Motörhead
Kiss Of Death

THE REVIEW

Just two years after their last album "Inferno," as punctual as a Swiss clock, Lemmy and company return with a new collection of songs.

In 2006 it's now difficult to find new words to describe an album from these living legends, either because everything has been written about them or because, as the malicious would say, Motorhead has been providing the same album with different titles for thirty years... But anyone who listens to Motorhead and owns all their records knows that isn't so! This "Kiss of Death," for example, is very different from its predecessor "Inferno," which in turn was different from "Hammered"...

If "Inferno" was a compact, relentless album from start to finish, this new effort offers twelve varied songs, forming a kind of tribute to the hard sounds of the '80s. "Sucker" opens the album in the most classic Motorhead-sound, fast and dynamic like the most classic of their classics; "One Stand Night" that follows is a mid-tempo with a nice solo by Phil Campbell in the middle, and the guitarist, very underrated in my opinion, will be the real star of the record. "Devil I Know" seems to have come straight out of the eighties when heavy metal was hard and pure. "Trigger" is fast with a chorus that gets stuck in your head, "Under The Gun" is more measured and advances like a pachyderm. "God Was Never On Your Side" is a semi-ballad that starts acoustically and becomes electric, and LEMMY seems to enjoy more and more sinking into these slow songs that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. But the calm lasts only one song because "Living In The Past" blows everything away with its riff that brushes the thrash metal.

"Christine" is a good rock'n'roll song just like the epic and fast "Sword Of Glory". "Be My Baby" is the most modern of the lot with its syncopated riff. But Lemmy wants to conclude the album with a bang this time and places two powerful hits at the end: "Kingdom Of The Worm" is thrash and fast and Lemmy sings even deeper than usual and bids us farewell with "Goin' Down", a punk-rock'n'roll song. What can I say, if old-timers like Motorhead are still capable of writing varied and bone-crunching metal albums like this, we can rest easy because as long as they are around, the genre will remain alive and kicking despite all those chasing current trends.

If I had to compare it to their other albums, the early '90s ones like "1916" or "Bastards" come to mind. And now, as expected, we await them live...