Motorhead Top 5 Album Power Ranking
How to describe Motorhead... A genre busting act that cross-pollinated the no f*cks giving attitude of punk and the relentless drive of metal, inadvertently blazing the trail for thrash and speed metal that were soon to come
I mean, what more can you say about a iconic band with such a powerful resume?
Not much! Which is why I’m restricting my personal commentary on these legendary antiheroes to a...
Motorhead Top 5 Album Power Ranking!
Why just weigh in on just their top 5 albums? With 22 studio albums, 15 live albums, and 16 complication albums, how else can you wrap your arms around such a prolific discography?
Plus, I love a good “top 5 album” ranking. That’s always where you get to the real cream of the crop. Especially with long-running band boasting 10 or more releases.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Crafted by the “classic line up” of Lemmy, “Fast” Eddie Clark, and “Philthy Animal” Phil Taylor, not sure how anyone could dispute that Overkill is clearly Motorhead’s best album? (Then again... There’s no accounting for taste ;---)
From the opening double bass roll of the incomparable title track onward, this pummeling record, released a decade ahead of it’s time, laid out the blueprint the for what would soon become thrash and speed metal. And in turn, inspired a gang of multi-platinum artist to come, including Anthrax, Megadeth, and the mighty Metallica, among many more future headbangers.
While Lemmy, Clark + Taylor may have comprised Motorhead’s “classic line up,” there’s little doubt that the later Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Michael "Wurzel” Burston, and Micky Dee incarnation served as the band’s most musically adept unit.
And nowhere is this fact in more evidence than on the band’s 11th studio record, Bastards. Released in 1993, amid the grunge maelstrom overtaking heavy rock, Bastards is unapologetically metal.
Raw, driving, and relentless, Bastards’ tracks like On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Death or Glory, and Born to Raise Hell rock as hard, if not harder, than any tunes in the band’s considerable playlist.
And the acoustic ballad (yup, there’s and ballad, and yup, it’s acoustic), Don’t Let Daddy Kiss Me, showcases a socially conscious side of Lemmy many Motorhead fans may not have expected.
Released three years and two albums after Bastards and crafted sans former rhythm guitarist Wurzel, Overnight Sensation is nearly equal to the aforementioned album. And only ranks a step behind for being a slightly over-polished.
As I’m certain most Motorhead aficionados would agree, the band’s rawest, most unvarnished efforts are ultimately their best. Thus, while this shined up piece of work sounds stunning, it gets a few points off for being just tad too shiny.
Never-the-less, Overnight Sensation is totally rockin’ record, and features the Lemmy-Campbell-Dee lineup at its very best!
Though Overkill, a better album all around, preceded it, Ace of Spades is in many respects the record that really started it all for Motorhead.
Including the band’s most well known track, the title tune, Ace of Spades, the album is, in all honesty, Overkill Part II. Just not quite as stunning or punishing as the prior release.
But all of this said, Ace of Spades is truly a stone cold metal classic that holds up today. The record roars out of your stereo speakers in the 2020s every bit as raucous as when it originally dropped in 1980.
A transition album of sorts, 1916 marks Motorhead’s last record with the Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Wurzel, and "Philthy Animal” Phil Taylor line up, as Taylor would jump ship after this outing.
Though not the heaviest or best rendered Motorhead release, the album does feature some exceptional songwriting by one Mr. Lemmy Kilmister.
Stand outs include the title track, 1916, a historical piece addressing the appallingly bloody “war of attrition” fought along the European Western Front in in World War I; ballads like Love Me Forever and Angel City; and stomping rockers like I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care) and the excellent Ramones tribute, R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Well, I’ve thrown down my Motorhead Top-5 Album Power Ranking...
