Motörhead – Motörizer

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Produced by Motörhead & Cameron Webb

Another year, another Motörhead album. Possibly the most tireless band in rock music (26 albums in 33 years, all told) have produced another classic slab of their patented metal-meets-rock-’n'-roll.

Some bands seem to be able to stay largely the same and never suffer for it, while other bands who don’t expand their horizons disappear into obscurity. Motörhead are one of the former and, continuing a impressively strong string of albums which began with 2000′s We Are Motörhead, Motörizer is mostly more of the same.

In actual fact, some of the songs (Runaround Man, Time Is Right, Buried Alive) sound very similar, both musically and in the vocal melodies, to tracks from other recent albums, while others (When The Eagle Screams, Heroes, The Thousand Names of God) tell very similar stories to previous material; brave men dying at war being a very popular topic. The structure of the album is very similar as well. Rock Out, for example, is Motörizer‘s Ace of Spades; fast, short and obvious.

There are some excellent changes of pace here though, which makes Motörizer and overall superior album than Kiss of Death, the last studio effort. The dirty groove of One Short Life, bouncy punk rock feel of Back On The Chain and slower, darker Heroes all serve to vary the pace of the disc, book-ended by faster rock tracks, many of which could easily slot into the live set and quickly become fan favourites; any of the first five tracks in particular.

Slightly awkward acapella moments at the beginning of English Rose give the start of that track a very different feel to a typical Motörhead track, and perhaps hint at another Whorehouse Blues-level departure, but after about 30 seconds it settles into a standard rock ‘n’ roll groove, with lyrics about a woman, that will feel very familiar.

As with any other album from an artist which sounds similar in style to most of their work it will depend what you want from this. If more of the same, then you’re set. If you want Motörhead to explore new avenues (who are you trying to kid?) then you’ll be bored. But no one wants anything more from Motöhead than their trademark sound, and that’s what you’ve got here. Another consistent, solid album.

“ more of the same ”

Tracklist: Runaround Man / Teach You How To Sing The Blues / When The Eagle Screams / Rock Out / One Short Life / Buried Alive / English Rose / Back On The Chain / Heroes / Time Is Right / The Thousand Names of God

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2008, Albums, Heavy Metal, Motörhead