Motörizer

Recording

Recording for the album was completed over the northern hemisphere winter of 2007-08, when the band had finished up their last tour, at Lemmy's long-time home of Hollywood in Los Angeles. As with all their albums since 2004's Inferno, it was Produced, Mixed and Engineered by Cameron Webb in California. Though the bands spends most of the year somewhere on tour together anyway, Philip and Mikkey have mostly recorded in the US when doing Motörhead albums, as Lemmy doesn't really travel unless touring since relocating. His age and health eventually made this the norm for the band, and so this album was done the same as the last few, with a few weeks over a few months practising, then into the studio for recordings. The format has served the band well enough over the years, as they generally brush off comments about their sound, that doesn't alter much each album by this stage in their careers, a formula they have been happy with.

Release

Lemmy appeared on BBC 6 Music's radio programme, Bruce Dickinson's Friday Rock Show on 11 July, 2008, to promote the album, playing the tracks Runaround Man, which he described as:

"..nonsense set to an infectious beat.."

Rock Out and The Thousand Names of God, of which he mentioned:

"..It's completely extraneous, the title... It's about soldiers being conned into going into battle, for like, business men. It isn't even a cause anymore.."

The band's lead single Rock Out was featured as the official theme song to WWE Unforgiven and in the films Hesher and Nitro Circus: The Movie.

Artwork

The album cover was revealed on the front page of the group's official website on 11 June 2008. The cover artwork is by Mark De Vito and features a Motörhead-themed coat of arms, without Joe Petagno's hand this time though, as the shield is quartered into:

The Royal Arms of England for Lemmy in the top left corner;

The Y Ddraig Goch of Wales for Phil Campbell in the bottom right corner;

The Tre Kronor of Sweden for Mikkey Dee in the bottom left corner;

and Snaggletooth B. Motörhead in the top right corner for the band as a whole.

Reception

The album debuted on the Billboard album chart at #82. It peaked at #2 on the UK Rock & Metal charts and at #5 on the German 'Offizielle Top 100' & US Independent charts. As with the bands last few albums, it did not make a massive impact on the general public at large, but saw dedicated sales in the markets where they still have a strong following of fans.

Track listing

All tracks written by Kilmister, Campbell, Dee.

Personnel

Production