Saturday, May 29, 2010

Warrior Soul Chill Pill

Word on the street was that Kory Clarke & Co. were so fed-up with Geffen Records' lackluster $upport, that they decided to record two records at once...The "art/experimental" record would go to Geffen to satisfy contractual needs & the "commercial" record would go to any number of major record companies who desperately wanted to sign Warrior Soul. "Chill Pill" is that art/experimental record that was supposedly going to be a bad product and end their relationship with Geffen.

Well...despite a lot of people's opinions that this was W. Soul's worst disc, it's actually very good. As is just about anything that K.C. puts out. The front & back cover feature only Kory Clarke, while the interior has a few shots of the other band members. Was this supposed to be a statement? A foreshadowing of the future? Not sure. But it is HIS band & the guy does what he wants.

The re-issued version has the 10 original tracks with 5 bonus cuts. The live extras are of bad quality but still interesting. And there's some hilarious drunken hijinks by the band members. Definitely worth listening to. At least once. Of the ten studio tracks, "Mars," "Cargos of Doom," "Song in Your Mind" & "Shock Um Down" all really stand-out. As does "High Road," featuring a guest turn on harmonica by Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks).

This entire album IS a bit of an art record. And there are many experimental-type sounds running through at least a couple of songs. It gives the record a drugged-out, spacey feel. But that's a good thing. Some of the other tracks are very-much punk in their attitude & feel. And a couple songs just pummel you with an all-out sonic assault.

Many W. Soul fans think that this was Mr. Clarke's weakest effort, but I disagree. It's not weak. It's experimental. It's not disappointing. It's art. And there's a big difference. Whether the band turned in a "sub-par" record on purpose or not doesn't really matter. Because there's enough good material on here to make it a very good record.
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1. Mars 2. Cargos of Doom 3. Song in Your Mind 4. Shock Um Down 5. Let Me Go 6. Ha Ha Ha 7. Concrete Frontier 8. I Want Some 9. Soft 10. High Road

wschilly

1 comment:

Brandonio! said...

Warrior Soul was very underrated metal band.I like this record too.I don't think it's too far off course from other WS albums.

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