“Though shalt not cover Motorhead” is one of rock’s ten alternative commandments: Listen, firstly nobody, sounds like them, despite fifty year’s worth of opportunity to do so, and secondly..Lemmy. You can count on the fingers of maybe one and a half hands the number of truly original musicians who’ve lived into the twenty first century – and the list of those he influenced is way too long to write out here.
It does kind of make sense though that if anybody was going to try, they would be A) Punks and B) Looking for safety in numbers. It’s very true that genre framing terms like punk – and also metal – is largely meaningless now, so let’s just agree that a bunch of largely “punk” veterans have all agreed to show their love for Motorhead by taking on a cover each. That should stop anybody punching anybody.
We could argue the merits of the exercise for days, but what Killed By Deaf can honestly claim to be is enjoyable whilst not taking all this shit too seriously. Pennywise get the hospital pass of doing Ace of Spades, whilst Rancid probably take the honours with their hell for leather rendition of Sex And Death.
Those who now use wood glue not on their hair but to help their grandkids assemble models will appreciate the invitations extended to GBH and the Anti Nowhere League, but of most interest is a recently unearthed lost tape of The Damned‘s Neat Neat Neat with Lemmy himself making a guest vocal appearance. You can’t break a commandment but you can break some rules, and Killed by Deaf has some fun whilst doing just that.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 