Sonic Attack

There are some cracking tunes on this album, particularly the romping 'Angels of Death', 'Living On A Knife Edge', 'Streets of Fear', 'Coded Languages'(thanks, MM), 'Virgin of the World' and 'Rocky Paths'. The return of HWL brought the guitar up in the mix of these songs and the steady bass of HB made for an expansive, wide-ranging and tight set of tunes. Really great stuff.

Being one of my favorite Hawkwind albums, I love this remastered version of Sonic Attack, and it includes some interesting and excellent bonus tracks! It has never sounded better, and the bonus tracks are nice! I especially love the extra track "The End of Earth City". I definately recommend this to any Hawkwind fan!

Hawkwind at their finest

If you are debating which first Hawkwind album to buy may I recommend this. Lot's of Michael Moorcock on vocals. The music is not too heavy, but just enough. Synthetic noise abounds.

Sonic Attack is a great sample of the more stripped-down, electronic side of Hawkwind from the 80s. One of my personal favorites on here is "Rocky Paths", which was worked into their live album "Live Chronicles" (i.e. of the Black Sword). Please message me if your first name is Gary, and you played guitar and attended the Ohio State University around 1990-91, and you owned this album.

Sonic Attack might sound like a name of one of their endless (often useless) compilation albums, but it was actually an album of brand new compositions, with the exception of a reworking of the title track. This album was originally released in 1981 on RCA, during one of those times the band just witness yet another endless shift of personnell. At this point Ginger Baker and Tim Blake had left, with Martin Griffin returning, and Harvey Bainbridge now also handing the synthesizers as well as bass. Sci-fi author Michael Moorcock also guests on vocals on "Coded Languages" which comes to show the one thing he isn't particularly good at is singing. 1981 is smack in the middle of a big prog rock dry spell, but for some reason, Hawkwind was able to make it through that decade without any problem, as Sonic Attack is some of their most energetic and exciting works I have ever heard! Just listen to "Rocky Paths" and you'll know what I mean! The album seems to be a concept about the invasion of privacy, abuse of technology, the suppression of free thought, surveillance of the population, it seems to reek of George Orwell's 1984, but what really scary about this album (like 1984) is a lot of this stuff is coming true. Several songs addresses these social problems that seem to be coming true like "Psychosonia", "Living On A Knife Edge", and "Coded Languages". While many of the other progressive rock bands had pretty much disappeared by 1981, like Yes, Gentle Giant, ELP, or started turning to a less interesting direction, like Genesis, for example, I am amazed how this band was able to go through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and released great albums through each of these decades (but of course, Hawkwind had the habit of giving us a lot of useless compilations and live albums from tiny labels as well). Because of the fairly consistent work of Hawkwind that you can't claim with lots of other prog bands, it's no wonder why this band had kept such a loyal audience through the years (that's also a big reason why Ozric Tentacles also received quite a loyal audience through the years as well). If you're a Hawkwind fan, pick up a copy of Sonic Attack, you won't be disappointed!

I bought the vinyl LP of Sonic Attack and was disappointed. I have many of Hawkwinds albums and CDs from the early 70s to 2000's and I like all of them to some degree. This album had no memorable tracks and this is my least favorite Hawkwind studio album I own. I felt I was just listening to repetitive noise. "Warrior on the edge of time" and "In search of space" are my favorite Hawkwind albums. And there are many other great Hawkwind albums. I cannot recommend Sonic Attack.

The brave Hawkship sailed on through the 80s and 90s, even after it was fairly clear that their time had passed. Listening to Sonic Attack seems to confirm the suspicion that by this time, the silver engine had begun to sputter a bit. The previous year's Levitation (the group's last true masterpiece) was--and still is--a stunning testament to the band's resiliency. Sonic Attack is certainly entertaining, if somewhat inconsequential, and there are several excellent tracks that make the album a worthwhile effort: the blazing "Angels of Death" is an instant classic, while Huw Lloyd-Langton's aptly titled "Rocky Paths" smashes through the sound barrier at Mach 3; "Living on a Knife's Edge" and the Moorcock-penned "Coded Languages" also light up the intergalactic dustlanes with fiery guitar work and crashing synths. For hawkfans, it's another enjoyable trip, but the decision to rework "Sonic Attack"--how can you improve upon the original?--was a mistake, one which would ultimately lead Dave Brock on future Hawkwind albums into further self-parody. To be sure, Hawkwind certainly did far worse later on as they moved further and further away from the signature psychedelic space rock sound they pioneered in the 70's. Sonic Attack still finds the group in good form, even if it's quite obvious that Brock and crew were beginning to run out of ideas as the 80's dawned. Definitely worth hearing if you're a dedicated roadhawk.