Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. Over the weekend, we were shocked to learn the news of Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell’s passing at the far too young age of 64. Despite being the second longest running member of the band behind Lemmy himself, Campbell has always come off as a bit of an unsung hero. The reverence given to the “Three Amigos” lineup of Lemmy, Fast Eddie, and Philthy Animal is beyond justified: They changed heavy metal and rock music as a whole forever. Yet in the years after that lineup imploded, it was Campbell, and subsequently drummer Mikkey Dee, who kept the Motörhead train a rollin’, forming their own unique chemistry with the fabled Lemmy and unleashing a string of classic albums along the way. Today, we go back in time 40 years, when Lemmy not only introduced Campbell to the masses, but a brand new iteration of Motörhead: This time as a quartet. This is the story of Orgasmatron.
By 1986, metal was changing and so was Motörhead. Gone were the glory days when the NWOBHM crowd adopted the pioneering speed-freaks as forefathers of their scene, headbanging in their dirty denim and faded leather to hymns like “Ace of Spades”, “Overkill”, and “Bomber”. The band’s classic lineup imploded in 1982, following the departure of Fast Eddie Clarke on the axe. In his place came Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy fame, and while he got the job done for 1983’s painfully underrated Another Perfect Day, he was far from a perfect fit for the band, both musically and personally. Less than a year after joining, he too was out of the fold.
This left Lemmy and Philthy Animal, who also had one foot out the door, scrambling for another guitarist. After all, the last thing Lemmy wanted to do was put his baby on ice…and yet that’s exactly what ended up happening. Fresh out of NWOBHM wunderkinds Persian Risk, 22 year old Phil Campbell stepped up to the plate as Motörhead’s new axe-slinger. So did veteran Würzel, making Motörhead a double guitar band. Though I’m not sure Lemmy’s exact thinking in this scenario, I can’t help but assume it came down to Phil Lynott’s sentiments when doing the same for Thin Lizzy in the ’70s (“If one leaves, at least I’ll have another.”) Philthy departed in ’84, his spot filled by one-time Saxon drummer Pete Gill. It was a new Motörhead for a new age, and it’d be a couple years before anyone heard them in the form of a full length.
Throughout ’84 and ’85, this incarnation of Motörhead played various shows, but remained largely quiet on the new music front. The lineup made their debut on 1984’s No Remorse compilation, presenting headbangers with 4 exclusive new songs: “Killed by Death”, “Snaggletooth”, “Steal Your Face”, and “Locomotive”. ’85 came and went quietly by Motörhead standards: A series of 10th anniversary shows, but still no new music. Come ’86, three years had passed since a new Motörhead album, and many wondered, especially in the age of thrash, if such an album would even be worthwhile. Mind you, this was an era when Black Sabbath was down to Tony Iommi and Judas Priest went full blown glam metal, so skepticism towards the old guard was high. In true rock n’ roll fashion, Lemmy and his new murder crew struck down the naysayers with their 7th studio album, Orgasmatron.
Besides the new lineup, what set Orgasmatron apart from past Motörhead albums was the introduction of producer Bill Laswell. With roots in the east coast avant-garde scene, Laswell brought an outside flavor to the band, without sacrificing their core dirtbag rock n’ roll sound. Though Lemmy went onto lament the production, likening it to “mud”, Laswell certainly attempted to modernize the band for the era, concocting a sonic attack more in line with the thrash and hardcore acts they influenced than the dinosaurs of the late ’70s and early ’80s. And yes, for better or worse, that attack included what Campbell described as “hip-hop sounds”. Personally, I feel they’re more in line with industrial, but you get the idea, and you know what? It worked.
