Warrior Soul gets ‘Elected’ Now vote him out!

Warrior Soul gets ‘Elected’ Now vote him out!
WARRIOR SOUL have released a music video for Alice Cooper’s ‘Elected‘, the song taken from the forthcoming covers album ‘Cocaine And Other Good Stuff‘, which will be out on November 13th, 2020 via Livewire/Cargo Records UK.

 

 

 

Kory Clarke – “We wanted to make a record that was not about all the crap we are all living in, as it seems like a well worn path for . So, I had to think out of the box“.

The album was recorded all over the western world (Edinburgh – Scotland, Newcastle – England, Copenhagen – Denmark, L.A. – USA, NYC- USA, Chicago – USA, Detroit – USA, Sheffield – UK, Costa Blanca – Torrevieja – Spain) in home studios.

The idea for a covers album started when mainman Kory Clarke was contacted by legendary rock photographer, Alex Ruffini‘s brother, enquiring if Warrior Soul would record a cover of a KISS song, which was Alex Ruffini‘s favourite band, for a tribute in aid of Cancer Research. Warrior Soul recorded ‘Cold Gin‘. Once the band started recording, it sounded really positive and they decided to assemble a complete record of covers ranging from Motörhead to KC and the Sunshine Band.

Kory Clarke – “I contacted many of the musicians who have played with Warrior Soul recently and asked if they wanted to be part of it – everyone was very much up for it and ready to go. We called John Dryland at Livewire/Cargo Records, and he said ‘of course, go for it‘, the irony of recording ‘Good Times Roll’ during a global pandemic really works as you can hear the sneer of sarcasm right through every chorus!”

Warrior Soul / Facebook

Singles Club – Rocktober second sitting

Singles Club – Rocktober second sitting

Thee Headshrinkers (Shrink Ray Records) slap on some reverb and hit those cymbals Thee Headshrinkers are here to ‘Save Your Life’ with a groovy lick on the guitar and a song that indeed lies somewhere between Mark E Smith fronting The Cramps and poison ivy joining The Fall and just rocking out without a care in the world. To flip this bad boy over you get more of the same with ‘Head On’ sounding like it was recorded by Ron, Scott, and the Iggster, and even they were too fucked up to remember where they left the tapes. Excellent songs and a great vibe coming out of thee Headshrinkers I particularly like ‘Head On’ they should tour with Thee Hypnotics when COVID fucks off they’d be a lot of fun methinks.  get it Here

 

WARRIOR SOUL – ‘Elected‘ (Livewire/Cargo Records), the track is taken from their covers album called ‘Cocaine and Other Good Stuff‘, out in November ‘Elected’ is the first peek into the album and to be fair to Kory who is no stranger to a cover after tackling some quality songs previously taking on the ‘Coop is a no brainer. Maybe bludgeoning down the smoother edges of the original Warrior Soul have left in those cool horns and knocked out a very decent ‘Elected’ to be fair. Kory turns in a very tidy vocal as well to be fair.  If you want to hear it before you pick up your copy of the album stream it here

 

Zodiac Panthers – ‘Black Leather Heart’ (Bandcamp)  Cheeky artwork to accompany a gloriously bubblegum Poppin slab of loud, fun punk rock n roll.  Zodiac Panther sounds like Turbonegro when they were kings of everything sleazy and garage punk rock. But there’s a healthy dose of Ramones going on as well but these cats have got it going on and if there is an album heading our way that pulls together this along with the Hexray Vision stuff then they are onto a winner and its something we would need to hear otherwise what’s the point this stuff could very well be the magic potion that fights off this pandemic. Rock and Roll baby and we fuckin’ like it!

zodiacpanthers.com / Facebook / Instagram

 

 

Teen Creeps – ‘Seeing Shapes’ (Pias)  Harking back to a sound that filled every student uni certainly in America with the likes of Dinosaur Jr or Buffalo Tom with a healthy dose of mid-period Lemonheads thrown in for good measure.  Teen Creeps have absorbed the lot and gone down the Teenage Fanclub route of writing a decent song with what they have and ‘Seeing Shapes’ is what spilt out in the studio.  this is the first single from the album ‘Forever’ that’s set for an early 2021 release and if this is the benchmark then I’ll be having some of that along with many others.  top tune. Facebook

