Motörhead
Reissues BMG
They were born to raise Hell. And with nö sleep at all (on the reissues front) they’re still doing it.
In 1980, the loudest band in the world – previously dismissed by the NME as the worst band in the world – scored a famous victory when Ace Of Spades, their definitive song, blasted into the UK Top 20. In 1981, they achieved the seemingly impossible, when their cacophonous live album, No Sleep’Til Hammersmith, went all the way to No.1. But in all of Motörhead’s golden years, 1979 was the most significant, and it is that year which provides the starting point for a major reissue campaign, with 40th anniversary deluxe editions of two seminal albums, Overkill (10) and Bomber (9), plus a mammoth box set, titled simply 1979 (10).
, the band’s second album, is arguably the greatest they ever made, and the most influential. Released on March 24, 1979, it had the classic threeman line-up, so perfectly named – Lemmy on bass and vocals, ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke on guitar and ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor on drums – creating a hard-and fast sound uniquely their own. Lemmy called it simply “rock’n’roll”, but and , there was the missing link between heavy metal and punk rock, and the inspiration for the first wave of thrash metal bands, Metallica foremost. The album also had depth in two slower, atmospheric numbers, and , and a mean blues in .
