Motorhead have a good history with vinyl – Great artwork,
inner sleeves, and usually, a decent sound. There is also seemingly an ever increasing
abundance of Motorhead vinyl reissues from all eras, on varying formats and
labels.
Aftershock is well suited to the vinyl format, it’s
almost made for it and is almost tailored for a vinyl issue. Everything is well done to a high standard
and works well here – art, package, and sound. It’s one of those records that although it’s a
singular entity, works being split into two sides. The running order of songs
works with this, and each side is demarcated by the tracks being numbered from
1 to 7, as opposed to side two commencing at number 8. It works well either playing it from start to finish,
or playing one side at a time. It doesn’t lose momentum; although each track is
separated, there’s minimal silence between the grooves, and each songs segues
into the next.
The cover is well done; it comes in nice heavy cardboard
with a gatefold sleeve. The classic warpig artwork is of course intact. The inside
cover features a nice big picture of Lemmy and the boys, with Lemmy (in his army regalia) cleverly centre and right
to avoid the gatefold spine cleaving him in half. The inner lyric sleeve and
gatefold cover are a fringe benefit of vinyl, but again it all really suits
Motorhead, and Aftermath.
The record itself 180gram vinyl, yielding a great
sound. Although my copy came ever so
slightly warped, there’s no hindrance to the sound at all. Production is
courtesy of Cameron Webb, who’s been with them for the last 4 albums, and has
given Motorhead a slightly revamped sound which is evident. It’s thunderous, as
you’d expect, and the mastering to vinyl has worked well, the freight train
sound is undamaged, and you can hear all the elements of the engine hammering
away in there. As Lemmy himself says of the vinyl issue of Aftermath “it sounds
fuckin’ amazing”, and he’s right.
As for the album itself, and what’s in the grooves of the
record; well it’s Motorhead.............. For my ears there’s a groove on
Aftermath that perhaps wasn’t as evident on the last Motorhead release The World is Yours. It’s classic
Motorhead, there are Motorhead hallmarks that are used to good effect - your’e reminded of previous albums without them
just being rehashed. It’s simply another fucking good Motorhead album, and it
stayed on the turntable for quite a few days.
Opening with a couple of the faster songs, Heartbreaker, and Coup De Grace, it slows up momentarily with Lost Woman Blues, which actually gives a bit of space and breadth
to the album. I thought I might be tempted to perhaps skip this one, but haven’t
– it rocks in its own way. It’s back to business with End of Time and Death Machine.
Dust
and Glass also slows the pace again and concludes side one perfectly.
Turning over for Side Two, we have another faster one, Going
to Mexico, and Silence when you speak to me fire off the opening salvo. Queen
of the Damned is the punk-est song on the album, and a highlight for me. Things
barrel along nicely with Knife, Keep your
powder dry, and the momentum keeps going with the closing track Paralyzed.
If your’e a Motorhead fan, there’s no reason not to get
this. If your’e not a Motorhead fan, there’s no reason not to get this record.
No comments:
Post a Comment