WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME

This is an essential "early period" Hawkwind LP. "Assault and Battery" and "Magnu" are intense, hard-driving, dark classics. "Kings of Speed" and "Motorhead" both were released as singles. Beyond these four excellent tunes, lots of cosmic sci-fi sounds and chants that one tires of hearing after a while. The album unfolds and flows well, however. I've always considered this a must-have for Hawkwind fans.

I first of all must declare that to me every Hawkwind is worth 5 stars when compared to work by lesser mortals , but in the scale of Hawkwind albums this is their best studio album and worth all the stars it gets.

The start is the sublime Assault and battery which feeds into H/Winds greatest moment The Golden Void, no one cannot be entranced by this track featuring some of the best work Nik Turner supplied the band.

The Wizard Blew His horn follows, a poem fearturing drums and effects that create a superb sound.

Opa-Loka is a grower, at first you may dismiss it as just an instrumental but on 2nd and 3rd hearing you will be moved by its percussive delights. The demented Man is a brock folk song that leads into Magnu another Hawkwind classic, again features great work by Turner but also by Simon House who brought an impresive musical pedigree to the band, Brocks vocals reign supreme here, the track lasts an impressive 8 minutes and features the traditional Hawkwind chanting vocals

Standind At The Edge, another sound poem, conjures up images of the Warrior before Simon House lets loose on Spiral galaxy 28948 (his date of birth by the way), who could imagine Hawkwind had come so far in musical terms.

Warriors is another sound poem, they enhance the album no end, never outstaying their welcome.

Dying Seas is full of echo and effects and that leads us to the full out boogie of the final track Kings of Speed.

Overall the album is a classic, the bass playing by Lemmy is controlled, the two drummers tight and this album proved to be a major step forward for Hawkwind. Sadly the band sacked Lemmy and lost all momentum.

As I said a 5 star album by a 5 star band WHO have jut toured the UK to great acclaim and in 2005 WILL BE RELEASING A NEW ALBUM - TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER - which having heard tracks on the tour will of course by a 5 STAR album.

Climb aboard folks, the good ship Hawkwind blasts off on yet it's most overtly proggy voyage, continuing the direction it started on the previous "Hall of the Mountain Grill".

All the things that have made Hawkwind so endearing are contained here, the echo-laden over-the-top sci-fi poetry, disembodied flutes and saxes, slashing rhythm guitar, fuzzy insistent bass, chattering electronics, sweeping synths and swirling mellotron with a touch of violin.

The Highpoints: The killer opening cut "Assault and Battery/Golden Void with its insistent double drumming, fuzzy bass and swirling maelstrom of mellotrons and synths, organized chaos at its finest! "The Demented King" is a fine change of pace, similar in tone to Hawkwind's first more acoustic-folky album. The over-the-top sci-fi poetry of "The Wizard Blew His Horn" and "Warriors" complete with pounding kettle drums, cymbals and more of those "chattering electronics". "Spiral Galaxy NGC-28948" is a cool little instrumental romp in 6/8, very untypical of Hawkwind. There is also a very entertaining rocker "Kings of Speed", peppered with, of all things, Simon House doing some mean COUNTRY FIDDLING!!!?????

The Space Debris: "Opa-Loca" is a jam that really doesn't go anywhere. My only other pet peeves come on the production and mixing end. A little less echo would've been good on the poems, too much echo makes words unintelligible. The other thing being that Baron Brock got buried in the mix, that metallic slashing rhythm guitar, so much a part of the Hawk's sound is only sporadically audible in spots.

But pet peeves aside, I found this to be one very fun ride through space with our veteran Hawksters! This would also be the last album for bassist Lemmy (busted at the Canadian border for drugs and then fired from the band to boot). To this day, some folks blast Hawkwind albums when crossing the Canadian border in honor of the Lemster!

Climb aboard folks, space is the place!!!!

The enjoyment of this record comes from the sonic attack that Hawkwind had. A little bit of the 60s living on in the 70s. The songs stripped bare are very simple and it's the dressing of them which are superb. Why 'Magnu's' riff hasn't gone into the iconic riffs for all guitarists alongside Smoke on the Water is a mystery. The other more serious problem is the inbetween tracks. They are just too noodly jam fillers to last serious listening and they get a bit tiresome like Floyd's 'On the Run' or 'Any Colour You Like'. Still, this CD is overdue a re-release for the treasures it does contain. We can't all afford ebay prices for this rarity.

This album is essential to any prog/rock music fan. I never heard of Hawkwind before listening to this album. When I heard the perfect mix of space sounds and rock and roll Lyrics I was amazed, the poems also blend in with the ambient of the Album. No other recording of the band comes close to this Album, it achieves almost a near perfection, not as good as Dark Side of the Moon by Floyd, but close enough to make u be enamored with the almbum. Too bad the CD is to rare and expensive. A must have for any real prog music fan.

By far, the number 1 album of Hawkwind. Find it in any way, listen to it. It's glorious, it's a masterpiece of progressive music, it's THE MASTERPIECE of Hawkwind. "Assault & battery part I / The golden void part II" are both (and as one part) fantastic and "The demented man" is a classic slow ballad-diamond that most groups would like to be theirs.

I agree with many space-rock connoisseurs on this: "Warrior on the Edge of Time" is Hawkwind's ultimate accomplishment, as well as a definitive cornerstone for this specific prog trend. Following in the same path of the previous "Mountain Grill" album, "Warrior" delivers a harder edge a more cohesive general ambience. In many passages it seems as if the band intended to make an overall recapitulation of their career so far, with a particular emphasis on the "orchestral" vibe that Simon House brought in with his solid performances on electric violin, synth and mellotron. It also helps that the sound production is polished, so each frantic rhythm path, each guitar riff, each soaring keyboard texture and each solo (on violin, sax or guitar) can fill a distinctive place while interacting with their companion sonic sources in every track's whole picture. 'Battery and Assault' and 'The Golden Void' are segued, properly developing the House-era sound, and giving some more room for Turner's contributions to be highlighted again: his flute and sax solos are amazingly intense. Anyway, the most prominent feature of the band's current line of work is the way that House and Brock-Lemmy-King state both poles in order to frame the wall of sound for a major part of the new repertoire: once again, the first two tracks incarnate this strategy quite well. Old friend and cosmic ally Mike Moorcock does some recitations in a few interludes, providing a prophetic vibe that we had already known from the 'Sonic Attack' days. 'The Wizard Blew his Horn' comprises the first narration, naturally, accompanied by a psychedelic synthesized background. 'Opa-Loka' is an energetic, soaring instrumental travel solidly based on an exciting tempo; immediately after, 'The Demented Man' brings some sort of solace with its unearthly marriage of acoustic 12-string guitar and electronic keyboards. 'Magnu' is the monster track of the album, an explosive rocker whose main motif includes Arabic- like exotic touches: a special mention goes to maestro House, who shines stunningly with his violin excursions, while Turner provides some complementing lines on sax. 'Standing at the Edge' and 'Warriors' are the other two narrative segments: in between, 'Spiral Galaxy 28948' (penned by House) shows the prototypical psyche-stuff of Hawkwind with an added nuance of density. 'Dying Seas' ends the album's official repertoire with a frantic attitude, properly colored by the interaction of violin and sax: this track should definitely have been longer. Here comes another particular note - it's a pity that Hawkwind couldn't manage to find a place for 'Kings of Speed' and 'Motorhead' in the album's original vinyl format. These two effective rockers (the latter pre-announcing Lemmy's future trend in his musical career) pretty much complete the rougher side of the band's sonic spectrum: what's more, 'Motorhead' includes on of the best House violin solos ever. Well, all things considered, it's a good thing that the CD edition locates them as bonus tracks. In conclusion, "Warrior on the Edge of Time" is my all-time Hawkwind favourite album, and as such, I can only grant it as an excellent item in any good prog collection.

This is a superb album, probably Hawkwind's best and most expansive. It contains their best song, Assault and Battery / Golden Void, where Dave Brock's voice sounds positively gigantic - his most inspired vocal by far. The layers of guitar and synthesiser weave in and out of the whole album, creating a sonic tapestry full of colour and texture. Granted, some of the tweeting, stratospheric synth patches are quite amusing, although completely perfect for the time, the feel of the album, and the intentions of the songs. The exotic blend of electronic and acoustic instruments maintains a consistent aural appeal. Michael Moorcock augments the band, with his sci-fi poetry, which is kept suitably (and thankfully) short. The hard driving Kings of Speed should have been a hit, with it's infectious chorus. Simon House chimes in with the delightful, ear splitting Spiral Galaxy 28948, where his synthesisers literally scrape the sonic barrier. Amazing stuff, which is not at all out of place in todays rave and techno culture. Hawkwind were at their peak in 1975, but then it all fell away with the blink of an eye. Treasure this album.

Gotten interested in Hawkwind due to some forum member's persistent praising of the band (Certif1ed most notably) I got Warrior At The Edge Of Time as my first Hawkwind album. Only knowing the song Silver Machine prior to this purchase, I listened it at the record store, with not all to many expectations. But I needn't have hessitated for I was convinced it was a good album after hearing the intro notes of this album, and several listenings later I am convinced it indeed is.

The music is somewhat reminiscent of Gong, Pink Floyd, and even some Moody Blues influences can be heard, but it's all a bit more edgy, and spacy, with also some metal (black Sabbath) thrown in for good measure. Lemmy proves to be a great bass player that keeps the momentum going from start to finish, and lots of spacy sounds that seem to be coming at you from all angles, great music, with lots of effects and echo's to create a very spacy atmosphere.

