1074. Motörhead / Inferno. 2004. 3.5/5

For whatever reason – and there are always a multitude of them – I had never listened to this album until I decided to go through the entire Motörhead discography a couple of months ago. In fact I wasn’t even aware that it existed. I had copies of Hammered and Kiss of Death and a big gap in between them. So discovering that it existed and then tracking down a copy to listen to was a fun experience. I wasn’t sure what I expected when I got it. After all, the mid-2000’s was a tricky time for bands of other eras. What I found was, for the most part, surprising.

“Terminal Show” signals the album’s intentions immediately. This is more than just a rock album, this is hard and heavy and fast, with Phil’s guitar screaming out of the speakers with fire and gusto. “Killers” continues on what is an aggressive theme with the boundlessly hard hitting drums of Mikkey driving the guitars to a head-thumping rhythm. “In the Name of Tragedy” and “Suicide” bring back the intensity of the speed and fall back into the military medium rhythm that is the second home of Motörhead’s music. It is the style that you can easily become bored with over time a the song’s central riff and drum fill pretty much remains the same all the way through the song. In some instances it works, usually on the shorter songs. Here on “Suicide” though, at five minutes plus, it can start to get a bit beyond it by the end of the song.
“Life’s a Bitch” goes in a different direction, starting out almost like an old fashion early day’s Elvis rock song, and that beginning lingers on even once you have moved into the song itself. It’s that riff from Phil that sends through those memories. “Down on Me” is a grittier harder song with Phil’s guitar riffing along hard with Lemmy’s bass and Lemmy’s vocals hard at work as well. “In the Black” continues on in this vein, and doubles down a little with Mikkey’s drums coming in harder and more prominently here. I won’t deny I like this song, though it is a real extension of the Motörhead sound, much heavier than they usually like to play. So too “Fight” which is hard and aggressive. I enjoy this section of the album because it does show a side of the band that they haven’t always portrayed, that real heavy metal side that they have generally shied away from in always suggesting they are a rock ‘n’ roll band. This lifts the harder profile, even if it is only through this section.
“In the Year of the Wolf” and “Keys of the Kingdom” change it up again, but still in a completely enjoyable way, while “Smiling Like a Killer” is actually the most ‘normal’ Motörhead song on the album.
Once you get big enough that you don’t have to worry what anybody thinks about you, you can start to do songs that may be considered out of your normal space by critics and/or fans. This is certainly the case here with the final song on the album, as Lemmy does his best Johnny Cash impersonation with “Whorehouse Blues”, an unapologetic blues number that is the antithesis of every other song on the album. It sticks out like a sore thumb, though given it comes at the very end at least it isn’t sucking the momentum out of the album halfway through. In the end you’ll either enjoy this song or just stop the CD once you get to this point. I am more in favour of the second option.

Motörhead’s career has been littered with albums that have varied as to the amount of harder rock they have utilised. Some come out and are very much straight down the line rock ‘n’ roll with a bit more guitar thrown in, while others have ramped it up a little to move to that harder side of the line. This one has certainly had that harder edge to it, without compromising the style the band has been delivering for three decades. Apart from the obvious couple of songs that steer clear of this pigeon-holing of their sound, this album has a lot to offer for those who like me enjoy that heavier sound.

Rating: “Don't give me that runaround, you know I treat you fine”.   3.5/5