Hawk

This album, often showing influence from both Dio and hard rock, take these in an interesting direction based on an inability to fall in love, and conviction that love is a lie. This is far more consistent on this record than might be expected within a hard rock-esque approach. While it is at times mitigated, this kind of thing does generally speaking tend to be kept as a theme, leading to a slightly less bombastic and more 'metallic' form of hard rock in some ways, which allows for the Dio influence to show through in a fairly coherent manner, adapted to the music. It generally focuses on the more cutting instrumental segments and harsher vocal possibilities within this hard rock genre, which makes it stand out from most of that genre, and of interest to fans of metal.

Due to the guitars taking on a slightly lower and more focused, at times atmospheric, progression, the vocals and such are more free to vary from expected patterns, and take on a more colloquial or spoken-word rhythm. This fuels songs like the slightly bleak 'Perfect Day,' with its refrain line, 'Another perfect day,' of course being found later on as the name of a Fates Warning song on their 'X' album. It has a nice reference to observing a hawk flying, something reprised in the also serious, 'Into the Sky.' Generally, the band is quite free to communicate or speak in a frank or cynical way, which helps the album, as does the slightly harsher instrumental tendency. The guitar solo on 'Can't Fall in Love' is actually surprisingly distinct, and quite impressive for this genre.

Some songs can get across their point slightly unconventionally, like 'The Dream,' which despite its slightly desiring theme is nonetheless quite cynical. It's quite melancholic in a way - they have a half-dream interaction with a female, who seems to be perhaps alright with them, but then wake up and this female seemingly gets married to someone else, while they are 'alone.' The chorus, 'she was alone,' and finally, 'I was alone, through the night-time,' etc., serves as a slightly subtle theme for this kind of song, and it takes on a depth and calmness more characteristic of progressive genres, but nonetheless carries this off to some extent. It also portrays whispering voices during a verse, conveying the sense of paranoia and perhaps vulnerability to mockery incurred by the speaker. They note that, despite this possible rendezvous, 'I was alone, yes I have been through the years,' which leads to a fairly unique and interesting take on the genre.

Other songs, like 'Fades So Fast,' and of course 'Can't Fall in Love,' are more blunt. The former is about leaving someone because 'love is a lie,' the latter what it sounds like, and elaborated to the point of being quite impressive. 'Fades So Fast,' involves some interesting tempo changes, with a slower approach allowing for some interesting heaviness and prog-like use of keyboards, before speeding up to stress the title's theme of how 'love's feeling never lasts / It always fades into the past,' to form a fairly sophisticated and solid song. This kind of cynicism makes the song 'Into the Sky,' with its hope akin to bands like Sapphyre of seeing 'the future in the sunrise,' more impactful as a sort of movement from such themes to look at a more serious hope and aim. It features some interesting synergy between vocals and guitars, especially early on, which helps getting its theme through in a cutting manner. While slightly pessimistic, nonetheless it sees the future in the sunrise, or a hope that may be pursued or which forms a guiding light. A slightly similar attitude is expressed in 'Victims,' which involves as mentioned a slightly colloquial shift into the chorus from an account of some form of argument with some female followed by, 'Let me explain,' which is highly effective. It discusses how people are not the victims 'after all,' and hence their confidence in the future in some manner repudiates something like a victim mentality which does not put things in perspective by this look forwards.

A highlight, 'Can't Fall in Love,' lists many different types of people they might be expected to be attracted to, and repudiates them. As they note, adding further approbation to their account of such females, 'But when the push got no shove / I can't fall in love.' While still slightly ambiguous in this, it is generally speaking quite fervent and concludes its chorus later on with the simple, 'I can't fall in love.' It also involves some slightly clever lines on their part, such as, 'Others are so possessive, you can have those I don't care.' The drama reaches a climax of sorts when they note, 'I still remember the last time / I almost gave it all away,' but despite these cunning mechanisms - as they are portrayed for humour - of love, they nonetheless still had no interest in love. The song takes a more cutting angle on usual hard rock-esque riffs, at times resembling NWOBHM, which allow for it to make this fairly stirring and allow for more 'attitude' and sharpness from the vocalist.