1. Assault & battery part I / 2. The golden void part II (10:20) Great heavy opening, beautifull strong bass-lines, nice effects, and a great voice (echo's and all), which evolve into a more soft second part that is very spaced out, great song throughout. 3. The wizard blew his horn (2:00) A Graem Edge (Moody Blues) like poem, with great drum sounds and echo's creating a very spacy atmosphere. 4. Opa-loka (5:40) A hypnothising bass and drum rhythm, with soft spacy background keyboards and guitar that fade in and out of the music. likeble from the first second, after two minutes you just get into it, and after five you wish it never stops, which it does at that point :-)

5. The demented man (4:20) accoustic guitar, nice vocals (a bit nasal), it could have been a Pink Floyd song judging from the created atmosphere, just great. 6. Magnu (8:40) One of the more hard and edgy songs, with some Arabian influences in the guitar, again very rhythmic hypnothising bass play, and the singing just dragges you into the music, a minor point though, it could have lasted a little shorter (so probably Opa-loka was the right length afterall)

7. Standing at the edge (3:45) Again a poem, which again reminds me of the Moody Blues, great voice and sounds, and a fabulous introduction to Spiral galaxy. 8. Spiral galaxy 28948 (3:55) Again an instrumental, where Opa-loka was bass/drum driven this one is keyboard/rhythmic guitar driven, wonderfull experience. 9. Warriors (2:05) We Are Borg, Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated, that sums it up I think. 10. Dying seas (3:05) This song looses it for me, not bad, but I can't get into it. 11. Kings of speed (3:25) The closing song of a great album, a hawkwind version of the later Motorhead's (Lemmy) Ace Of Spades. Same energie and thrilling driving drum and guitar.

Bonustrack: Motorhead, nice heavy rock, like King Of Speed an introduction to Lemmy's next venture, nice violince.

A beautifull album, I didn't expect this quality prior to purchasing it, but on all levels Hawkwind convince, with a coherent sound and great musicianship. I will be looking out for more Hawkwind in the near future. Great band. I will not yet reward it with five stars, since it's my first and only Hawkwind album, but maybe I should. 4 Stars and a recommendation for all space-progressive rock fans out there.

This album takes off exactly where the previous one left off, and it is almost as good. Well, that's what I think anyway. Almost everyone else will tell you that Warrior On The Edge Of Time is the best Hawkwind studio album, but for me, while it's a good album, it just lacks some of the moments of sheer beauty that characterize the Hall Of The Mountain Grill album. Nonetheless it's a totally far-out trip.

The fun begins with Assault & Battery which rides on a blend of harsh vocals (who can forget the "Assault and battery on the human anatomy" chant!) and driving rock beats with Nik Turner's playful flute, and segues into the synth-laden space anthem The Golden Void, a classic that concludes with some great jamming featuring Simon House's violin and Nik Turner's sax. The Wizard Blew His Horn on the other hand (and this echoed by a couple of other pieces ... Standing At The Edge and Warriors) is just Robert Calvert (check maybe Michael Moorcock) fantasy readings, backed by random cymbal crashes, percussive noises and discordant instrumental contributions. I don't quite like them myself, and perhaps that's one reason why I rate this album lower than Hall Of The Mountain Grill.

Still, Opa-loka and Magnu are classic Hawkwind style pulsating rock jams, propelled by bass in particular, while layers of sound stream past. Opa-loka is like Tangerine Dream meets Can, but better than both, while Magnu is full of echo-laden vocals and Eastern themed fills. with House having a field day on this track. Spiral Galaxy 28948 is just as adventurous as the name suggests, and is my favourite track here, with heavy synths and darting flute, an unusual rhythmic attack (as opposed to the admittedly one- dimensional style that characterizes most Hawkwind jams).

There's also The Demented Man, which is one of those acoustic ballads with swirling sounds even if it is inferior to its counterpart on Hall Of The Mountain Grill, Web Weaver. Dying Seas is another bass-driven rumble with House's violin and squirmy synths taking a lead role before Turner's sax wraps it up, but it's not quite as great as past efforts ... in fact the sudden fade-out suggests a jam that went wrong! As for the Kings Of Speed, it is a rockier, more commercial song that sounds like an attempt to capitalise on the Silver Machine hit.

Special note should go to the bonus track Motorhead, which is written and sung by Lemmy Kilminster who was soon fired from the band and went on to form a power trio named after this song. It's a defining tune for him obviously, and House' brilliant violin solo gives it a flavour that 99% of Lemmy's compositions don't have, but I don't like it quite as much as Lost Johnny, his contribution to Hall Of The Mountain King (hmmm, that album just keeps cropping up). Despite the constant griping, I do believe this album to be Hawkwind's second best effort, and well worth tracking down. ... 56% on the MPV scale

Well.... 4.5 stars really.

A more hard edged album than their predicessor "Hall of the Mountain Grill", it is also more creatively put together. As other previewers have commented, a good combination of pumping rock rhythms, space 'effects', and the creation of what i would call a unique 'ambience', makes this album an 'all purpose listen'.

All tracks flow with each other so as to make the listening experience more tangible, with me feeling as if i was travelling 'to the edge of time', which i would guess was the intention. It also has the most wonderous use of filler/poetry that i have heard on any album to date.

The 'double track' opening is a good pumping rock rhythm progressing to good use of flute and keyboard interplay. However, the electric violin sounds a bit too sharp for my ears (that may be the technology of the time). 'The wizard blew his horn' closes 'golden void' and opened 'Opa Loka' brilliantly, with the latter being another pounding rhythmic instrumental before easing off to 'the demented king', a more acoustic effort and a pleasant outro to side one.

Side 2 opens with the most rock orientated track of the album. It does get the feet pumping and although the electric violin works wonders within the song itself, it seems a bit drawn out with an end of song solo that goes a bit toooooo long. This is of minor consequence however, as the percussion carries the song to the end quite well. Here the album gets darker, with 'standing on the edge' liberally using echo, and the mettallic sounding 'warriors' surrounding the comparitively pleasent 'spiral galaxy...'. 'Dying seas' compleats the conception of the album.

If the album ended here i would have given it 5 stars without hesitation. The sonic flow of the album, the lyrical relevance, the constantly high level of interplay with all the instruments, and the use of poetry is simply mindblowing. However, Hawkwind, in their infinite wisdom, decided to add 'kings of speed' as the finishing track. Although a good rock song, it simply does not fit into the album in any aspect, especially in its conceptional relevance, and for that reason i find it grating to listen to with this album (It reminds me of Silver machine mark 2).

Overall, sheer brilliance.

I owned this album on vinyl almost thirty years ago and every driving guitar riff, layer of percussion and swooping snyth violin and sax that mesmerised me then are still burnt deep in my memory, so to listen to the cd now twenty years later is nostalgic heaven. It still delivers. This is the best example of the way Hawkwind gradually build layer upon hypnotic layer, with repetitive riffs and driving percussion, then add mesmerising trance melodies over it all - way ahead of their timea precursor of the trance/dance music decades later. Golden Void is undoubtedly Hawkwinds most sublime recording moment - its worth purchasing the cd for this alone. The Morcock poetic interludes are clumsy and indulgent, sometimes painful, though in places iconic. Although sounding slightly mad now, fanatasies of burning the weeds of the slain enemey to ash and blowing that ash away as if it had never existed - meant more in an age of free festivals crammed by hardcore stoners who still believed they could overwhelm the forces of police, military and a reactionary state!

Hawkwind should be categorized in an exclusive sub-genre: PROG-HAWK, where they will be the beginning, the middle and the end, only them. But wait a minute, this history has no end, it will last forever just like space voyages, good hallucinations (are they?) and the image of a hawk flying against the wind.

I heard this album for the first time 30 years ago and even hearing only some songs sparsely in the 80s and the 90s it was a great pleasure for me to redo contact with it. The title and the corresponding cover sounds like a RPG stuff, like a medieval knight transported for a distant world in the future. How many remembrances of lives not lived or yet to be lived? How many strange dreams carved in the brain? How many mesmerizing songs to shape our taste?

All songs are average or better. Opening ensemble 'Assault & battery' and 'The golden void' is truly a progressive mini-epic owing few to the more famed and recognized pieces of the genre, synth sounds and tunes create a spatial atmosphere, a classic one.

'Opa-Loka' is a kind of crazy song followed by 'The demented man' which is softer and agreeable.

'Magnu' is another emblematic band song, 'Spiral Galaxy 28948' is futuristic and exquisite and the palatable 'Dying seas' complete the high points of the album core.

The original ending, the shaking 'Kings of speed' is one of the best rocks ever, the start brings some Led Zeppelin smells but the song itself has a fascinating The Who appeal.

CD bonus track is really a gift, 'Motorhead' is a great rock song almost comparable to 'Kings of speed'.

The production is fair and the musicianship always considered the band's weakest point works accordingly. All these positive factors combined with the power of the songs make 'Warrior on the Edge of Time' a magnum opus, Hawkwind's finest hour, A MASTERPIECE. Total: 5.

This was the last album with Lemmy for this band, and the bonus track "Motorhead" on the CD re-release gives us the omen of his future. This track along with the original closer rock number "Kings of Speed" form a separate small duo of psychedelic rock songs, as the main body of the work is a carefully recorded and finely composed and performed fantasy rock opera. Finely draw gatefold covers brings perfectly an association with the music of the record it covers. "Assault & Battery part I" / "The Golden Void part II" form an opening tune running over ten minutes, consisting both symphonic constructed and psychedelic improvised elements. "The Wizard Blew His Horn" is an aural collage used as a background for Michael Moorcock's poem, track "Warriors" being similar one later in the album. "Opa-Loka" is a trance oriented track leading to "The Demented Man", which is a beautiful acoustic ballad. "Magnu" is then nearly nine minutes long oppressing and mysterious psychedelic rock song, and this composition has been long a part of their concert repertoire. "Standing at The Edge" is another poem, and "Spiral galaxy 28948" a fast spacey theme. "Dying Seas" ends the fantasy oriented main body of this classic album, and the short dope rockers follow. You should also follow someone to the nearest record shop and give this essential album a listen, if it's not already known to you.

