Motorhead - MOTORHEAD***

Motorhead/Vibrator/Lost Johnny/Iron Horse-Bound To Lose/White Line Fever/Keep Us On The Road/The Watcher/Train Kept A Rollin'

Eponymous debut album from the British heavy metal band Motorhead. Lemmy jumped ship from Hawkwind, where he didn’t fit in, to create a highly successful vehicle for his loud and unsubtle brand of music. (UK:43)

“This debut album is interesting primarily because of the way the rudimentary, almost DIY production teases out a different sound than the Motörhead style we all know and love. The selections are a mixture of new tracks and updated songs from Lemmy's Hawkwind days, with the updated songs really transformed by the power trio line-up.”

“Their compositions would get leaner and meaner on the records to follow, but these are just as worthwhile because at the time they were pretty much the loudest bluesy hard rock band in the world. In very atypical Motorhead fashion, the longer numbers shine especially.”

“The first Motorhead release, while good, has never been anything special. It's like a bluesier, grungier AC/DC. Lemmy's voice makes it stand out. If they'd stayed like this, they probably would have been a very good heavy blues band.”

“It's certainly primitively recorded, the whole thing sounds murky, raw and loud. There is zero in the way of production but it doesn't really matter as Motorhead are all about volume anyway. Iron Horse and Keep Us On The Road are both superb slices of hard rock just before it mutated into heavy metal. There’s a psychedelic edge cutting through the sound and the brutal guitar playing.”

“This is the album where Lemmy announced his transformation from mere crew member aboard the space ship Hawkwind, to all out metal overlord of battle station Motorhead. Where his audience had shifted from the acid-dropping, pothead hippies that worshipped his former band mates, to the speed-loving and bourbon-drinking outlaw fraternities of bike gangs and renegades.”

“Lemmy was just too aggressive and restless to be contained by the space rock expansiveness of Hawkwind, so one of the greatest heavy metal bands in history, Motörhead, was born. This, their debut, is a raw blast of punk-metal fury.”