Motörhead have achieved legendary status in rock music circles with their completely uncompromising approach to rock ‘n’ roll .. ‘everything louder than everything else’ .. and by the time the band ground to an untimely halt in December 2015, after the great man himself, Lemmy, went up to the fabled ‘Rainbow Bar n’ Grill’ in the sky, they’d firmly established their credentials as one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time.
Kiss Of Death followed on from 2004’s Inferno, and it’s being reissued after being newly half-speed mastered from the original tapes, with new liner notes that include a tribute to the now sadly departed Phil Campbell. It also comes with a bonus disc, a previously unreleased radio broadcast from the Lowlands festival, Holland, 2007, with Motörhead onstage displaying more attitude than an armadillo.
Right from the stonkin’ opener, ‘Sucker’, Kiss Of Death is typical hard hitting rock ‘n’ roll. It’s simply Motörhead staying close to their playbook, and is a ferocious reminder of Lemmy and his merry men doing what they do best .. playing fast, relentless, grinding, foot-pressed-hard-against-the-pedal, bone crunching rock music with no quarter asked, no prisoners taken and with solid musicianship. Yes, you can argue what they play is simple .. whoever said rock ‘n’ roll had to be complicated? .. but they play it extremely well. How else to explain their longevity and Lemmy’s status as a rock icon?
It’s hard to be objective about this album. Like AC/DC, Quo and the rest, Motörhead know their target audience and what they give them doesn’t disappoint. Most of the songs are fast paced rockers, with sledgehammer riffage on the likes of ‘Devil I Know’, ‘Trigger’, ‘Living In The Past’ and ‘Sword Of Glory’, Lemmy’s take on military madness, all continuing in the same vein, though ‘Under The Gun’, by Motörhead standards, is almost a ballad. Lemmy’s lyrics are often insightful, and ‘God Was Never On Your Side’ sees him venting his distaste for organised religion .. they claim to heal, but all they do is steal. Played extremely fast, ‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S.’ pays homage to the thin white mooks, and the album concludes with Metallica‘s ‘Whiplash’, albeit with slightly amended lyrics.
Lowlands saw the band end in style with a coruscating set of Motörhead classics from right across their storied career, reaching back to 1979’s Overkill for ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Stay Clean’ and up to 2004’s ‘In The Name Of Tragedy’. They round it off with a blistering ‘Killed By Death’, by which time Lemmy’s voice, usually as smooth as a gravel pit, was struggling a little, and the obligatory ‘Ace Of Spades’.
They rocked to the bitter end, and after Lemmy’s passing Phil Campbell carried the flame right up until his own death earlier in 2026. ‘Age shall not wither them’, and Motörhead’s place in rock’s high canon is assured.
