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Rating: Given the recent review of BASTARDS (1993), I would like to review this album released a year earlier, to position the artistic period of LEMMY and company.
They ended the '80s with the critically and publicly panned "ROCK'N'ROLL" (1987), recently reevaluated by MOTORHEAD themselves by reintroducing some tracks live, and entered the new decade with the solid "1916" (1991). The albums released in this period, three in three years, are characterized by a more hard rock feel replacing the speed of execution and classic Motorhead immediacy.
"MARCH OR DIE" was released a year after "1916" with a slight lineup change. The unbalanced PHILTY ANIMAL TAYLOR left the drums and was replaced by the "MASTIFF" MIKKEY DEE, who remains to this day.
The album opens with the hard rock STAND, a classic MOTORHEAD mid-tempo, followed by a solid cover of CAT SCRATCH FEVER, a signature track of that crazy TED NUGENT.
Another mid-tempo with BAD RELIGION, then the speed picks up with the faster JACK THE RIPPER.
The fifth track offers a small surprise, a ballad, I AIN'T NO NICE GUY, sung by LEMMY together with his friend OZZY OSBOURNE. From this album onwards, slower and acoustic songs would appear more frequently in album tracklists, although not always the "raspy voice" of LEMMY would perfectly adapt.
To affirm the strong bond between LEMMY and OZZY, the sixth track is HELLRAISER, written by the two together with ZAKK WYLDE and already present on the MADMAN's NO MORE TEARS (1991). The song would become a minor hit of the period.
ASYLUM CHOIR and TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE are two solid hard-rock'n'roll songs, YOU BETTER RUN is based on a classic yet trivial blues riff, and NAME IN VAIN is the fastest on the album, which concludes with the war march driven by Lemmy's commanding voice.
Transitional album then, if such a thing can be said of a band like MOTORHEAD, which never succumbed to radical changes in their sound except for some slight modifications sometimes poorly received. This would be followed by BASTARDS (1993) and the excellent SACRIFICE (1995), in my opinion, the artistic peak of the nineties.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 I Ain't No Nice Guy (04:16)
When I was young I was the nicest guy I knew
I thought I was the chosen one
But time went by and I found out a thing or two
My shine wore off as time wore on
I thought that I was living out the perfect life
But in the lonely hours when the truth begins to bite
I thought about the times when I turned my back & stalled
I ain't no nice guy after all
When I was young I was the only game in town
I thought I had it down for sure,
But time went by and I was lost in what I found
The reasons blurred, the way unsure
I thought that I was living life the only way
But as I saw that life was more than day to day
I turned around, I read the writing on the wall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
In all the years you spend between your birth and death
You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath
It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to fall
06 Hellraiser (04:37)
I'm living on an endless road
Around the world for rock and roll
Sometimes it feels so tough
But I still ain't had enough
I keep saying that it's getting to much
But I know I'm a liar
Feeling all right in the noise and the light
But that's what lights my fire
Hellraiser, In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser, Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser, And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser, I'll put a spell on you
Walking out on another stage
Another town, another place
Sometimes I don't feel right
Nerves wound up to damn tight
Don't you tell me it's bad for my health
'Cos kicking back don't make it
Out of control, I play the ultimate role
Don't know how to fake it
Hellraiser, In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser, Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser, And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser, I'll put a spell on you
(Repeat first verse)
Hellraiser, In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser, Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser, And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser, I'll put a spell on you
(Repeat Chorus)
07 Asylum Choir (03:40)
Gone out of sight there's only darkness in my eyes
Hey, hey, where are the loosers now
Gone inside outlaws every day a losing streak
Every day they tell us lies
The sky, the sky is crushing you
The wall, the walls are touching you too
Even the floor is clutching you
And all the eyes that ever closed are open,
and they're watching you
Blind justice hears the voice of bribery all right,
Hey, hey, but she don't see the joke
There's only treason left when you put out the light
You can't see who it was that spoke
The sky, the sky is crushing you
The wall, the walls are touching you too
Even the floor is clutching you
And all the eyes you ever closed are open,
and they're watching you
There ain't no windows in the hallways anymore
Hey, hey, the news is awful bad
Two schizophrenics but I can't see them at all
Anymore and I'll go mad
The sky is crushing you
And now the walls are closing in on you
Even the floor is tripping you
And all the eyes you ever closed are open,
and they're watching you
08 Too Good to Be True (03:36)
I saw some sad times I said
I'd had enough of heartbreak
I told myself that I could never fall again
Then sure as fate she came, I,
Just had to get to her and,
She gave me all her numbers, gave me all her names
Cold and lonely without you
Don't know if I can make it through,
Maybe you'll hear this song
You been gone way too long,
Too good to let it go, too good to be true
We left and we went home,
Unbelievable,
I looked into her eyes, thunder in my heart,
And we were joined forever
Our bodies slick together,
I told her everything, confessions in the dark
Cold and lonely without you
Don't know if I can make it through,
Maybe you'll hear this song
You been gone way too long,
Too good to let it go, too good to be true
She painted inspiration
Onto my fractured soul, I
Was never sure she knew how much she meant to me
She never trusted me, I know she didn't see
The night she left she killed the heart inside of me
Cold and lonely without you
Don't know if I can make it through,
Maybe you'll hear this song
You been gone way too long,
Too good to let it go, too good to be true
Cold and lonely without you
Don't know if I can make it through,
Maybe you'll hear this song
You been gone way too long,
Too good to let it go, too good to be true
10 Name in Vain (03:06)
Don't you say a word to me
Always barking up my tree
I don't need no more grief, no more third degree
Turn sunshine into rain
Turn pleasure into shame
Turn everything I say, inside out again
It seems, it seems the same
It seems, I ain't to blame
It seems, that you're insane
Don't you take my name in vain
Tell me what a dog I am
Tell me it's 'cause I'm a man
Tell you what, who gives a damn
Just another scam
Ain't me that's wrong this time
Ain't me that's out of line
Ain't me, it ain't my crime
Your rap, 'cause it ain't mine
It seems, it seems the same
It seems, I ain't to blame
It seems, that you're insane
Don't you take my name in vain
Seems like you know the rules
I know you ain't no fool, you think you're somethin' else,
You look pretty cool,
You ought to reconsider, I ain't no Indian giver
I been as fair as I know how so shut your mouth
You know it all seems
It's only in your dreams
I'm getting sick to death of swimming up the stream
I'm gonna ask you nice, and then I'll ask you twice
If that don't work you get your ass back in your jeans
Seems to me, seems the same
Seems to me, I ain't to blame
Seems to me that you're insane
Don't you take my name in vain
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