Originally published by L.S. Media. January 17th 2011.

The very name of British heavy metal band Motorhead was once enough to strike fear into the hearts of fans worldwide, their overpowering guitar driven anthems, Lemmy’s persona and the very image they fully lived up to always meant they were a bit of a Marmite band, you either didn’t get them or you thought they were out of this world. There was no way you could be indifferent about the band.

Now with the release of the studio album The World is Yours it finally seems as though the man who put Heavy Metal on its early infant steps has finally reached a stage where anything he is going to put out sounds as though as if it’s been done before and worse they have become a safe option to listen to.

For the long standing fan this would almost be a sacrilegious statement to make and the irony isn’t lost on me however from the moment Lemmy’s unmistakable rasping voice and the band’s guitars are heard on the opening track Born to Lose, it feels as though you have experienced it before somehow, you know you have heard all this before and dare I say it, it finally got stale, then it hits you that it’s Eat the Rich by another name.

It’s hard to come across as negative to a band steeped in the history of Heavy Metal such as Motorhead and there will be those who get tremendous satisfaction from Lemmy, Mikkey Dee and Philip Campbell’s latest album but somehow there is a feeling of loss to the world. The World is Yours will still sell in abundance, hopefully enough to stop Lemmy having to sell his soul in advertisement campaigns but there’s a little piece of drive two fingers up to the world that is gone forever.

Ian D. Hall