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Release Date: August 9th, 1986
Record Label: GWR
My rating:
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Whenever casual fans talk about Motorhead, songs like "Ace Of Spades", "Overkill", "Iron Fist", and perhaps a couple others would come up in most conversations, and it's not often that these people would bring up the names "Deaf Forever", "Claw" and "Ridin' With The Driver". These happen to be titles of songs that are part of Motorhead's seventh studio album, Orgasmatron, released almost exactly 25 years ago, an album that hasn't lost even one bit of its value and relevance for hardcore Motorhead fans across the globe.
Before we get to the music itself, the interesting thing to discuss here is the title and artwork. This album had the working title of "Ridin' With The Driver", and the cover art was designed based on that title. It was then decided that they were going to change it to Orgasmatron, but by that time it was too late to change the original artwork. However, the cover on the final product turned out to be as good as any of the 19 other Motorhead album covers, including past as well as subsequent releases. The concept for the artwork was pretty simple, but artist Joe Petagno's execution made it one of the most ultimate badass metal album covers of all time, and in an age where pre-release internet streaming was non-existent, the cover would have single-handedly resulted in persuading the fans to buy the album even without having heard a single tune off of it. Despite the eventual success of the cover, I've always wondered what the cover would be like had they changed the artwork to fit the Orgasmatron title.
Coming to the music, the album starts off with "Deaf Forever", a very enjoyable, easy-going tune with some truly amazing lyrics, delivered in quintessential Lemmy style. People never really give Lemmy enough credit for his lyrics, and that's rather unfortunate because in my view his lyrics are filled with some of the most thought-provoking and intelligent lines I have ever come across. The music complements the vocals brilliantly, making it a killer tune and giving the album a near-perfect start. The relatively fast-paced "Nothing Up My Sleeve" serves as a lively follow-up. The guitar solo here is terrific, and turns out to be a sign of things to come, because the solos just keep getting better and better as the album continues to serve its listener with one badass song after another. I normally don't use the word 'badass' in a review, but Motorhead is that kind of band for which I simply can't help myself without using it.
I love the album as a whole, and I feel it's one of the heaviest albums Motorhead have ever released. I'm a firm believer in listening to whole albums rather than singles. For this reason, I appreciate it all the more when a band releases an album that's consistently good. I take my hat off to Motorhead for continuing to do that for the past nearly 40 years with albums like Orgasmatron that firmly stand through the test of time. As a result, I was never able to pick a favorite song from this album. So if you have never listened to this album and were to ask me what songs to listen to first, I would have no idea what to tell you. If the opening track itself doesn't draw you towards listening to the whole album, I'd be very surprised.
Besides the 9 original tracks, the 1997 UK reissue of the album contains 3 additional tracks, including two live versions and an alternate version of Claw. The 2006 reissue took it up another notch, a 2-disc edition with a full bonus disc. This is an extremely cool bonus item so if you don't have the album and plan to buy it, I'd suggest you to go for the 2006 version.
Even though Motorhead is not the kind of band to get sucked into celebrating anniversaries by re-releasing albums or playing them live in their entirety, I still hope that they include at least a few songs from Orgasmatron on their next world tour, not because the album completed 25 years, but because it has some terrific tunes that are criminally underplayed. Even right now as I write this review, I am imagining Motorhead performing tunes like Deaf Forever, Claw and Built For Speed. And because I'm thoroughly enjoying myself listening to the mp3 version of these songs right now, I am absolutely certain that this album is going to blow my mind if and when I find it on vinyl.
A cult classic indeed.
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