Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Motörhead
Label: UDR
Release: 2015
Length: 42:36
Rating: 4/5
And here it is, the 22nd studio album from the eternal rock’n’ roll punk bastards Motörhead. Lemmy had to cut a show short just days ago in the US state of Utah because of sudden breathing trouble, but with Motörhead only one rule applies. Victory or Death! That’s exactly what the album’s opening scream commands! No surrender.
The Iron Chancellor has clearly slipped death’s claws once again and notched another win. After some unexpected foot-dragging, the band did record and release »Aftershock« (2013), an album with a variety that the monotony and predictability of the band’s sound and style had never known until that day. Two years later comes its successor, »Bad Magic«. And? A return to the typical roar and crash of the whole post-“Fast” Eddie Clarke era, or more precisely from »Overnight Sensation« (1996) onward, when the band went back to being a trio. That means nothing less than the band cranking every knob in the studio to maximum rumble and going at the material in top gear again. You can’t expect the racket and speed they unleashed on »Bastards«, but after Burston’s departure Campbell quickly and effectively swapped the extremely metallized sound of that era for an extremely greasy wall of groove riffs. The fastest smashers this time are the wildly foaming Thunder And Lighting and its “blood brother” Teach Them How To Bleed. This is stuff that will definitely rearrange your noggin!
We’ve gotten to know the band’s style and sound pretty well over the years, and every upcoming studio album from this iconic rock outfit already echoes in our ears before we’ve even managed to really listen to it. The same goes for »Bad Magic«: it brings no deviation whatsoever from the band’s groove, and the producer’s chair once again went to Cameron Webb. He’s been working with the band since the album »Inferno« (2004).
That »throaty lathe« still serves the Iron Chancellor with astonishing conviction. We’re talking about his unmistakable vocal approach, which has no equal in the whole damn galaxy. Preacher-like, merciless, grounded, doomed, fused with the occult and the magic of dark forces. No way out at the end of the tunnel. We’re all doomed. Sinners, and the final apocalyptic catharsis is unavoidable. However you look at it, Lemmy is (always) right. Shoot Out All Of Your Light is the perfect name for these dark but real thoughts. Don’t dance to this one in the verse, because it’ll rip both your legs off. The sound is once again greased up as much as humanly possible. Battered, torn, garage-packed. Bastard-punk punky.
Since the beast has broken loose again and is raging untamed, creating sonic terror, the aforementioned sonic speed and ear-splitting racket are once again here in abundance! The guitar phrases sound outstanding where the band eases off top gear a little, as in The Devil with its extremely predatory opening riff, where Mikkey Dee’s cannon-shot drum hits create a hugely contrasting counterweight. And that’s not all. The middle of the track stirs special emotions too, with none other than the most illustrious Brian May (The Queen) laying down a solo as the album’s special guest.
Electricity could easily have opened the album. Stylistically it’s cut after the likes of We Are Motörhead. So, nothing new, but a unique little bonbon, skillfully re-wrapped and served up for fresh consumption. Self-replication is actually not just welcome with Motörhead, it’s practically an obligation the band has to itself and, of course, to its fans. The dose of rock’n’roll in the middle of the album keeps growing. After Electricity we get the extremely gloomy Evil Eye (in the pre-chorus Lemmy latches onto a “deathly” vocal), followed by the (already mentioned) typical rock’n’roll »gobbler« Teach Them How To Bleed, with one of the fastest tempos on the album.
Till the End brings what rubbed fans the wrong way when this kind of experiment first appeared, but it’s yet another calmer-toned track in Motörhead’s career, and Lemmy approaches it with clean vocals, which gives the whole thing (especially) goosebumps. The song is backed by acoustic arrangements and the level of musicality in it shoots up extremely. A song about lost innocence (youth) that squeezes you and shakes you up with classic Lemmy poetry. Above all thanks to the sensitivity the trio has, with Lemmy’s vocals on top of the fruit pile, of course.
»Bad Magic« is another excellent album from the band. You can’t say anything else. A typical Motörhead album, lubricated with all the traits of the recognizable groove of the dirtiest rock’n’roll in the galaxy. Right at the tail end of the album the band put a lucid cover of The Rolling Stones, in their own take on Sympathy For The Devil. It certainly doesn’t fit the album’s concept, which is why it’s parked at the tail, but it’s a successful snapshot of the trio having a blast in the studio and a welcome change of pace in the material. Lucid. Lemmy sings (or swallows whole, since the Slovenian verb works both ways depending on whether you use the wide or narrow »O« and »E«, whichever you like) Jagger!
So the beast has endured (at least in the studio)! Exactly 40 years have passed since the band’s formation, and Dave Brock is still banging his head because he still can’t forgive himself for firing Lemmy from Hawkwind! And that’s how we got Motörhead! And they’re still here and still kicking, unshakable! Let’s hope the beast holds out over the long kilometers and miles of new and newer concert tours, all the way to our next live reunion with the first and truest icons of rock’n’roll racket, and beyond! No surrender and no stopping! Where there’s victory, there’s death too! No more, no less!
Lineup
Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister – bass, vocals
Phil Campbell – guitar
Mikkey Dee – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Brian May – guitar on track no. 5
Production
Cameron Webb
Track list
1. Victory or Die (3:09)
2. Thunder & Lightning (3:06)
3. Fire Storm Hotel (3:35)
4. Shoot Out All of Your Lights (3:15)
5. The Devil (2:54)
6. Electricity (2:17)
7. Evil Eye (2:20)
8. Teach Them How to Bleed (3:13)
9. Till the End (4:05)
10. Tell Me Who to Kill (2:57)
11. Choking on Your Screams (3:33)
12. When the Sky Comes Looking for You (2:58)
13. Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones cover) (5:35)
