Hall Of The Mountain Grill - HAWKWIND***

The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke)/Wind Of Change/D-Rider/Web Weaver/You'd Better Believe It/Hall Of The Mountain Grill/Lost Johnny/Goat Willow/Paradox

Hall Of The Mountain Grill is considered to be the most consisted album release of the space-rockers Hawkwind. Here they embrace a harder rock approach with glam influences. (US:110 UK:16)

“This album is more progressive and psychedelic oriented than space rock oriented. Some may even say that this is more commercial than their previous albums but I don't see this album that way. A highly entertaining LP with lots of powerful songs.”

“Although Hawkwind's previous two studio albums were excellent, neither succeeded at capturing the power and might of their live set; Hall Of The Mountain Grill, however, pulled this off masterfully. The album juxtaposes some of the most complex and intricate material they had cooked up to date, like the title track, with some of their heaviest rockers, like the Lemmy penned Lost Johnny.”

“Hall Of The Mountain Grill is utterly superb, hard-hitting astral rock. While Hawkwind's earlier albums were heavy but more cosmic, here the band have adopted some hard rock and glam influences, with more bite to the riffs and less ethereal vocals. This is evident form the opener Psychedelic Warlords, which mixes folksy space-rock with harder edged glam. An epic tune, one of their best.”

“The openers of each side rank among my favourites of the band and the album has a good flow to it. It's a solid slab of 70s hard rock, which is something I usually don't like. This has just enough spacey bits and psych touches to make it stand out.”

“Overall, the album has a clear, crisp and fittingly spacious production quality, thankfully not tipping over into an echo-drenched mush, each instrument clear and distinct. If you love space-rock, this is an essential album for your library.”

“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 their later works. For a Hawkwind beginner I would suggest this album as a taster, and you can hear the new direction that the band were heading in.”

“Most of Hawkwind's records have a tendency to sound very muddy and not very varied. This is an exception, a good hard rock psych album that sounds good.”