HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL

With Hall Of The Mountain Grill Hawkwind set themselves in stone as masters of their craft. Blending hard rock and 70s heavy metal tenancies with spacey sounds and psychedelic song construction, this album blends the familiar Hawkwind of old with a new style that they perfect here. Where as on previous albums the sound came off as almost an ocean of inscrutable and messy sounds (and that worked well for what they were doing) they playing here is much cleaner, and the vocals actually have a place where there was little for them before. All in all, this album shows Hawkwind at a perfect time in their career.

Right of the clean riff of Psychedelic Warlords you can tell that the band has changed a lot. harmonized voices come in to take over vocals where the band used to trade off before and this is a good thing because it adds to that outer worldly atmosphere. It helps too because let's be honest - none of those guys are fantastic vocalists, but put together they make for an interesting mix. The songs seem to have taken on a tighter structure which is neither good or bad, just different, because their previous works on albums like In Search Of Space had a much more improvisational feel and it worked in context of the album. In this case the tight structure works in context. We're getting more to the song by song feel rather than an album on the whole, but the album still works as a whole anyways. Segueing seamlessly between vocal based songs and instrumentals with their trademark spacey whooshes this album always feels consistent.

The instrumentals on the album actually feel more like an evil version of Pink Floyd than what Hawkwind usually does. Songs like Winds Of Change and the title cut have a very spaced out feel to them while still keeping the Hawkwind surge of energy. Standouts on the album include the impressive opening song with it's heavy riff and vocals, the charging D-Rider with its impressive energy captured within the song and the (apparently recorded live) excellent You'd Better Believe It.

If you're looking for a heavy journey through space but didn't like the apparent lack of direction in some of the band's earlier albums then look no further than this album. Impressive to say the least, this one makes for an excellent addition to any prog rock collection, especially those more interested in the final frontier. 4 space ships out of 5, not to be missed!

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