I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewers above. This is probably one of the best Hawkwind albums. However, bear in mind that the UK CD version on Dojo was not mastered from low-generation tapes. The best sounding version of this album is by far the US Griffin pressing which used the Atco master reels was digitally remastered and included the bonus track Motorhead.

This is a must have of any space rock fan. It's the best sound that Hawkwind was ever able to create. Unlike most fantasy or sci-fi albums, the lyrics aren't a slight bit cheesey. But that's to be expected, since it was written by the great novelist, Michael Moorecock. But it isn't just the lyrics that make it great but the instrumentation as well. With their advanced use of sound effects their music is greatly complemented. And you know their musicianship has to be good because of their history where most of their music was live.

The best Hawkwind album, no doubt about it. From the Assault&Battery to Kings Of Speed it's a great album. Wonderful melodies, great vocals and the outstanding atmosphere. I think it the most essential Hawkwind album. We have here standard, great rocking opener Assault&Battery, mellow tracks like The Golden Void, spoken parts (by Micheal Moorcock!) like Warriors, instrumentals like Opa-Loka and a ballad - The Demented Man. So everything that we love about the space ship Hawkwind is in it's right place. It's a true masterpiece of progressive music.

Quintessential space-rock

In 'Warrior on the Edge of Time' we have an amazing space-rock concept album based around wizards, space and psychic wars, awash with bellowing mellotron, mind bending sound effects and an ocean of reverb - truly a psychedelic masterpiece. One of the best things about this album is that the band take themselves very seriously and although at times it may seem as if the lyrics and such are quite cheesy the music never indulges this thought and the integrity of the album is rock solid.

Every song on the album is a keeper and the three spoken word tracks actually contribute greatly to the dark psychedelic vibe on the album. There are some definite highlights on the album though, the opening suite consisting of the first 2 tracks (Assault & Battery/The Golden Void) is probably the best song on the album layered with grand sweeping mellotron and a triumphant upbeat feel. Opa-Loka is a great pacing instrumental that draws heavily from krautrock influences with that authoritative, simple yet flowing drumkit sound with flanged cymbals and a simple bass line. 'Spiral Galaxy 28948' is another amazing instrumental with a very strong sense of melody.

Interestingly the last 2 tracks are tracks are a proof of sorts of what was to be bassist Lemmy's next project Motorhead as he left the band although they are of a definitely a big departure from the rest of the music on the album they don't actually detract from it at all, they are a footnote of sorts.

Warrior on the Edge of Time is an essential space-rock album, if was to introduce someone to the genre I would steer them in the direction of this album as well as ELOY's ocean as starting points.

The lonely silouhette of a warrior on horseback gazing out into a foreboding chasm on the cover of Hawkwind`s 5th studio album foretells the imagery and legend which inhabit the grooves on this psychedelic sci fi / fantasy freakout. Loosely based on Michael Moorcock`s 1970 fantasy novel, The Eternal Champion, themes are also borrowed from American Fireside poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and English romantic Percy Shelley to convey the fantastic . Warrior On The Edge Of Time is heavy, atmospheric and dark, drawing it`s energy from a maelstrom of synths, mellotrons, woodwinds and power chords. While the themes follow an implied chronological sequence each song represents an individual porthole to specific events which occur along the way on this eternal cosmic experience. Science fiction themes intertwine with fantasy elements and an air of continuity is achieved by the short pauses between songs along with solioqies spoken by an unseen higher power which cautiously guide the listener throughout this most treacherous journey.

The record conjures so many vivid images both instrumentally and lyrically that it gives the impression of a double album which belies it`s original 43 minute running time. Blasting off appropriately with the guitar led Hawkwind classic, Assault & Battery, based on the Longfellow poem Psalm Of Life , synth orchestrations, harmony vocals and surreal electronic effects then start to breathe life into the journey the on The Golden Void as if one were living amidst the vast imagery they conjure which makes it a superb headphone album. References to Moorcock`s novel appear both in the music and the soliloqies throughout the work, two of which are voiced by Moorcock himself despite not even having recieved a studio fee! Even the instrumental Opa Loka, which takes after the sound experiments of German avant garde duo Neu!, describes the city, Loos Ptakai, that is the setting for a pivotal battle in the book. Early on in the first soliloqy a champion is declared by the unseen power and the plight of this champion will be followed throughout his time-quest. The space ballad, Demented Man almost positively references this character, Erekose, who is torn between loyalty and betrayal. Swathed in synths, mellotrons, violins, flutes and effects Spiral Galaxy 28948 ( which corresponds to Violin/keyboardist Simon House`s birthdate ) is one of the spaciest instrumentals ever recorded by Hawkwind and adds an abstact futuristic aspect to the whole adventure. Nik Turner`s The Dying Seas complete the work appropriately but the odd track out is the more straightforward rock song, Kings of Speed, which may be referring to the drug or blasting off into the future but does sound notoriously like another attempt at charts in whatever context one percieves it. On CD releases the Lemmy composition, Motorhead appears which has absolutely nothing to do with anything here.

It`s difficult to avoid mentioning the album`s stunning cover and it`s mystical artwork. When it was originally released in vinyl format on United Artists Records in mid `75 it featured a cover which folded out to form an eight pointed shield from the inside, which made further references to The Eternal Champion. On the inside a Rubin vase-like visual illusion was created from the cover painting by Compte Pierre D`Aubergne which forms the impression of the face of The Champion along with some sexual references if one wants to read more into it. This would make more sense to one who has read THe Eternal Champion which wasn`t one of Moorcock`s most popular works as a result of it`s ominous conclusion. Even though the album is not a recreation of the story per say reading the novel itself does explain some of the concepts which make up the album. On early Canadian Dojo CD releases of the album the complete 160 page novel was included with the package along with an attempt at recreating the effect of the original record jacket with the shield being reproduced in black & white only. Long live vinyl !

Certainly Hawkwind`s most ambitious recording up to `75 which many consider to be the band`s masterwork and turning point including guitarist Dave Brock himself. Many changes within the band coincided with the release of Warrior On The Edge Of Time including a switch to Charisma Records and the notorious sacking of founding member Lemmy for alleged drug possession in the middle of the supporting North American tour. Fittingly, Longfellow`s introductory lines from the opening track, And departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time bear testimony to albums the greatness. Of course Hawkwind endures to this day but this remains their piece de resistance, and the ULTIMATE sonic Scifi / fantasy trip. A true seventies classic.

For me HAWKWIND hit their peak with this album and the previous one "Hall Of The Mountain Grill". Certainly the addition of Simon House and his liberal use of mellotron adds some softness and beauty to both of these records.This would be the last studio record from HAWKWIND that House would use mellotron.This would also be Lemmy's last album with the band.

"Assault & Battery Part I" and the next song "The Golden Void Part II" blend together making it in my opinion the best 10 minutes of music that HAWKWIND have ever recorded. It opens with Lemmy's bass lines and a windstorm of mellotron. The tempo picks up as the drums come in and then vocals. I like the vocal melodies too. Flute from Turner before 2 minutes. Themes are repeated and we get lots of flute 4 minutes in. As it blends into the next track we again start out with a river of mellotron. Sax and organ also help out with synths. Vocals penetrate the wall of sound. A nice heavy beat and more passionate vocals 2 minutes in. Sax returns and it goes on and on to the end. "The Wizard Blew His Horn" features spoken words that echo from Sci-Fi writer Mike Moorlock.This reminds me of Nik Turner's solo album "Xitintoday". It blends into "Opa-Loka" which features a good hypnotic beat(like CAN is known for) that builds including mellotron. Spacey sounds come in late. Great tune.

"The Demented Man" opens with the sounds of seagulls as acoustic guitar then vocals come in. Drums and a fuller sound a minute in. Mellotron comes in as seagulls can still be heard. "Magnu" opens with the sound of wind and rain before an excellent riff comes in. Vocals follow and there's an eastern feel in the background. Some violin before 3 minutes with lots of spacey sounds followed by sax. A cool spacey interlude 5 minutes in where they jam until it blends into "Standing At The Edge" which features another spoken word section this time by Nik. "Spiral Galaxy 28948" is dark and sinister sounding to begin with. Then synths come in and the tempo picks up to change the mood. Flute and spacey synths dominate as drums pound. "Warriors" features more spoken words by Mike again. "Dying Seas" opens with bass and a catchy rhythm as vocals from Turner join in. Lots of spacey sounds and some violin along with some minor riffing. "Kings Of Speed" is a rocker. I keep thinking he's singing "Ace Of Spades". Yeah it's similar to what MOTORHEAD would do but with better vocals. Haha. Violin after 2 minutes.

A must have HAWKWIND album if there ever was one.

This album has many similarities with its predecessor. Be ready for a psychedelic trip with the great opener (both parts). It is exactly the type of number which hits you right in the middle. Accelerated beat (but this is no novelty), and more than anything sumptuous keyboards (mellotron) are a great combination for this excellent track which also features some pleasant sax moments towards the end. A very strong opener. It might well be difficult to be on par with the other songs.

The short "Wizzard." reminds me the craziness of "Petition The Lord With Prayer" or "Celebration Of The Lizzard" (from "The Doors"). Not essential I have to say (like "Standing At The Edge" as well as "Warriors"). Let's call it a parenthesis to reach the spacey and fully Floydian (DSOTM) "Opa-Loka". Maybe not essential either, but it conveys a enthusiastic feeling.

