Motörhead join AC/DC as the two go-to bands that folks mention when they're talking about a band that has essentially churned out the same album over and over. Usually this is a backhanded compliment rather than actual criticism: the idea is that the band do what they do so well that it never gets old… except sometimes it does get old and we just don't like to admit it. We feel like we're dishonoring the classic material by not giving it up for the new shit. If we're being truthful, however, when a band puts all of their eggs in one basket, the main thing that differentiates one album from the next is the proportion of filler material present.
First of all, I want to resist what will probably end up being a common narrative, that being the framing of Aftershock as possibly the last Motörhead album. Lemmy's not dead, y'all. Understandably, the metal community is still reeling over the 2010 death of Ronnie James Dio, so it shouldn't be any surprise that fans get a little squeamish when they hear that another aging headbanger is on the ropes. But no one aside from Lemmy and those close to him know the true extent of his illness, so if Lemmy himself claims he's on the rebound we owe it to a living legend not to treat him like a dead man walking.
As previously mentioned, the main thing distinguishing one Motörhead album from another is the quantity of filler, particularly in latter years, when the band have been less likely to churn out an all-time classic like "Ace of Spades" or "Metropolis" as they are to issue workmanlike essays via their hoary template, satisfactory in a "scratching the itch" sort of way but fairly interchangeable if you really want to cut the shit.
Aftershock is the first album in years to really flirt with the greatness that the band traded in for cruise control sometime in the early 90's. Again, this isn't a band that puts out truly execrable albums – though Snake Bite Love comes awful close – but they've seemed content to coast on their reputation and fearsome live act for a good 20 years now… a much longer stretch than their actual groundbreaking years. The riffs are there, the band has always sounded fired up, but somehow that drive hasn't translated into memorable songs with any kind of consistency for quite awhile now.
"Heartbreaker" leads the album off in vintage Motörhead fashion: gone is most of the grunge-era insistence on beefing up the riffs as far as their amps' overdrive would go. There is a decisive trade off between crunch and melody that's been largely absent in the band's repertoire since the 1980's. The result is one of the group's catchiest numbers since "Going to Brazil" or "Hellraiser". "Queen of the Damned" splits the difference, bearing the shaggy production of more recent albums while boasting a galloping boogie riff straight out of 1978.
Elsewhere, you have to go back pretty deep into the band's catalog to find a slow blues lament as electrifying as "Lost Woman Blues". Lemmy's matter-of-fact, "ain't life a bitch" drawl is a perfect compliment to the ZZ Top-like simmer of Phil Campbell's guitar licks. "Going to Mexico" may also sound like a classic ZZ Top song title, but that would be a misnomer: the bombastic production and simplistic vocal patterns are representative of more recent Motörhead material at its best… focused, inspired and loaded for bear.
And that's essentially what you get with Aftershock as a whole. The band have gone back to the drawing board and identified their strengths from each era, attempting to fuse all of those (admittedly not-so-)disparate elements into a seamless whole.
While they succeed mightily at a level we haven't seen in years, they can't quite sustain that quality over an entire 14 tracks, however. "Do You Believe" and "Crying Shame", for instance, break up the momentum by offering paint-by-numbers Motörhead sandwiched right in the middle of some of the album's best tracks.
Aside from a bit of bloat and dodgy sequencing, however, Aftershock is not merely a moral victory for a band that had seemingly contented themselves to victory lap after victory lap, but a legitimate "win" by any standard. Hopefully they carry this momentum over into another studio album next year… for yes, in spite of all the blog drama in the last few months, I have no doubt that Motörhead will be back for another round in 2014. After all, if anyone can outlive God Himself it's Lemmy, right? Trick question: Lemmy IS God.
