Motorizer (CD - 2008)

Audio Mixer: Cameron Webb.

The speed-fueled, booze-soaked lifestyle of Motörhead leader Lemmy Kilmister should have separated him from our planet long ago, but here we are marveling at the release of the band's unthinkable 24th album. MOTORIZER is Motörhead, pure and simple. Their rumbling, tar-black motorbike sound is fully intact and uncompromised, with mission statements like the hard-charging, punky "Rock Out" showcasing their knack for a stadium-filling anthem. Lemmy's voice is seasoned to perfection with Virginia tobacco and Tennessee whiskey, and roadhouse rockers like "Back on the Chain" and "(Teach You How To) Sing the Blues" find him in fine form. If you're looking for evolution or musical experimentation, look elsewhere, but if you just want to hear uncut rock and roll, MOTORIZER should do the trick.

Even if Motörhead 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. Motörhead, 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 Motörhead, 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, Motorizer makes no effort to be alternative-sounding. Instead, the classic Motörhead 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. Motorizer 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. Motorizer falls short of essential and isn't quite in a class with Motörhead'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 minimize