Motorhead ‘Overkill’ album 43 years old

Motorhead ‘Overkill’ album 43 years old

Motorhead’s ‘Overkill’ album is now 43 years old. After around two years of their 1977 self-titled debut Motörhead album the band smashed out their legendary second album – Overkill.

Smack bang from the first minute of the album you could hear Motörhead were on the road to something huge. Scott Ian of Anthrax talks of the influence that Motorhead had on him. “There’s no way to overestimate the influence of Motörhead. We were listening to them nonstop when we worked on our first album. At the time, there was nothing else like them.”

In addition, On the recording of the album Lemmy wrote “We only had a fortnight (two weeks) to record Overkill,” as noted from Lemmy in his biography, White Line Fever, “[But] considering our checkered recording history it was a world of time for us, and besides, being quick in the studio has always been natural for us.”

The band recorded the album at Roundhouse Studios with producer Jimmy Miller. For instance, Lemmy described the time as “pure joy”. Lemmy wrote most of the lyrics except for “Damage Case” that was co-written by Lemmy and his mate Mick Farren. Mick was a British journalist and a singer from a proto-punk band The Deviants.

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Overkill smashed up to No. 24 in the U.K. album charts but it didn’t make the U.S. Billboard charts. It wasn’t until 1981 with their album ‘Til Hammersmith’ that Motörhead started to grab the attention of U.S. fans.

when talking about the album being a ‘Classic’ with Metal Hammer Lemmy said “Is it? I really don’t know! What I hear is a record that’s… well, too slow! We play those songs much faster now. For us, it was a stepping stone, which led to Bomber – although I think Overkill’s a better record – and then on to Ace Of Spades. But what it did was prove we were a real band.”

The title track of the album is recognised by Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor’s use of two bass drums. Phil recalls the recording in the documentary The Guts and the Glory documentary “I always wanted to play two bass drums but I always said to myself, ‘No, I’m not gonna be one of these wankers who goes on stage and has two bass drums and never even fuckin’ plays ’em’. Not until I can play ’em. “

He adds “So I got this other bass drum and I used to get to rehearsals a couple of hours before the other guys and just practise, you know, just sit there going (mimes kicking with both feet) like running, or something like that…I was actually playing that riff, just trying to get my coordination right, when Eddie and Lemmy walked in, and I was just about to stop and they went, ‘No, don’t stop! Keep going!’…And that was how Overkill got written.”