WARRIOR SOUL – Back On The Lash (2017)
Always fronted by riotous singer / songwriter Kory Clarke, WARRIOR SOUL are releasing today “Back On The Lash“, their new studio album. While nobody can really blame Clarke for dropping out of the fight every few years to mop up the blood and give his embattled liver a brief respite from further punishment, now is probably the most crucial moment this band have ever had.
He always warned about a fascist, warmongering USA, and now he’s got one. If rock ’n’ roll’s angriest man was ever gonna rally the troops and bring truth to power, the time is now. So this better be some album. And it is.
Perhaps the most focused blast-cannon of steely-eyed sleazy-metal since WARRIOR SOUL 91’s Drugs, God And The New Republic, “Back On The Lash” is not a political screed by any means, it is simply and inexorably rock as f@ck.
Heavier than a hammer to the skull. Sleazier than Times Square in the summer of ‘77. Badder than ol’ King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog. I think that’s the trick here: hook the kids with the hard stuff and then recruit ‘em for ongoing culture war.
The title track, which comes complete with the opening line: “last night’s hard to remember, but I am sure I was a smash” hides it’s message that it is tricky to adjust to real life from the road with its nihilistic thought “crash, crash, let’s get smashed.”
‘I Get Fucked Up’ would in other hands be something a little airheaded, but here, with Clarke sneering that he drinks to avoid ‘the fascist 9/11 lies’ (he also wages war on the “biggest dicks on Wall St” and “Country Club assholes”) it is clear that it is a little more than just another punky rock song.
It is that too, of course, but that’s always been the way with the best of Clarke’s work – ‘The Wasteland’ in 1991 was a wonderful example of this – and there are many more.
The mid-paced ‘Further Decay’ is a chance for reflection, a warning of the perils elsewhere in the lyrics perhaps, that said, ‘Thrill Seeker’ is everything you’d want and more. As snotty as you like, it sees everyone dropping E’s and “sleeping with whores” as often as they please.
‘Going Broke’ has a kind of Sabbath vibe about it. The insistent urgency, the fuzzy licks. It just ensures there are no let ups here. ‘Black Out’ is another strong cut here, almost an updated version of Love / Hate’s classic “Blackout In The Red Room.”
One of the best, though, is ‘I Got The Rock’. Clarke gives his war stories from the road – and in the way he delivers them would make Lemmy proud as he sips on a JD from wherever he is. Like the last song here says, “that’s how we roll.”
“Back On The Lash” is the best WARRIOR SOUL record in Lord knows how long. It is the best thing Kory Clarke has been involved in since the Space Age Playboys record in 1994.
It is also why we would respectfully suggest that he’s wrong on the second point. You can save rock ‘n roll. If records like this exist, that is.
01. American Idol
02. I Get Fucked Up
03. Back On The Lash
04. Thrill Seeker
05. Goin’ Broke Gettin’ High
06. Black Out
07. I’ve Got The Rock
08. Further Decay
09. That’s How We Roll
Kory Clarke – Vocals
Stevie Pearce – Guitar
Christian Kimmett – Bass
BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Lash-Warrior-Soul/dp/B076LF1Z31
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