I'm a bit of a purist at heart when it comes to bands like Motörhead, but this still gets cautious thumbs up.

Ahhhh Motörhead... or more pointedly their late, great iconic front-man Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister... the very epitome of Rock 'n' Roll cool. Driven by that rumbling, overdriven Rickenbacker bass sound, their fractious, unapologetic route one approach to Heavy Metal thunder may not have been the most eloquent or politically correct interpretation you'd ever chance upon, but by God, you couldn't beat it for pithy honesty and integrity. A genuine "fuck you" to "the man" delivered with a vitriolic "my way or the highway" approach and a swift steel toe cap to the balls!

With the passing of legend at the tail end of 2015, we lost a genuine Rock Star, a larger than life character that lived by no one else's rules but his own. For Motörhead to carry on as a viable band without him is unthinkable; their caustic, no compromise final studio set 'Bad Magic' in every respect a fitting tribute to the man, his music and his legacy.
There have been many Motörhead compilations over the years (and I fear that there will be many more to come as the amoral corporate machine seeks to profit ad infinitum), but this one at least offers something a little different. Pulling together eleven suitably gritty ("Motörheaded") cover songs – including their never before released take on David Bowie's 'Heroes' – this showcases an alternative side to the Motörhead we all know and love, the same but different if you catch my drift!

Kicking off with a rambunctious run through of Judas Priest's 'Breaking The Law', we're taken on an, at times, surreal journey with stopping off points such as Rainbow ('Starstruck'), Ted Nugent ('Cat Scratch Fever'), The Ramones ('Rockaway Beach') and The Rolling Stones ('Sympathy For The Devil' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash') before the frenetic Metallica classic 'Whiplash' rounds things off in a suitably chaotic crescendo of noise. All unmistakably Motörhead, all raw and bleeding, and the kind of bastard offspring of which Kilmister himself would be justly proud.

I'm a bit of a purist at heart when it comes to bands like Motörhead, but this still gets cautious thumbs up.

Dave Cockett