Hawkwind
Warrior on the Edge of Time

Release Date: 1975 | Tracklist

“Warrior On The Edge Of Time” is the fifth studio album of Hawkwind and was released in 1975. The line up on the album is Michael Moorcock, Dave Brock, Nik Turner, Lemmy, Simon House, Simon King and Alan Powell.


As many of we know, Hawkwind is a British group, one of the pioneers of the space rock music whose lyrics are essentially about urban and sci-fi themes. We can even say that Hawkwind was probably the most famous underground rock band in the world, in the 70’s. The group was formed in the end of the 60’s and always was led by his vocalist and guitarist Dave Brock. It was also the band of Lemmy, he joined Hawkwind in 1971, before he founded Motorhead in 1975. “Warrior On The Edge Of Time” was the last Hawkwind’s album with his participation, which was really a pity. Hawkwind's music incorporates different styles such as psychedelic rock, progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal. Indeed, Hawkwind was always a very special and unique band in the panorama of the progressive rock in the 70’s.

“Warrior On The Edge Of Time” is a very special album into their long and rich musical career and it came to be considered by many the musical pinnacle of the entire band’s career. Indeed, the band’s fifth studio release turned out to be their most ambitious album ever. The cover of the album that folded out into a large shield shape was just the first clue. In reality, never before or after that had Hawkwind, or any other group for that matter, better blended such old fashioned fantasy elements with so futuristic sci-fi and space elements into their music, as they did. By the other hand, the musical material on the album, and not at least the musical arrangements, was some of the group’s best ever.

For the lyrics Hawkwind hired sci-fi writer Mike Moorcock to help them with some lyrical concept and to read several poems, in between the tracks, on “The Wizard Blew His Horn”, “Standing At The Edge” and “Warriors”. In reality, the lyrics are based on the concept of Moorcock’s, “Eternal Champion”, which is a fictional creation of the author and is a current feature in many of his novels. Moorcock is an English writer primarily known by his sci-fi and fantasy novels.

About the individual tracks, the two opening tracks “Assault and Battery – Part I” and “The Golden Void – Part II” float into each other and these are probably Hawkwind’s most majestic and biggest sounding tracks ever. The musical arrangements here have to be heard to be believed. Tons of mellotron and you know that I love the sound of it, synthesizers and distorted saxophone and flute create a very unique sound that actually sounded like no other band. The guitar is toned unusually much down here, but it would be more dominant in the sound later on the album. They’re really two amazing tracks. Then we have “The Wizard Blew His Horn”, a short poem read by Moorcock. After the short poem we’re then taken straight away to space in the hypnotic, energetic and dreamy instrumental “Opa-Loka”. The first side of the album ends with “The Demented Man” which is another of those lovely acoustic Hawkwind’s tunes where the band really managed to keep the obligatory space feel. The side two begins with the energetic “Magnu” which was the first track on the album to feature a quite heavy riff, but it was actually more dominated by House’s excellent violin playing. This could very well be his best performance on a Hawkwind’s album. Then we’re getting more poems by Moorcock on “Standing At The Edge”. Next we have another spacey, synthesizer drenched instrumental track with “Spiral Galaxy 28948”, which shows the prototypical psyche usual stuff of Hawkwind with an added nuance of density. The next track “Warriors” is the third and last track with the narrative segments. “Dying Seas” is also a good and futuristic dark space rock with sci-fi sound effects. It ends the fantasy oriented main body of this classic album. The album closes with “Kings Of Speed” and this catchy and straight forward hard rocker which was chosen as the single from the album. It’s more typical of Hawkwind’s proto-punk style and is quite similar to the bonus track “Motorhead”.


Conclusion: As I wrote before, I think “Warrior On The Edge Of Time” can be considered the pinnacle of Hawkwind’s musical career. It represents also my first contact with the band and it’s also my favourite album from them. Dave Brock himself regards “Warrior On The Edge Of Time” as the band’s crowning achievement and most progressive rock fans rates it next to “Hall Of The Mountain Grill” as Hawkwind’s best album. So, we can say that it’s commonly accepted that “Warrior On The Edge Of Time” is without any kind of doubt one of the many classic albums of the 70’s. Especially, the lovers of space and progressive rock will cherish this album. If you are new to Hawkwind, “Warrior On The Edge of Time” is without any doubt one of the first albums you should check out from them. It became a truly landmark album of early space rock time. The band was on their peak and certainly on their most symphonic, thanks to the presence of Simon House and some real inspired songwriting. Listen for yourself and find out whether I was right or wrong.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

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