16. Motorhead Iron Fist 1982 (Bronze)
Hard Rock
You can listen or just go to hell!
Album
Iron Fist would be the last Motorhead album with the famed line-up of Lemmy, Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke and Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor and it’s an album that comes on the back of the highly successful live
No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith, which reached the top spot on the UK album chart in 1981. The band were at the height of their popularity that year and also released the interesting
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre EP with Girlschool as well.
Iron Fist though would be their long awaited studio release to follow-up their most successful studio album to date the
Ace of Spades and in essence
Iron Fist was a worthy follow up in terms of its songs, but it would be let down by the flatness of their delivery.
Iron Fist is a much maligned release quite simply because of the issues with its production and this criticism even comes in retrospect from the band members themselves. The band had previously found a winning combination with Vic Maille on the
Ace of Spades, but on
Iron Fist Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke had been unhappy with Vic Maille’s production for the album and after producing for Tank, he decided to take over production duties himself (this was more often than not a bad move when band’s did this) Overall the criticism of the production is often aimed at the underproduced and flatter sound on the album compared to their previous relases. As for the album it was business as usual with the title track “Iron Fist” with its scruffy speed metal sound, setting the tone for the album early on and it was also released as the album’s lead single cracking the UK top 30. Despite the album’s negative opinions, it does contain some of the band’s most enduring tracks such as the winning duo of “Go to Hell” with its killer riff and “Loser” where Lemmy at times comes close to sounding like Joe Strummer. Now the rest of the album is made up from what I would call ‘typical Motorhead chunks’ and these tracks include “Heart of Stone” “I’m a Doctor” “Sex & Outrage” “America” “Shut it Down” “Speedfreak” along with the final three tracks and as a collection of songs, they rank weaker than what the band had put out on
Overkill,
Bomber and the
Ace of Spades. But this is not to say that they are bad tracks either and are more than capable of giving the listener their Motorhead fix, but given better production the album easily could’ve matched the band’s past glories here. Despite this opinion which is often shared,
Iron Fist though amongst hardcore Motorhead fans ranks as a band favourite, which can often be the case from hardcore fans when they feel an album has been unfairly criticized or in this case it might be a certain love for the album, as it’s the last to contain the classic band line-up. Despite these issues the album was heavily promoted and the band undertook a huge UK, European and US tour and it was on this US tour that guitarist Fast ’Eddie’ Clarke left the band, after he found himself less impressed than normal with the antics of Lemmy. He would soon be replaced by wandering ex-Thin Lizzy bad boy Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson, who came in just for the tour, but ended up staying on for the band’s next album.