CD Details

THE CHRONICLE OF THE BLACK SWORD

HAWKWIND
1985 , UK , EAN CODE 5013929631229 - EURO 13.00

Label: ESOTERIC RECORDINGS/ATOMHENGE

ALBUM REVIEW
Hawkwind is a hydra, that fabulous animal with several heads from the myth, and they toyed indifferently along the years with terms like 'punk', 'electronic' or 'heavy metal', helped properly by the sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock's imagination, and his impromptu and pen for the case. Actually the Moorcock's "Elric" series are the structural theme for this 1985 "The chronicle of the black sword"; album that shows Hawkwind in good relation with the muses, and giving a wink to that aforementioned 'heavy metal' imagery, though for Hawkwind, the term heavy metal is not necessarily related to outfits like Manowar, for instance. The line up for this LP consisted of Dave Brock - guitar, keyboards, vocals; Huw Lloyd-Langton - guitar, vocals; Harvey Bainbridge - keyboards, vocals; Alan Davey - bass guitar, vocals; Danny Thompson Jr. - drums and Dave Charles - percussion ; and still keeps on being my favourite Hawkwind's LP of the 1980s, including great tunes galoe and a general aural vitality. Already from the first track can be seen the inspired atmosphere: 'Song of the swords', which segues gently into 'Shade gate', a flangered synthesizers' instrumental that serves as a bridge to 'The sea king'. The atmospheric intro 'The pulsing cavern' does deposit us then, over one of the best songs of the disc: 'Elric the enchanter' to close the A-side. Opening the B-side is 'Needle gun', perfect rocker a la ZZ Top, and one of the finest moments of "The chronicle of the black sword". But not everything is hard rock in here, in fact, in 'Zarozinia' I find, not only the best song of the album: but one of my Hawkwind's all-time favorite tracks. The last two songs of the LP are 'Sleep of a thousand tears' which is a standard heavy rock, not especially notable; and 'Horn of destiny', powerful space rock with rhythm segments similar to Led Zeppelin's 'Whole lotta love'. This is the Hawkwind's finest 80s disc probably, and maybe their last classic album. (death_metal_doll - Rate Your Music)