Motörhead
Hammered
Sanctuary
If you like Motörhead, you’ll like Hammered. That is not to say that there is nothing new or innovative from the band – that everything they do sounds like everything else they have done – but this is not a gigantic leap in a new direction. If Motörhead was never really your cup of tea, Hammered will not change your mind.
The first track, “Walk a Crooked Mile,” has an infective hook and some great harmonies. “Brave New World” hits some serious political issues – “If Jesus showed up now, he’d be in jail by next week.” We get a classic love song, Motörhead-style, in “Mine All Mine.” Lemmy even tries his hand at spoken word for “Serial Killer,” featuring a duet with WWF wrestler Triple H. Overall though, Hammered features a lot of songs about aggression and frustration in the Motörhead tradition. The guys are playing in fine form. It’s hard to believe they’ve been at this for 25 years now.
The CD includes two bonus tracks in addition to the eleven studio tracks – “The Game,” which was previously available on WWF: The Music Vol. 5 as Triple H’s theme, and a live version of “Overnight Sensation.” It was good to be able to own a copy of “The Game” without buying a WWF record, and this version of “Overnight Sensation” sounds better than most live Motörhead I have heard.
If your introduction to Motörhead was Triple H’s WWF entrance theme or their recent appearance on The Drew Carey Show, then Hammered can serve as the perfect primer. They still sound raw. They still drive heard. They are still Motörhead. In this day of bland, cookie-cutter radio rock, if you want some bone-jarring, adrenaline-pumping rock, you could do a lot worse than to have Hammered pounding from your speakers.
Sanctuary Records: http://www.sanctuaryrecords.com • Motörhead: http://www.imotorhead.com
