MOTÖRHEAD ANNOUNCES RE-SCHEDULED UK / EUROPEAN TOUR DATES

All is well! MOTÖRHEAD is pleased to announce the re-scheduled tour dates for their upcoming UK/European tour. Last week, Lemmy announced that the dates would have to be postponed, but in a quick turnaround, all dates have been re-scheduled and confirmed.

*Ticket holders should hold on to their tickets as they will be honoured at these re-scheduled dates*
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UK/European dates:

February 13, 2014 - Scotland, Glasgow @ Academy
February 14, 2014 - England, Newcastle @ City Hall
February 16, 2014 - England, Manchester @ Apollo
February 17, 2014 - England, Wolverhampton @ Civic Hall
February 19, 2014 - England, London @ Brixton Academy
February 20, 2014 - England, Nottingham @ Royal Concert Hall
February 22, 2014 - France, Paris @ Zenith
February 24, 2014 - Belgium, Deinze @ Brielpoort
February 25, 2014 - Germany, Hamburg @ Sporthalle
February 27, 2014 - Germany, Munich @ Zenith
March 1, 2014 - Germany, Frankfurt @ Jahrhunderthalle
March 2, 2014 - Germany, Berlin @ Velodrom
March 4, 2014 - Germany, Dusseldorf @ MEH
March 5, 2014 - Germany, Stuttgart @ Schleyerhalle
March 8, 2014 - Sweden, Linkoping @ Cloetta Center
March 10, 2014 - Denmark, Horsens @ Forum Horsens
March 12, 2014 - Norway, Oslo @ Sentrum Scene
March 14, 2014 - Finland, Helsinki @ Hartwell Arena
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MULTIPLE MOTÖRHEAD GIVEAWAYS!!!

Boy, do MOTÖRHEAD and Revolver Magazine have an excellent contest to close out your week! In celebration of the release of MOTÖRHEAD’s 21st, Revolver Magazine is launching a giveaway for a special MOTÖRHEAD motocross helmet. The helmet is available through a few exclusive retailers online, but for a pretty penny. Here’s your chance to score this helmet and make it yours, just for being a diehard fan! View the contest rules and enter here.

If winning autographed memorabilia is more your speed, then enter to win an autographed copy of “Aftershock” at MOTÖRHEAD’s label UDR’s Facebook page here.

If your closet is in need of some MOTÖRHEAD threads, head over to InvisibleOranges.com to win an official swag pack, which includes a work shirt, hoodie and a copy of “Aftershock”! Enter to win the prizes here.

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MOTÖRHEAD "AFTERSHOCK" ALBUM PREVIEW

Like the juggernaut you prayed would keep on crushing you, like the friend that still
royally pisses off your parents and like a loyal standard of crunchy, greasy, punky, bluesy,
gutsy screw-you rock’n’roll, MOTÖRHEAD stride out through their 38th year brandishing more swagger and attitude then your ears could begin to comprehend.

On October 22, 2013, MOTÖRHEAD will deliver their 21st studio album, an enormous and prophetic Aftershock. Recorded at NRG Studios in North Hollywood, it is a true leveler, a crushing confirmation of everything MOTÖRHEAD stands for, marching from the dust storm to deliver 14 belting statements which see MOTÖRHEAD in perhaps their best writing form for years. There’s swagger, there’s punch, there’s speed and there’s dirty filthy grooves, Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee showing clearly that MOTÖRHEAD is not simply a band, it’s a genre!

That genre, more than ever, resonates with hearty independence and swashbuckle. Whether it’s “Heartbreaker” throwing hooks and riffs into your head, the double-kick concussiveness of “Paralyzed” with Campbell’s fuelled attack, or the thunderous ride-off-the-Rickenbacker Motörcharge of “Going To Mexico”, Aftershock takes gleeful twists and turns which re-announce the Motörlegend. There’s the smoky biker bar blues in the shape of “Dust And Glass”, Lemmy’s late-night vocals evoking last-call and melancholy, the pogo-powered punk-spiked stab of “Queen Of The Damned” and the deliciously steamy, humid mournful “Lost Woman Blues” which midway through decides to kick over the stool and stomp out the saloon door.
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Aftershock track listing:

Heartbreaker
Coup de Grace
Lost Woman Blues
End Of Time
Do You Believe
Death Machine
Dust And Glass
Going To Mexico
Silence When You Speak To Me
Crying Shame
Queen Of The Damned
Knife
Keep Your Powder Dry
Paralyzed
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Aftershock is available in four different formats, wherever music is sold! The album can be
purchased in CD (limited edition digipack), CD (jewel case), Vinyl (gatefold – 180-Gram Single LP), and digital formats. A North American pre-order will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Steal it if you must, buy it if you can!” says Lemmy, who’s pride in the album is so immense that guests to his home and dressing room in the last couple of months have been treated to extremely loud airings of the rough mixes, while Phil Campbell adds, “I really think the variation on the album shows that we’ve dug deep and produced some of our best work for a long time.”

