Then the actual lead guitar pushes its way into the song, whistling through the air like Major Kong’s atomic bomb ride in Dr. Then Lemmy comes in with the bass, but hardly your standard, subdued, grounded bass line – he’s playing it like it’s a fucking lead guitar. The first seven seconds are just Philthy Taylor, two kick drums, and all the subtlety and grace of a rhino charge. There is nothing else they could have called this song and by extension, the album it was going to be placed on. “Overkill” -the song- is the 2001-monolith of Motörhead’s catalog – there’s a reason it is the permanent final encore in their live show. Here are Ten Reasons why Overkill is the best Motörhead album, as if you really needed them:
Look, I’ll happily grant you this much – without argument, Ace Of Spades is Motörhead’s next most ‘classic’ album – but stacked up against Overkill, Ace Of Spades is anemic, a white-meat alternative to Overkill’s blood-and-gristle-laced surge of dark-meat raw protein. Ace Of Spades, god bless, is just so stinkin’ obvious – just because of the song, it’s the one that gets all the attention, the one everybody knows. Now, before you clear your throat all in a huff, planning that argument that invariably starts “But what about Aaace of Spaaades, maaaan?” Please.
Song for song, it contains the most ‘classics’ (and least ‘misses’) of any Motörhead album, bar none. It’s the gold standard, summing up the entire Motörhead aesthetic in one fell swoop – far more than its predecessor, or anything that would come after. There is no better album in Motörhead’s canon than their second, Overkill. In Ridiculous Praise of Overkill, Motörhead’s Finest Hour