This is studio album Number 21, and the the penultimate one at that. They probably will keep wheeling out live recordings and endless substandard things just to cash in on what was (at their height) a killer band. I thought this album and the two before (Motorizer and Kiss Of Death) were really good albums and a return to that old spirit, mainly thanks to a great production by Cameron Webb. Let’s be honest here, there are a bunch of mid period albums that aren’t that good and the band suffered because of these. I don’t think you can beat the Lem, Phil and Eddie days as they were untouchable. I’m glad I got to witness that line up numerous times. However, in Mickey Dee, Lemmy had found the best drummer he had, and he is a great driving force on this record. Phil Campbell’s contribution to this record are probably the best in terms of riffs and leads.
As well as the usual double kick sledgehammer songs, there is a bit of subtlety as well with tracks like Lost Woman Blues, which starts off as an almost traditional blues standard but ends in ZZ Top style boogie. End Of Time could have been a classic line up tune – it’s a belter. One of my favourite modern Motorhead songs is Going To Mexico. It’s a killer track which has Phil playing his ass off and a typical desperado lyric from Lem. The close out track, Paralyzed, is one of the heaviest tracks the band had done at this point.
The sad thing about this is that you can hear Lem struggling on some of the songs. On the album after this, Bad Magic, you can tell the end is not far away. If this album would have been the last album, I think it would have been a fitting end as they would have gone out on a high.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
