Following up the most successful album of their career, Ace Of Spades would prove to not be an easy task. In addition, the live album No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith that was recorded during the subsequent wildly successful world tour for Motorhead's landmark album, hit the number one spot on the British charts the previous year. The pressure was on and many expected them to deliver nothing less than Ace of Spades II. Iron Fist came out in 1982 and although the fiery energy was still ever present for the most part, it had more of clearer and softer production quality and was missing the "rough around the edges" feel of their previous albums. Fast Eddy Clarke took the production helm on this one and his influence pretty much helped shape the Motorhead sound that was to follow in subsequent releases. Many critics and fans were unfairly harsh in their criticism of Iron Fist. It was not Ace Of Spades II and that very aspect was enough for people to start writing them off. In smoothing out the edges of the louder than loud style of production that they were used to, the band actually sounded more powerful with Philthy Animal Taylor's drums having the best sound of any Motorhead record up to that point. More attention was paid to lyrical content and a few attempts were made at sending Motorhead in a more catchier and "gulp" commercially friendly direction that although yielded some interesting results, left some die-hard fans gasping in disbelief.

The title track, Iron Fist gets things underway and although the production yields a slightly cleaner sound, this track smokes!! With all the speediness of the Ace Of Spades album, this one's classic driving Motorhead and with Lemmy's classic barking of "The Iron Fist" at the end of the chorus section being a Kodak moment in Motorhead history. Heart Of Stone keeps things rolling along quite nicely with another smoking fast track. Both of these two opening tracks just kill and were somewhat misleading as to the content of the rest of the album. The sign of things to come really begins with I'm The Doctor. A great "groove" type of track, it sees a more "subdued" vocal from Lemmy and although the music is solid, I feel that the vocals never really come together properly. Go To Hell gets back to the speedy and fast up tempo style of the first two tracks with some great riffs but the chorus section is a bit weak. The almost disco-like drum beat to the opening of Loser must have been enough for some fans to be diving out the nearest open window!! Although very out of character, this one's an attempt at infusing some melody to the "freight train" wall of sound and despite my initial reaction, there's something strangely appealing to this track!! Sex And Outrage sees Lemmy tackling everything from teenage sex to groupies etc. with Phil Taylor's hammering double bass drums propelling this one. This track and a couple of others suffer from sudden and very annoying fade-outs that bug me every time I listen to this album. It's not your normal gradual fade-out but more abrupt ones that are a big sore spot for me. America has a solid "boogie" style of riff and Lemmy's lyrics tell the tale of their experiences touring the U.S. Different yet still catchy, this track must be the very first time that I ever heard Lemmy hold a note at the end of a line of lyrics rather than continually barking them out. Things get back to "normal" with the trio of Shut It Down, Speedfreak and (Don't Let 'Em) Grind You Down. Shut It Down is fast and speedy and despite some solid riffs, doesn't really go anywhere. Speedfreak ups the ante somewhat with it's combination of solid riffs and some great lead guitar work by Fast Eddy. (Don't Let 'Em) Grind You Down is a Motorhead anthem that's hard and driving and again, Fast Eddy lays down some great leads. With an intro that borrows from the Peter Gunn theme, Lemmy gets political with the clever and cutting lyrical content of (Don't Need) Religion. The album ends with Bang To Rights, another smoking track that's much in the vein of the Ace Of Spades album material and aside from a few hiccups, ends a very solid album by Lemmy and company.

This re-issue, besides containing the re-mastered original album has a second bonus CD that features Remember Me, I'm Gone which was the B-side of the single for Iron Fist as well as a concert from May of 1982 when they played the hockey shrine known as Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto Canada. I was at that particular show and it's cool that it resurfaces so many years later. It's hard to hear Fast Eddy's guitar throughout the entire recording and the drums have a sort of swirling effect that you normally get with outdoor shows but the band was very tight and very, very loud. I wasn't too familiar with material other than the Ace Of Spades album at the time of the show and all I remember was this huge wall of noise and feedback that was not only hard on the ears, but made it difficult to determine what they were actually playing. If the sound quality was better, it would be an awesome live recording but for nostalgic purposes, this is still pretty cool.

The passage of time has been great for this album. I'll admit, I was one of those fans who initially regarded the Iron Fist album as somewhat of a disappointment. As the years passed and especially with this newly released expanded and re-mastered edition, I finally see just how this album fits in to the Motorhead legacy and even though this was to be Fast Eddy Clarke's last album with the band, his production style and approach to recording Iron Fist pointed Motorhead in the right direction. If they hadn't experimented a bit with this album and continued with the Overkill, Bomber, Ace Of Spades approach, it's quite likely that they would've eventually stagnated, burned out or become disinterested in the whole process. From an arrangement standpoint, much more effort was put into this album to make the songs the best that they could be. Lemmy's voice sounded richer and Fast Eddy's lead guitar work more varied. It appeared that he actually took a lot more time in fashioning just the right solo for each track rather than the "just wing it" approach of other albums. I like this album much more today than I did when it first came out and it showed that Motorhead could branch out and experiment with new types of songs and even with melody; still making it all work for the most part. It really showed that despite their image as a tough and heavy act, there was (and still is) some real talent there hiding behind the stacks of Marshalls and ear-splitting volume