There's always a certain amount of excitement when you get a chance to put a brand new Motorhead album in your CD player and I'll tell you......about half-way through the first song, with a big smile on my face, I could feel the raw energy and excitement just like it used to be for me years ago listening to albums such as Overkill, Ace Of Spades and Iron Fist. This album has moments that relive past glories and also contains a few soon to be Motorhead classics. The current line-up up of Lemmy (vocals/bass), Phil Campbell (guitar) and Mikkey Dee (drums) has been together for quite a few years now and I think captures the essence of the Motorhead sound as well as or if not better than any line-up in the past. This album is a great mix of all sorts of styles all done in primo Motorhead fashion. I lost touch a bit with the band through the 80's but I think every album since 1916 has been a strong one (some better than others but all still good!!!). Very few bands have such a characteristic sound with Lemmy providing the typical scowl of his demented poetry and the grinding, gritty guitar riffs. Phil Cambell really serves up some tasty guitar riffs and licks on this album. The first track, Walk A Crooked Mile, is a solid mid-temp rocker and features Lemmy doing some background vocal harmonizing (a little strange for a Motorhead album but hell, he can do whatever he wants and it still fits!!!). He poises many questions in this song such as "If you were Armageddon, who would you spare?"......"If you were a soldier...what would you bleed?"....and an absolute classic line "We hold rehearsals for your death......we're tired of your smile". This song is an instant classic. The track has great riffs and finishes with a cool Wah-Wah lead by Phil. Brave New World, another great track, is a good fast-paced rocker in which Lemmy tackles the corruption that exists in modern day society and paints a pretty bleak outlook for the future. The song really cooks and contains another classic line.."God is on your side....but I don't think that you're on his". As I was first listening to this disc, I kept pausing my CD player to write down these lines!!!! Voices From The War uses a more chunkier rhythm guitar sound than usual for the band and is a hard-hitting look at the horrors of war (a topic Lemmy has written about many times before). A couple of tracks, in particular, Mine All Mine and Dr. Love have a straight ahead rockin' bluesy feel to them and remind me a bit of a song like Going To Brazil (I saw Motorhead on David Letterman about 9 or 10 years ago and they played Going To Brazil with the full CBS Orchestra with piano and horn section and is was smokin!!... a great song is a great song no matter how it's played!!). No Remorse is a slower pounding heavy type of song and features some lower-pitched menacing vocals by Lemmy and really creates a creepy atmosphere. It also features a change to a fast tempo and finishes with some cool Wah-Wah leads through to the fade-out at the end......a great song!!! No Motorhead album would be complete without a blistering rocker along the likes of Iron Fist, or Ace Of Spades and Red Raw is just such a song. A smokin' fast cooker of a song that rivals the speed of early Motorhead material. The final track on the album is actually a very...very creepy narration by Lemmy called Serial Killer. It features a look through the eyes of a serial killer using a poetic style in a menacing, truly Lemmy fashion. The eerie backing sounds add to the overall atmosphere of this piece.

Motorhead is about to embark on their 25th anniversary tour and although they have a backlog of classic material and could draw huge crowds just by playing older material, they march on, releasing album after album of solid material. This album is no exception and I think is one of the better ones they have done in quite some time. They never sound dated and have a rough and tumble sound that never seems to tire. Motorhead is metal royalty and they helped pave the way for the Heavy Metal explosion that happened in the late 70's and continued into the late 80's. It says a lot for people like Lemmy who have refused to sell out and continue to do what he wants to do with this band for so many years now.

This album is not perfect...Motorhead is not perfect (I'm sure Lemmy will agree) but it's about as good as it gets with this band........LONG LIVE MOTORHEAD!!!!!!!!