There probably is, but I can’t think of one. The “Godfathers
of Speed” is something they’re not called enough, but it’s true, wouldn’t you
say? Listen to their earliest albums, especially Overkill, which is where they truly found their sound. Musically it
was heavy stuff, I mean good crunchy and of course fast. But when it comes
right down to it, it’s the almighty Ian
“Lemmy” Kilmister who makes the band
everything that they are. It’s no secret, everyone knows it. While at the time,
music wasn’t generally as fast as Motörhead,
but as time passed, they influenced thousands of aspiring bass players, guitar
players and drummers to turn things up a notch or two...or maybe even three.
But as time passed and more bands got faster, some even sounding roughly the
same as the others, you could always point Motörhead from the heard. The reason
is almost completely thanks to that voice of Lemmy’s. His bass playing has
always been famously unmatchable.
Over 35-years into their career and more than 20 albums in,
the band still plays strong. With the exception of some scary health issues Lemmy has been famously having lately
(ones that spawned silly death rumours that are fortunately far from true) the
band still sounds like they are in their prime, having just released their 21st
studio album, Aftershock. But let’s
back up a bit.
Motörhead have been
categorized in a group of bands who seem to release the same material over and
over. Also on this list are Slayer
and AC/DC. (Give respect to Slayer
though, because they admit to not being interested in changing things up with
each album.) While it is true that some Motörhead albums seem to sound like a
continuation of the previous album, it needs to be taken in to consideration
that the band has gone through some different eras. There were the early days,
in the late 70’s with what many, including me, regard as the classic line-up of
“Fast” Eddie Clarke on guitar and “Philthy Animal” Taylor on drums, but
then there was the 80’s which saw the band release roughly similar material
just under different album titles such as Orgasmatron
and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Then they have a
surprisingly melodic albums like March ör Die and Bastards in their repertoire, only
to turn up the distortion on the album Sacrifice.
Recent years have seen Motörhead stick with the sound of their early days, just
somewhat modernized. They turned down the super heavy distorted guitars and
went to more of the hard rock, somewhat blues influenced sound that they
adopted more than 30-years ago. They have now released eleven albums with the
most consistent line-up the band has ever had, with Phil Campbell on guitar for exactly 30-years and Mickey Dee on drums for 21-years.
The new album Aftershock
is admittedly not completely different from recent releases, but that doesn’t
take away anything from the album. The opening track, Heartbreaker, alone is enough reason to make this album credible
compared to others the band has released. The song does more than just show
people that the band still has every capability to rumble anyone’s ear drums.
The album does have its fair share of familiarity. Coupe de Grace is just like those fast
thrashing, lyric spurting tracks that Lemmy
just seems to make work. End of Time
is even faster, but a little less fast spoken, sort of reminding me of their
classic track Ace of Spades. While Do You Believe brings in the heavy
boogie-woogie style of song that Motörhead
just does so well.
I enjoy that Motörhead
had no shame in returning to some good old blues rock for the album. Lost Woman Blues gives the album
perspective just the way Metropolis
did for their classic Overkill
album, only Lost Woman Blues is even less like your average Motörhead
song. It’s a bit slower and has more of the aspects of a classic blues song,
barely even making it a hard rock song until it starts to pick up a bit at the
end.
The middle of the album has what I like to think of as a
small suite of songs. They definitely weren’t meant to be thought of as a suite,
but they seem to have the shortest tracks on the album one after the other. I
enjoy this when listening to the album all the way through. Death Machine, the first of the songs,
uses a slower hard rock approach, reminding me somewhat of their song Capricorn (yes I’m doing a lot of
comparisons to the Overkill album.) Dust and Glass brings another slow
blues track to the album. Unfortunately, unlike Lost Woman Blues, this track just ends too quickly, clocking in at
2:51. It does lead into the last and fastest of the three song (self proclaimed)
suite, Going to Mexico, which I
regard as one of the better fast paced songs on the album. It is right up there
with the opening track Heartbreaker.
The remainder of the album has its spotlights, like the slow
but aggressive Silence When You Speak to
Me, but it is mostly just the straight forward, sometimes boogie-based hard
rock that the band is known for. One track being Crying Shame; a single released from the album that I don’t really
think should have been a single. I mean, comparing it to the rest of the album,
I believe a better choice could have been made.
Since I always spotlight the closing track in my articles (no
one says I have to, but I only feel it is right,) I will talk about Paralyzed. One thing I must make clear,
though some of the songs on the album don’t stand out quite above other Motörhead tracks, this does not make
the album any less dynamic than it is. Paralyzed, however, delivers a punch
that the rest of the album just didn’t have, ending the album on the best
possible note, reminding us once again that Motörhead is far from slowing down.
I wouldn’t say the album stands up to past Motörhead greats such as the classic
era line-ups albums, nor would I regard it as better than some albums to have
come after that era, such as Another
Perfect Day. However, considering those albums were all released over
30-years ago, it would be fairer to compare the album to those that have been
released in the more recent decade, such as the predecessor The Wörld Is Yours, to which I must say Aftershock
is superior to. Not necessarily in song writing or anything highly analytical,
but in the sense that I feel Motörhead really went back to some important basics
that were long overdue.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Heartbreaker” – There are a few
dominating tracks on the album, but I believe Heartbreaker to be the most effective of them all. It is melodic
where it has to be, in order to properly hook its listener, but at the same
time it has balls. Of course the whole album has balls, but there is no better
song to show that fact than the opening track, which I believe is a successful
recipe of nice fast Motörhead licks and a seemingly
barely-changing Lemmy on vocals.
FINAL RATING
8 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"Heartbreaker"
|
3:05
|
2.
|
"Coup
De Grace"
|
3:45
|
3.
|
"Lost
Woman Blues"
|
4:09
|
4.
|
"End
of Time"
|
3:17
|
5.
|
"Do
You Believe?"
|
2:59
|
6.
|
"Death
Machine"
|
2:37
|
7.
|
"Dust
and Glass"
|
2:51
|
8.
|
"Going
to Mexico"
|
2:51
|
9.
|
"Silence
When You Speak to Me"
|
4:30
|
10.
|
"Crying
Shame"
|
4:28
|
11.
|
"Queen
of the Damned"
|
2:41
|
12.
|
"Knife"
|
2:57
|
13.
|
"Keep
Your Powder Dry"
|
3:54
|
14.
|
"Paralyzed"
|
2:50
|
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