The five-year span between Warrior Soul’s 1990 Last Decade Dead Century debut, 1991’s Drugs God And The New Republic, 1992’s Salutations From The Ghetto Nation, 1993’s Chill Pill, and 1995’s Space Age Playboys bespeaks a fascinating continuity. You can hear the curve. If the debut had that trippy Doors feel to it, complete with singer/songwriter Kory Clarke’s spoken-word poetry and his angry politics, by the time he was a Space Age Playboy, he just wanted to rock ’n’ roll. In revisiting all five releases for digital re-mastering sessions, Clarke considers the criminally ignored body of work as, “obviously cohesive yet I got a lot of criticism,” he says, “for not sticking to one certain kind of style. I always argued that [eclecticism] is my style.”

A clue to the key that unlocks the secrets of Warrior Soul is in the extreme projects Clarke undertook in his native Detroit and then in New York City. Whether drumming for The Trial in 1982 while showing stolen autopsy footage from the Detroit Morgue juxtaposed with McDonalds commercials and hardcore porn or his one-man performance art gallery openings in Soho where he’d read his poetry amidst flickering images of Nazi atrocities and Flintstones cartoons, Clarke brought that sensibility with him to Warrior Soul. “I figured I’d go for broke because who the hell was gonna sign an artist like me? Then when I got signed,” he explains, “I figured I’ve got to go as far as I can.” Vocally, there’s no known precedent for Clarke’s caterwauling. The cat can sing. If you had to, you could draw a direct line from Johnny Rotten to Clarke, except, of course, Clarke has the far superior pipes. In fact, taking it one step further, there are those who wondered what all those wonderful Bowery bands from 1977 would’ve sounded like in that initial intoxicating rush of heady punk rock furor had they really been able to play their instruments.

The Answer: Warrior Soul

Clarke’s mix of his more mysterioso tendencies and his politically-charged yowl of discontent predated such metal protesters as Rage Against The Machine’s Zach de la Rocha and Korn’s Jonathan Davis who took their anger all the way to the bank and who copped some of Clarke’s more obvious moves in the process. Warrior Soul, then, is the antecedent to the politics of the nu-metal generation. “I fought harder than anybody for truth,” Clarke says, “and everything I warned about has come to pass…and more.” So with bassist Pete McClanahan, guitarist John Ricco (replaced by Peter Jay, then X Factor) and drummer Marc Evans (replaced by Scott DuBoys), Kory Clarke (“it’s impossible to keep a band together over a five-year period when members start flipping out when the band doesn’t break big”) proceeded to tear down the wall of rules surrounding what you do and what you don’t do upon being signed to a major. These five albums are testimony to that vision. They don’t back down. They’re like an indisputable chain link fence between the ‘60s artists who mattered, ‘70s punk, ‘80s nihilism and ‘a twisted ‘90s go-for-it-all aesthetic that cannot be denied. It’s a body of work too good to be ignored any longer. It’s an all too-common scenario: like great art that’s bedeviled upon inception yet heralded decades later, Clarke’s five-headed hydra of albums spans the gamut of what good solid rock ’n’ roll is supposed to be all about. A little dangerous, incendiary, provocative…

In 1990 Warrior Soul unleashed an uncompromising and quite stunning debut album in the form of ‘Last Decade, Dead Century’ with it’s storming opener ‘I See The Ruins’ just rolling out of the speakers as a massive ‘Fuck You’ introduction the band, the whole album has a serious groove that can’t be denied or explained, the album came out in a period that gave us Mother Love Bone from Seattle who were like the heads to Kory’s tails, but MLB front man bit the bullet and never got out alive, while the remains of MLB went on to Pearl Jam and the rest is history. But in 1990 Warrior Soul, like White Zombie, were the band you either loved or hated, you simply got it or you just got nothing, and no matter where you looked there was zilch. Punk Rock n Roll was what we needed, the rock scene needed an enima and little did we know that a boy from Detroit Rock City through New York City was about to blow! Standout cuts on the record are the laid back melancholy rock of The Losers which we all could associate with, and the outro song Downtown which we all played loud putting on the war paint, drinking 20/20, and smokin’ Marlboro’s; ready to cause mayhem around the local club scene, and of course nothing was better than rocking out to Trippin’ On Ecstasy this was an introduction and seduction all in one. (5/5)

