The latest offering from Motorhead sounds just like a hard rock/metal album should. Quite possibly the year's best release in the genre.

It's nice to hear an album that drags you in from the first notes. All the nicer since no one seems to make albums like that anymore. Motorhead have stuck to pretty much the same formula for thirty years or so, but somehow it still seems to work. Unlike recent releases from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, "Kiss Of Death" doesn't require any time to "get into it".

The riffs are still cool and Lemmy's voice is as rough as ever. The thing that really stands out though is the songwriting. These days, when younger bands usually restrict themselves to one or two simplistic formulas (that all sound pretty much alike) and the older find it increasingly difficult to recapture the old magic, Motorhead somehow manage to write songs with enough variety and catchy hooks to rise miles above the average. This album is in no way boring. What's more, it's got that good-time rock'n'roll feel that's so difficult to find nowadays: you know, the booze'n'babes'n'being cool, that was somehow ousted by skinny neurotic lads with thick accents, baring their tortured souls on stage... Barmaid, pass the beer!

Old time fans will find everything they could desire here and new ones needn't worry about the band being past their prime. If you haven't got anything by Motorhead, why not start with this? Fledgling metal bands should be made to listen to this, so they can find out what it's all about and see that certain things remain vital and current even in this day and age. They might actually learn to play better riffs too...

If there's a gripe to be had, it's about the nu-metal influences that crop up on occasion. Not out of any purism, but simply because these are the weakest spots of an otherwise superior album.

When a band has been around as long as Motorhead, they can usually count on a hardcore body of fans to buy their CDs regardless of actual quality. "Kiss Of Death", however, shows no signs of the band losing creative potential. It deserves to be played loud, over and over again!