Motorizer in Bloomington, MN

Even if
Motoerhead
had broken up around 1983 or 1984, they still would have gone down in history as one of the most influential metal outfits of all time.
, after all, was the first metal band to seriously incorporate punk; they wrote the book on thrash metal and speed metal in the late '70s and early '80s, paving the way for
Slayer
,
Metallica
Venom
Megadeth
Testament
Anthrax
Death
Exodus
, and countless others. But
, of course, didn't break up in 1983 or 1984, and they were still cranking out quality albums in the late 2000s.
Lemmy Kilmister
(who turned 62 in 2007) shows no signs of slowing down on 2008's
Motorizer
, which
Cameron Webb
produced at
Dave Grohl
's
606 Studios
in Los Angeles. Despite the fact that
Webb
has worked with a lot of alt rock and alt metal artists (including
Limp Bizkit
Orgy
Godsmack
Buckcherry
Lit
Ben Folds
, and
Monster Magnet
) and produced this 39-minute CD in a studio that is owned by a member of
the Foo Fighters
and ex-member of
Nirvana
makes no effort to be alternative-sounding. Instead, the classic
sound prevails, and forceful, in-your-face tracks such as
"Buried Alive,"
"Runaround Man,"
"When the Eagle Screams,"
and
"Time Is Right"
sound like they could have been recorded 25 years earlier.
never pretends to be groundbreaking, but if the material is predictable, it is engagingly predictable;
Kilmister
sounds inspired and focused throughout the album, and at 62, he has yet to overstay his welcome.
falls short of essential and isn't quite in a class with
's best late-'70s/early-'80s output, but this album is definitely respectable -- and it is good to see this seminal thrash/speed trio still plugging away after so many years in metal's trenches. ~ Alex Henderson