Few bands can experience the constant personnel shifts that have plagued Motörhead and still manage to keep their signature sound intact. Bassist Lemmy Kilmister--the only original member to hang on for the band's entire wild ride--had a vision of proto-thrash-metal that has proved too pure and simple to ever require tinkering. Recorded more than a decade and a half into the band's career, 1916 offers a high-energy mix of bone-crunching metallic mayhem that is loud, fast, and intense but never takes itself too seriously. A piece of seriocomic braggadocio such as "I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)" or "Ramones," a nod to the pioneering punk band, is typical. A notable exception, however, is the title track, a bleak ballad cataloging the horrors of World War I through the eyes of a doomed teenage soldier. --Daniel Durchholz
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