Motörizer

Motörizer
Studio album by Motörhead
Released	26 August 2008
Recorded	Late 2007 to early 2008
Studio	Studio 606 and Sage & Sound
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	38:55
Label	SPV GmbH
Producer	Cameron Webb,
Motörhead chronology
Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith (2007) Motörizer (2008) The Wörld Is Yours (2010)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	63%[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Metal Hammer
Pitchfork Media	(7.2/10) [3]
PopMatters	[4]
World of Music	[5]

Motörizer is the nineteenth studio album by the band Motörhead, released on 26 August, 2008, on Steamhammer, their eleventh with the label and to be their last.

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 ^[6] 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. ^[7] 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.

Recption

The album debuted on the Billboard album chart at #82. ^[8] 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 songs written and composed by Kilmister, Campbell, Dee. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Runaround Man"	2:57
2.	"Teach You How to Sing the Blues"	3:03
3.	"When the Eagle Screams"	3:44
4.	"Rock Out"	2:08
5.	"One Short Life"	4:05
6.	"Buried Alive"	3:12
7.	"English Rose"	3:34
8.	"Back on the Chain"	3:24
9.	"Heroes"	4:59
10.	"Time Is Right"	3:14
11.	"The Thousand Names of God"	4:33
Total length:		38:55

Personnel

• Lemmy – lead vocals, bass
• Phil Campbell – lead guitar
• Mikkey Dee – drums
• Wesley Mishener - slide guitar on "A Thousand Names of God"

Production

• Produced, Mixed & Engineered - Cameron Webb
• Assistant Engineers - Sergio Chavez, John Lousteau, Wesley Mischener, Josh Bierly
• Recorded - Studio 606, Northridge and Sage & Sound, Hollywood, California late 2007 and early 2008
• Mastering - Kevin Bartley at Capitol Mastering, Hollywood
• Mixing - Maple Studios, Costa Mesa, California
• Album Design - Lemmy (cover concept & inside digipak art), Robert John (photography), Mark De Vito (illustration), Steffan Chirazi (creative direction), Mark Abramson (art direction & graphic design)
• Centre Spread Model's - Misty & Deve

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[9]	13
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[10]	55
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[11]	70
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[12]	20
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[13]	58
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[14]	9
French Albums (SNEP)[15]	24
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[16]	5
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[17]	11
Italian Albums (FIMI)[18]	47
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[19]	117
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[20]	11
Scottish Albums (OCC)[21]	33
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[22]	10
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[23]	11
UK Albums (OCC)[24]	32
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[25]	2
US Billboard 200[8]	82
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[26]	5
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[27]	11
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[28]	14

Release history

Country	Date
North America	26 August 2008
Germany	29 August 2008
Europe	1 September 2008

References

1. Motörizer at Metacritic
2. Henderson, Alex. Motörizer - Motörhead at AllMusic
3. Pitchfork Review
4. PopMatters Review
5. "musik angehört". WOM magazin (in German) (World of Music) (8 September): 29.

6. "Tracklisting". Bruce Dickinson's Friday Rock Show. BBC 6 Music. 11 July 2008. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2016.

7. Motörhead official site
8. "Motorhead – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Motorhead.
9. "Motörhead - Motörizer". austriancharts.at (Hung Medien).
10. "Motörhead - Motörizer". www.ultratop.be (Hung Medien).
11. "Motörhead - Motörizer". www.ultratop.be (Hung Medien).
12. "Motörhead - Motörizer". danishcharts.com (Hung Medien).
13. "Motörhead - Motörizer". dutchcharts.nl (Hung Medien).
14. "Motörhead - Motörizer". finnishcharts.com (Hung Medien).
15. "Motörhead - Motörizer". lescharts.com (Hung Medien).
16. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline". musicline.de (Phononet GmbH).
17. "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2008. 36. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ.
18. "Motörhead - Motörizer". italiancharts.com (Hung Medien).
19. "モータライザー - モーターヘッド". www.oricon.co.jp (oricon).
20. "Motörhead - Motörizer". norwegiancharts.com (Hung Medien).
21. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
22. "Motörhead - Motörizer". swedishcharts.com (Hung Medien).
23. "Motörhead - Motörizer". hitparade.ch (Hung Medien).
24. "Motorhead | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart
25. "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company.
26. "Motorhead – Chart history" Billboard Independent Albums for Motorhead.
27. "Motorhead – Chart history" Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums for Motorhead.
28. "Motorhead – Chart history" Billboard Top Tastemaker Albums for Motorhead.

External links

• Motörizer at AllMusic