By the end of 1991, Mot\u00f6rhead could probably hardly believe their luck. They had finally attracted the attention of a major label, and despite being put on a small division of Sony Music, they had the backing of one of the big boys for the first time in their history. Their previous album 1916<\/i> had received some of the best reviews they ever experienced. And, to top things off, they found themselves nominated for a Grammy.<\/p>\n
But, as Lemmy Kilmister and crew knew all too well in their career, what goes up has to come down\u2026 hard. First, Kilmister was faced with the sad duty of firing drummer \u201cPhilthy Animal\u201d Taylor, though the reasons will differ depending on who you talk to. Then, somehow trying to craft an album that would break them through to mainstream popularity, they came up with March Or Die<\/i>, which paired Mot\u00f6rhead up with such hard rock\/heavy metal names as Slash and Ozzy Osbourne\u2026 and found that their label support dried up faster than an ice cube in the Sahara desert.<\/p>\n
The end result turns out to be one of the worst albums Mot\u00f6rhead ever did in their career\u2026 but there are just enough redeeming moments to keep this one from being relegated to the trash (though, honestly, it’s the one I listen to the least).<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the strengths. The highlight of this disc \u2013 and what everyone seems to agree should have been Mot\u00f6rhead’s first American hit single \u2013 is \u201cI Ain’t No Nice Guy,\u201d a duet with Osbourne featuring Slash on the guitar solo. Yes, it’s a departure for the band \u2013 but, dammit, it works<\/i>! A perfect mixture of gentle guitar and piano (!!!) lines, Kilmister’s surprisingly subtle (if a tad scratchy \u2013 but, hell, that was Lemmy anyway) vocals, and the bridge which rattles your teeth, this song \u2013 to me, at least, rivals \u201cAce Of Spades\u201d as being the ultimate Mot\u00f6rhead composition.<\/p>\n
Also noteworthy is Mot\u00f6rhead’s take on \u201cHellraiser,\u201d a track Kilmister originally co-wrote with Osbourne and Zakk Wylde. I’m not going to sit here and say whose version is better, as each one has its own unique qualities\u2026 but I will say that Kilmister and crew handle this one very well, almost as if it was their own song.<\/p>\n
And then, things absolutely fall apart. For starters, who in the hell thought a cover of Ted Nugent’s \u201cCat Scratch Fever\u201d was a good idea, especially for a band featuring a prolific songwriter such as Kilmister?\u00a0 In fact, the whole first half of the album (save for \u201cI Ain’t No Nice Guy\u201d) nosedives. From the opening blandness of \u201cStand\u201d to the forced jauntiness of \u201cJack The Ripper,\u201d there is almost nothing noteworthy about the first few songs to save it from the scrap heap.<\/p>\n
While March Or Die<\/i> does redeem itself with \u201cI Ain’t No Nice Guy\u201d and \u201cHellraiser\u201d (and, to a lesser extent, \u201cAsylum Choir\u201d), the damage done is too great to be overcome. \u201cYou Better Run\u201d might have been a better fit on a different album, but it just sinks into the muck here, while the title track almost tries to recapture the sinister feel of \u201cNightmare\/The Dreamtime\u201d off of 1916<\/i>, but just doesn’t have the chops to do so.<\/p>\n
So what happened? The truth is, we’ll never know. Did Kilmister somehow try to grab the brass ring of popularity by making a more commercial-sounding album, thus destroying the credibility they had built up for over 15 years? Was the band pressured into putting out this shitstain by a label who would then turn tail and refuse to promote it, due to changes in the front office and a shift in their promotion priorities? Or would it just have been a bad album, no matter what the circumstances?<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, while there are still a few songs worth your time and attention on this one, March Or Die<\/i> is a disc which seems to demand the listener choose an option\u2026 and, as much as it pains me to say it, death seemed like the better choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5666],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-44887","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-motorhead","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44887"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}