The production of Orgasmatron has been argued about for forty years, and Motörhead have finally done something about it: the 40th anniversary edition pairs the original 1986 recording, remastered and cut at half speed from the tapes, with an entirely new remix and remaster that Cameron Webb has built from the original stems. A lyric video for the title track is out now.
Webb is not a stranger brought in for the occasion. He produced the band's records from the early two thousands onward and knows the material as well as anybody living. What he was handed here is a record made by the line-up of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel and Pete Gill, and one that pushed the band harder and heavier than before while keeping the speed and the bluntness they started with.
The songs were never the argument. Orgasmatron, Deaf Forever and Built For Speed went into the live set and stayed there, and the album's mix of hard rock, heavy metal and punk gave it a character nothing else in the catalogue has. Four decades on it sits among the most distinctive records the band made, which is what makes a second opinion on the sound worth hearing rather than an insult to the first.