In a better universe, Lemmy Kilmister lives. In that universe, Motorhead goes about twenty percent more Punk for their most recent album. 

Because we live in our universe, we got lucky. Kicked In The Teeth gave us Watling Street Chambers (Rare Vitamin Records), which my ears tell me might as well be the same thing.

I realize as I write that it feels like a backhanded compliment. It’s not. It’s simply the best I could do without some Lemmy/Danzig fanfic porn and you really didn’t want that.

They’re genre’d Punk, totally scream-the-chorus-a-lot-mostly-three-chord-lather-rinse (with acid) and repeat that recalls the Dead Boys and Dead Kennedys and every other late-seventies/early-eighties vibe of basement dives, low ceilings, safety-pin earrings, denim and leather, rage. They’re unabashedly Punk.

So, yeah, the album is good.

Lemmy used to say Motorhead wasn’t Metal, just Rock ‘n Roll; a sentiment shared by Joey Ramone. Despite that last paragraph, Kicked In The Teeth could easily make a similar claim if the whole industry didn’t insist on genre-labeling everything.

Opening track “Savor The Victory” proves everything I just wrote with sing-along zest, and the journey begins.

My Motorhead fixation began with track two, “Better Days,” which opens with particularly aggressive guitar riffage joined by drums that sounded so much like Motorhead I couldn’t stop hearing it for the rest of the album’s twenty-four-minute run time.

Crowd-boiling sing-along “Death Of Me” leads to a faster “There Will Be Nothing,” which takes a few minutes to get to its equally crowd-pleasing chorus. The a cappella chorus of “Lightning Tree” is a bold, inspired, and cool choice. The title track abandons the sing-along while being just righteous Punk. I’m sure there’s a super-competent bassist in there somewhere, being the anonymous chick-magnet bassists live to be.

“Wooden Gun,” “Plastic Lungs,” and “Some Things Never Change” bounce punkily along in the same vein. They’ve all got the sing-along quality of most of the album.

“Werewolves” closes the album out, beginning with a theremin-radio-whistle before driving into a final rousing rage-fest.

Punk isn’t dead, it’s Kicking us in the Teeth with abandon and glee.

Buy the album here:
https://rarevitaminrecords.bandcamp.com/album/watling-street-chambers

8 / 10
LARRY ROGERS
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