The old psyche mood pursues during "The Demented Man". It is true to say that it might sound a bit outdated when the album was released (75). Reminds me of "Eloy" who were also playing such music in these times. Well after the explosion of the psychedelic bubble.

But I have a tendency to like this genre quite a lot, so it is good to revive these sounds. Even almost thirty five years after their release.

"Magnu" being no different. A vibrant ode to psychedelia. Repetitive, sustained beat : a great mix between hard and spacey rock. I guess that the words disjointed and trippy have never been more appropriate than in the case of "Spiral Galaxy". On par with the early live Floyd ("Dying Seas" being of the same mould).

A great rocking number (Kings Of Speed) to close this good album is welcome. Just a pity that some short and less interesting tracks (three) appear during this album. Three stars.

This is the first Hawkwind album (in chronological order) to get a two star rating from me (all their previous albums I gave only one star). The Assault & Battery/The Golden Void part is very good and the first Hawkwind song I have heard that I actually like.

Opa-Loka, on the other hand, is tedious! Six minutes of the same drum loop going on, and on, and on, and on... Are they serious? The Demented Man is again a good one (but not good enough to sit thru Opa-Loka for if you are listening on vinyl!), very Pink Floyd-ish song, in the Wish You Were Here-style, but not up to Floyd- quality.

Magnu has a good melody, but the drums are again extremely repetitive, only this time we get a proper song on top of it! It doesn't happen very much in this song and it surely doesn't deserve to be almost nine minutes long.

The instrumental Spiral Galaxy 28948 is very good, and is actually the only track from this album apart from Assault & Battery/The Golden Void that I can listen to without getting bored. The drums are better on this piece than on any other track from this album.

I don't understand what people see in this band, really. This is not a good album, it is rather bland overall, though it has some good moments. Yet it is much better than any of the previous Hawkwind albums, for sure.

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.

That rare thing called a consistent Hawkwind album.

After reviewing my 10th-something Hawkwind album in a row now, you must be starting to suspect me as some kind of Hawkwind fanboy. True, I'm certainly very much enchanted by their easy going grooves, spacey effects and ethereal washes of psychedelic sounds and synths. However, there are actually very few studio albums I would rate higher then 3 stars. Most of them are incoherent at best, downright disappointing in too many other cases.

My thesis is that these guys were generally too doped to stay focussed for more then 5 minutes. So while they thought they were relentlessly grooving far out in the universe, they were actually just flat on the ground, too loaded to notice they still had a guitar strapped round their shoulders.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Warrior is the very exception and finds the Hawks at the peak of their game after years of steadily growing quality. On Hall of the Mountain Grill, Hawkwind took their first steps into a more melodious sound and here it pays off. Warrior is an all round enjoyable ride featuring their two best tunes ever ( Assault & Battery/Golden Void and the entrancing trip called Magnu), some nice rockers like Kings of Speed and Motorhead, and successful instrumental experiments like Spiral Galaxy and the kraut excursion Opa-Loka. Well, even the poetry is endurable.

As far as their studio output goes this is their essential album. 4.5 stars

By the time Warrior On The Edge Of Time was released, Simon House (Mellotron, electric violin) was well and truly ensconced in Hawkwind's line-up and this album continues in the sophisticated vein of Hall Of The Mountain Grill. A second drummer, Allan Powell, had also joined but bassist Lemmy was headed in the opposite direction out of the door. Lemmy doesn't even play on the Powell/King composition OPA-LOKA, with guitarist Dave Brock substituting on bass. Lemmy is on record as saying that OPA-LOKA isn't particularly good, although he used earthier language than that. It consists of little more than sundry noodlings over a ground bass and relentless drums, and the best thing I can say about it is that it contains Mellotron. However, in my opinion the main weakness with Warrior is the inclusion of the three Michael Moorcock collaborations. I'm really not keen on these poems as I feel they spoil the flow of the music.

Conversely, the various Dave Brock compositions comprise the best material on the album and the 2-part ASSAULT & BATTERY/THE GOLDEN VOID is a real killer piece. It's a strong opener for sure, and features splendid flute-play from Nik Turner and a superb transition between the two pieces. THE DEMENTED MAN is another highlight that features Mellotron- choir (if my ears don't deceive me) and acoustic guitar backed by some wonderful electric licks, while the Eastern-flavoured MAGNU consists of some turbulent wrangling between Turner's sax and House's tremulous fiddle. While Warrior On The Edge Of Time is a fine effort and undoubtedly contains some excellent material, for me it isn't as consistent as its predecessor. Overall it's somewhere between good and excellent, but I'll round up to 4 stars.

Oh, my, what a great album! I´m not a psychedelic/space rock fanatic. I often think many os so called psychedelic bands are too freak out or simply too self indulgent or both to hold my interest for a whole album, be it vinyl or CD. But Hawkwind was a different story altogether and even though I don´t know much of their work, I liked a lot fo what I heard till now. I loved their sci fi themes and the heavy sound. However, I must tell that many parts of their CDs are also plagued by the aforementioned problems (too much dope?). A friend here on PA told me to get this album and I can only thank him so much. This is probably the group´s best work ever.

Not only the band was very inspired but also Simon House inclusion was defintily a plus for their sound. It is incredible how his mellotron and violin work enhanced the music, giving their minimalistic approch a strong symphonic texture that fits like a glove. And now I see how much this album has influenced other bands and artists (notably Arjen Lucassen´s works. It is small wonder he decided to pay homage to his heroes on the Space metal CD recording a meddley of Hawkwind songs). The compositions are among Dave Brock´s best, although the spoken parts done by Mike Moorcock on two tracks drag the musical flow a little. But I guess this is part of their philosophy, isn´t it? The performances are also superb, with a strong rhythm section consisting of drummers Allan Powell and Simon King and bassist Lemmy Kilmister, nice sax and flute interventions and some of Brock´s best guitar and synth work to date.

If you´re new to this space cowboys (the original ones!), Warrior At The Edge of Time and Hall Of The Mountain Grill are the albums you should own first. The band was on their peak and certainly on their most symphonic thanks to the presence of Simon House and some real inspired songwriting. Excellent work. Rating: something between 4 and 4,5 stars. Highly recommended.

My first Hawkwind album and one of the first intentionally listened Space Prog albums. What a great luck that it's also pleasant, melodic, challenging and offers everything that one can achieve in this genre.

The only songs I don't like that much are ironically those that tells the story, The Wizard Blew His Horn and Warriors, even that pleasing fact is that they're "told" by lyrics mastermind, sci-fi writer Michael (here signed as Mike) Moorcock. I like sci-fi, good or bad, both can attract me (because of different reasons, I believe that there also is high sci-fi, same as high, Tolkien-like fantasy). I just don't like "voice effects" on these tracks, that's all.

And even these tracks seems appropriate and rightly "space" like. Songs here are perfect. When I catch glimpse of story here and there, I'm finely satisfied with what I hear, even I admit that the main force is still music (even lyrics play main part here).

It's charming and magical. It's in many aspect album that goes as far as Space heaven can be. This is why this album is so high rated and liked by people. I won't be in opposition this time, because I feel that this album is very special. Masterpiece.

5(+), lost in space.

Epic space prog that focuses on the art of repetitive jamming.

Hawkwind is probably the most monotonous band in terms of riffing I've ever heard, and it's not because the riffing is dry; typically, one song means one riff, and songs here last as long as eight minutes if you separate the opening epic into two tracks. Hawkwind's main musical style is to lay a solid drum rhythm with a respectable drive that gets your toes tapping, layer the songs with synths and mellotrons where needed, and any other instrument is free to do whatever although nothing is massively complex here.

The lack of complexity and the relatively staticity of the pieces might drive traditional progsters away. I'll even go out and say this is one of the grittier sounding prog albums, having some proto-punk-isms thrown in with the space prog. Heck, I could imagine the Sex Pistols or the Ramones covering ''Kings of Speed''. But I will say DOREMI FASOL LATIDO has an uglier sound than this album; WARRIOR has an immaculate sound compared to DOREMI.

The only tracks I don't care for are the little epic/fantasy poetry readings where the vocals take on strange effects e.g. ''The Wizard Blew His Horn''. Still, most of the rest of the songs are brilliant in their own regards, particularly the opening two songs, the most prog as we know them. My personal favourites are ''Opa-Loka'' and ''Magnu'' simply for the repetitiveness, but I can understand where the faults lie.

To offset the grimey and spacey stuff, there's ''The Demented Man'', a little acoustic guitar number. If you ignore the vocal experiments, this album is one of the most fun experiences one could have in the space prog realm.

I'm not sure if this is my favorite Hawkwind album but it is at the top somewhere! From the pulsing beginning of ASSAULT AND BATTERY, you know you are going on an enchanted space through the trippiness that is Hawkwind. Some narration in tracks like THE WIZARD BLEW HIS HORN and STANDING AT THE EDGE, leave me cold (I have never liked spoken words in my music much-do ya hear that Moody Blues???!!). Aside from the first 2 tracks, I believe the best bits are the instrumental SPIRAL GALAXY 28948 and DYING SEAS. The comparisons to early Pink Floyd are pretty obvious in much of this album, but I also pick up some Uriah Heep-like acoustic work(THE DEMENTED MAN), and of course the more hard rock punk of MOTORHEAD and KINGS OF SPEED. I have previously stated that this is one of the best Hawkwind works in my opinion, however, I am not a huge fan of the band so I will top this at 4 stars, the highest I think I would give any of their albums.

