Motörhead-Bad Magic
Silver Lining Music 2023
Ruben Mosqueda
Motörhead were one of the bands that got accused of issuing the same album over and over again. Others that come to mind are The Ramones and AC/DC — so Motörhead are in good company I think. By 2015 frontman Lemmy Kilmister had been plagued with health issues leading to the release of their 2013’s effort ‘Aftershock’. Kilmister’s health essentially put the brakes on any proper tour of the United States behind the relatively good album ‘Aftershock’. Kilmister took a brief hiatus from touring and by all accounts, he had been on the mend though it had been slower than Kilmister would have liked.
The upside of that was that Motörhead had a bit more time to knock out some new material and get into the studio with their long time producer Cameron Webb. Their 22nd effort and last was Bad Magic and it was Motörhead at their best. It’s a bombastic audio assault complete with the English wit of rock ‘n’ roll troubadour Kilmister.It’s hard to imagine a rock and metal scene without Lemmy Kilmister; he was to hard rock and metal music what Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings were to country music. Yet, the two aforementioned passed on and the genre moved forward — but not for the better. Motörhead continued to add to their back catalog 40 plus years in; ‘Bad Magic’ offered up their most consistent album since the modern era classic ‘Inferno.’
The standout tracks on ‘Bad Magic’ are; the new concert staple “Thunder & Lightning,”the gritty “Electricity,” the terrifying “Choking On Your Screams,” and the explosive cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” Lemmy had this to say to USA Today about the aforementioned track; “I thought we beat them. I thought we beat it to death. I mean, I like the Stones’ version, but I like ours better”. I can’t say that I can disagree with him. On February 24th, 2023 Silver Lining Music will be issuing a deluxe edition of ‘Bad Magic;’ they added bonus cuts of their cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes,”the newly unearthed “Bullet In Your Brain,”and “Greedy Bastards.” In an effort to give the fans more value to this album which to this point had been out of print, they included a live concert from Japan from 2015 from The Mt. Fuji Rock Festival. Like it needs to be said, by 2015 Lemmy wasn’t at his best. “Heroes” was an excellent version from their covers album, the other two tunes have a little bite and punch, and aren’t at the same level as the standouts from the original studio album. I’m glad the album is back in print and has been given a new coat of paint a little more value for the fans.