Bastards (Motörhead album)


Bastards is the eleventh studio album by the band Motörhead, released 29 November 1993, on ZYX Music, the first and last for this label.

Recording

It is one of two studio albums with the short-lived Lemmy, Würzel, Zööm and Mikkey Dee lineup, as on the previous album Dee was a 'special guest' drummer and hadn't officially joined the band. It was also the first of four Motörhead albums to be produced by former Child'ƨ Play producer Howard Benson, and the first Motörhead studio album not to contain a title track. After unsuccessfully commercialising the success of 1916 with its 1992 follow-up March ör Die, the band returned to their roots: being loud and fast. The lyrical themes range from social criticism, to war to child abuse and total mayhem. Lemmy also states in his memoir that he offered "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" to both Joan Jett and Lita Ford:

Release

It was barely released outside of the label's home country of Germany, other than the originally released series worldwide, until the 2001 Steamhammer reissue, and had to be imported otherwise. Bastards is cited by the band as one of their best works. In the documentary The Guts and the Glory guitarist Phil Campbell enthuses:
In his autobiography White Line Fever, vocalist/bassist Lemmy calls it:
But laments that the band's record label, the German-based ZYX, did not promote it outside of Germany.
"Born to Raise Hell" was later re-recorded with Ice-T and Ugly Kid Joe vocalist Whitfield Crane and released as a single. This version of the song was featured in the movie Airheads.

Artwork

, long-time Motörhead sleeve artist, revealed in a rare interview on the Inferno 30th Anniversary edition bonus DVD that the album was originally to be titled Devils. He had already drawn up a cover to reflect this title when it was changed. As well as alluding to the original name of the album, Joe Petagno also had this insight into the concept of the album cover:

Reception

Bastards reached #28 in Germany and also charted in Sweden and Japan. The AllMusic review states:
Ultimate Classic Rock ranked Bastards as the 4th best Motörhead album, commenting:

Track listing

Personnel

Per the Bastards liner notes.

Charts