Motörhead’s latest album, out last week, is a return to aggression following the relatively staid Aftershock. It opens with the thrashing “Victory Or Die,” which is followed by the equally (if not more) cranked-up “Thunder & Lightning.” But as soon as the third track, “Fire Storm Hotel,” arrives, the band begins throwing curve balls. Built around a bluesy riff that sounds stolen from Ted Nugent circa 1977, it’s got swagger and swing. “Shoot Out All Of Your Lights” is the track where Mikkey Dee gets a moment in the spotlight, opening it up with his usual double bass thunder; the song proper sounds like a cross between “Fight” and “Sacrifice.” They continue to revisit their older sound on “The Devil,” which has a low-slung rumble reminiscent of early ’90s albums like March Ör Die and Bastards, but which also boasts a guest guitar solo from, of all people, Brian May of Queen.

The album’s second half is as strong as the first. “Evil Eye” rides a tribal, almost surf-rock groove, and Lemmy’s vocals are run through a filter that gives them a demonic rumble. There’s a ballad, “Till The End,” but his fuzzed-out bass saves it from tedium. “Choking On Your Screams” is slow and creepy; it could have come off 2002’s Hammered. And the whole thing ends with a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” that you wouldn’t think likely to work, given how many idiots have tried and failed to equal the original’s hypnotic, unnerving power. Motörhead’s isn’t perfect, but it’s solid and gritty, and Lemmy’s growled delivery recalls “Orgasmatron” more than the Stones. Bad Magic is as good as Inferno — it’s as good as 21st Century Motörhead gets.