Motorhead-Bad Magic (2015)

Motorhead-Bad Magic (2015)

“Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you”

Lemmy Kilmister

By: Ghost Writer

With Motorhead there is no room for uncertainty or room for error, you know exactly what you are foing to get everytime Lemmy and his cohorts arrive with a new record, loud music traditionalists in the vein of Iron Maiden, AC/DC or the Ramones, Motorhead is a well-oiled machine, unstoppable thanks to its relentless leader Lemmy Kilmister, a brutal rock n roll from whom you can't expect nothing but uncompromising loud and abrasive rock n roll, forget about metal, punk or blues, this is loud music that defy all rules.

In Bad Magic, Motorhead's new record we find the same unstoppable approach, but this time Kemmy and friends sound somehow revitalized, strengthened by the fact that current band are looking for a more abrasive approach, we are faced with a band so full of itself and completely assured that their formula is far from broken, so there's no need to fix it, and opener Victory ir Die us a clear sign of it, as Motorhead charges full on just like a runaway train, a ruthless machine just about to blast off in our faces, Kilmister job as a vocalist is as stellar as ever, with a voice that immediately dispatches any notion that this band is mellowing.

Thunder & Lightning is a merciless rewriting of the almighty Ace of Spaces, but the bans manages tu turn the song inside out in a way that it sounds fresh all over again, stripping some of the blues elements of the original and adding some healthy doses of hyper speed to the already volatile mix, while Fire Storm Hotel is way groovier, one of those runes you really enjoy in the live environment and the closer thing a Motorhead sing alone might sound like, featuring also a great guitar work by the great Phill Campbell, while on Shoot Out All of Your Lights there's plenty of room not only for Campbell's intense guitar work, but also for Mikkey Dee's enormous drum talent to show off, although the song gets a little lost in the end.

Bad Magic is so perfectly captured in all its raw magic that almost sounds like a Motorhead's greatest hits album, delivering classic after classic and that's precisely Lemmy's troupe principal asset, its capacity to deliver a fresh attack, but at the same time introducing the classic elements of the band's sound, as tunes like The Devil or Electricity quickly shows, easily fulfilling the promise of keeping the band's sound fresh and menacing which is put in fully manifest on a song like Evil Eye that could easily put bands half the age of Motorhead to shame.

Bad Magic is a surprising solid recording for a band already on its fourth decade, featuring more than satisfying all out themes like Teach Them How to Bleed with its fast tempos and blinding guitar pyrotechnics, or the intoxicating Till the End, giving us just a little chance to gasp our breath, leaving us ready for the definite lethal attack at the end of the record, beginning with Tell Me Who to Kill and the terrifying Choking on your Screams a powerful one-two punch that lives the current metal listener more than satisfied and convinced that Motorhead is without a doubt one of the greatest heavy metal band and that is armor is still shinning bright no matter how many years keep passing by, and if that wasn’t enough check out the brilliant tongue in cheek cover of the Rolling Stones, the band throws at us at the end, Sympathy For The Devil hasn’t simply sounded so great in the last years.