The album opens in true Motörhead fashion with a throbbing, fist-pumping, ode to rock n’ roll, “Deaf Forever”. This song has everything you could want from a Motörhead album opener: Lemmy’s signature growl, pulsating riffage, four on the floor drumming, and vivid lyricism. In between each of Lemmy’s lyrics, Laswell throws in one of his industrial samples, which in hindsight, I could understand being divisive for these purists. It’s not like this song (or album) would be any less compelling without said noises, but it certainly adds a unique flavor.
Side A pummels on with the defiant speed of “Nothing Up My Sleeve”. If “Deaf Forever” was the calm before the storm, then “Sleeve” is the storm, tearing through our stereos with old school rock n’ roll attitude, filthy riffs, neck-snapping drumming, and a blur of anarchy. Gill proves he can bash the skins as well in this band as he did and Saxon, and the dynamic duo of Campbell and Würzel trade lead licks with the confidence of a duo that’d been playing for years…which at that point, they had. “Ain’t My Crime” boasts the same energy, with Lemmy not just attacking the naysayers musically, but lyrically. The lyric, “Just watch me flip the bird, right in your lyin’ eyes” always stuck out to me.
On “Claw”, the band pushes the speedometer even further, with Gill working overtime on the double bass pedals. The riffage is certainly still in the Motörhead vein, not touching the extremity of newcomers of the era like Kreator or Dark Angel, but one could certainly envision fans of said rookies thrashing and bashing to a cut like this. The same can be said for the turbo-charged “Mean Machine”, which might just be the closest the band gets on this album to tried and true thrash, if only for the phrasing of the riffs and frenetic drumming. Again, with a band like Motörhead ruling the roost, it’s no surprise Metallica, Slayer, and the likes quickly followed.
After a truly intense side A, Motörhead tone down the speed for side B, but without toning down the extremity of the music as a whole. Much like “Deaf Forever”, “Built for Speed” opens Orgasmatron‘s back half in defiant, anthemic fashion. Lemmy proclaims his love for rock n’ roll, just as he has going back to the band’s earliest days. At this point, he’s 40 years old, an old man by heavy metal standards, but still bursting with the same fire and energy that was kindled as a young lad in the ’50s upon discovering Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and so forth. Indeed, he was “born to rock n’ roll”.
“Ridin’ with the Driver” is the sole speed metal outburst on side B, lying more in line sonically with side A’s material, yet coming off as far more than “B-side” material, if you catch my drift. Gill goes absolutely nuts behind the kit, as do the other three members of the band on their respective instruments. By this point in the album, it becomes clear that Lemmy is at home with this lineup, far more than he was on Another Perfect Day, and perhaps even more than Iron Fist. Some might argue the midtempo “Doctor Rock” to be the “weakest” song on the album. If it is, it still smokes the competition. For every speed-fueled slab of punishing metalpunk, Lemmy could bash out anthems to the music and lifestyle he loved. It just so happens this album boasts three of those.
As the old saying goes, the best is saved for last in the form of the iconic title track, “Orgasmatron”. Spoiler alert: If you were to ask me to list the top 10 Motörhead songs off the top of my head right now, this would be #1, for a slew of reasons. Musically speaking, it’s so unusual for the band: Slow, lurching, ominous, teetering on the edge of doom…and yet it works. Lyrically, Lemmy takes aim at the world’s three biggest evils: religion, politics, and war. 40 years on, and these words seem more relevant now than ever. While these words certainly could’ve been used against a speed metal backdrop, they work better against that aforementioned barrage of motörized dread.
Although Orgasmatron wasn’t a commercial smash (neither was any album before or after), it did singlehandedly reestablish the band’s presence in the metal world. Old heads were put on alert that they could still kick ass, and young thrashers the world over were introduced to these veterans. An equally legendary tour, with support from then up and comers Megadeth and Cro-Mags, ensued, resulting in tales still told to this day. If Motörhead’s first 6 albums weren’t enough to keep the band’s name in the lexicon of metal, punk, and rock n’ roll for eternity, then Orgasmatron certainly was. Rest in power Phil, Würzel, and Lemmy.
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