“It is,” says Mikkey Dee, “a really, really strong MOTÖRHEAD album, one that really does define everything this band stands for.”

He’s not wrong. Because MOTÖRHEAD are MOTÖRHEAD are MOTÖRHEAD…and their Aftershock will be felt worldwide…

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THROWBACK THURSDAY - MOTORHEAD

I remember debating the issue of “How badass is Lemmy Kilmister?” with an old friend the other day. While I kept harping like a 14 year old about how the guy keeps taking jibes at others and with that he clearly exploits his status as a venerable member of the Heavy Metal community, the friend went ahead to point out that the band had been ruling the roosts with a discography that spans over 35 years and is the reason behind why most of the current crop of artists do what they do, and also adroitly pointed out that it was my silly word against all the testimonials about the band from the Industrial greats themselves. Skating past the post-lost-debate sulkiness I did something I should have done an hour back: Put my thinking cap back on. Indeed, what did I know about Motorhead? Scoff as much as people may I’d never deny that my entry to the realm of Heavy Music was with rock bands the likes of The Rasmus and Red Hot Chilli Peppers and then Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson and Rammstein; I had little to no knowledge about the people who started it all. How much did I know about Motorhead apart from the fact that I learned 10 years back that these were the guys who wrote that song they play when Triple H entered the arena. A little number-crunching and polite “How do you do’s” later I had coaxed my friend to lend me his precious (and ancient) copy of the self-titled debut from Motorhead, which he had acquired from the back alley flea market.

The self-titled record was not the debut record from the band in all honesty. It was a mix and match of tracks from their actual debut album “On Parole”, which was stalled from being released by their label, and a couple of tracks they had come up with later, including a cover of “Train Kept A-Rollin”. At the risk of drowning in leather clad vanity, I confess, this album momentarily (putting it modestly) whisked me off to the corner of a stinking beer pub where dust coated the counters and the curious scent of alcohol, sweat, diesel oil and debauchery did the rounds. The three chord driven riffs and the two note variation vocals would then go onto highlight the dirty yellow light bulbs and people would sit with mugs in hand and without a care in the world while the band belted one anthem after another. Damn, my first brisk with the Demon Rum sounds so tame now. Yep, tracks like “The Iron Horse” and “Keep Us On The Road” will do that to you.

It would be tantamount to being a puritanist fart if I try pointing my finger at the production quality. Not to belittle the band, but they could care less about how the production sounded. They were the kind of people most of our parents would jump a mile to avoid, they played an aggressive rendition of Punk, which thinned the borderline between Blues and Metal, and their no-frills approach to the music they wrote and played had no room for crispy clean production, and other such nitty gritty details. This might not be the most Metal record that’ll give you the need to listen to every living day, this is far from the record that will help you improve on your songwriting; this can be just one of those records that you listen to time to time and then keep aside for a while till you feel the need to remind yourself why you picked up an instrument. To hell with complex songwriting, sometimes good ol’ loudness is what we need.

When the first spin was over with, nothing much was achieved, except for a desire to step on shoes, no matter who they belonged to, and an overwhelming desire to get in people’s faces. Not all of it saturated at once, or stayed permanently but the feeling of liberation that had something to do with an established Rocker belting out one song after another while rocking out on a Bass plugged into a Marshall guitar amp, while his equally deranged (more or less for the same reasons I’m guessing) band mates on guitar and behind the drums did the same. And to think this isn’t even their strongest record.

There’s nothing new I can cram in this article, which has not already been said about Motorhead. With a record in hand that was probably released when my Dad got into his first High School fight, it’s hard to judge and harder to critique at. None of these artists gave two hoots about what anyone thought about them, what anybody labelled them as or what one preposterous kid had to nitpick about them, 35 years after their inception. With a record like “Motorhead” on the playlist all you need is a six pack on the table and the company of good old friends (and more) and the desire to close your eyes and fly back to idle reveries when the solo from “The Watcher” washes over you.

-Aurko

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DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2013

The line-up for Download Festival 2013 has officially been announced. No doubt some bands are much more appealing than others, but all in all it's looking like a great time waiting to happen.

The three headliners are IRON MAIDEN, Rammstein, and Slipknot. And there is plenty of great talent to back them up including Motorhead, Mastodon, Architects, Parkway Drive, Converge, Katatonia, Amon Amarth, The Ghost Inside, Turisas, After The Burial, and The Algorithm among many others.

There will be several stages boasting several artists over the course of three days in Nottingham, England. If this sounds like fun to you, check the flyer below, grab your tickets here, and get stoked for June!

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