1145. Ozzy Osbourne + Motorhead / Hellraiser [Single]. 2021. 5/5

“Hellraiser” was written for the Ozzy Osbourne album No More Tears which was released in 1991. It was one of several songs on that album that was co-written not only with guitarist Zakk Wylde, but with Motorhead bassist and frontman Lemmy Kilmister, a role Lemmy performed with several artists through the years. The lyrics are very much about the touring musician, the life on the road, and would have pulled vey much from the trio’s own experiences and feelings about their life and roles.
The version recorded for Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears album is typical Osbourne – the high range vocals filled with melodic choruses, rumbling bass and drums and superb soling and riffing from Wylde at his peak. It has always been considered one of the highlights of the album.
Whether it was the success of Ozzy’s song, or whether Lemmy just enjoyed the song itself as it was, but Lemmy was approached to have Motorhead record their own version of the song, which would then be used on the soundtrack of the film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth - Movie Soundtrack. The Hellraiser films, conceived from the book of the same name by Clive Barker, were the epitome of horror films in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and so the addition of this version of the song (which appears over the closing credits) was a winning solution. At the same time, the song also appeared on Motorhead’s album March ör Die which was also released in 1992. It is the Motorhead version of the song, with some of the lyrics changed to suit their own metal style and with different solo riff and singing style.

With 2021 being the 30th anniversary of the song appearing on No More Tears, and with Lemmy now having left us some five years ago, to celebrate the moment a new version of the song has been released. Through the wonders of technology, the two versions of the song you have just heard have been spliced together, in order to create a duet between the two great metal vocalists along with the varied versions of the song itself. An animated music video has also been created which really is a joy to watch, and is worth checking out on YouTube if you have not yet seen it.

For me, each version proves just how good a song it is, that it is able to flex and stretch to each different way it has been put together, and to me that suggests just how strong the bones of the song are.