WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME

Warrior on the Edge of Time is the fifth full-length studio album by UK psychadelic space rock act Hawkwind. Hawkwind had a change in style on their previous album Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) with the inclusion of synths and especially mellotron in their music which gave that album a symphonic touch. Warrior on the Edge of Time continues the new direction the band initiated on its predecessor.

The music is psychadelic and spacy rock which can seem a bit repetitive in nature but wins on repeated listens. Hawkwind´s sound is instantly recognisable with the repetitive beats, spacy sounds, heavy bass, Nik Turner´s sax and flute playing and Dave Brock´s not too pretty vocals ( I mean this in the most positive way imaginable). As mentioned above there is also lots of mellotron in the music. Favorite songs on the album for me are Assault & battery part I and The golden void part II, the almost krautrock like Opa-loka and Magnu. The Demented Man represents the mellow and melodic side of Hawkwind. There are also some poetry reading on the album courtesy of Mike Moorcock. Not the most interesting feature on the album IMO. The original album ends with the rock´n´roll/ hard rock song Kings of Speed which actually seems a bit out of place IMO. It´s a good song though and shows another side of Hawkwind. The CD bonus track Motorhead is in the same hard rocking style. It´s very funny for a Motörhead fan like myself to hear this version of the now classic Motörhead track. The Hawkwind version even got a violin solo courtesy of Simon House which would be unthinkable on a Motörhead album. I see the Hawkwind version of the song as a curiosum more than anything though as it sounds a bit odd to my ears being used to the more raw Motörhead version of the song.

The musicianship on the album is excellent. A really enjoyable performance.

The production is excellent as well. Hard hitting when it needs to be and soft when that is needed.

Warrior on the Edge of Time is yet another excellent album from Hawkwind and it´s generally considered as one of the highlights in their discography. A BIG 4 star rating is well deserved.

Warrior on the Edge of Time is the last album with bassist Lemmy Kilmister who would form heavy rock/ metal act Motörhead shortly after his departure from Hawkwind. Lemmy comments in the 2002 biography White Line Fever that he was kicked out of Hawkwind after he was arrested trying to smugle drugs over the Canadian border while touring with the band. Lemmy would use speed ( according to Lemmy his favorite drug in those days) while the rest of Hawkwind were more into psychadelic drugs. This along with musical differences created many clashes between Lemmy and the rest of the band and as a consequence he was fired ( in addition to the drug smuggle case). Motörhead created a vehicle for Lemmy´s international superstardom especially because of the early eighties hit Ace of Spades. But being the boss in his own band also allowed him to live the ultimate rock´n´roll life with lots of drugs, booze and wild partying. Motörhead is today (2009) still an active recording and touring band.