Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
Sometimes you need a bit of ass kicking punk rock and roll to enable you to scream and shout and smash things up.
If you’re looking for the soundtrack for that sort of destruction, the new Warrior Soul album is exactly what you need, the brutal mix of raw power and attitude enough to cause a revolution or bring down a dictatorship.
Helmed as always by the talismanic Kory Clarke, the New Yorkers still know how to tear things up and ‘Out On Bail’ brings enough spit, spirit and melody to become your next big fix.
Thrown off kilter by its atmospheric opening of clanging bells and something that sounds like Gregorian chants, ‘We’re Alive’ soon flips into a spiralling guitar pattern and full force drums, Clarke’s broken glass gargle wonderfully reassuring. A pure adrenaline rush, this slams into you and sweeps you up with the euphoria.
Big, heavy and with a beat born for the highways, ‘One More For The Road’ is like Warrior Soul’s glorious take on Motorhead’s ‘We Are The Road Crew’, its granite heavy impact an unstoppable steamroller of sound. Spitting fire, the polemic ‘Hip Hip Hurray’ dances on your face as the guitars of Dennis Post shred, Clarke’s lyrics equally eviscerating.
When Kory sings “I’m out on bail and I’m look for you” on the titular ‘Out On Bail’ it sounds like a promise, not a threat as the snotty nosed, glammed up punk of the music bringing to mind Guns ‘n’ Roses at their most feral and dirty but pushed to the max.
‘Cancelled Culture snarls and ‘End of the World’ shows that when the take their foot off the gas a little, Warrior Soul are still able to impress mightily, it’s delightfully psychedelic 70’s guitar motif sprinkling magic whilst still ballsy.
Loose limbed and with a great bass throb, ‘Yo Yo’ is another blast of wild energy and it’s just down to the huge, climbing and cataclysmic ‘The New Paradigm’ to bring the album to a suitably shuddering and breathless climax.
Clarke is an original and never less than brutally honest, his raw lyrics and commitment to the material drawing you in and dazzling you.
Whilst the unrelenting salvo of atomic bomb sized riffs and the blitzkrieg of the bass and drums do massive damage, it’s the intelligent and razor wire sharp lyrics that really slice and dice with the deadliest effect.
A perfect brew, Warrior Soul have created ‘Out On Bail’ to be one of their most incendiary records yet and they’ve achieved this in no uncertain terms. One listen makes you want to go out and tear down the walls.
Tracklist:
1. We’re Alive (Arling/Clarke) 5.10
2. One More For The Road (Post / Polachek / Clarke) 4.07
3. Hip Hip Hurray (Clarke / Post) 3.33
4. Out On Bail (Hodgson / Clarke) 4.20
5. Cancelled Culture (Polachek / Clarke) 3.41
6. End Of The World (Kimmett / Post / Clarke) 4.50
7. YoYo (Clarke / Peter Jay) 4.40
8. The New Paradigm (Mark Gemini Thwaite / Paul Raven / Clarke) 4.35
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