But AJFA is a moment in time capturing a band that is largely regarded as the greatest metal band of all time at the height of their powers, both playing and compositionally. Are there problems with the album? Of course. But the songs are gold. Frankly, IMO if the album had the production of the Black Album, it would be one of the greatest of all time. And for thrash metal, production was never one of the driving factors of success anyway.
But there is just nothing appealing to me (or, apparently, to Americans in general) about Motorhead. Lemmy was a shitty singer, and the songs don't stand out as being anything special.
If you like Motorhead, great. There's nothing wrong with liking what you like. I like some pretty weird shit myself. But I don't have any illusions that it's not weird, or wonder why more people don't like it.
*shrugs*
OK. That's your view. But Metallica would barely exist (as a thrash metal band) if not for Motorhead and that's not an opinion, it's a fact that you overlooked here. If you are a hard rock and metal fan, you don't have to be a Motorhead fan, but you should APPRECIATE their place in metal history. Although Lemmy generally has a "cool guy" image I think his band is really UNDERAPPRECIATED by Americans.
And when it comes to shitty vocals, James Hetfield's vocals on Kill'em All sounded shitty to me. And that debut album went 3 Platinum in the USA. So what. Is everything about vocals? I think not.
So? REM wouldn't exist without the band "Wire". Does that mean that Wire should now be regarded as one of the greats of all time?
I you're missing the point a little bit. It's not JUST about vocals. It's a general package. They weren't innovative in rock history, let alone in their period niche, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. "Cool" isn't really enough, and honestly, having been there at the time (I was in high school at the time, and remember buying Number Of The Beast upon release, and saw them as an opening band) Motorhead didn't have that reputation at that time. Lemmy wasn't the icon that he is now; if anything he was sort of a... not a fuckup exactly, but a fringe player. Eddie Clarke left in, what, 1982, which was early days in the metal surge in America (Iron Maiden was an opening act in '82, as was Def Leppard). In fact, I saw Eddie Clarke as a member of Fastway in '83 opening for Maiden on THEIR first North American tour.
Honestly, rather than being any indictment of America or American audiences, it was as much timing and bad decision-making as anything else. Plus, that sort of very British metal never really caught on here in general; the Maiden and the Priest that headlined arenas was NOT the same Maiden and Priest that played clubs in Britain. The Maiden of the first album is NOT the Maiden of "Powerslave", and same with Priest and Screaming.
EDIT: To Hef's point, Diamond Head was a far bigger influence on Metallica on Day One than Motorhead, and I venture to say that outside of Metallica fans who own Garage Days, most metal fans have never even HEARD of Diamond Head. They are the Shark Island of thrash metal.
Topic: Why Motorhead haven't achieved any commercial success in the USA? (Read 5455 times)