Motörhead's landmark second album, Overkill, marked a major leap forward for the band, and it remains one of their all-time best, without question. In fact, some fans consider it their single best, topping even Ace of Spaces. It's a ferocious album, for sure, perfectly showcasing Motörhead's trademark style of no holds barred proto-thrash -- a kind of punk-inflected heavy metal style that is sloppy and raw yet forceful and in your face. Motörhead, the band's self-titled debut from 1977, had been rush-recorded, and its stripped-down, super-raw sound wasn't all that impressive, at least not relative to what would follow. Overkill is what followed, recorded in December 1978 and January 1979, and released not long thereafter. The band's sound is fully formed here, and it totally explodes right off the bat on the five-minute title track. A number of Motörhead standards follow, among them "Stay Clean" and "No Class." Produced by Jimmy Miller, who had helmed a number of classic Rolling Stones albums (Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup), Overkill sounds wonderful, especially on the numerous remastered editions of this album. The band's classic lineup -- Lemmy (bass and vocals), "Fast" Eddie Clarke (guitar), and "Philthy Animal" Taylor (drums) -- is well in place here, and they seem eager to rip loose wildly on every single song. This, in addition to the solid track listing and Miller's production, makes Overkill a perfect Motörhead album. Several great ones would follow, of course, but Overkill was the first of the great ones, and quite possibly the greatest of all. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Motörhead (Main Performer), Jimmy Miller (Producer), Jimmy Miller (Remixing), "Fast" Eddie Clarke (Guitar), Ashley Howe (Engineer), Lemmy (Bass), Lemmy (Guitar), Lemmy (Vocals), Lemmy (Soloist), Neil Richmond (Producer), Neil Richmond (Engineer), Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor (Drums), Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, Trevor Hallesy (Engineer), Chris Haynes (Engineer), John Trickett (Executive Producer), (Ex) Cat Heads, Neil Zlozower (Photography), Steffan Chirazi (Liner Notes), Bob Michaels (Executive Producer), Curtis Evans (Reissue Design), Adrian Van Velsen (Mastering), Mick Stevenson (Photography), Jeff Dean (Executive Producer), James Stone (Mixing), Chuck Ybarra (Graphic Design), Doug Smith (Direction), Kristian Storli (Authoring), Melinda Pepler (Production Coordination), Jannelle Guillot (Voiceover), Kehni Davis (Quality Control)
Overkill is the second album released by Motörhead, in 1979, and their first
for Bronze Records. It peaked at number 24 on the UK charts.
Bronze Records signed the band in 1978 and gave them time in Wessex Studios in London to record Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie"
and a new song by the band, "Tear Ya Down". The band toured to promote the single
"Louie Louie" while Chiswick released the Motörhead album in white vinyl, to keep the momentum going. Sales of the single brought the band
their first appearance on BBC Television's Top of
the Pops, which gave Bronze the confidence to get the band back into the studio to record a second album.[2]
The first release from those sessions was the single release of "Overkill" backed
with "Too Late, Too Late" in 7" and 12" pressings. The Chiswick album "Motörhead" had been a hasty affair as was its production,
although it had a sub-bootleg quality which may be appealing, Overkill had more spring and bounce, and a thundering
title track that would become a show-stopper for years to come. Three weeks after the
initial release of the album in black vinyl, the album was released in a limited edition
of 15,000 in green vinyl.[2]
In June 1979 "No Class" was lifted from the album as a follow-up single, backed with a
previously unreleased song, "Like a Nightmare". With a view to increasing the sales, the single was released in three different
covers, one each of Lemmy, Clarke and Taylor.[3]
Joe Petagno, the sleeve artist, had this to say about the cover of the album, which he
felt rushed into because the band could not find him:
I had about a week and a half to get it finished... But it was always a disappointment for me, personally. It should have been
multi-layered. It was supposed to have a feeling that there was more to it, there were going to be more bits and pieces. In a
way, I kind of did it on the Inferno thing. I sort of took my revenge on the new
trinity. In a way.[5]
Track listing
All tracks composed by Lemmy, Phil
Taylor, Eddie Clarke except where noted
Recorded December, 1978 – January, 1979 at Roundhouse Studios and Sound Development Studios, UK – except "Tear Ya Down"
originally recorded at Wessex Studios
Produced by Jimmy Miller – except "Tear Ya Down", produced by Neil Richmond, remixed at
Roundhouse Studios by Jimmy Miller
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