HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL

I'm not that big a fan of all early Hawkwind albums and 'Hall of the Mountain Grill' isn't going to change that anytime soon. I love the combination of heavy metal guitars, the fact that Lemmy (who would later form Motorhead) played on it and the layers of mellotron, but I don't think the band performs its music that well. The recording quality is also quite awful. On its best moments the band is quite exciting, like on the (pre)refrains of the opening track 'The Psychedelic Warlords'. That song also has some nice experimental sections. 'Winds of Change' is Hawkwinds Ennio Morricone moment, though the piece is played with a precision of a mid-sixties proto-punk group. The violin is well played by Simon House. On 'D-Rider' its Nick Turner's (wind instruments) turn to sing. During the heavily phased-out refrains the production looses to much of its power in my opinion. 'Web Weaver' is a short one-themed Hawkwind song with a strong first halve and a under-produced instrumental second halve. Side two is even more of a mixed bag. 'You'd Better Believe It' is taken from a live concert and has a different sound that the studio tracks. It does represent the thumbing space metal of the band in this era quite well. It has some symphonic pieces and a spaced 'up Lemmy song called 'Lost Johnny'. 'Paradax' is another live-cut with some more of same sound issues. It does have some catchy vocals though. This album has to much powerful moments to give it a really low rating, but even a remaster doesn't quite fix the sonic and consistency problems a thrown together record like this has.