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Gunslinger Unlawful Odds Review by Gary Hill I love Alan Davey’s current band Gunslinger. This live album is their latest release. Really, the band seems to merge Hawkwind and Motorhead sounds. That makes sense because Davey held the bass spot in Hawkwind (that had been held at one time by Lemmy) for a very long time and he’s a huge fan of Lemmy and Motorhead. It’s not like I’m calling out a description that Davey himself hasn’t made, because he’s said it himself. Whatever you call it, though, this is a killer live recording from a great band. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Boot Hill This is just a short instrumental bit that serves as an introduction.

All The Way They power out here in a smoking hot jam that’s got a lot of power and a lot of cool to it. Motorhead is a valid reference, but there’s more of a Hawkwind kind of vibe to it. Of course, both those things are standards with Alan Davey. We get some cool psychedelic guitar soloing on this tune.

If The Bombs Don't Get Ya, The Bullets Will This one links directly to the previous one and Davey’s bass guitar just kicks into overdrive as this tune powers out like crazy.

Blitzkrieg Baby The bass guitar on this is very much in keeping with early Hawkwind and in a lot of ways, while this is still furious, it’s got more Hawkwind type sound than it does the harder rocking Motorhead-like sound associated with a lot of Gunslinger’s music.

Shellshocked While the general motif isn’t changed a lot here, there’s a killer instrumental section that features an almost psychedelic sounding guitar solo. This is another high energy Gunslinger rocker that’s very cool.

Savage Love If you want something that feels a lot like Motorhead, this would be the one. It’s still not a slam-dunk match, but it wouldn’t take a big leap of imagination to mistake this for Motorhead.

Don't Need You Alan Davey’s bass starts this off in style and it thunders out from there. There’s a bit of a punk rock vibe to this, but the guitar solo brings in more of that psychedelic texture. Davey really rules this thing, though.

Warhorse While this thing has a heavier, nearly metal, sound than anything else here, the changes and some other elements still keep it along the lines of Hawkwind-like space rock meets heavy prog. It’s really one of the highlights of the set. There are some awesome bits of instrumental interplay later.

A Shot In The Dark There’s almost a “Secret Agent Man” vibe to a lot of this. It’s a smoking hot instrumental that really showcases all the cool sounds that make up Gunslinger. It’s an instrumental.

Going After The Kill This powers in much like a Motorhead tune. It’s a smoking hot number.

Night Song 2 (The 2nd Cumming) There is definitely a Hawkwind sort of element to this, but combined with some serious Motorhead sound. Of course, that’s such a natural combination for Alan Davey.

Cyanide More of a psychedelic rocker, I love some of Davey’s bass work on this and there’s a tasty melodic guitar solo in the midst of the piece. This is a great tune.

Hymn Of The Wild There’s a real retro hard rocking vibe to this, combined with the same Hawkwind meets Motorhead sound heard throughout. It’s a higher energy number and another killer. It’s clear that Gunslinger does not let up, even when they drop it back for some atmospheric weirdness and a short drum solo midtrack.

Gunslinger Here we get another screamer that’s got a lot of Hawkwind set into it. It’s a hard rocker that just powers forward in style.

Night Song This screamer is a great way to end it and features some awesome bass work.

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