If I had a chance to glimpse on happenings in an alternate reality, going back and forth in time, there might not be a MOTORHEAD. The band was actually on its way to breakup after their debut album, dating 1977, as no other label wanted to sign them. Back then, not signing with a label that could take care of the funding meant an end. However, MOTORHEAD did get a chance and all that was needed was a mind opened A&R agent and awesomely energetic gig to start something that would change the world of Heavy Metal forever.

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of two landmarks in MOTORHEAD's longtime career, and first was with the release of "Overkill", which utterly made them as the loudest, if not one of the heaviest, bands that played back then. BMG decided that it was more than a right time to prepare a special package of "Overkill", making it a double CD, which is the original album remastered to near perfection and an unreleased long live performance at Friars, Aylesbury, back in March 1979, shortly after the album's original release date.

"Overkill" displayed MOTORHEAD as a band that is feverishly sailing between the crooked merits of Punk, clamoring Hard Rock, slicing the Blues and defining the upcoming monstrosity of Heavy Metal. If you would compare it to their debut album, "Motorhead", the differences are uncanny. A wholesome of energies was added, and not merely by listening to the double bass opening "Overkill" song, yet the general atmosphere that surrounds the album is a picture of the utmost motivation and hunger to become stronger and fiercer.

Furthermore, though the songs are more or less simple, not even close to the rather complex material that came afterwards in Metal music in the early 80s, MOTORHEAD held diversity up to its neck. There is the gristle Boogie Hard Rock "I'll Be Your Sister", the punkish tough bastard "Overkill", which I mentioned, mixture of Hard Rock and Punk with "Tear Ya Down", Classic Rock charmer "(I Won't) Pay Your Price", Blues meets Hendrix "Capricorn" and into that massive bowl of soup, add the drowning gloom of "Metropolis". That's something else, and makes you think and comprehend how things were developed into a form that turned heavier, lounder and speedier.

Along with the original album, came an extended live show of MOTORHEAD at Friars, Aylesbury, which the foundation of the booking that made the difference for the venue, is told by the actual agent that made the booking, David Stopps, and can be found in the reissue's colorful booklet. That show emphasizes the change that has been going on in MOTORHEAD's perception towards the music they were crafting. The fusion of the newer tracks of "Overkill" along with those of the "Motorhead" debut was nicely made. It appears that had enabled to MOTORHEAD display their cache of talent, and in that process to even add an electrical charge into the early material.

Unlike a lot of the live shows from the 70s, that their tapes were dug, and remastered them, and their quality just couldn't be worked with, this show sounds clear enough to distinguish what is going on. As mentioned, the overall setlist for that show is broad, long enough to get energized and motivated for additional material by the band. The communication with the audience is superb and that spirit led the band in the years to come.

The story of MOTORHEAD's booking to Friars is told in the booklet, yet as of support of the original album, there is the documented interview of then Bronze Records A&R agent, Howard Thompson, which was ready to let the band pass on up until he realized he made a terrible mistake after seeing the band live in a small club. I believe that these interviews will provide any die-hard fan, or fans to be, a sort of closure for that early area of the "Overkill" album and its magnitude on the next steps in MOTORHEAD's career. Be sure to become an owner of a copy of this important phase in history.