All in all, this album by Hawk is a highly impressive exponent of the genres that it's associated with, and its slightly harsher take on this gives it an interesting coherence and at times sophistication which eludes most others working with hard rock-tinged heavy metal. You should listen to this if you can't fall in love.

Best-known for his "Metal Method" guitar instructional videos in the 80's onward, Doug Marks has actually had a stint with a band simply known as Hawk. This glam-looking band had also featured Scott Travis of Racer X/Judas Priest fame as well as Matt Sorum, who is known for drum work for Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver and even Marq Torien of (eeewww....) Bulletboys. But none of the musicians mentioned above were involved in recording Hawk's only studio album in the 80's, its self-titled debut. While there are some influence of glam in it, there are also places in which we hear Doug Marks use his talent to his full potential in both soloing and riff making.

The band members kind of have a glam-like appearance, but some aspects of the music doesn't really suggest glam metal, even with the presence of synthesizers. In fact, the synthesizers actually help punctuate the music rather than create a glossy sound. That's cos the riffs aren't peppy or happy-sounding like a glam band. The synthesizers in the beginning of "Fades so Fast", for example, create a mystifying, fantasy-like sound, not unlike the music of Dio's solo band, even when the lyrics suggest a love song. What makes the song even better is the vocal performance of Dave Fefolt, who would eventually join Fifth Angel. After a minute and a half of the intro, the song then kicks into gear with a driving tempo and a chugging, rocking hook. My favorite song on here, though is "Witches Burning", which contains a sinister, evil-sounding hook most likely created using harmonic minor arpeggios. Because of this, we get a song that really puts you in the setting of the woods as a terrifying ritual is taking place.

Other songs on this album are a bit more obvious. "Tell the Truth" and "Can't Fall in Love" are perfect examples of the band's glam-like sound. They're your basic, generic, radio-friendly hard rock song that you might have heard before. Well, there are no synthesizers in either of those two songs, so I guess that's a plus. "The Dream", on the other hand, is a much better song, even if it's meant for the radio. The key in which the song is in creates a mystifying feel to it, suggesting a sort of dream-like setting. Again, it lacks the presence of a synthesizer, but if it were in there, it would have ruined the song, making it more of a predictable pop single of the 80's. I guess the more obvious songs don't come as a surprise judging by the band's appearance, all decked out in atrocious amounts of make up and one member even putting feathers in his ridiculously humongous hair. That said, those songs can be ignored in favor of the good stuff, like "Witches Burning".

The real focus in Hawk, however, is the fancy fretwork of none other than Doug Marks himself. You can hear him shredding away in parts of the song where you'd don't expect someone to shred, like at the very beginning of the song before the first verse. Sometimes he plays a little solo during the actual verse of the song, when Dave Fefolt takes a bit of a break. Before the first verse in "The Dream", the solo has a bit of a classical influence, as many solos from professional guitarists do. With that in mind, he isn't unique like Marty Friedman, who mixes Asian influences with classical music in his solos, thus giving them a distinct sound. Still, it's pretty cool to hear someone hit those notes with incredibly fast fingers. Not a whole lot of people could do that, especially among those who had favored looking popular in the hopes of selling records.

It's kind of a sad thing to know that Hawk had only one (two if you count "Let the Metal Live", released long after the band had split) album to its name. Sure, it's got its drawbacks, like the more predictable, radio-friendly tracks, but I personally feel that we could have had more come from Doug Marks other than his instructional videos. Are there or were there any ideas that he would want to show the world through an honest to goodness album? I'm sure he would have started an excellent solo career, like Joe Satriani, and showed off some of his riffing stuff. I would love to hear more songs like "Witches Burning".