 

Mad Caddies – ‘House on Fire’ (FAT WRECK CHORDS) 25 years and still standing this Californian band had some big plans for this year (Pre Pandemic) it’s not all bad though because the band were able to work on this EP (their first new music in six years) and finally they finished recording and got the damn thing released. Opening track is a gentle commercial number.  The band refers to it as punk rock turned ska and that’s about the size of it.  With one eye on the commercial success, they’ve hit a winning formula and the band’s horn section run riot here ‘Waiting For the Real Thing’ is pure pop.  I think they’ll be adding a whole heap more to their half a million sales with this. In these dark times, it’s a little ray of sunshine for sure.

 

 

J. Graves – ‘Deathbed’ (Illumin Records)  Call me lazy call me what you like but J Graves reminded me of PJ Harvey. Certainly on first play but there’s more to this than sounding like someone else because ‘Deathbed’ is a gutsy introduction from the repetitive guitar lick to the guttural howls on the chorus to the trashy drum beat its got something and I like it.

Portlands Jessa Graves has the talent and the post-punk rattle of ‘Time Travel’ has a real vibrant DIY feel to it and the X-Factor of it being a bloody good song.  ‘Lo The Morning’ is the third offering and proving that the first two are no flunk. wrapping up the EP is ‘331’. interesting, experimental and above all good. pick it up here at  Bandcamp

GILBY CLARKE ‘Tightwad’ (Golden Robot Records) ‘Tightwad‘ is the latest single from Gilby Clarke, and the follow up to his recent singles The Gospel Truth and Rock n’ Roll Is Getting Louder. It was written around a guitar riff he wrote while trying out a new fuzz pedal. Lyrically, it was inspired by deceit, treachery and the creative extremes people will go through to get ahead. Tightwad features Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx on bass and Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction) on Drums. Facebook

 

 

 

 

KING BULL – ‘What Happened Here?’ (Riot Records) Boundless energy and guitars that are louder than everything else x 10.  Nowt wrong with that for us.  Canada’s King Bull has got a pocket full of catchy hard rockin’ tunes born in the ’70s and fueled by a fuzz box guitar and a bad attitude.  ‘Secret Sauce’ reminds me of another tune but I can’t quite put my finger on it. This EP gets better the more you play it and the songs get better as the EP wears on ‘Dontcha Know’ is wonderfully flamboyant from the guitar lick to the vocals its a ripper.  I’m only disappointed there isn’t a full-blown ballad on here but these five will keep me going as they save the best ’til last with ‘B Side Baby’ being the pick of the bunch and makes you want to punch the air in some arena wearing the silk scarf you picked up off their merch table.  Thoroughly enjoyed check em out! Facebook  Pre-order/save What Happened Here? HERE

Warrior Soul – ‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ (Live Wire/Cargo Records)

Warrior Soul – ‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ (Live Wire/Cargo Records)

“I fucking love Kory Clarke.”

There we are folks; I just felt I needed to get that off my chest and nail my flag to the pole with this review from the off.

You see it’s almost impossible for me to feel any other way about a man who with Warrior Soul has  released some of the most important politically charged metal our generation has ever had the honour of hearing plus along the way he’s also given us one of the greatest glam punk albums I’ve ever heard in the shape of ‘The Space Age Playboys’. This is an artist who is always reinventing himself and always looking for boundaries he can break down in the process. He’s also as cantankerous as fuck, and I kinda like that in my rock stars.

With this in mind then I’m almost embarrassed to admit that after many hours spent in the company of ‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ (the band’s 10th studio album to date) I’m still kinda left scratching my head a little.

I’ve lapped up everything Kory has released since getting Warrior Soul back on the road and with their last album ‘Back On The Lash’ I was left in awe of the power and energy the band had managed to cram into that release’s 9 tracks. Warrior Soul really had never sounded so vibrant or essential.

