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Warrior Soul |
IF
YOU don't know the score by now, then let me refresh your memory.
Warrior Soul are not a band that you scoot on down to the Marquee to
have fun with. No way matey, there is nothing as vacuous as bubblegum,
throwaway or - for God's sake - fun about Warrior Soul. The sound of
these four guys locking musical heads is not for the faint-hearted or
party-minded.
Tigertailz will never support Warrior Soul, and that's official! What we have here is a band and a sound which transcend everything you might preconceive as rock, which takes our music into a whole new area, a whole new disturbing dimension. Don't get the wrong end of the stick; Warrior Soul in themselves are not unique or original. After all, Jaz Coleman and Killing Joke have ploughed the self same furrow of intense, guitar-laden disturbing music in the past, and scored with an altogether different audience. However, Warrior Soul are introducing this rock, both forceful and brutal, to a virgin Metal audience - and therein lies the rub. How many people in the Marquee tonight noticed the Joy Division cover slotted surreptitiously into the set as early as the second number? Mot many, I'll be bound, and this proves that all the stuff that the "bangers might dismiss as mumbo jumbo, all the "political shit', could well work on a subconscious level". |
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vocalist Kory Clarke, resplendent in grey dinner jacket (very cool),
doesn't labour the lyrical intricacies of his songs tonight, but lets on
enough to get at least me thinking with "Blown Away" and it's
expose of the power of the drug barons being in the hands of those who
warn us vehemently against it!
That's the cool thing about Kory and his vision of a rock netherworld which doesn't consist solely of nubiles banging rockers 'til their ears bleed. Preaching is kept to a minimum and the rockin' action up on stage is enough to make the unconverted by their own record and do their thinking in the bedroom. Warrior Soul have not the balance right, because the politics is no excuse for a shabby live act. In fact, if anything , it's just the reverse. I came tonight liking the album more than a little but thinking that it lacked a really awesome feel that would make it stand proud as a bona fide classic. I left the Marquee believing Warrior Soul to be a special band indeed. We're talking heavy. Frighteningly, monstrously heavy, with Mark Evans drums, and bassist Pete McClanahan frilling out yet still keeping the beat nailed down hard and low. And what can you say about half-caste guitarist John Ricco? That such intense sounds should come from one guitar, and with such taste to boot, is proff positive of the man's stature. The guy pulls it all off to perfection, from the Page homeage of "The Losers" (complete with twin-neck) through the wah-wah assault of the Cult's sanctuary that is "Trippin' On Ecstasy and on to snortin' grinder and the new song titled "Jump For Joy (The World Ends)" . Good. Very good. Couple all the band's attributes with a sound which finally did a Marquee band justice and you've got a show with all bases covered. The place wasn't what you'd call the packed to the rafters, although Metallica's Hetfield and Ulrich lend a hand., but if Metal fans like you can disprove the notions that we're all a bunch of thickos next time around a heroes' welcome awaits -HOWARD JOHNSON |
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