Hawkwind
The Chronicle Of The Black Sword

THE REVIEW

In the 1980s, as everyone knows, metal was born with the work of Iron Maiden. Like all new and commercially successful music genres, it quickly became almost a craze. Many, in fact, copied the idea and sounds. Thus, the essence of the album “The Chronicle of The Black Sword” is illustrated. In fact, the record seems to be composed by an Iron Maiden cover band.

All the rhythms are the same, so much so that, right after the first track, they become tiring and nauseating.
Guitar solos with typical Iron Maiden style, even in this case, after hearing the first one, the others can no longer be listened to because they are too heavy to digest.
Let's not even talk about the lyrics, all the same as well, with choruses that repeat the same line obsessively.
The album is absolutely unlistenable, plus between one song and another, there are instrumental interludes that make it even more insignificant, annoying, and tiring.
All this that I have just described is already found within the first track, “Song of the Sword”. All the other tracks are exactly the same, you wouldn't believe it, but it’s true. Only three tracks deviate significantly from the guiding line of Hawkwind's work. In fact, the second and fourth tracks, namely “Shade Gate” and “The Pulsing Cavern”, which are absolutely instrumental, create an atmosphere with sounds typical of Alan Parson, so much so that if inserted into one of his albums, no one would notice the difference. Finally, there is the seventh track, “Zarozinia”, the reason why this album deserves such a high rating. Practically there is only the keyboard holding two fixed notes throughout the song, with a very delicate and pleasant voice and a very distant guitar giving the final touch. In short, the only episode of the whole record made really well and especially with feeling.

In fact, the impression one gets listening to the album is that it was made without anyone in the project really believing in it, but rather that it is the result of a careful and well-studied commercial operation of the era, in which it was decided to make money regardless of the quality of the product.