Metal Overview: Motörhead (Part 3)

Welcome back to part 3 of my look at Motörhead, fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

We last left off at Snake Bite Love, an album that wasn’t horrendous, but definitely didn’t help matters for the band in the late 90s. With their relevance lowering in the eyes of fans, Motörhead needed a boost to get back into their good graces, and from the most unlikely of places they would receive such a boost. After getting some pep back into their metallic step, they would go on to create some of the best albums of their entire career. So without further delay, here’s my final look at Motörhead. Enjoy!

We Are Motörhead (2000)

Upon the arrival of the new millennia, Lemmy discovered that he was officially diagnosed with diabetes. After hearing the news, along with their fading relevance in the metal community, left him in something of a depressed state. As per the norm, fate arose in the strangest of ways....a wrestler to be exact. To be even more specific, Triple H. A lifelong fan of Motörhead, he called the band for their services, and in a short time became friends with the frontman. This friendship brought band some energy into the band, and gave them the drive to create their next album, We Are Motörhead.

Released on the 16th of May, 2000, We Are Motörhead is the sound of a band rejuvenated from the blows of the late 90s. In many ways, the album is a companion piece to Ace of Spades from 2 decades earlier: both albums are speed metal infused punk, with a dose of spaghetti-western vibes sewn into the album. Listening to this record, it’s great to hear Motörhead come back from such a rough time, and see their first offering of the new millennium do such a good job. As it’s Allmusic review states:

“..'We Are Motörhead' maintains the generally high standard of the band's second decade, and while there aren't many speed-freak theatrics...the grimy attitude that's always driven their best work is fully intact. Pared back down to a trio, Kilmister and company deliver a tight, blistering set that's both well-executed and typical of Motörhead's long since established sound..”

Best Track? Bit of a two way tie between the speedy See Me Burning, and a cover of the iconic Punk song God Save The Queen. The former is a great compatriot to much of the Speed Metal material on previous albums, and the latter is an appropriate tribute to The Sex Pistols (Much as I don’t like them or Punk in general). Together, these two track give what Motörhead is offering in this new age, and show that they’ll always be around the Heavy Metal community.

See Me Burning

God Save The Queen

Worst Track? We Are Motörhead’s only fault is it’s short running time. Clocking in at just 38 minutes, it takes at least 2 or 3 times to listen to for the album to stick into your head. The title track plays at the end, and you’re left wanting more. Despite this one catch, Motörhead’s first release of the new millennium raises it’s middle finger to the haters & the dissatisfied, and acts as an appropriate return to form. Next album!

Hammered (2002)

With a triumphant return to the metal scene, Motörhead was ready to go down the warpath once again, and tear everybody a new asshole. However, they had one last stumbling block, and that stumbling block would Hammered. Released on April 9, 2002, Hammered to me is the least offensive of the 3 bad albums of their career. Orgasmatron is listenable but uses the wrong style, and March ör Die is an abomination, but Hammered? To me, this album is a step or two behind the band’s first record of the new millennium, We Are Motörhead. Lemmy himself has always maintained that:

“..Hammered...I'm kind of ambivalent, it's up and down. There's some good tracks on it and there's some crap on it..”

For the most part, I agree. I’m a bit more merciful towards this album, as the music overall really isn’t terrible. While I wouldn’t call Hammered a masterpiece, it’s not a horrific abomination that should be shunned either. At best, Hammered is a mildly entertaining album with moments of “Meh”. At worst, it’s an album that teeters close to the razor’s edge of mediocrity, and all it would take is a small breeze to push it over the edge. Thankfully, there are a few standouts that
prevent Hammered from becoming mediocre, such as the thrashy Voices from the War.

Voices from the War

For those of you who are wondering: yes, later releases of Hammered would contain Triple H’s theme The Game, but I’ve gotten so sick of hearing that song, I’m not in the mood to talk about it apart from what I’ve said here. Am I saying that Hammered is required Motörhead listening material? Not really, but if it somehow crosses your path, give it a listen to. You might find something on it you’ll enjoy. Next album!

Inferno (2004)

We had Overkill/Bomber/Ace of Spades in the 70s & 80s, Bastards/Sacrifice/Overnight Sensation in the 90s, and now we have the beginning of Motörhead’s modern trilogy. Release on June 22, 2004, Inferno is one of the most blistering hot albums the band has ever produced. With the excellent but short 2000 album, and the fun but flawed 2002 release, the band need to get kicked in the pants, and kick their fans in the pants in the process, so that’s what Inferno accomplished. This pants-kicking was brought on by their new producer Cameron Webb. He told Classic Rock Presents Motörhead in 2010 that he had wanted to do something with the band for a long time, and said this:

“..I talked about how I wanted to make a really heavy record with them. That was a mistake, because Lemmy likes to play rock 'n' roll — he doesn't like to play heavy music — and he called me on it..”

