Order BAD MAGIC here
''We are Motörhead and we play rock n' roll.''
This is the first thing Motörhead's frontman Lemmy Kilmister tells the crowd and it probably is the best way to describe the band. They play rock n' roll. They have been doing so relentlessly for 40 years. I don't know if I have such a thing as a favorite band anymore, but if I had to name you bands I like, Motörhead might be the first name that comes off the top of my head. They are getting old, but their music is still straight, deadly and timeless like an arrow and guess what? They have a new album out. BAD MAGIC came out last Friday and I've been spinning it non stop since then, so I can tell you what to expect out of it.
C'mon. It's a freakin' Motörhead album, you know what to expect. There's probably half of the songs you would think are from another record if you listened to them with your eyes closes and it's how it should be. Songs like Victory or Die, Thunder and Lightning and Teach Them How to Bleed are typical Motörhead grinds to tap your foot and bob your head. They're fast, fun, but you barely can differentiate the guitar riffs from one another, and they are guitar riffs you heard on other albums too. Motörhead is renowned for writing the same song over and over again, it's just that it's always a great song.
It's the other songs on that record though, that are worth your attention.
Fire Storm Hotel, Shoot Out All Your Lights and The Devil, come back to back (3 to 5) and really pull your head under the surface. Fire Storm Hotel is slightly slower - I'd call it a fast paced song anyhow - with a killer groove and where Lemmy actually tries to sing, so that was interesting. The Devil has one of the strongest, most unique guitar riffs I've heard in years. BAD MAGIC is not going to be remembered for any of these songs though. There is a fantastic cover of the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil at the end that'll blow your head off your shoulders clean. I'm not a fan of the Stones, but Motörhead really took command of the song and added their trademark edge to it. It feels dangerous. When people will talk about BAD MAGIC in ten years, they'll talk about that cover.
BAD MAGIC is a good Motörhead album. I thought it was slightly better than their 2013 effort AFTERSHOCK. It lacks the ferocity of classics like NO REMORSE or INFERNO, but these two albums wouldn't be special if Motörhead could do them over and over again, wouldn't they? Fire Storm Hotel, Shoot Out All Your Lights, The Devil, When the Sky Comes Looking for You and Sympathy for the Devil all add to the band's already impressive mystique and should be an absolute blast during live performances. Of course, the band's music doesn't age but Lemmy and his boys are, so we should show them our appreciation while we have them and get some new Motörhead while they are still making new material.