Arguably Hawkwind's best album, 1975's 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' saw the intergalactic mushroom-munchers return with a cleaner, more focused sound, toning down the psychedelic proto-metal of 'Space Ritual' and 'In Search Of Space' in favour of a more expansive sound that featured elements of krautrock and symphonic prog. By this time the 'classic' Hawkwind line-up was pretty much still in place, with long-term leader Dave Brock(vocals, synth, guitar) augmented by soon-to-be Motorhead-founder Lemmy(bass), former High Tide member Simon House(violin, mellotron), Nik Turner(sax, flute, vocals), Simon King(drums) and cult sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock(vocals), and despite the changing musical tide(punk was just a year away) Hawkwind were very much performing at the peak of their impressive powers. 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time', with it's iconic, neon-coloured sleeve, would prove a milestone album, marking the divide between the reverb-drenched, fuzz-toned acid-rock of their early-seventies heyday and the almost post-punk aesthetic of their later material. As a result the production is much slicker, featuring crisp, Neu!-style motorik-grooved drumming on the pounding 'Opa-Loka' and gleaming synths on the supremely-psychedelic 'The Golden Void'. However, fans of the group's original sound will not be disappointed; the trademark mystical lyrics, squawking saxophones, tripped-out sound-effects and general space-theme are all prevalent, providing a fascinating, if somewhat brief look at Hawkwind caught in the stylistic crossroads. Bassist Lemmy would later reveal his dislike of the album, but 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' features some excellent moments from the from the man, with his cleaned-up bass providing a rock-solid rhythm - again not unlike krautrockers Neu! - that underpins everything on this energetic album with a genuine intensity. Filled with great moments, from the swirling psych-prog of opener 'Assault & Battery', which starts proceedings with a sparkling dose of old school Hawkwind meshed with their new, more vibrant sonic design, to the lysergic, electric future-rock of 'Dying Seas', 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' is a bravura blend of sounds and styles. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

Hawkwind released plenty of long inconsistent albums with some great compositions here and there. I believe Warrior... is one of band's best release in sense of album's material quality level.

There are really better songs on other albums, but you will hardly find full album such accessible for listening. Last album with Lemmy on board as well ( and on " Kings Of Speed" and CD bonus track " Motorhead" I can perfectly hear future Lemmy band's roots).

Yes, music there is still long, often r'n'b based spacey compositions, but at least they are more melodic than usual. Rare Motorhead album I can listen without using "skip" button. As not a big Hawkwind fan, I can recommend this release as great entry, or good legacy if you just want to have only one Hawkwind CD in your collection.

Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)

Ok, for those who don't already know; this is perhaps the most essential space-rock album of Hawkwind and the space-rock genre in general. The album-art, with it's fold-out shield, is very good (if you have vinyl, that is). On this studio albums of Hawkwind the band still sounds a bit immature, native and pretentious. Perhaps Hawkwind will never be a band with very good song-writing or intelligent compositions, but they sure know how to get some spacey atmospheres!

On Warrior on the Edge of Time the band is surprisingly consistent. The opening track 'Assault & battery part I / The golden void part II' is perhaps the band's most impressive space-epic ever. The sound of the band is enormous and the song-writing of the Golden Void is very attractive. The recording is so brutal that is doesn't even fit on the original tape, both lp an cd sound slightly distorted at times. Normally this would bother me, but on this album it serves the exciting and abstract sound.

Mike Moorcock provides some spaced-out poems on two track on the album. With all the echoes it's hard to hear all the words.. but hey.. it still sounds impressive. Opa-loka features some concentrated psycho-beat, whilst The demented man shows Hawkwind with an acoustic guitar (and a sea of symphonic equipment.. phewh..). A good song.

On side two we get some conventional Hawkwind compositions and song featuring some metal-guitars and heavy symphonic equipment. Side two doesn't impress me as much as side one, but it still has very good moments.

Conclusion. This album has a revolutionary sound that excites me. The opening section is very strong and Hawkwind manages to keep up interesting music for the most of the record. The poems do add something to the psychedelic flavor of the music. The production is way over the top, but likable as it is. I can give this four stars, but I must say it isn't wise to expect a masterpiece of progressive rock when first listening to this album. Just enjoy those atmospheres and let yourself get carried away... into the deepest of space!

Hawk = sound of coughing and spitting ** Wind = farting

You cannot invent this stuff, this is truly the origin of the name of the band.

The space cadets are, to say the least, a prolific band. Although the endless band members switching, they delivered many, many, many good albums; the epitomy would be this one. The blend of Frazetta-art-Conan-the-Barbarian mixed with space travelling is unsurpassed. It' s a perfect mix of space rock (read melting mellotron, hypnotic choruses and keyboards that surely influenced Arjen Lucassen) and fantasy art, unsurpassed in my collection. If you have something better than this, please let me know, I'm willing to pay the collect call (...not).

Go down the corridor of flame with an amazon fertility goddess by your side. On the edge of time, draw your sword from it's furry and snake sheat, face the monster my son.... this is your time.

This is perhaps Hawkwind's finest moment (next to the live album Space Ritual). The writing and sound is similar to the previous album but improved. This is the last album with Lemmy before he went on to form Motorhead (named after a bonus song included on most CDs). He got fired while after this album Robert Calvert returns, replacing poet Michael Moorcock. A new drummer, Allan Powell, joins Simon King. Former High Tide/Third Ear Band violinist Simon House returns and uses more keyboards here than on the last album. As usual, Dave Brock and Nik Turner lead the way.

Most of the songs segue into each other. On my copy the first two songs are one track. "Assault & Battery" has a great mix of bass, Mellotron, drums and flute. The vocals are generally catchy and sung in harmony. Later synth noises and what sounds like a phased organ can be heard. "Golden Void" has more great Mellotron and synth. This part is more symphonic. Brock's guitar is more noticeable here. "The Wizard Blew His Horn" has an echoed Moorcock reciting a poem, organ and cymbals crashing. Trippy!

"Opa-Loka" is often referred to as Krautrock sounding, and I agree. Particularly the 'motorik' variety. This instrumental is pure spacey and groovy awesomeness. "The Demented Man" features some great acoustic guitar playing. Nice Mellotron and some bird noises. Some more harmony vocals but no drums or bass. "Magnu" is one of Hawkwind's best songs. Opens with storm sounds before Brock delivers a fantastic riff. Definately sounds like two drummers in this song. Effects on the vocals. Includes a hypnotic mantra. Nice percussion in the middle, along with great violin playing. Cool phased guitar in spots. Mantra gets electronically altered at the end.

"Standing At The Edge" is more spacey poetry. "Spiral Galaxy 28948" is an excellent instrumental in 6/8. Possibly my favourite Hawkwind song. Written by Simon House, the numbers refer to his birthdate. Begins as spacey metal before going into a melodic groove. Great synth playing. Features the most interesting drumming on the album. The bass work is good as well. "Warriors" features electronically altered vocals, tympani (?) and, believe it or not, spacey sounds. "Dying Seas" is one of the better songs. This has another great riff. Love the synth sounds here. Both Nik and Dave singing.

"Kings Of Speed" was a single. More typical Hawkwind style proto-punk. Similar to the bonus track "Motorhead," which I prefer more. Currently, I think this album is out-of-print. Apparently there is some legal issues surrounding a re-release. Their strongest and most consistent studio album. This deserves 4 stars.

Hawkwind had long been friends with the influential fantasy author Michael Moorcock, who occasionally contributed lyrics and poetry for their use (of which some can be heard on Space Ritual). So it was only natural that sooner or later the band would choose to create a concept album surrounding Moorcock's tales of the Eternal Champion - a fictional saga based on the conceit that the protagonist of all of Moorcock's books were reincarnations or allegorical renditions of the same archetypal individual.

This would prove to be far from the only time Hawkwind would tackle this subject matter, of course - Chronicle of the Black Sword and the accompanying Live Chronicles album dealt with the Elric saga, the most famous of the Eternal Champion tales - but Warrior On the Edge of Time takes a more abstract take on the concept. Rather than focusing on one incarnation of the Champion in particular, it muses on the concepts informing Moorcock's fiction - heroes and humanity's preoccupation with them, and in particular our regular insistence that our heroes should achieve their ends through savage, violent means.

So much for the lyrical subject matter - how does it sound? Well, in truth I'd say this is one of the most complex and progressive of Hawkwind's albums. From the raw straight-ahead rock of Assault and Battery and Kings of Speed, which bookend the album, to the Krautrock extremes of Opa-Loka, the space rock of The Golden Void, and numerous other tracks, the album is a true tour de force for the entire band, with every instrumentalist working at the peak of their powers. Particularly worthy of mention, of course, is Nik Turner's amazing sax and flute contributions and the excellent keyboard and synthesiser work by Dave Brock, as well as Simon House's violin and Mellotron contributions. Lemmy's bass guitar adds meat to the compositions, of course, but he's less of a presence on this album than he was on the likes of Space Ritual or Hall of the Mountain Grill, and it would be shortly after this one's release that he'd depart to begin his legendary career as leader of Motorhead.

It may take some searching to find these days, but in this particular case we aren't dealing with an album that gets overhyped simply because of its obscurity - rather, I think Warrior is the peak of Hawkwind's studio albums. They'd make great albums after this, of course, but never again would they quite reach this summit in the studio.

Despite of reviewing their new album, released last year, I am really new to this band. I off course know about Lemmy's association to Hawkwind. He plays bass here. I am also a fan of their Silver Machine song. But their 1970s albums was new to me until I got hold of this album and a handful of other classic Hawkwind albums.