With the PR blurb for ‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ proudly proclaiming that Kory had used the same team behind ‘Back On The Lash’ to deliver this 8 tracker and with the man himself declaring it to have the loose vibe of its predecessor but with everything pushed to “over the top”, you’ll forgive me if I admit to letting out a little squeal of excitement at the prospect of what might be.

Then, why after all of this and after listening to this half hour of all new music from Warrior Soul am I still not feeling the same buzz as I did when I first heard ‘Lash’?

Opener ‘Up The Dose’ is a magnificent way to start a record, it’s an immediate right hook to the jaw just to get you interested, and indeed it’s very much a continuation of the strutting cock ‘n’ roll that made ‘Lash’ such an instant hit with me. Here Kory screeches like a wild cat and everything in the Warrior world seems fine. Likewise, on tracks like ‘Off My Face’ (which is probably my favourite track here), ‘War Ride Children’ and ‘After The Show’ the band certainly rip along at a fair rate of knots. It’s just that with repeated listens I get a little perplexed that the bottom end needed to actually force this fucker down your throat seems just a little lacking. Yes Kory turns in a mighty fine performance as does the band, but I can’t help but wonder what the hell has happened to the drums? They pinned you to the wall on ‘Lash’ but here they appear somewhat muted, and given that Kory himself is a very fine drummer this comes as something of a surprise, and yes for me it’s a frustration, albeit a small one.

This is still very much a Warrior Soul record though and that alone makes it better than 99% of the beige shite that pollutes the metal/classic world right now, it’s just that right now I’m simply not warming to it as instantly as I have with the likes of ‘Destroy the War Machine’, ’Stiff Middle Finger’ and ‘Back On The Lash’, all of which I consider to be up there with the band’s much revered first four studio albums.

Perhaps I just need to stop being such a pernickety old sod and simply go down a few cold ones whilst listening to ‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ at maximum volume like I imagine Kory would demand me to, because after all I love Warrior Soul and I love Kory Clarke and a world without either would certainly be a very boring place indeed.

‘Rock’n’Roll Disease’ is released via Live Wire/Cargo Records on 7th June 2019.

Author: Johnny Hayward

Buy ‘Rock n Roll Disease’ Here

Warrior Soul New Album and European Tour

Warrior Soul New Album and European Tour

Comin’ in again with all guns blazin’ – WARRIOR SOUL have a new record ‘Rock n’ Roll Disease‘ set for release on June 7th 2019 via Livewire/Cargo Records. The album is the follow up to last year’s very successful and critically acclaimed, raw and raucous ‘Back On The Lash‘ release. ‘Rock n’ Roll Disease‘ promises to turn out to be a real stormer.

 

“We are going for the same feel as ‘Lash’ but honing it in more and picking it up a bit. ‘Back On The Lash’ was raw, fun and loose, this is too, but we are pushing it all over the top” says main man Kory Clarke – Clarke is using the same writing and playing team in the studio as the ‘Back On The Lash’ release ensuring continuity and allowing him to keep hitting his current rich vein of form – Song titles include ‘Up The Dose’ and ‘Off My Face’ – Oh yes, if you wanna start your Summer rockin’, go out and get a ‘Rock n Roll Disease‘.

 

The album was produced by Kory Clarke and Adam Arling. Mixed and mastered by Miguel Martins and engineered by Adam Arling. Album artwork was made by Mark Procter.

WARRIOR SOUL ‘Rock n’ Roll Disease‘ European tour dates 2019:

15/05 The Cult, Nürnberg, DE
16/05 Wild At Heart, Berlin, DE
17/05 Lemmy’s Bar, Bad Friedrichshall, DE
18/05 Rockjungfer, Arnstadt, DE
19/05 De Verlichte Geest, Roeselare, BE
22/05 MTS Records, Oldenburg, DE
23/05 Alter Schlachthof, Eupen, BE
24/05 Markt 17, Huckelhoven, DE
25/05 Oefenbunker, Landgraaf, NL
30/05 Iron Road, Pershore, UK
31/05 Olby’s Sould Cafe, Margate, UK
01/06 Camden Rocks Festival, London, UK
02/06 Private Showcase, London, UK