CHOOSE YOUR MASQUES

2.5 stars

1982 was definitely not a good period for the Hawks. After the electronic parenthesis of "Church of Hawkwind" the same year, this album showed great promises with its space heavy metal cover art and font though. It even features the participation of former member Nik Turner on a track. Furthermore, the title comes from a Moorcock's poem. However, listening to the whole disc gives the slight feeling that Captain Brock took a nap and set the HAWKWIND spaceship in cruise control.

Not much to say about the title song, repetitive and flat. "Dream Worker" is a five minutes experimental electronic track, whereas the space metal "Arrival In Utopia" is more typical of the Hawks, however average. "Utopia" is another strange dark ambient passage, introducing an eighties remix of the single hit pre-punk "Silver Machine". Compared to the original version, several sonorities and effects have been added, the guitar is heavier and the production sounds more 80's.

The second half of the record is more interesting. The nice robotic KRAFTWERK-ian "Void City" is the track where ex-member Nik Turner is invited. Then comes the melancholic "Solitary Mind Games", quite new-wave oriented. Although rather unusual for HAWKWIND, this song is rather enjoyable. The science fiction theme remains present with "Fahrenheit 451", which continues the space punk approach developed in "25 Years On" and "Sonic Attack". Clearly the best track of the album, featuring a powerful guitar solo. The sequenced "The Scan" serves as an introduction for "Waiting For Tomorrow". Sung by Huw Lloyd-Langton, this ender is a pleasant floating blues-rock that could have been composed by Lemmy. Original.

As a bonus track, the eighties revisitation of the "Psychedelic Warlords" is surprisingly good and different from the original version.

Nevertheless, this opus is rather deceiving. The composition quality is not on par with the cool cover art, nearly half of the tracks are ambient transitions, while the space rock songs are less remarkable than on the previous albums, just two years after the thundering "Levitation". At the time, a new generation of metal musicians were emerging with exciting refreshing ideas.

With "Church of Hawkwind", "Choose Your Masques" is one of the weakest HAWKWIND studio albums of the eighties. Fortunately, Captain Brock will soon wake up and redress his spaceship just one year later...

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