There’s a lot to be said for bands who give fans what they want. Let’s face it, we were all disappointed by Priest’s Turbo, Metallica’s Load and Helloween’s Pink Bubbles, albums which all left an indelible stain on their creator’s characters. Thankfully, there’s no such skeleton in the Motörhead discography, the band releasing a succession of albums that stayed true to their core sound, and in doing so have left a trail of vinyl that pleased their fans and themselves. Case in point being Kiss Of Death, the band’s eighteenth studio album found the band serving up a dozen bowel-loosening bangers that had Motörhead doing what they did best. In honour of that album’s twentieth anniversary, it gets the reissue treatment and is coupled with a live set from the Lowlands Festival to breathe life into this late-career classic.

Originally released in August 2006, Kiss Of Death followed the excellent Inferno album and the confidence that album instilled in the band is very much evident in opening track ‘Sucker’, a heavy rock n’ roll cut very much in the vein of ‘Traitor’ and ‘All The Aces’ and it set the tone for the rest of the record. Much of this album serves up that classic one-two Motörhead punch with songs such as ‘One Night Stand’ and ‘Trigger’ operating with duality; on the surface these are prototypical Motörhead fare, they are pit ready anthems that never fail to get the blood pumping, yet beneath the maelstrom there’s a strong focus on melody which gives them an undeniable swing and makes them earworm material. An accusation the uninitiated often threw at Motörhead is that they were one dimensional because they stayed within certain parameters, yet nothing was further from the truth. The band weren’t adverse to trying something new (Another Perfect Day and the four-piece line-up are prime examples) and the semi-ballad ‘God Was Never On Your Side’ finds them pushing the envelope on Kiss Of Death, but they never fell far from the tree and tracks such as ‘Christine’ and ‘Be My Baby’ are exactly what you’d expect from Motörhead. ‘Going Down’ bookends the record and found the band departing as they arrived, making this a quintessential Motörhead album.

How do you make a great album even better? By adding the band’s tribute to da brudders (‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’, both live and studio versions) and a cover of Metallica’s ‘Whiplash’, a track that could have been written about Lemmy & Co. (and probably was), whilst the half-speed master ensures this is the only version of Kiss Of Death you’ll ever need. The second disc features a live set from 2007 (previously unreleased on vinyl) recorded at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands and finds the tenacious trio at the top of their game. Reading like a greatest hits (only with the added oomph of being played live) it captures Lemmy, Mickey Dee and Phil Campbell delivering ‘Snaggletooth’ and ‘Killed By Death’ as a cohesive unit, obviously happy in their own company with new track ‘Be My Baby’ sitting well amongst the classics.

Whilst the aforementioned Turbo and Load sound of their era, Kiss Of Death has a quality that’s timeless and this reissue will ensure it stays that way.

• Kiss Of Death (20th Anniversary Edition) is released via BMG on 3rd July 2026.

Track List:

Disc One:

1. Sucker
2. One Night Stand
3. Devil I Know
4. Trigger
5. Under The Gun
6. God Was Never On Your Side
7. Living In The Past
8. Christine
9. Sword Of God
10. Be My Baby
11. Kingdom Of The Worm
12. Going Down
13. R.A.M.O.N.E.S. *
14. Whiplash *
15. R.A.M.O.N.E.S. (Live) *

Disc Two:

1. Snaggletooth **
2. Stay Clean **
3. Be My Baby **
4. Killers **
5. Metropolis **
6. Over The Top **
7. One Night Stand **
8. In The Name Of Tragedy **
9. I Got Mine **
10. Going To Brazil **
11. Killed By Death **
12. Ace Of Spades **

* Not On Vinyl Version

** Live At Lowlands Festival, 2007