WHAT AN AWESOME BOX SET FOR ALL MOTORHEAD AND THRASH METAL MANIACS !!!
I was a bit concerned about the sound quality of these, after watching a pre-release youtube video, with 2 dudes in German discussing this; the reason was that one of them kept saying: well this isn't for newcomers to the band or even standard Motorhead fans; Bullocks, man, this is just the right Box Set, because it is truly live, and by that I mean unadulterated in sound. Its of course, from soundboard recordings, but they thankfully don't sound like official "live" albums, were you are always thinking well this just sounds way to good and clean to have gone down that way that night or those nights.
Also these are the actual concerts, meaning they didn't cut in and out, selecting this from various different shows, no it is truly what was heard on those nights. There are 8 CDs in total, which is just memorable. 3 of the albums, are double CDs, so you know that you're not being deceived, cause you are getting the whole concert and nothing less. I've always hated it when songs were cut from "live" albums, cause the records companies chickened out, and released them as a single CD, which means you get at best around 75 minutes of the concert, but being Metal fans, we all know that a regular concert is at least 90 minutes , long, unless of course your band is called Manowar, lol.
So the sound is really live but in no way does that mean that it doesn't sound good; can these compete in pureness of sound with those so-called official live albums? The short answer is no, but why should they? I love them all the more, because they are truly live and they still sound very good, just not polished, you know what they say "Live in the Studio" (yes, I am poking fun at my favorite band JUDAS PRIEST right here, Metal fans will know I'm referring to "Unleashed in the Studio" ehhh I mean "....In the East").
CD Vol. 4 (Live At Sporthalle, Heilbronn, 29th December 1984) has all the old classics, that I love the most.
CD 8 of The Löst Tapes is Vol. 5 (Live At Donington, Download Festival, 13th June 2008) what used to be called Monster of Rock and is the other single CD of the Box Set.
The rest are the double CDs from the years 1995, 1998, and 2000. There are also some deep cuts here, for example on CD 1, Vol. 1, we get the song Orgasmatron, which sounds awesome, because that album with the same title, also sounded bad, even the remastered version of the studio album didn't sound good. So here we can finally enjoy this song in all of its splendid glory with great sound quality and its truly live; more from that album played live are Nothing Up My Sleeve & Doctor Rock. From the great Bomber album, we get some rarely played ones too: Dead Men Tell No Tales & Stone Dead Forever. From the astonishing Overkill album we get: Damage Case, which is rare as well (I wish also I'll be your Sister & (I Won't) Pay Your Price would've been there). More rarities are also included by way of the Ace of Spades album, in the form of Shoot You In The Back & Jailbait. From Iron Fist, in terms of rare stuff, we get Heart Of Stone, and of course Iron Fist (fairly rare), Another Perfect Day, is featured with Shine, and 1916 with I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care), The One To Sing The Blues, & Going To Brazil (okay these may not be the rarest live ones). There's even a 1:24 seconds Bass Solo by Lemmy, certainly not something you get from him basically ever, as far as I can recall.
This Box Set contains 97 tracks in all, so with such a huge amount of songs, it should be clear that a fair amount is repeated on these 8 CDs, but that's okay because they hardly ever sound exactly the same, and that is in no small part due to the fact that they are really live, and not polished and meddled with until they sound sterile, even though they're supposed to be real live recordings. I think someone wrote here that this is over 6 hours of Motor Music, lol... certainly enough for even the biggest Motor Maniacs out there.
To make a long story short: Why should you buy this? Simply, because its effin' LIVE and not Live in the flippin' Studio, and also, I might add, cause it's way cheaper; I mean you're getting 8 CDs with really good to very good sound quality for around 55 Euros, which amounts to a mere 6.875 Euros per CD. And last but not least, because it's Motorhead Live like you've only heard them in Concerts that you saw them at.
Finally, all I have to say is that I wish that more Metal and Hard Rock bands would follow this pattern and make it into a trend, by that I mean to release unadulterated true live recording, instead of the stuff we've been fed for decades, which is comically exemplified by what also mockingly some referred to as "Live in the Studio", if more band would follow this example, I'd be eternally grateful. All it needs to be is a soundboad recording, nothing more and nothing less !!!
