Warrior Soul - History

History

Geffen directed Clarke to shed his hired band and get new players. Clarke insisted on keeping Pete McClanahan as his bass player, and recruited guitarist John Ricco and drummer Paul Ferguson. The band began to play in New York City in 1987, releaseing their debut album in 1990. By the time the band recorded their second album, Drugs, God, and the New Republic, Ferguson had been replaced by Mark Evans. The band toured the album heavily, including an opening slot on Queensryche's world tour (with whom they shared management in the Q Prime agency). After their third album and fourth album failed to do well commercially, the band was dropped by Geffen, and lineup changes ensued. Drummer Evans departed, replaced by Scott DuBois. Longtime guitarist Ricco was ousted, replaced by two guitarists: Chris Moffet and Alexander Arundel (aka X-Factor). This lineup produced one album, 1995's Space Age Playboys, which also failed to attract much attention. Arundel and longtime bassist McClanahan quite the band, leading in short order to Clarke's decision to retire the band later that year.

In 1996, Odds & Ends was released as a collection of demos recorded on an eight-track with XFactor, and leftover material that was originally intended for release on Elektra Records.

The "classic" lineup of Clarke, Ricco, McClanahan & Evans would later reunite in the studio to re-record 15 of the band's songs, released on Spitfire records as "Classics" in 2001. All Warrior Soul albums were remastered and re-released on cd in 2006, including with some bonus material (mostly live songs originally released as b-sides). The first three albums were also re-released on vinyl in 2009.

Clarke says many of their songs are politically based, such as "Blown Away", "Superpower Dreamland", "In Conclusion", and "Children of the Winter." Clarke describes the band's sound as "acid punk", particularly their The Space Age Playboys album.

Drummer Mark Evans was murdered in London, UK in 2005.

Clarke took two years off after the band's breakup and release of Space Age Playboys, and moved back to New York, forming the short-lived band Space Age Playboys. In 2004, he released a spoken word solo album, Opium Hotel on Cargo Records. Soon after, Clarke was asked to join Dirty Rig as singer. He also co-produced their 2006 album Rock Did It. 2008 saw him join Chicago doom metal band Trouble on tour as lead singer and front man. Kerrang! magazine reviewed the show as KKKKK (5 Ks).

In the later 2000s, Kory launched a new lineup of Warrior Soul, with new members Janne Jarvis (bass) and Rille Lundell (guitar). The band initially toured smaller venues through Europe, but by 2008 were touring larger UK venues, with shows at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London, and the O2 Academy Glasgow. The band also toured the UK with thrash metal band The More I See and released a live album, Live in England. In March, 2010, the band released a new album, Destroy The War Machine. Originally released in 2009 as "Chinese Democracy" as a taunt to the continually delayed release of the Guns and Roses album, the title was changed to avoid legal problems.