I believe this is my first concept album to feature on the blog, and what a brilliant one to begin with. Apparently the album was written partially in conjunction with the sci-fi author Michael Moorcock and is based upon the adventures of a particular character Elric Meniboné, Moorcock even contributes lyrics to one track on the album.
The genre: space rock. I’ve got images of Star Wars and Star Trek, aliens playing synths and spacemen rocking out in their space ships! Most definitely one of the best sub-genres I’ve ever come across.
“Like Star Trek with long hair and drugs” – Lemmy, Motörhead and former Hawkwind.
Hawkwind fit space rock to a T. Second track on the album ‘Shade Gate’ is instrumental and full to the brim of epic electronic futuristic sounds. I can hear the beeping of the control desk and the rush as the ships soars through space. The Chronicle of the Black Sword was in fact Hawkwind‘s fourteenth studio album. The band at this point in 1985 had reached just over their halfway mark and would go on to release twenty seven studio albums in total, along with nine live ones and fifteen compilation. On and off the band have been going for nearly 45 years, a pretty impressive feat if you ask me.
Side one alternates between straight up rock tracks with instrumental spacey ones laced with synths and effects. Their 80s rock is weirdly anthemic, chugging along and tinged with punk elements, particularly in the spoken/sung vocals. Final track of side one ‘Elric the enchanter’ gives the listener background to the character – “Some said he was a sorcerer / Or a warrior chief / But he was the stealer of souls”.
I admire the lyrical simplicity in the track opening side two: ‘Needle Gun’. The chorus goes “It’s gonna make you run / Needle needle, needle needle gun” – certainly an original way to describe the process of tattooing. The song also contains some well needed guitar solos that take the album back to 80s rock. Conversely, ‘Zarozinia’ opens with a poignant vocal melody and something that sounds like the rolling of waves across a beach. The track doesn’t evolve into anything, but in my opinion it doesn’t need to, it’s simply a beautiful interlude.
I love the variation in this album. Hawkwind may be going for a space rock concept record that can at times be pretty weird (see the opening of ‘Chaos Army’), however they don’t neglect their roots of simple 80s rock music. An excellent album with complementing intricate artwork, I’ll definitely be exploring more of the band’s back catalogue.
On a final note – I love it when I get out records that have these (see pic below) tucked into their sleeves. The earliest stamp is from 26 Oct 1987 and the latest 25 Feb 1994. This record has been sitting in the music library for a good twenty-six years and may not have been played for about nine!
An interesting BBC4 documentary on the band:
Released in 1985 on Flicknife Records
Side One – ‘Songs of the Swords’, ‘Shade Gate’, ‘The Sea King’, ‘The Pulsing Cavern’, ‘Elric the enchanter’
Side Two – ‘Needle Gun’, ‘Zarozinia’, ‘The Demise’, ‘Sleep of a Thousand Tears’, ‘Chaos Army’, ‘Horn of Destiny’.
Forgotten Vinyls 
It’s a fine 80s Hawkwind album, isn’t it?
You probably know this, but there was a previous Michael Moorcock / Hawkwind collaboration: Warrior on the Edge of Time about which I wrote an interminably long piece a while back.