The ’91 follow-up was more streamlined - no poetry. It’s harder, heavier, faster and made its points in a more succinct way. It’s tighter, as if Clarke just gave his sound a haircut. “I just wanted to frame it a little bit more,” he says. “The debut took two years to write. I wrote six of the songs alone. On the follow- up, I produced and co-wrote, and you can hear the difference when I blend my ideas within collaboration.” He was not wrong, and arguably this was THE rock record of 1991. Nothing, but fucking nothing came close to this, the sublime opening cut Intro with it’s ‘We are the government’ chant just sounded off to a lost generation looking for freedom, looking for something of their own, it segwayed into Interzone which is an obscure Joy Division track and it never sounded like this. It was the record that not only defined their sound but re-defined the whole rock scene; nothing else sounded like this; they were in a league of one. Standout tracks are the albums title cut, which just rolls along and sucks you in, Rocket 88 which is a call to arms to everyone fucking up and fucked up, Hero which is The Losers Pt II; there just to show you that you can go through shit and come out winning; and of course the killer Rock club track Wasteland which we all screamed for and got fucked up on the floor by dancing like banshees on acid. This sound was so good loud that it made you want to kill, fuck, drink, live, die, every emotion, ‘no mother fucker’s going to tell me what to do!’ It became a badge. (5/5)

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In 92’ Warrior Soul was on the brink of either world domination or self destruction, and no-one seemed quite sure which way it would go. But the third album ‘Salutations From The Ghetto Nation’ did little or nothing to either detract, distract or confirm anything. As a listener you just don’t care… The opening track ‘Love Destruction’ says everything you want it to; get drunk, get laid, drive fast, to young to die, too old to change. I distinctly remember my muse and nemesis Jayne screaming ‘I don’t take lip, I bow to no one’ full up in my face, middle finger in the air. This was one of a batch of new songs the band had played when I caught them live for the first time - they always were better live than on record. Other highlights on this album are ‘Shine Like It’ which has a groove more akin to the debut, ‘Punk & Belligerent’ which was another fist-fucking and throwing anthem. It provided yet another reason to get drunk, get high, get banned; we were fast running out of places to go; and indeed substances and liquid to provide the ride. ‘The Golden Shore’ showed the mellow side of the band, it was the Sunday morning coming down song, the one to play while sitting on the beach watching the sunrise after another rock and roll night out on the tiles. This album confirmed the band as major players, it was the closing of a chapter; the third in a line of three; next time around, it had to change… (5/5)

The ’93 effort contains the most muscular kick-out-the-jams guitar riffing of the five. It’s a headbang treasure that has the guitars jumping forefront out of a clean production that locks in on every hi-hat ping. Deeply satisfying, thoroughly groove-laden, Clarke glides above the mix without losing his righteous indignation. “Geffen dropped the ball on that one,” Clarke ruefully says. “That’s why I went to war with those assholes.” ‘Chill Pill’ in fact was the opening of a complete new era and viewpoint and direction for the band. It’s my least favorite of all Warrior Soul albums and yet it’s still a killer record. But sometimes change must come from the barrel of a gun and that change is clearly evident on the opening track ‘Mars’ Kory seemed to get clear vision; got a look from the outside in; it seemed like he knew he really had one more shot at the last chance saloon, and was going to take the bull by the horns. The production is more up front, the vibe is now rock, the groove is still loose and free, but there is a deeper sense of Soul, and maybe the political element took over. But there is a message. In the UK it’s always strange to look across the Atlantic with anything but revered distance and often distaste, but there was not one UK act that was matching anything Warrior Soul had done previously, let alone in 1993. Once again choosing standout tracks is hard, but if pressed I’d say ‘Song In Your Mind’ with its bass line opening and heavy groove certainly was a radical departure, and the lyrics just say so much ‘I’ve seen it all before.’ ‘Shock Um Down’ was more of a throwback to previous record; it was the pissed-up singalong; but it felt like Kory was almost saying, ‘yeah, I can do this stuff till’ I bleed or die, but I’m worth more, you deserve more, so lets give them more.’ ‘Concrete Frontier’ is the introspective, out-looking, thought provoking gem on this record; it feels like 1967 in 1993, a social statement nobody wanted to hear. This record is perhaps the hardest to grasp, but it’s certainly worth reaching out for. (4/5)

