THE CHRONICLE OF THE BLACK SWORD

At the time this was probably HAWKWIND's best album since "Levitation" from 1980. "The Chronicle Of The Blacksword" was released late in 1985. Nik Turner left the band early that same year after band members grew weary of his stage act. His departure brought a focus to the concept album that they decided to do on Michael Moorcock's "Elric" series of books from the 60's. Dave Brock read through them more than once in order to come up with a story-line that would fit into a single album and be performed live in an hour and a half stage show. Alan Davey would later comment : "We mixed the sound of "Warrior" with the technology of "Church Of Hawkwind" and came up with something very special." If there's one complaint from yours truly it's that this music is often too accessible. "Needle Gun" is a song that I told Tom Ozric that I was tired of after one listen.

"Song Of The Swords" kicks into gear quickly as the vocals join in. The bass is fantastic throughout this uptempo rocker. "Shade Gate" is an instrumental of spacey sounds as the birds chirp. Synths come in and pulsate. "The Sea King" is such a good song with that heavy sound as the vocals join in. "The Pulsing Cavern" is an instrumental with deep pulsating sounds and the sound of water can be heard dripping. It becomes quite spacey over top.

"Elric The Enchanter" is another great track. Very catchy with vocals. I love the instrumental section before 3 minutes and the vocals that follow. The guitar is so good as well. "Needle Gun" is way too accessible for my tastes. My least favourite by far. "Zarozinia" makes up for it. Spacey waves can be heard as mournful vocals join in reminding me of early HAWKWIND. "The Demise" Is very short as we hear an explosion and spoken words. "Sleep Of A Thousand Tears" is a catchy and energetic song with vocals. A nice prolonged instrumental section takes us to the end. "Chaos Army" is a short piece with deep pulsating sounds and more. "Horn Of Destiny" ends it in an uptempo manner with vocals. Gotta love the beat here. It's building after 2 minutes and the vocals return. Nice. Lots of percussion 4 1/2 minutes in after the vocals have stopped.

A low 4 stars no doubt but I really enjoyed this.