Regardless of the snafu, both sides decided to work with one another, and in the process produced one of Motörhead’s most heaviest albums in a while. In a interview with Mikkey Dee on the Inferno bonus DVD, he sat that Webb:


“..pushed us a little more. He wasn't intimidated by our rock star moods..”

Lemmy added:

“..That was a great thing, 'cause Mickey can be really intimidating and so can I, and Phil [Campbell] can be really violent..”

Motörhead admitted that they made Inferno the same way as all their other albums — at the last minute — by renting a big rehearsal room in Los Angeles and writing songs for about six weeks and, after a week break, recording them while they're still fresh.

Best Track? Bit of a tie between the thrash rhythms of Fight, and the concluding track Whorehouse Blues. Fight is a song geared heavily towards warfare, with the listener encouraged to take arms & fight back against the enemy. However, with a few changes, you could hook up this track to any struggle you might be going through. Whorehouse Blues is unusual in the fact that it’s not metal at all, but is highly reminiscent of old-school Country Blues. All 3 band members are on guitar duty, and Lemmy manages to get in some harmonica playing towards the end of the tune. Pretty much everything on here is fantastic, but these two tracks are the face of Inferno.

Fight

Whorehouse Blues

Worst track? Nothing! Inferno is the first perfect record of the new millennium. It’s a far meatier record that We Are Motörhead, and has essentially none of Hammered’s flip-flop vibe. A great start to a fine trilogy, and one that is essential for those walking the path of Motörhead. Next album!

Kiss of Death (2006)

What Bomber was to the band’s original trilogy, Kiss of Death is to their modern trilogy. Released on the 29th of August, 2006, Kiss of Death is the 2nd album to be produced by Cameron Webb, and continues to embrace the heaviness of their previous record. Motörhead had some guests come on this record in the form of Mike Inez (Alice in Chains) & C.C. Deville (Poison). In turn, the album would go on to reach no. 4 on Germant’s music charts, the highest Motörhead entry ever in that country, and would be the last time that artist Joe Petagno’s work would be on the front cover.

In general, Kiss of Death was received fairly well, but 1 review in particular intrigued me as I researched the albums. On Drowned In Sound’s review, it suggested that Motörhead is not a band that focuses on innovation and progression and that they are happy doing more of the same and their fans are more than happy to receive it, this album being no exception. However, the review says that the songs are:

“..twelve slices of good old-fashioned, foot-stomping, fist-pumping rock ‘n’ roll..”

The review goes on, warning the listener not to assume that the material is boring as Motörhead still manages to:

“..slay most of the shit out there..”

The review also reminds listeners that:

“..Motörhead are living hard-rock legends..”

It continues on, stating the lyrics are as entertaining as ever and that with Lemmy's style of singing, coupled with a:

“..plethora of insanely catchy twelve-bar riffs that most bands would happily die for, the album is yet another timeless Motörhead classic..”

Best Track? While essentially everything on here is great, my guilty pleasure comes in the form of the band’s cover of Metallica’s Whiplash. Available only on the limited edition, Motörhead’s seem to have a reverence & respect for their compatriots, as the band doesn’t really try to mess with the established formula that the song already made. Lemmy’s crooning adds a age to it, make it their classic as much as Metallica’s.

Whiplash

Worst Track? Kiss of Death’s only kink in the armor is the fact that it’s sandwiched between two monster albums. As such, this record’s become something of a diamond in the rough, and has become an underrated album in the process. If you’re fond of more underdog-like CDs, Kiss of Death might be the one for you. Next album!

Motörizer (2008)

If Ace of Spades was an appropriate capstone for Motörhead’s classic trilogy, then Motörizer is a great concluding record for their modern trilogy.  Recorded over the winter of 2007/2008, and released on the 26th of August in 08, Motörizer saw the band working with Cameron Webb once again to produce the album. As with their previous 2 releases, the band spent a few weeks over a couple months practicing, then would head into the studio to finally record. This would become the norm for the band at this time, as by this point Lemmy’s health was bad enough that traveling outside of tours was not in his best interest (More on this below).

Reception for this album by fans was great. It debuted on the billboard chats at no. 82, peaking at no. 2 on the UK’s Rock & Metal Charts, and no. 5 on Germany’s  'Offizielle Top 100' & US Independent charts. Motörizer didn’t really affect the general public, but truthfully, I think at this point they’ve probably become too jaded. Motörizer, like Inferno & Kiss of Death, comes across as a return to what made them so great in the first place: balls out rock ‘n’ roll, badasses on stage, and a level of quality that few other metal bands have ever gotten close to.