Space rock is their label and it is fair to say that Hawkwind is one of the biggest bands in the genre. Their illegal drugs intake at the time of the recording of this album is also legendary. Don't try this at home. I also believe Lemmy got the boot at this stage and he set up Motorhead just after this. A band I was a fan of two decades ago (Orgamastron is still a great album, btw).

Anyway..........

Warrior on the Edge of Time offers up a dosage of space rock with dirty bass and guitar sound. The keyboards takes us to outer space and beyond (make that the local chemist and/or the local drug dealer). The music is good throughout. It is probably a lot better live than on a CD with Motorhead as a bonus track. A song vastly different than in Motorhead's own version.

There is a lot of good songs here and some spaced/drugged out warblings. But this album never takes of in the direction of nirvana in my estimation. A good album, but nothing more. You can take it that I am stone cold sober and not that much of a space traveller as required by this music.

3 stars

"We are the warriors at the edge of time, We are Humanity's scythe to sweep this way and that, And cut the Enemy down as weeds."

For years this treasure had been unavailable on CD and I remember asking a specific dealer in all things prog when "Warrior on the edge of Time" was going to be available again and he spouted off something about troubles with the label. For years I had to just listen to the tracks available on compilations; 'Assault & Battery part I', 'Motorhead' and 'Kings of Speed', all excellent tunes in their own right. Then the Hawkwind remasters came out and I targeted "Warrior on the edge of Time". So it was with a huge amount of anticipation that I sat back to listen to the album. It is one of the Hawkwind masterpieces.

'Assault and Battery' is quintessential Hawkwind with some terrific lyrics; "Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time, Of hewn stones the sacred circle where the wizened sages sat, Let us try to remember all the times where they were at." The extended section on 'Assault & Battery/ The golden void part II' is mind blowing. The lyrics conjure a mystical transcendental evocation; "The golden void speaks to me denying my reality, I lose my body, lose my mind, I blow like wind, flow like wine, Down a corridor of flame, will I fly so high again." The spacey mellotron of Simon House is incredible and he also plays some stirring violin. Dave Brock sounds amazing on vocals, very forceful and hitting notes dead on, and his guitar work is exemplary. Nik Turner is a revelation on Tenor and Soprano saxophone, and also flute, all absolutely perfectly executed on this album. Lemmy's pulsating bass guitar is a pleasant addition. Simon King's percussion is as good as ever, with a constant hypnotic rhythm and power blasts at the end of each verse. Allan Powell also doubles up on drums and it is always a delight to hear Mike Moorcock's sci-fi narrative prose, something that I look forward to on classic albums such as this.

The music is ultra-spacey and mesmirising especially on motorik instrumental hooks like the Krautrock influenced 'Opa-loka'. The spacey effects are integral to the Hawkwind atmospheres and this track is soaked in symphonic spacey textures. The waves crashing on the beach and seagulls are a strong atmospheric embellishment. Folky 'The Demented Man' has a huge mellotron sound that roars majestically over an acoustic chord structure. At this point I am transfixed by the power of the album's atmospherics.

'Magnu' is a lengthy track with a killer riff, similar to 'Born To Go' or 'Masters of the Universe'. Brock's vocals are towering as he sings of mystical adventures; "Magnu, horse with golden mane, I want your help yet once again, Walk not the earth but fly through space as lightning flash or thunders race, Swift as the arrow from the bow, come to me so that no one can know." The instrumental is psychedelic sax and a driving rhythm as Brock chants the mantra "until we diminish by the reign of night". The music slows down, instruments drop out and Turner's sax spirals off somewhere as the everpresent alien effects are heard more distinctly. The violin of Simon House is incredible, as good as I have heard from the master, very high pitched and improvised generating an emotional resonance. The percussion is tom toms and very strong beats that lock in consistently. The sound is transfixing and jams along in the same vein as much of the material on the brilliant "Space Ritual" epic.

After this the multi echoed voice of Nik Turner narrates that we are standing at the edge and it is dark, we are the unkind, we are the soldiers of the edge of time and we are tired of making love, where is desire, it's cold, so cold, where is our joy, where is our fire. The section reminds one of the amazing recitations on "Space Ritual" which made it such an endearing unique experience. I like Turner when he is in this weird mood but not into his singing as much. The next track 'Spiral Galaxy 28948' is a deliriously spacey mellotron soaked rhythmic piece in 6/8. The wall of mellotron turbulence and fuzzy bass, conjures images of interstellar travel and a beautiful flute chimes in with precision and expertise, floating along the oceans of star clusters.

A Dalek like mechanised voice warns that "we are the wind which will blow the ash away as if never existed, but first we must know the enemies, we are the betrayed!" This estranged poetry leads to 'Dying seas' which has a throbbing bassline from Lemmy and some jagged distorted guitar riffs from Brock. The vocals are multi tracked and alienating. The electric violin is incredible slicing back and forth almost like a dark Irish jig but creating very intense serrations, very much like Van der Graaf Generator. The effervescent synth solo washes over with waves of icy glacial augmentations, sparkling over galactic soundscapes.

The next track is 'Kings of speed', a rocking Motorhead style track that I am very familiar with from compilations. The lyrics are very cool; "We're gonna take a tasty trip on Frank and Beasley's rocket ship, The biggest attraction, the brightest star, boys you're going fast and far". The fact that Lemmy was a speed addict, and about to be incarcerated for it, makes this song even more potent; "We guarantee you the sweetest ride, You'll go so far you'll think you've died, Step this way lads it ain't no lie, Try your luck and reach the sky."

The bonus track is 'Motorhead' which of course is Lemmy's baby literally, and I had heard this many times, and it is always a killer sounding like Motorhead for some reason. It is a portentous song as this is Lemmy's last Hawkwind album as he would be fired for drug trafficking and begin his own angry response 3 piece band. The lyrics are effective; "Can't get enough and you know it's the righteous stuff, Goes up like prices at Christmas, Motorhead."

The packaging of the album is great too especially the artwork depicting an archetypal warrior awaiting battle on the precipice of a jagged cliff. The bildungsroman narrative ingrained in the mystical vision depicts a coming of age as the warrior awaits his destiny in the corridors of flame of the Golden Void. The concept of the album is typically unfathomable and open to interpretation, but it is an integral component of Hawkwind's enigmatic mystique.

Every track on this album is a sheer delight encompassing one of the most consistent Hawkwind albums of the 70s. The album generates its own specific atmosphere that the band could not capture on subsequent albums until the wonderful "The Chronicle of the Black Sword". The band were able to inject just the right amount of spaceyness with swathes of mellotron and sonic effects, along with astonishing musicianship with flute, sax and violin. Brock is excellent on vocals and he is joined by one of the strongest lineups for the chameleonic band, that changed lineups considerably over its long tenure. "Warrior on the edge of Time" is a masterpiece because everything worked to create stratospheric soundscapes, and the band were obviously operating on all cylinders at their creative peak.

There is so much about this album that warms my heart and lifts my spirit and then there's not. The cover fills me with so much progg-joy I want to skip and jump and the title... Aaaah, the title. Warrior on the edge of time. Brilliant. If it's just those things to review I'll give it five stars. Easy. But no, there is also the musical content.

First of all I can't help but feeling that the record is dated, even back in 1975. When I thinkof 1975 I do not think of this kind of sound. It belongs back in 1971, or something. And maybe, just maybe the band felt i too, completely changing their sound on the next album, Astounding sounds. That aside, there are quite a few things to like. The opener, Golden void, Magnu and The demented man for instance. I do like the album as a whole but I only like it. It does not make me feel like I want to lean back and go for a ride. it's more of an album I listen to in the background. Warrior on the edge of time i simply, I guess, a part of the 70's albums I do not fully grip, still it's more enjoyable than many other from the decade.

In short it's an album well crafted but the overall result does not thrill me. It pleases me, somewhat.

I will be brutally honest: I did not understand this album when I first got it, nor do I understand it now. I view this album as one with excess, and without nearly enough attention to the actual music. In brief, there simply isn't enough melody. Space Rock cousins such as Pink Floyd and even Ozric Tentacles seem to be able to handle mixing fine melody-writing with the psychedelic, spacey atmosphere the genre is known for. Furthermore, many of the songs are simply monotonous, with examples being 'Opa-Loka' with its painfully repetitive drum work, and the horrible 'Standing At the Edge' and 'Warriors', which is just spoken word over random noise. Besides 'Assault and Battery,' this is just bland music. The overall Punk vibe that permeates the album is also something which I am not keen to, though others might like it,

This album also suffers from weak production and mixing, with the instruments mostly sounding like they're bundled together to create a mess of noise. The flute especially is something I would have wanted to hear more of, but cannot because of the thick wall of sound, in addition to the fact that is wasn't mixed highly in the first place. There is a 5.1 mix from Steve Wilson out and that may compensate these issues, but not even better production can save the dreadful, monotonous music.

2/10

On the edge of space rock

4.5 stars

Last studio album with Lemmy Kimister, "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" marks the end of HAWKWIND's "classic" space stoner era, considered by many as their best period. The music combines the soft melodic side of "Hall of the Mountain Grill" and the heavier side of "In Search of Space" and "Doremi Fasol Latido". Keyboardist Simon House incorporates sounds effects quite futuristic at this time.

"Warrior On The Edge Of Time" is in fact a concept album based on Michael Moorcock's Elric cycles. Thus, like in "Space Ritual", some tracks are only spoken sentences, this time enunciated by the writer himself, with an ambient background. These three passages are "The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing at the Edge" and "Warriors". This collaboration between HAWKWIND and Moorcock won't be the least one.

