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.
Forgotten Vinyls 