Is Warrior Angel still unknown to you? Well, no worries I and the CGCM have you covered! Welcome to Warrior Angel, and the journey of one man’s pain, loss, and sorrow. Blend that with some great music, and you have a great album, that you won’t want to miss out on. This is Warrior Angel – Griffin 1.29, Chapter 2.
Looking Back
You may not be familiar with this band, or its music. Well, let me first direct you to Chapter 1 of this journey. Back in July of 2019, I first discovered Warrior Angel, I quickly wrote up a review to tell people of this album. I’d like to suggest you give that a look through here, and then listen to the whole album of Chapter 1 before proceeding.
All done? Great, let’s get started.
The Journey Continues
First off, we have a track “Airborne”. Penned back in the Warrior days, but unreleased. reworked, and reimagined for the Griffin project, it’s a great intro. Angry, and guitar-driven is the best way to describe this one. It sets the mood and gets you prepared for what’s to come.
While the overall feel of Chapters 1 & 2 is a dark subject, you do have some terrific guitar work from Trevor Jackson, and “All Time Low” is no exception. Dusan sings and the grief, despair, and pain can be truly felt in the atmosphere here. Powerful voice paired with the instrumentation here, and the production skills of Michael Shotten (Von Groove, Boston, The Outpatience, and The Spoons)
Beauty In Togetherness
“Come Back”, is a self-explanatory title once you are aware of the album’s concept. A heartfelt song, longing for one more chance at togetherness. This is a beautiful ballad of an all too often combination of love and misery.
True bitterness and anger appear on “Don’t You Cry”. One can listen to this song, and wonder if it’s one talking to themselves subconsciously, or maybe a voice in their ear from the other side. Regardless of your take on it, it’s a great concept of a song, and so well written it’s scary to think that Dusan awoke with most of these songs from dreams fully composed from lyrics or musical composition.
Steps of Grief
Anger at oneself and trying to get long after a tragic loss is a normal step in dealing with grief. “Why Don’t You Fight” is a clear example. Is it anger at yourself for noticing that you’re not moving on with life since your still you’re still amongst the living? Or is it anger at the one that you’ve lost for not fighting harder? One of the lines in the album says, “from the darkness to the light”, and this could signify coming out the other side of the devastation, or again it might mean something like going from the darkness of the sickness and passing into the light where the pain and suffering are over. However, one might interpret this message its something that I think we can all relate to if we’ve lost someone close.
Reality Revisited
Now time for the second song that was originally a Warrior song. “Fantasy Reality” has some terrific musicianship here. Not exactly sure who played the drums on this track because we have Michael Shotton drumming on a few tracks, Terry Rainer is listed as a guest drummer, and, we have Rick Anderson also having time on the skins. Whoever plays here, absolutely killed it. This track has a metal vibe still like the old Warrior days but fits the album’s concept well.
Charging guitars coming at you like a freight train kick off “I’m Still Standing”. Sitting at track #7 on Chapter 2 we have passed the midpoint of the album, and by now you can really feel the concept of the steps of grief are coming to an end and acceptance of what has come to pass. You can tell that he is starting to come out the other side of this story. The pain never really goes away for anyone in this matter, but we all learn to live with it and deal with our daily matters. As the song says, “So we fight to the end, with the passion we have. That love will bring us together again. That sorrow and pain will never go away, but maybe love will bring again”
No More Crying
Rounding out the album are the songs “No More Crying”, and “Round and Round”. The first is a great guitar track. With a wailing sound emanating from the guitar, and the hammering of the drums, this track is probably one of my favourites of the album. After the intro, it picks up back and is a real burner of a track.
“Round and Round” is a great way to finish the album. Great guitars and writing once again rear its head. Even if you find the subject matter a little heavy, it’s a great way to finish things off. After all, we all are just going round and round on this little blue planet, we all live on. Again, as the song states “we will meet again somehow, and we go round and round, and we will share our love again”
Psycho Thoughts
Yes, the concept of this album is grief, loss of love, and the despair that one feels going through this tragedy. If you can’t get behind that, simply enjoy the album for what it is. A great hard rock, the guitar-driven album with exceptionally well-written songs. Some say there are stages to dealing with loss. Is it therapeutic to get those feelings out with music, or just torture to relive the experience? For now, I hope not to ever have to find out, but if I do, I can put on this album and know I wasn’t the only one.
Check out my video interview with Dusan posted below!
Peace and love!
Trevor “Psychoone” McDougall
Buy Music – Warrior Angel Store
Furthermore, check out all my reviews: Trevor’s Archives
Email Me at: Trevormcd@cgcmrockradio.com
Tracks
- Airborne
- All Time Low
- Come Back
- Don’t You Cry
- Why Don’t You Fight
- Fantasy Reality
- I’m Still Standing
- No More Crying
- Round and Round
Band
- Dusan (Nik) Nikolic – Singer / Songwriter
- Michael Shotton – Drummer, Producer, Engineer
- Don Baird – Keyboards
- Lorne Sokoloff – Bass Guitar
- Trevor Jackson – Guitars
- John DeAlbuquerque – Guitars
- Terry Rainer – Guest Drummer
- Rick Anderson – Sound Engineer and Mixing