"Assault And Battery" and "The Golden Void" can be considered as a long single song. An immediate boarding for stars, this cosmic mini-epic suite is a pure space metal little gem! The two tracks will often be played live consecutively. "Opa-Loka" is a nice space instrumental that reminds NEU! by moments. The beautiful "The Demented Man" is a cool enchanting tune with acoustic guitars and synthesizers, in the style of songs from "Hall of the Mountain Grill". Magic! However, the highlight of the album is undoubtly "Magnu". This futuristic space metal ritual with middle-eastern sonorities and saxophone is simply great, and like "Master of the Universe", will become a concert favorite, played at a faster speed.

The second half of the record is a little less remarkable. "Spiral Galaxy 28948" is the best instrumental of the disc, with its whirling keyboards and guitars. "Dying Seas" is also a good futuristic dark space rock with sci-fi sound effects, whereas "Kings Of Speed" is just an average hard rock song. This ender is the weakest track of the record, as it is a bit repetitive and out of place. Composed by Lemmy, the original violin version of "Motorhead" is included as a bonus track. Gorgeous! There is quite a gap between this version and the eponymous track on MOT'RHEAD first opus.

It's a pity the three "spoken" passages tend to break the flow and the listening immersion, because (almost) all tracks are excellent. "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" is a lesser-known HAWKWIND studio album, but as good and essential as the three previous ones. Afterwards, the line-up will change, and the band's releases quality will be less regular...

Review Nº 120

"Warrior On The Edge Of Time" is the fifth studio album of Hawkwind and was released in 1975. It's a very special album in their long and rich musical career and it came to be considered, by many, the musical pinnacle of their entire career. Indeed, the band's fifth studio release turned out to be their most ambitious album ever. The cover of the album that folded out into a large shield shape, was just the first clue. In reality, never before or after that had Hawkwind, or any other group for that matter, better blended such old fashioned fantasy elements with futuristic sci-fi and space elements into their music, as they did. By the other hand, the musical material on the album, and not at least the musical arrangements, was some of the group's best ever. This is really a truly tour de force from Hawkwind.

To the lyrics Hawkwind hired sci-fi writer Mike Moorcock to help them with some lyrical concept and to read several poems in between the tracks, on "The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing At The Edge" and "Warriors". In reality, the lyrics are based on the concept of Moorcock's "Eternal Champion", which is a fictional creation of the author and is a current feature in many of his novels. Moorcock is an English writer primarily known by his sci-fi and fantasy novels.

"Warrior On The Edge Of Time" has eleven tracks. The first and second tracks, "Assault And Battery ? Part I" and "The Golden Void ? Part II", floats into each other and these are probably Hawkwind's most majestic and biggest sounding tracks ever. The arrangements here have to be heard to be believed. Tons of mellotron and you know that I love the sound of it, synthesizers and distorted saxophone and flute create a very unique sound that actually sounded like no other band. The guitar is toned unusually much down here, but it would be more dominant in the sound later on the album. They're really two great amazing tracks. The third, seventh and ninth tracks, "The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing At The Edge" and "Warriors", are respectively three very special tracks. They aren't properly three musical tracks. They're essentially composed by short poems read by Moorcock completed with pounding kettle drums, cymbals and some electronic sounds all over the tracks. They serve essentially to link all the concept of the story. The fourth track "Opa-Loka" took its name, perplexingly enough, from a town in Florida and not some of any mythical planet that ties in with the vague Moorcock's conceptual story line. It's a hypnotic, energetic and dreamy space rocker instrumental on what its thumping bass and synthesizer blips and bleeps, takes you soaring to the stars. The fifth track "The Demented Man" ends the side one of the album. It's another of those lovely acoustic Hawkwind's tunes where the band really managed to keep the obligatory space feel. Brock's acoustic 12-string guitar and drum-fewer ballads as seagull's wheel and cry and mellotrons reinforce the whole track. It has also a nice vocal working. The sixth track "Magnu" is a very energetic track, which is really the first track on the album to feature a quite heavy riff. It sees Brock and Lemmy firing off some menacing riffs amidst dazzling violin from House, Turner's jazzy sax, and haunting keyboards. This is a very typical Hawkwind. It has repetitive rhythms and riffs lull you into a psychedelic haze, with sax, violin, and synthesizers zapping left and right through the mix. The eighth track "Spiral Galaxy" is another instrumental which shows the prototypical psyche usual stuff of Hawkwind with an added nuance of density. It has top notch space metal, has dark passages of ominous synthesizers, violin, and flute float over busy rhythms. Fantastic futuristic keyboard textures on this one, too. The tenth track "Dying Seas" is another space rock oddity featuring Turner's effects soaked vocals slithering through a dense fog of synthesizers washes. This is also a good and futuristic dark space rock with sci-fi sound effects. It ends the fantasy oriented in the main body of this classic album. The eleventh track "Kings Of Speed" follows, a catchy hard rocker led by some thick bass rumbles from Lemmy and Brock's tasty lead guitar work, with House also getting in on the action with some country styled violin flights. It was chosen as the single from the album. It's more typical of Hawkwind's proto-punk style and it's quite similar to the bonus track "Motorhead".

Conclusion: "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" can be considered the pinnacle of all Hawkwind's musical career. It represents also my first contact with the band and it's also my favourite album from them. Dave Brock himself regards "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" as the band's crowning achievement. So, "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" can be easily considered one of the many great classic albums of the 70's. Lovers of space, psychedelic and progressive rock will love this album. It became a truly landmark album of early space rock time. The band was on their peak and certainly on their most symphonic, thanks to the presence of Simon House and some real inspired songwriting. It represents Hawkwind's finest hour, a real masterpiece. If you are new to Hawkwind, "Warrior On The Edge of Time" is undoubtedly one of the first albums you should check out from them. Listen for yourself and find out whether if I was right or wrong.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

The Warrior In The Threshold Of Time

Hawkwind was a kind of precursor to what we call now Space Rock. The band was not the creator of the sound, but definitely the one that carried the flag the most.

On their fifth album, 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time', still with Lemmy (future Mot'rhead) on bass, the band goes on with their - at that time - already traditional sound. Mixing ambient and space sounds with saxophone and flute (thanks to the excellent Nik Turner) and a vigorous kitchen that had two drummers - Simon King and Alan Powell - and the already mentioned Lemmy on bass (this would be his last album with the band before being summarily fired), and unlike what he would show with his Mot'rhead later in 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' Lemmy shows a more melodic side, even if he uses chords in his bass several times.

Hawkwind, for me, has always been a little complicated, musically speaking, the records I've heard from the band so far (the records that precede this one), did not make anything for me, really. The records are good, they have great moments, but they usually fall into the common abyss of records of this genre, especially those of the first half of the 1970s: 'infinite-improvisations-that-never-end-and-ended-up-being-very-boring '.

When Hawkwind bets on more concrete songs like "Assault & Battery Part I", "The Demented Man" and "Magnu" 'Warrior On The Edge Of Time' is great. However, when the band goes on with their mad endless improvisations the record just get lost on me. Maybe it's the fact that I don~t do drugs and Hawkwind's music is highly 'drugged', I do not know. The fact is that I do not get this side of their music.

Overall a good record, but that does not go beyond the average. However, let's give Hawkwind the credit they deserve. The band has recorded incessantly since 1970, and in 2017 the band released their album number 37! Band leader Dave Brock, at the height of his 76 years, continues to release music that is not commercial and without fear of becoming successful or not. Impressive!

"Warrior on the Edge of Time" is an interesting album. It was made in the middle of Hawkwind's peak of consistently good albums, but it was also the end of Lemmy on bass and occasional vocals as he went on to form Motorhead. He felt that the band was becoming too strange and the band felt that he was wanting to be too much of a "motorcycle man" with his heavier style. Of course, Hawkwind was space rock at it's best and wasn't about to move away from that. So, this album sees the exit of Lemmy who was replaced by Paul Rudolph after the album was recorded.

The album is loosely based on a concept by Michael Moorcock, who the lyrics for 4 of the songs in this album. It is based on a character from his book "The Eternal Champion" and he provides additional vocals for "The Wizard Blew His Horn" and "Warriors". Dave Brock, the lead singer, would write 4 more songs, and the rest were written by other band members.

The album starts off wonderfully with 2 songs by Brock that continue to follow the familiar style of the band. The 2 songs are actually 2 parts, the first called "Assault and Battery" and the 2nd part is "The Golden Void". They flow into each other, as pretty much the entire album flows from one track to another. They are the typical space rock sound that the band was famous for with a lot of surprises and textural sounds.

Next, things change up a bit with a reading of Moorcock's lyrics on "The Wizard Blew His Horn". This one immediately weakens the album, even though the vocals are quite dramatic and expressive, they seem slightly corny now. The music behind the vocals is minimal and not very interesting. This is blessedly short as it flows into an excellent Krautrock style instrumental "Opa-Loka". This is based on the 4 / 4 meter known as the "motorick" rhythm named and made famous by Krautrock band "Neu!". The song itself is your typical krautrock tune with improvised atmospheric instrumentals based around only one chord throughout. It is well placed on the album and is a natural follow up for the previous track which ends up supporting it well. Lemmy hated this track and called it "rubbish". Brock actually ended up playing bass for the track.

"Demented Man" follows this with an acoustic based track that fits well as the end to this side of the album. This is a surprisingly beautiful track that features acoustic guitar, mellotron and Brock's vocals.

"Magnu" opens up the next side with the longest single track (not counting the 2 part, 2 track opening) at over 8 minutes. The lyrics are built off of the poem "Hymn of Apollo" by Percy Shelly. It is built off of a driving riff and Brock's vocals are processed creating an echo effect. Instrumental jamming starts at the halfway mark. Again, this is another signature Hawkwind space rock tune where layered synths, guitars, violin and sax provide the psychedelic texture.

