around the main melody. The segue then into The Golden Void is just breath-taking with House’s cool tones mellotron vibe giving way to a searing synth, also from House. Brock delivers one of his best ever vocals by far and Turner gets top marks too for his saxophone, not something I would say very often but this is a well-judged sensitive accompaniment.
Opa-Loka has been somewhat overlooked over the years, but this motorik groove, influenced by Neu’s Hallo-Gallo, is a strong keeper. No Lemmy on it (he was asleep in the studio) but Brock does a fine job of imitating his style. The Demented Man is a lovely acoustic rooted piece which always struck me as sounding somewhat autobiographical. Brock is very convincing when he sings about being ‘caught in a web of emptiness’. Magnu rides on one of Brock’s best chugga-chugga riffs but there are so many highlights to this classic. I love House’s echoey violin and the percussion work of either Powell or King.
The musical golden boy on the album, Simon House, gets one of his own compositions on in the form of the synth heavy instrumental Spiral Galaxy 28948. House obviously stars on it but the urgent drumming of King or Powell is another key feature.
The album finishes weakly with the two weakest songs. Dying Seas is a Turner song. His indistinct vocal is the worst thing about it, but it is saved by Brock’s rhythm guitar, Lemmy’s thrusting bass and House’s decorative violin and synths. Closer Kings Of Speed has a stone-cold killer intro riff that promises great things but it fades away to the average right after that with a dreary chorus. It perks up cheerfully enough later but this isn’t the big finish which the album deserved.
The super-deluxe edition from Cherry Red’s Atomhenge label spoilt us with a 5.1 surround sound mix by Steven Wilson which this album was made for. The album really comes alive in surround sound – an absolute aural delight.
There are plenty of bonus tracks, some of which are well worth having. Looking at only the best of these, first up is Motorhead, which was the B-side to Kings Of Speed. A great song done as a mid tempo chug instead of the fast version later by Motorhead. The version with Brock on vocals is good too, but he doesn’t sing it as well as Lemmy! Dawn is a low-fi jam which sounds more like early 70s Hawkwind to me and not at all in keeping with the Warrior vibe. Neither is On The Road, which is Brock with acoustic guitar and harmonica in busking style.
More in tune and fitting the album is the demo of Spiral Galaxy which is actually two demos, not one -they are just included as one track! The first has a variation on the main keyboard melody from Simon House with a nice breakdown section focussing on Lemmy’s bass. The second demo version comes in at 2:53 and kicks off with that wah-wah synth intro as per the album version. The main difference is House, again trying out the melody in a slightly different way but the groove feel of the song is also warmer and organic than the icy feel of the album version.
There are a couple of spoken word track variations with Turner on lead vocals which are OK but the biggest inclusion here is Soldiers At The Edge Of Time, a spoken word piece by Moorcock, using the ring modulator on his voice again as per Warriors. Now I can’t say it’s something I like a lot but he does give it his all and the backing track with ghostly synths is excellent. It clearly should have been track one on the album and I have sequenced my digital files so it is so. It works really well with Assault and Battery now coming in right after it.
Sound-wise this is the best sounding of the Hawkwind UA albums. It’s credited as produced by Hawkwind, but the lion’s share of that must be by Dave Brock, who also, as usual, dominates the song-writing. Warrior remains an essential Hawkwind album, in spite of a few lesser moments on it. It includes some of their very best work. It’s a big fan favourite and one of those that is a good entry point for the curious.
Listen to the Steven Wilson remix of Assault And Battery/ Golden Void.