"The Best Of"
Sanctuary Music
By Vinnie Apicella Born to raise Hell. Born to kick your ass. They've been likened to many things and equally repellent in a world brought wholly up on the latest fashionable dictum and socio-political awareness. Motorhead, self-professed lawn killers, deviants, leather-clad rock and roll mercenaries-wholly responsible for at least two-thirds of the world's hearing loss-have been able to do what few of the many supergroups before or after have done. survive! And commemorating their 25th anniversary in existence-proof positive that there is such a thing as a Devil and he does indeed need to employ a materialistic workforce to do his bidding-Motorhead reaches yet another milestone in their storied, but never placid career-yes, here it is, their one millionth "Greatest Hits" record! Okay that's a slight exaggeration but they have to be in the running for band most actively promoted during their periods of inactivity! Only months removed from their last great studio record "We Are Motorhead.," Lemmy and company are again commemorated on this two disc set which covers of course all their best, and some worst-can't have it both ways with a band like this-songs spanning their 1975 inception on right up to this year's latest. So in one regard, the current collection pays closer attention to some of the band's later years that whether diehards will ever want to admit it or not, featured one of their strongest lineups if not the strongest, and some of the group's more musically adventurous moments. Along the way they somehow managed to dig up some real diamonds-"Motorhead" performed by Lemmy's old band Hawkwind," "Fire Fire," "Bite the Bullet/The Chase is Better than the Catch" both featured live for first time release-and some coal-"Heart of Stone," "Bomber," as performed by Girlschool. you were expecting maybe Britny Fox? It is only fitting that the lesser known, but no less quality titles as "Rock 'N Roll," "The One to Sing the Blues," "Sacrifice," one of their best ever, and "Snake Bite Love" get grouped into a classic collection such as this. The older tunes have been remastered, rehashed and just about re-everything since their origin so the major portion of disc-two really does justice to a recent and ongoing history. Somewhat unusual however they chose to move away from the newer titles and end off the second disc with live version of "Shoot you in the Back" and "The Hammer," which somehow were previously unreleased but why stick 'em there? Anyway, this is a nice collection for fans that hadn't picked up that incredible reissue series they came out with a while back that featured all of the old classics and some awesome photo and quote archives! The "Best Of" features a condensed version of the story and briefly covers each successive phase, of which there are many, of the band and all its scattered parts, the new collection covers in about two and half hours what this bad ass band of miscreants took 25 years to do. 25 years. God Save us all! |
More from the Online Metal Journal |
 |
|
|
|