287. Motorhead / Everything Louder Than Everyone Else. 1999. 5/5

There have been a plethora of live albums released involving recordings by the band Motörhead. Some of them are less than official with some record companies dealing out the material as a parting shot as the band moved on, or just as a cheap knock off of a previous release in order to gain some cash away from the band itself. Everyone will have their own opinions, but for me “Everything Louder Than Everyone Else” is the third true live Motörhead album, following “No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith” and “Nö Sleep at All”. Each of the previous live albums marked a certain era of the band, and that is also true of this album, and as such it holds its place in history well.
This was recorded in Germany in 1998 and the 2 CD package contains the entire show, the first time the band had been able to release it in this way. Recorded during the tour to promote the “Snake Bite Love” album, it again has a great mix of the newest songs from the band and the old classics that they have to play every night. Lemmy is in great form between songs, ably assisted by Phil Campbell, and the band itself sounds fantastic. Having just reverted back to a three-piece following the moving on of Wurzel from the band, you can still feel the energy being created by them on stage. Lemmy’s bass sound is iconic and unique and distinguishable quickly and easily. Phil Campbell’s guitar becomes guttural at times before truly breaking out on his solo passages to light up the crowd. Mikkey Dee’s drumming is a delight, loud and crashing and driving home the songs in his usual powerful style. The three of them are excellent here, and they do in fact create an atmosphere where it changes the way that you listen to these songs when you go back to the album versions.

As for the set list and track listing, it has everything you could possibly want from a Motörhead live album. Half of the tracks are from albums since the last live album released “Nö Sleep at All”, and each of those albums is represented. This is the great thing about the spacing out of the live albums by Motorhead, they are able to give each era its due and its space. And being interspersed with older and well known tracks makes it perfect. As much as I would have loved to see them live on the era when “No Sleep Til Hammersmith” was released, this would also have been a great era to see them.
Terrific songs from the 1990’s Motorhead catalogue are given a run here, and their live versions are excellent. “On Your Feet or On Your Knees”, “Burner” and “Born to Raise Hell” from “Bastards” are terrific, though “Lost in the Ozone” is one that perhaps could have been substituted for something else. “Over our Shoulder” and “Sacrifice” from the “Sacrifice” album, along with “Civil War” and “Overnight Sensation” from that album are great additions. “Take the Blame” and “Love for Sale” are off the album the band was promoting “Snake Bite Love”, while “I’m So Bad Baby I Don’t Care”, “The One to Sing the Blues” and “Going to Brazil” come from the ready made “1916” album. All tracks that hadn’t had live versions recorded for posterity before, and all excellently collated here.
Mixed in with these are the songs that you couldn’t possibly leave out, though I do often have a reservation about both “Metropolis” and “Capricorn”, I think there are better classic songs they could utilise rather than those two. The wonderful “Iron Fist” kicks the album off followed by the perennial second song on the set list “Stay Clean”. “Orgasmatron” and “Nothing Up My Sleeve” are great additions. Both “The Chase is Better Than the Catch” and “No Class” add a great punch in the middle of the setlist, while the four songs that conclude the album, “Killed by Death”, “Bomber”, “Ace of Spades” and “Overkill”, all charge like the Light Brigade to the finish line and encourage you to go back to the start of the album, and do it all again.

For me the great Motorhead revolution didn’t really occur until the turn of the century. I knew of the albums and even had copies of the early ones, but I didn’t start my real awakening and collection of Motorhead prior to the calendar clicking over to 2000. And once I did I gathered them all in fast. This album ended up being a key component to that, because I sampled a lot of songs I didn’t know from albums I didn’t know in one hit.
As live albums go, this is pretty difficult to critique, because there is little weak material here to dish upon. Even the songs that come from the so-called weaker albums are the best songs from those albums, and they all translate to the live setting with great aplomb. No doubt “No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith” has always been appraised as the best Motörhead live album, given the time it was recorded and the material that was available to play on it. For me, I think this sits almost alongside it, not only because this has the whole concert from go to whoa, but because there are so many songs here and they are all worthy of inclusion. I can play this at work, in the car, at a party or in the metal cavern and I never get sick of it. One of the greats.