Snake Bite Love

Because this is a organic, corn fed, plucked and stuffed Motörturkey! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! It’s generally said that Motörhead never released a bad album, and fair enough if say Metallica released this it would be “OMG 100%” and “a stunning return to former glories”. But by Motörhead standards this is a bad album.

A major problem here is the generally uninspired riff work. Now, don’t get me wrong Phil Campbell is a great guitar player, especially in a live setting where he constantly surprises me by just how good he can be. But after Würzel’s departure following ‘Sacrifice’ (he was unhappy with some of the bands direction, a supposed lack of arse kicking, not seeing his dog grow up and financial and wiminiz trouble) he went through a bit of a rough patch. Phil seems a little bemused and seems to looking to his left hoping to find his guitar spurring partner of eleven years to give him a hand with the riffs. Of course, Phil finds Würzel isn’t there and as such writes a 3rd rate ‘Sacrifice’ rip-off. Although, his leads are still good…but I can’t help but miss the madcap, squealing guitar histrionics of Würzel, ever the underrated member of Motörhead.

But fret not boys and girls, ‘Snake Bite Love’ isn’t a total waste of time. ‘Love for Sale’, good golly Miss Molly, what a corker. This is why we listen to Motörhead ! Good time rock ’n’ roll delivered at 130db that makes you feel ten feet tall and encourages periods of very heavy drinking. Lyrically, the song is a rather clever way of describing the physical effects of Viagra and as such is perhaps the most apt song by a bunch of hoary old rockers ever. After all, if old Percy isn’t saying hello what’s wrong with a little encouragement? It’s the kind of thing Motörhead does so well, that being erm Motörhead music. You may not need an airplane (grammar Lem!) to get you through the night, but this song is a perfect way of sending yourself out for a night, mandatory Saturday night listening.

But elsewhere it’s a pretty dire state of affairs. Although there’s nothing really horrid here, neither is there anything that rivals the tongue in cheek brilliance of ‘Love for Sale’. There are not one, not two, but three straight up rip offs of ‘Sacrifice’ songs here; ‘Dogs of War’ is another ‘Over your Shoulder’ with those riffs Slash heard and went “There’s a stupid radio rock song to be had from these!”, ‘Assassin’ is actually just ‘Sacrifice’ but slowed down and with nowhere near the same menace, still it’s one of the albums better songs and ‘Desperate for You’ starts exactly the same as ‘Sex & Death’. Taking the piss? Just a little! Mikkey, admits that this album was rushed and it really shows, he states given more time ‘Snake Bite Love’ could have been a classic. Well, it’s certainly worth taking the extra time as albums, as you may or may have not noticed, are eternal documents and can’t simply disappear…no matter how much an artist may wish, so regardless of prior commitments it’s always worth that little extra time to make something worthwhile.

The late 90s and earlier part of this decade were a scrappy patch for the greatest rock band in the world ever (no, not Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts you moron!). The albums were workman like rather than inspiring as say the late 70s, 80s and early 90s were for the band. Overall, it’s not horrific but it’s by some distance the worst Motörhead album in the world…Ever!