Kiss Of Death (2006)
Kiss Of Death, Motörhead’s second album with producer Cameron Webb, isn’t quite as strong as its predecessor, 2004’s Inferno. But the harder, heavier tracks, like album opener “Sucker,” “Sword of Glory,” “Living In The Past,” and “Kingdom Of The Worm,” are more than strong enough to balance out some of the sappier ones like “Christine,” “One Night Stand,” and “Devil I Know.” A few relatively medium-profile guests crop up: Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille plays on “God Was Never On Your Side,” and Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez adds additional rumble to “Under The Gun.”
“God Was Never On Your Side” is an interesting case, because while Motörhead’s discography obviously offers many variations on a few themes, their songs are similar to one another in the same way Chuck Berry songs are similar to one another. It’s called having a style. But “God Was Never On Your Side” is basically a rewrite of one of the most unique and powerful songs in the band’s entire catalog: “I Don’t Believe A Word,” from 1996’s Overnight Sensation. It’s a remarkably similar, slow-crawling riff, a nearly identical fatalistic/pessimistic lyric … it’s pretty much a not-quite-as-good alternate version, 10 years later. And it’s enough of a misstep that it drops an otherwise decent album farther down this list than it would otherwise land.