1070. Motörhead / Sacrifice. 1995. 3/5

Being an old school hard rock or metal band in the 1990’s became a hard and tough slog, what with the onset of grunge and by extension groove metal and nu-metal. Few of the well-established bands of this genre went through this decade without some sort of change to their own musical direction as a result of what was happening in this regard. Some succeeded despite it, others found it was probably a mistake to follow it. Sacrifice always felt like an attempt to experiment in this fashion, and is either a success or not depending on your own tastes to the revolution.

There seems to be a genuine attempt to move ahead with a ‘modern’ sound on this album, which I guess I can appreciate the reasoning of. The problem I have is that on Bastards they were fighting the grunge movement, and did so by moving back towards the sound that made them the band they are. It didn't sell overly well when it was released, and perhaps this also contributed to deciding to go with an updated sound. For me though a lot of it falls flat here because of that. I didn't - and don't - want to hear Motörhead doing groove metal. I want to hear Motörhead doing Motörhead, which for the most part this album isn't.
The opening salvo of “Sacrifice” and “Sex & Death” starts the album off on a reasonable setting, though even from this early stage you are aware of the changes that have crept it. It is the next three songs where big changes are afoot. “Over Your Shoulder” and “War for War” both share the same guitar distortion sound, but more than that it doesn’t change throughout the song. The grunge feel on “Over Your Shoulder” is incorporated into “War for War” which then brings a groove metal feel with it. Such then is the plight of “Order / Fade to Black” where apart from taking on the 1990’s fascination of slow and grunge-ridden guitar riffs also mixes in pieces of the song where they speed it up to a more likely Motörhead speed, but such is the constant change through the song that it is hard to like.
“Dog Faced Boy” is a better song on the album at a good speed and utilising a better effect on the guitars and song. “All Gone to Hell” also makes me feel better about what is coming out of the speakers. “Make ‘Em Blind” and “Don’t Waste Your Time” try to be more like the late 80’s band we know, especially the latter song that utilises rockabilly guitar and piano all thrown into the mix to bring the rock sound back to what Lemmy enjoys best.
“In Another Time” returns to the guitar sound of the earlier tracks, while “Out of the Sun” finishes the album in style with the Phil Campbell solos on this song the most Motörhead solos on the whole album. It actually reminds you that this IS a Motörhead album and not a 90’s knockoff. All of the tracks are short, sharp, belligerent songs, which means that you don’t dwell too much on the fallibility of much of the album which perhaps is for the best.

Apart from the noted trouble the band had with guitarist Wurzel on this album, such that this ended up being the last album he was a part of, this was a comedown for me after the repaired excellence of Bastards. Comparing that to this for me is a chalk and cheese moment. There are moment here that feel worthy of being a part of the extended legacy that the band has made for itself, but there are too many moments where I am left wondering where they saw themselves going at this part of their career. Better was to come once they had rediscovered their roots.

Rating: “And all our yesterdays are now undone, out of the sun”  3/5