Review Summary: Motorhead’s Overkill is raw, pure and careless. Unlike other metal bands that focus on more serious topics, Motorhead deals with more simple feelings of the rocker life style, but in a perfect manner.
Overkill to this day remains a misunderstood album by most critics. They are in search for a progressive album that incorporates long complex melodies, numerous instruments, various vocal styles and so on. The thing is, Motorhead uses none of these elements, they just seem to play loud and don’t care and that is, however the beauty of metal and the beauty of everything in this album. That’s what metal is and that’s why you feel something itchy in many other records which seem better on the surface. It is the connection to each other, the love of your instrument and very importantly for a Motorhead release, Lemmy’s growly vocal that takes you far away in the late 70s, on a festival full of drunk people who care for nothing but fun.
There is not another band that is quite like Motorhead, they all lack the natural harmonics that Motorhead has, and although they will be always distant and depressive, aggressive and relentless they will never be as warm as the band that didn’t have a second electric guitar, a lot of money for audio mastering and a guy who can sing anywhere from an opera to a death metal band because I guarantee you, that guy would never be able to sing in a band even remotely similar to this one.
May this album be an inspiration to all musicians not only interested in the metal genre, music is not mathematics, but 3 guys in a garage who have nothing, not even instruments (Motorhead had to steal gear to record their first album), but their will to rock without a grudge.
Recommended tracks - actually listen to the whole thing, these tracks are here just to give you a small taste if you have been hesitating on trying:
(I won't) Pay Your Price
Metropolis
Louie, Louie
Band members at the time of recording:
Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister- bass and vocals
Eddie "Fast" Clarke - guitar and backing vocals
Philip "Philty Animal" Taylor - drums
