Overkill - Motorhead-Overkill *****Only way to feel the noise is when it s good and loud Lemmy Kilmister testifies on the very first line of the what many consider to be teh greatest hard rock album of all time. Overkill is unlike any other Motorhead album yet it encompass everything that we would see and love about the band in the years to come. Powerful, angry, intelligent, and incredible rock n roll. Overkill the massively influential title track, No Class and the riff frenzy that is Damage Case are all here. All three of which are easily the bands most influential tracks, with out the likes of whom bands like Metallica would have never formed. But more than that is the gender bending, though not really Ill Be Your Sister the spacey Capricorn the mania of (I Won t)Pay Your Price and the Limb From Limb which may or may not be the very best Motorhead tune of all time. Riffs from out of this world played by Fast Eddie Clarke. Some of the most solid drumming of all time is played by Philthy Taylor. But Lemmy shines here the most. His bass is more prominent on Overkill than any other album and his lyrics are some of his more personal and strongest. While he hadn t taken on any serious subjects like war, and politics as he would later these are still some of his best lyrics.Overkill was a landmark album for metal, punk, and rock n roll. While never really fitting into either of those genres it still is claimed by all. Overkill caused a million kids to form bands, and launched Motorhead into cult status. Along with Bomber, and of course Ace Of Spades, Overkill is essential for early Motorhead.
Overkilling your ears with happiness! - I knew Motorhead Rocked, but this second effort shows them jelling into a classic band. All the big tunes, Stay Clean, Metropolis, and Louie, Louie Are solid. The ones I haven t heard Pay Your Price, Tear Ya Down, and Limb By Limb were great surprises too. If you re a Motorhead fan or are new to the band This ones a must have!
DRINK THIS SH** OUT THE BOTTLE!!! - If you think you know what they mean when they say Heavy Metal and you have never heard this album... than you are lying to yourself. Lemmy of Motorhead had been noodling around with a few sounds, and a few line-ups since about 74, trying to create a bar band that was as true to the term Kick A&& as he was. The peices slowly fell together a year or so earlier when he got the trio together to make up the first real line-up to Motorhead. While the debut album was a frenzy of hard rockin sound that literally bounced off your walls and into your brain stem, it was here with OVERKILL that the band took it past the limits and created the most balls out heavy metal experience around.Overkill is the album that really shows how epic metal can be, without all of the extended jams or the drawn out solos. In fact, every song is pretty basic, and under five minutes. But it packs the punch. This album is best coupled with Bomber, the bands next release... however the latter album mellows out just a tad (it ll still make your mommas head explode though)... Overkill is pretty much the pinnacle, of nasty, bad ace rock,roll and metal. Arrrrrrgggggg....lets slug some whiskey and jump on things!
Great Early Motörhead - One of Motörhead s best, ... offers their usual mix of groove infused speed metal with some atmosphere (Capricorn) and punk inspired hark rock (Tear Ya Down). A very strong album, with no weak tracks!
How Can You Give This Less Than Five Stars? - Some musical purists may turn up their noses, but I don t see how anyone who enjoys 30-40 minutes of straight-ahead, no-BS rock could dislike Motorhead. Overkill is a 100-percenter of an album, meaning every cut here is a complete classic, and I never have to hit the skip button once. Furthermore, I m going to need to create a new designation for future albums I review, called CVR. CVR stands for Certified Volume Raiser, and it goes to any album that involuntarily causes me to reach for the control marked Volume and adjust so as to make the music louder. Overkill is one of those albums. Anyway, rock albums that clock in at under 40 minutes with zero cheesy power ballads rule the earth. (Not that cheesy power ballads are always a bad thing.) Overkill fits that bill to a T, and you could make the argument that at times this record is almost punkish in its intensity. Alternatively, songs such as Capricorn and Metropolis, nicely slow the pace down to that of a chugging runaway train, and kick tail THAT way.The best song on this album is Limb From Limb, which starts out as a Hendrix-like tune before opening up the throttle and going all-out toward its roaring conclusion. A classic. Stay Clean is another finalist for Best Song, because when you first hear it, it doesn t sound like anything special, but as with the best songs it gets better and better with every listen.Everyone says Motorhead and this album in particular influenced speed metal. While that may be true, for me it s just good solid hard rock-type JAMS. A true CVR, indeed. 10 out of 10.