Motörhead: Aftershock

Lemmy Kilmister has been saying it for decades to anyone who will listen: Motörhead are a rock'n'roll band, not a metal band; but their output and their self-proclaimed desire to play harder and faster than everyone else have often undermined those protestations. With this, their 21st studio album, Motörhead have finally made a great rock'n'roll record. Aftershock is rooted in the blues and rockabilly of Lemmy's early years. His well-documented health problems are all over this record. His voice is shot, but all the more plaintive and compelling for it. Lyrically there are a lot of intimations of mortality. "Dust and glass, your life flies past, no one to tell you why," he sings on Dust and Glass, a slap of psychedelica that will challenge lazy assumptions that Motörhead can only play one way. If this is to be the last Motörhead album, it's some way to depart the stage. Aftershock is a stone-banker hard-rock classic from beginning to end, and as good as anything they have ever released. motorhead.com