It would be two years before another album would see the light of day, but boy was it worth the wait. 1995’s ’Space Age Playboys’ was the sound of a project hitting its peak, nothing before and nothing after would be as good as this. It was streamlined Soul focused and fucking hostile, and was almost like the first three records combined into one. Rock was changing yet again, Korn and Limp Bizkit were ready to unleash a whole new direction on the scene, and both bands owed much to the pathway forged by Kory and Zack from R.A.T.M., but for a second time Warrior Soul had made THE record of the year. Once again nothing came close, it was the sound of a band imploding and exploding and like any comet blowing out dust, it was a joy to behold. The live tour took them all over the UK. I saw them three or four times on that tour, man they rocked like fuck, they were the best night out of your life; you screamed, you danced, you drank, you fucked; everything in the world seemed right when Kory sang. This record continued the theme of killer opening songs; ‘Rocket Engines’ strapped you in and let you know this was a ride that would either make you or mame you, in fact it did both! Standout tracks are almost impossible to choose from this record, it’s a fucking best-of while missing some of the best Warrior Soul songs. The whole record just rocks like fuck, like getting into the car and taking it to 100 mph straight out of the drive, then not stopping till you pull back in; like going from 1st to 5th and then 5th to 1st, no gears in-between. I can only choose personal fave’s that mean so much to me for various reasons, including ‘No, No, No’ which just summed up where I was with ‘They say no one loves you, so what, they say you’re going somewhere, so let’s go’ no-one did and I was… ‘Television’ with it’s refrain of ‘I got a vision, television’ just seemed to be the opposite of everything I did. ‘The Pretty Faces’ how could you not scream ‘Were in love, were in love, were in love with ourselves…’ But the song that stood out then and meant so much, and even in 2006 screams out, is ‘I Wanna Get Some’ a shout out for all those to shake the ropes, to make the dream a reality. Many would say the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ by those who know, know what I mean? There are also very few better closing tracks than ‘Fighting The War’ the title said it all and was a fitting closing to the Warrior Soul chapter. (5/5)

The band continued metamorphosing into the albums title track for the next project, but it never felt the same. Kory has done solo projects but they lacked the gang mentality of Warrior Soul. One hopes that these five re-issues, which all include extra live versions of various tracks along the road, serve not only to remind us of how fucking great this band was, but also to remind Kory and maybe, just maybe get the Soul of Warrior back in the saddle. And just to scream at him as loud as I can, ‘One More Time, Just One More Time.’ Warrior Soul may yet live again but, for now, we have these five incredible statements of pure needle-to-the-arm adrenaline. The only thing missing from these re-issues is the visual treat that was the band - maybe we can get a DVD of all the bands promo videos with a live gig, or songs from various points done live? It would serve to be a final fitting lid on this artist’s output. If you consider yourself a fan of rock music you need these albums in your collection, they stand as testament to great times, great days, but also are still as relevant and fresh as they were then. Kory meant every word, and he sang those words as no-one else could. Warrior Soul may not be the best rock band ever, but they certainly can stand head-to- head with all the rest, and never has the word essential been so appropriate.

‘They say you’re going somewhere, so let’s go…’ Sometimes it tastes even better a day later…

Jj - 2006