Who could have possibly thought that after the brutality left by their previous album OVAHKILL (or Overkill to you "Metal-impaired"), Motörhead had enough in them to release an even more brutal album later on that year. This is... BOMBAH! (or Bomber to you "Metal-impaired").
From start to finish this album is a beast with Philthy Animal Taylor having a seizure inducing performance on the drums that would be near the fastest for it's time, Fast Eddie redefining shredding on a guitar and finally Lemmy showing us why he's the biggest bad-ass in metal with his performance on the Bass/Vocals.
We start off with the fast and angry "Dead Men Tell No Tales", this is your typical Motörhead opening track that is simply there to let you know that these guys are better than you and would kick your ass if you feel otherwise, definately a high point on this album. The next two songs are much slower and bluesier, "Lawman" and "Sweet Revenge". Now these are nowhere near as good as the opener, but these songs are songs that are made to headbang to... the reason us humans have necks is so we can headbang to songs like these, although the former does drag on a bit.
The speed gradually builds up with "Sharpshooter", which is simply enough, about a Sharpshooter. This song is much faster than the two that came before it, but it doesn't really live up to "Dead Man Tell No Tales", still a pretty strong song.
Then comes "Poison", or as I like to call it "FUCKING THRASH!", from the second this song begins you're in for one of the fastest songs for it's time, this is one of the greatest examples of Thrash meets Punk up until Overkill's "Feel the Fire". The song might go for less than three minutes, but if it were any longer you'd have neck problems.
The greatness continues with "Stone Dead Forever", the longest song on this and one of the heaviest. This song is a classic and still receives concert play to this day, one of Motörhead's best here. "All the Aces" is another fast ditty, but it's still rather forgettable. "Step Down" is something different, it's Fast Eddie's shot at vocals, it sounds more "Paranoid"-era Black Sabbath than it does Motörhead, this is a good song, but is more or less filler. "Talking Head" is a mid paced song with pretty fun Bass licks during the solo section, but that's all it has really. Then we get...
IZZEH BOMBAH! IZZEH BOMBAHAHAH!
You guessed it, the title track "Bomber". Now remember the stuff I said about "Dead Men Tell No Tales", "Poison" and "Stone Dead Forever" (sans the longest song part), add all of that together, then turn it up to fucking 11 and we get one of the greatest anthems to come out of heavy metal. From the fast and furious riffage and verses, to the melody bridge or to the onslaught that is the chorus, this song fucking owns and I couldn't think of a better way to close this album.
So there you have it, an album that is the definition of Motörhead, the definition of Metal, the definition of headbanging and the definition of turning it to 11.
Sadly pretty much ever Motörhead studio release that follows this fails to live up to the aggression and all round awesomeness displayed here, probably the only Motörhead that can top this would be their legendary "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith", but that's for another review.
It's a Bomber!