"Standing at the Edge" features spoken vocals of more of Moorcock's lyrics from the band's sax and flautist Nik Turner. The vocals are again processed with delayed echoes. This is supported by minimal instrumentation and occasional percussion. Again, I feel the readings weaken the album just because they seem corny now.

"Spiral Galaxy 28948" is a heavier and darker instrumental credited to the band's violinist and keyboardist Simon House. This is an excellent space rock jam track with everyone providing texture, but it's too short. This flows into another of Moorcock's readings "Warriors" with the author providing dramatic, processed vocals backed up by percussion.

"Dying Seas" features Nik on vocals again, this time singing, but containing that weird echo again. The track is more interesting than his previous one and has some great synthesizer/sax work at the end. The shorter tracks on this side of the album, up to this point, actually work better as being related, or considered as subsections of a single composition. Maybe they were intended that way originally, because it seems to be the case, but afterall, it was intended to be a concept album

The previous track fades out completely before the last track on this side "Kings of Speed". This is a straight ahead rocker co- written by Brock and Moorcock. This sounds like, and was a single, but it's still a good closer for the original album. The CD edition has a bonus track after this which was the b-side to "Kings of Speed". It was written and sung by Lemmy and naturally called "Motorhead". It is a hard rocker of a song with a cool violin solo in the middle.

Overall, this is another great album by Hawkwind, which is somewhat weakened by the corny spoken word tracks, but it is still good enough to be considered an excellent addition to my music library. I still consider it one of their best, and usually just ignore the corny parts. Besides, back in the day, they didn't sound so bad, it's just that they didn't age so well.

I managed to get an original UK vinyl copy where the cover folds out into a Chaos shield (it says "Chaos" on the shield, that's how you know). I've owned the American pressing on Atco for a few years, but nothing special about the packaging on that one. Whatever the case, this is one album, though I was aware of it almost as long as I've been aware of Hawkwind. I first heard of the band in 1992, but that name Hawkwind was familiar to me since 1986 from playing Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar on the Atari 800XL as visiting the Seer Hawkwind was essential in completing your quest. Once I found out about the band, I started wondering if Richard Garriot (Lord British) was a Hawkwind fan. From 1994 to 1997 I bought a bunch of Hawkwind, but Warrior on the Edge of Time wasn't one of them. Which is something I totally regret.

This is truly one of their finest albums ever. It was their final album with Lemmy. Here it seems his bass playing has been toned down, and he doesn't sing on the album, but if you own a CD reissue you get "Motorhead" as a bonus cut, which was the B-Side to "Kings of Speed". This naturally screams Lemmy and became the name of the metal band he's famous far. This is without a doubt their proggiest album ever. The Mellotron is quite effective as well as some great use of synths. I already knew "Assault and Battery" and "Lives of Great Men" from live versions on their 1991 album Palace Springs (at the time I bought the cassette, in 1996, at a junk store, sitting next to New Kids on the Block and hair metal cassettes, I didn't realize the only new songs on that album were "Back in the Box" and "Treadmill"). I have to say they did those two songs justice on that version, showing they could do it live some 14 years later (all the material on Palace Springs dates from 1989, but released in 1991). So obviously these songs were very familiar, but instead of a Korg M1, tons of Mellotron was used, as well as some of the most ear piercing high-pitched synth leads you're ever going to hear. "The Wizard Blew his Horn" was another one of those spoken dialog pieces, not unlike "Sonic Attack". "Opa-Loka" was basically an instrumental piece that leads into "The Demented Man" (for confusion, the label read "The Demented King", but the inner sleever read "The Demented Man"). This sounded like Hawkwind attempting to sound like the Moody Blues. It's an acoustic Mellotron-dominated piece with parts that reminds me of "Watching and Waiting" (from To Our Children's, Children's Children). Of course you have Dave Brock, not Justin Hayward singing, and there seems to be a rather unsettling feel you wouldn't get off a Moodies albums. "Magnu" and "Dying Seas" are very much typical Hawkwind songs at their best while "Kings of Speed" is more rock.

No Hawkwind fan should ever be without this.

4.5: The fifth studio album by Hawkwind and the most commercially successful. almost all the lyrics are written by Michael Moorcok and is mostly based in his novel The Eternal Champion. The recordings were plagued with a lot of problems between the members of the band. The dynamic used for writing the lyrics is that Dave Brock comes with an idea of a concept and Moorcock see if he can improve and develop the idea. The history talks about a legendary warrior that in the past won a war versus an Alien Eldren and then he is reincarnated in a ordinary person that needs to remember all the past life of this warrior in order to win the battle again. Musically is a typical space rock album, it is most focus in guitar riffs and keyboard passages without doing nothing spectacular, however it set really good the mood and thematic of the album, it is a very good structured album, you are not going to find random jams like other band tends to do, it has really good moment without exaggerating in putting a lot of noise. The vocals do a really good job singing and portraying the legendary history, although sometimes it feels repetitive singing some parts of the lyrics repeatedly. Some song are just only poems recited with some space synths at the background, but they help us to get inside the history. In conclusion, I considered it a excellent addition to any prog collection, and a really good album of Space Rock, almost a masterpiece, but a few moments are not good as the majority.

Warrior on the Edge of Time sounds like a lost early-1970s Moody Blues album performed by Pink Floyd with vocals by an especially manic Peter Hammill. It's got a lot of what you'd expect from a Moodies LP: rock songs interspersed with a few poems, an acoustic-guitar-and-Mellotron piece, some echo-chamber vocal harmonies, and mystical subject matter. The hi-hat is even forward in the mix, just like on a Moody Blues LP. But in practice, Warrior on the Edge of Time sure doesn't sound like it's being performed by Justin Hayward and company. To begin with, it lacks the restraint of the Moody Blues, whose use of sound effects and synthesizers would have been much subtler, and whose vocals would have been much more sober. And as psychedelic as the Moodies could be, Warrior on the Edge of Time is way trippier - - even Floydian. While only the two-part opener "Assault and Battery" / "The Golden Void" actually sounds like Pink Floyd, most of the album seems to be in the spirit of Piper- era Floyd.

My first - - and until now, only - - experience with Hawkwind was The Best of Friends an Relations, a 1994 compilation CD not listed on Prog Archives. I figured that if this was not only the best of Hawkwind, but of their friends and relations too, I'd spend my time listening to some other band. Not long after I started visiting progarchives.com, I saw that Warrior on the Edge of Time was one of the top "Psychedelic / Space Rock" LPs (#3 among non-Floyd albums). And then it turned out that Steven Wilson liked it enough to do a remix - - and I do value his opinion. So when I had some spare credit I downloaded the Wilson mix of the album, which also includes the non-LP b-side "Motorhead."

Hawkwind still isn't my proverbial cup of tea, but Warrior on the Edge of Time is better than I would have guessed. The soundscape is more varied and songs are more engaging than were those on The Best of Friends an Relations. Plus there's the fact that this is an intact album, the songs of which hang together pretty well.

Nonetheless, Warrior on the Edge of Time is a little too flaky for me, a little too sophomoric - - but not in the sense of sophomoric humor: I'm talking about the earnestness with which the group approaches the knights-and-wizards themes, both lyrically and sonically. If you're into fantasy themes, I'd check out Camel's Mirage or King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King (neither of which are entirely fantasy-based) or maybe Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow or Bo Hansson's (instrumental) Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings. On the other hand, if space rock's your thing, I'm sure you're already well acquainted with Warrior on the Edge of Time.

As I look through the ratings on this album, the follow up to the fantastic 5 Star "Hall Of The Mountain Grill", I am glad to see that there are more 5 Star ratings on this than anything else which is rare and should be. A 5 belongs to only the albums that are truly good throughout. Out of the 54 albums I have done reviews on only 5 are one is have pegged as 5 star. Only albums that are rock solid in all areas get that ranking and this one is one of them. I have never given a 5 Star rating on more than one album by a group and this will be number 2 for Hawkwind.

I my opinion, the best of the band is contained in this and the above mentioned "Hall" and they are back to back in the chronology. On "Hall" they added a few new players and instruments and they were a huge addition to their sound in a very good way. The bands other albums I can find a few songs or a handful I may think are good but this one is great throughout. They reach their spatial peak if you will.

"Assault & Battery" starts off the album with the soaring mellotron and a flute compliments the sound well. "The Golden Void" is an extension of the first track as they flow well together. Other than King Crimson I really am not that fond of horns on a prog band but they are definitely part of the band's sound and they work well. "The Wizard?" brings back the poetry which I can take or leave but it works well as it flows into the instrumental "Opa Loka" which is pure Hawkwind. It then flows into one of my all time favorite Hawk songs "The Demented Man." What is weird is I have no idea why I like this song so much. It has an acoustic guitar and voice but the sonic synth atmosphere is where I am mesmerized by it. It sounds emotionally tragic. The song just reaches into me and pulls me into its emotional pit.

The next few songs are good including another poetry rendition. The next song that really amps it up is "Spiral Galaxy 28948" and the sonic soaring synths and drumming are really good in this one as another great instrumental. It rolls into "Warriors" another poetry journey. Again I am not all that fond of the poetry segments but they are part of who the band are and they do them well. "Sonic Attack" is of course their signature poetry session and it is great! "Dying Seas" oddly sounds a lot lie a pop tune from the early 60's to start with but then it comes into its own instrumentally. The band is the best jamming band I have ever heard. "Kings Of Speed" is an all out rocker without anything spacey about it. "Motorhead" ends the album and it is a lot like a 1950's rocker including the fact that it is basically a song done in mono with very little stereo. The end gets a bit spacey.

In all, this album spells out who Hawkwind are. A big High 5 Star.