Best Track? Teach You How to Sing the Blues is a song that every twat with his pants halfway down his waist should listen to, or for that matter.......any so called “man” should sit down & have this going right through their ears! It’s the kind of song that teaches boys how to be gentlemen, treat women right, and knowing when to throw down when they have to. Even if you’re already a well-made member of the masculine gender, you’ll still find it to be awesome. Lemmy’s vocals are crisp, Phil’s guitar work is great, and Mikkey Dee is a wiz on the drums. Definitely one of their best!

Teach You How to Sing the Blues

Worst Track? As with so much of their discography, nothing on Motörizer is trash. A great record in it’s own right, and a great capstone to their modern trilogy. Next album!

The Wörld Is Yours (2010)

Released on December the 14th of 2010, The Wörld Is Yours is as much a Motörhead album, as it was a tribute to Ronnie James Dio (Stated my Lemmy himself). Continuing their relationship with Cameron Webb, the album was unusual for the fact that it was originally released as a ecolbook for a special edition of Classic Rock magazine, with the standard version released a few weeks afterwards (February 8 of 2001, to be specific). The band embarked on a world to promote the album, starting with dates in the UK a month before the album came out, a 27-day tour in the states, and even a 4-day tour in Australia. To help promote The Wörld Is Yours in the US, Motörhead appear on Conan & Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, playing the popular track Get Back in Line at both venues.

Reception for The Wörld Is Yours was generally very positive. Though most reviewers cited the fact that the album sounded very similar to many of their past records, in general they liked it. Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic said it may be remembered as Motörhead's "ultimate 'rock & roll' album". Express.co.uk summed up the album as being "every bit as noisy and scary as anything they’ve produced over their 35 years". Dom Lawson of the UK magazine Classic Rock considers The Wörld Is Yours "one of the finest of the lot" of 20 albums the band produced, praising the production skills of Cameron Webb and the band in "supreme form (...) as they blaze through some of their strongest material in years".

Only one album I found had anything negative to say: Alexis Petridis of Guardian.co.uk said of the album that those who purchase the album will not do so "in the hope of being surprised or baffled".

Best Track? Outlaw kind of drew my attention when I first heard it. It’s something of a copycat though: Outlaw drew influence from Dogs of War off of Snake Bite Love, which in turn took it’s influence from Deaf Forever off of Orgasmatron. On the one hand, it’s cheap that a band like Motörhead would have to use older material to make something new. On the other hand, Dogs of War & Deaf Forever are fine tracks, and using them as a basis isn’t necessarily a crime in my eyes. I understand why some of you wouldn’t like this track because of this, but for me I don’t have a problem.

Outlaw

Worst Track? As I was listening to this album, I’m thinking to myself that something’s off. I’m not exactly sure what it is. The instrumentation’s intense. The vocal work is great as usual, and the overall CD is badass, but I swear that something’s missing. Maybe they forgot to add something, or they didn’t put enough of something in. As with Snake Bite Love from part 2, if one was to stretch out what albums could be considered bad.......The Wörld Is Yours could be put into that category. Next album!

Aftershock (2013)

During their tour with Megadeth back in 2010, Motörhead had to cut the 2nd half short so Lemmy could get a pacemaker attacked to his heart, but did that stop him? Hell no! The guy might be part cyborg, but that doesn’t make him any less of a badass! In fact, once he was better, the band went back to the studio (With producer Cameron Webb, of course) and created a fine album by the name of Aftershock. Released on the 18th of October in Germany, with a further release for the rest of Europe on the 21st, and finally a North American release on the 22nd, Aftershock was yet another album that didn’t make much of an impact on the general public, but was a record that fans loved.

Aftershock was generally well received & reviewed. Hank Shteamer of Pitchfork Media stated that despite the 3-year gap between albums, the record wasn’t anything new. Regardless, he called the album "deeply satisfying and frequently thrilling" & concluded his review saying “In theory, what the band does might seem overfamiliar, but in practice, it's a minor miracle that they're still doing it so well”. It might be a minor miracle, but in it’s first week in the states it sold 11,000 copies, and managed to get to no. 22 on the Billboard 200. An impressive feat if you ask me!

Best Track? Essentially everything on Aftershock is fantastic, no question! However I’ve got 2 personal favorites in the form of Lost Woman Blues & Keep Your Powder Dry. The former is exactly as it sounds: a soulful blusey number, filled with the emotions of a love that has long since moved on. It’s a slow song for the most part, except when at the end it picks up speed for a satisfying conclusion. The later is a song that’s guaranteed to induce headbanging in a 5-mile radius. It’s got a Hard Rock vibe throughout the piece, and the song has a nice old-school attitude that’s just fantastic.

Lost Woman Blues

Keep Your Powder Dry

But again, listen all over this album! Practically everything is great from top to bottom, and there’s nothing bad in sight! With a merciless assault compared to their last record, Motörhead dusted themselves off yet again, and continues to flip the haters off. In fact, Aftershock could have been the start of an even more modern trilogy of album......but sadly, this was not meant to be. Next Album!

