Search - Hawkwind :: Hall of the Mountain Grill

You'd Better Believe It---this album kicks!

Robert Cossaboon | The happy land of Walworth, NY | 09/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the record store I stood and on a whim I figured I'd finally buy a Hawkwind album, since their legend had persevered through decades. I asked the record store guy where to start, since the Hawkwind catalogue is intimidatingly immense. Without hesitation, he whipped out this album and said this was the absolute best place to start. And so for you who have yet to discover Hawkwind like I have recently, BOY ARE YOU IN FOR A SURPRISE. This album is a fine balance of introspective mellotron drenched songs and caveman stomp. These songs are beyond the heavier stuff of Space Ritual and Doremi Fasol Latido. The opener, 'Psychedelic Warlords' comes across like a slick/apocolyptic BOC song, a desert hallucination if you will. To continue the desert mood, is "Wind of Change", my favorite song on the album. When there are comparisons to King Crimson being made, this song is one of the reasons why; both cosmic and ethereal, it is one of the most gorgeous mellotron songs you will ever hear. 'Web Weaver' is a nice piece of accoustic, pseudo-Pink Floyd psychedelia. Other more ballsier songs are the awesome guitar driven 'You'd Better Believe It', the phazed, metallic psychedelia of 3D-Rider, the short (comparably) but punchy 'Lost Johnny' (the rhythm part is definitely a template for many of the glam-metal bands to come a decade later), and finally the mind blowing 'Paradox' where you will hear this heavy, heavy distorted rhythm guitar duel it out with a mellotron! There are two more mellotron-dominated songs: the pastoral 'Goat Willow', which which features a sci-fi sounding synthesizer, a harpsichord, and a synthesized flute, and the title song, which has a nice piano duet with the mellotron (and that sci-fi sound again in the background) along with a string section. The bonus tracks are mostly edited down versions of the album rockers. "It's So Easy" has a heavy Mott the Hoople feel and is an appropriate closer for this remastered album. Although notorious for heavy sci-fi themes (which I suspect is what queered their chances of mainstream acceptance), the science fiction takes a back seat to the musicianship. This is an album by a band at the height of its powers of creativity."

Heeeeeee! Space

Mark Champion | San Antonio, TX United States | 12/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Now THIS is good. Not only did Hawkwind still have Lemmy, but they went and got ex-High Tidesman Simon House and incorporated fiddle and Mellotron (YAY!) into their already voluminous wall of sound. The spacy whooshiness of DOREMI FASOL LATIDO morphed into a more 70s proggish atmosphere- -probably inevitible given the new instrumentation and Zeitgeist (heh heh)- -which served the band well. Some of the Hawkers' best material is here: Nik Turner's 'D-Rider', Lemmy's own pre-Motorhead 'Lost Johnny' and the stunning, live seven-minute hooter 'You'd Better Believe It', the title of which is probably good advice coming as it does from the ragged throat of Mr. Kilmister. The bonus tracks aren't absolutely essential (the mediocre live 'It's So Easy' was the B-Side to a tragically truncated 'You'd Better Believe It') but still nice to have around, and some of the tracks ('Psychedelic Warlords', 'Paradox') lumber on longer than they really need to. But the Hawkwind of the 70s never strived for economy anyway, and anything worth doing is worth over-doing, eh? Besides, the shorter instrumental tracks, especially House's title track, make up for it. Play this back-to-back (or side-by-side) with 1975's WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME and see what happens."

The best hawkwind album ever

J. M. Baines | australia | 03/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"growing up in the seventies near Glastonbury meant lotsa hawkwind. My school had regular trips to glastonbury,reading etc. For anyone who can recall the lovely Stacia doing her thing this album must bring a smile. We added a whole chapter to The legend of BeanzonToste, i've got it somewhere.

this is the quintessential hawkwind album, plenty of that ethereal space rock sound. The grill has it all from the pounding heavy metal of the earlier Space Ritual through to the gorgeous synth washed sounds that would define later works like spirit of the age. For an Hawkwind beginner i would suggest this album as a taster, although you can hear the newer direction that the band were heading in. Does anyone remember the Hawklords ?"