Monday, December 9, 2024

Warrior – The Complete Sessions (HNE Recordings Ltd.)


 

Warrior was a band that briefly existed back in the early 80s.  It involved three members of New England, and Vinnie (Cusano) Vincent on guitar and vocals.  This happened during the time Vincent Cusano was still working with Kiss, but hadn’t yet joined them.  At the same time, he was trying to get a band going.  Gene Simmons put the two parties together, and music was starting to take shape.  Cusano was never happy with his vocal delivery brought in Robert Fleishman, and Fergie Fredriksen on vocals.  Many demos were recorded, and the group spent some serious time rehearsing.  All of it came to a stop when Cusano was offered a membership in Kiss, and adopted the Vinnie Vincent persona.

This three CD set highlights all that might’ve been.  Warrior was a band that existed roughly 90 days.  Never took a band photo together, they didn’t even have a logo.  All that is seen here was simply developed for this reissue.  The recording here was never meant to be an album, those were just demos and rehearsal recording to guide the songs into their final stage.  This stage never materialized for Warrior, but it’s a good document for everyone to enjoy.

Some of these recording later showed up on Vinnie Vincent Invasion record, but this shows the birth of this material.  The quality of the recordings varies, as many of these pieces come from various sources, but it’s a great document for the completists to have.  It is very nicely put together with some informative notes from Malcolm Dome.  Also, around the same time, there was another band from Los Angeles called Warrior, they eventually released an album by 1985.  This Warrior however had strong Kiss ties, and musically did not resemble the other band.  The Complete Sessions is a great look into making a band that never got a chance to take off.

Mark Kadzielawa

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