Bad Magic (2015)

As 2013 continued onward, Lemmy’s health continued to deteriorate. Bandmates & close friends noticed that something was definitely off. He certainly didn’t help himself, as he continued to use drugs, but at a decreased rate. Things were worse when it reached December the 26th, when it was discovered that Lemmy had an aggressive form of cancer (Later revealed to be Prostate Cancer), and had about 2 to 6 months to live. Sadly, he only had 2 days, and on the 28th of December of last year, he passed away due to complications from the cancer, along with congestive heart failure & cardiac arrhythmia. However....

Months before his passing, Lemmy & the boys cranked out a beast of a record by the name of Bad Magic. Released on the 28th of August 2015, Bad Magic represents the final chapter of Motörhead, even if everybody didn’t know it at the time. Working with producer Cameron Webb once again, Bad Magic was a little different when compared to prior albums as far as the recording process was concerned. In an interview, Mikkey Dee had this to say:

“..this time we were in a recording studio writing the album and all playing it together, actually. Before, we used to be in a rehearsal studio, write the songs and then we'd go in and record it one at a time, but here we kind of recorded it live, right away, as we had the song. We used to write very spontaneous, and this is probably even more spontaneous than any [previous] Motörhead [album]. But we really do enjoy the album. And it's a very live, very spontaneous record. I think that works best for us..”

A little later on, Lemmy said the whole album wasn’t recorded, but they did at least 5 tracks together. Reception wise, Bad Magic was highly reviewed. 2 reviewers in particular had some good things to say. Ray Van Horn Jr from Blabbermouth.net noted that:

“..[they're] on the verge of what might be [their] swan song...[Lemmy] exhibits the vocal wear and tear of a man whose long-beaten, gravelly pipes are betraying him due to a natural aging process..”

But continued to say:

“..Lemmy is a freak of nature, and it's great to hear him ralph, croon and snarl with a give-a-damn will to live—you're a total piece of crap if you knock a guy who has given us his all for [over four] decades..”

Consequence of Sound reviewer Sean Barry pointed to the song “Till the End”, and wrote:

“..here the frontman relates his story and woes in some rundown pub on the outskirts of town. It also finds Lemmy coming to terms with who he is, and despite all his flaws, pledging to continue living as he has through the remainder of his life. And while the 70 years of said hell-raising show in the way he slightly slurs his vocals, he’s just as virile and robust as he was on Overkill..”

He ends his review with this:

“..'Bad Magic' feels ancestral; you can feel it in your blood and in your bones. Even for those new to Motörhead, the album will have the power to recharge your love for all things rock ‘n’ roll. As a band that’s been around for generations, Motörhead isn’t just hanging around trying to keep themselves relevant. They’re partying until the sun goes out and celebrating their own immortality..”

Best Track? Thunder & Lightning fellow Otaku & Metalheads! What Ace of Spades was to 1980, this song is to 2015 & beyond. Dare I say it, Thunder & Lightning might be even heavier & faster than it’s iconic precursor. The band definitely puts the nitrous into their instrumentation, as they’re playing at a speed that’s distinctively Motörhead, and Lemmy’s signing comes across as a crooner on speed. You almost get the feeling that the train is gonna fall right off the tracks, but this song manages to maintain a strange form of control, and that always makes me smile.

Thunder & Lightning

A good second place track comes in the form on the When the Sky Comes Looking for You. It’s strange that I’m picking a song about mortality, especially since last week we had a solemn memorial for Queen, but this one had to be picked. Whereas Freddy Mercury’s final records still had joviality alongside it’s somber nature, this song has little of that. Lemmy definitely takes a more serious approach to his look at mortality, as indicated by the darker lyrics. Phil & Mikkey put in some great effort on their part, and the end result is nothing but spectacular.

When the Sky Comes Looking for You

Worst Track? Bad Magic’s only weakness comes from the fact...that it doesn’t really do anything new. All throughout their career, all of their albums (Good/Bad/Indifferent) did something different. Here? The music on Bad Magic comes across as more of a final chapter in the story of a celebrated career. Truth be told I can’t fully complain, as by 2015 Lemmy was on borrowed time, and I can understand why they might not want to have done anything new.

Bad Magic. While not doing anything to push the envelope, it acts as an appropriate final record for a prestigious band such as this. Definitely something to pick up! 

And with that, we end my overview on Motörhead. Quite simply a band that can’t be ignored, whether because of history, their library of albums, or because of the band members. If you want this band more on the modern side, the 2000s & 2010s are for you. Well, December is coming in a few days, and that means top 5 lists are coming, and some holiday reviews as well. See you in the snow!