More chemicals required
Chill Pill? No,no,no, what these guys needed after a poor and rather one paced third album was some good amphetamine! Did they get it? Well almost (maybe they just took half?).
What is immediately evident from the opening track 'Mars' is that the energy has returned to Warrior Soul. The pace of the tracks is not dissimilar to the third album but they have much more urgency in the delivery and a darker feel that gives them the character and dynamics that were lacking for much of 'Salutations from the Ghetto Nation'. 'Cargos of Doom' for example wouldn't sound out of place on a Sabbath album and that's a vast improvement from the Motley Crue sound of the previous long player. The vocals are also much improved and are delivered with what comes across as a really heartfelt intensity.
Where 'Salutations from the Ghetto Nation' was far too one paced, 'Chill Pill' delivers a good variety of speeds and styles but this brings new problems. As with the first album it seems that the band are struggling to decide what direction to take and end up having a go in all directions and instead of making the album interesting it makes it rather jumbled and disjointed. Overall the songwriting still doesn't measure up to 'Drugs, God and the New Republic' and it's frustrating that they never capitalised on the excitement of that album.
There are however some good highlights, not least 'Ha Ha Ha', which is a great big growling metal monster that once again shows that when on form Warrior Soul had the ability to really engage and rock out. As a counter though songs like 'I Want Some' are very standard in all departments and just wash over. It finishes with 'High Road', which despite featuring some decent harmonica accompaniment is over six minutes long and just trundles along at a slow pace not going anywhere.
A frustrating fourth album that falls somewhere between albums two and three, reaching the neither the highs of the second or the lows of the third!
The bonus live tracks are the usual low quality fare but for once there is a potentially interesting addition in an interview with main man Kory Clarke and drummer Pete (who quotes straight from Bad News "let's pop some pills and get completely out of control!"). However it's not an interview, it's just a recording of them in the studio messing about and calling each other wankers, hardly insightful or interesting and pretty pointless. Yet another opportunity missed to include something of real interest to fans in this re release series.