Various Artists – Killed By Deaf (A Punk Tribute To Motorhead): Album Review

Live4ever 28 October, 2025

Artwork for the album Killed By Deaf (A Punk Tribute To Motorhead)

3.5 starsss

Killed By Deaf (A Punk Tribute To Motorhead) tangles with a legend and comes out on the credit side.

It’s one of the funniest, accidentally Spinal Tap-esque moments in rock documentary history.

Part way through the 2010 flick Lemmy: The Movie (about guess who), a discussion around Motorhead’s soundcheck ends up with everybody on stage having their levels turned up to 11. This, in essence, was the spirit of him and his band.

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Founded in 1975 after the singer was fired by Hawkwind for a string of what he saw as misdemeanours, Motorhead’s classic line-up was completed by drummer Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor and guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke.

Despite from that point experiencing a number of setbacks, wrong turns and a generally bemused British public, they eventually came to occupy a unique position as the sleazy long haired outfit punks liked, and to an extent vice versa.

Uncomfortable with such a simplistic point of view, Lemmy remained adamant that Motorhead were not and never had been a metal band.

Their timing was everything though: by the late seventies punk had faded as a musical phenomenon, but not a cultural one.

At the same time, a clutch of new groups combining its speed and aggression with hard rock dynamics like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Diamond Head were resuscitating what had become a shadow of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple’s original template.

When they stepped into the vacuum, they found themselves not alone.

In many respects it makes perfect sense that the contributors to Killed By Deaf are punk outfits because frankly, as a genre, there’s still a close resemblance to its original musical form.

Even saying that, blanket definitions are hard and even more difficult to pick ringleaders of, the fourteen bands here at least are representatives of numerous strands, active tentacles helping to keep the beast alive.

Who knows how the various tracks were dished out. Maybe they drew lots, but if that was the case then veteran Californians Pennywise got the fattest straw by opening the whole thing with the classic Ace Of Spades; arguably the non-acolytes’ default tune, there was only one way to deal with it – 100% full on and faithfully – and that approach pays dividends.

Of the West Coast heavy, Lagwagon play Rock N ‘Roll straighter still, whilst LA’s The Bronx leave their Mariachi gear behind but sound very much like themselves on Over The Top.

Kudos though has to be given to Rancid who spit fire and brimstone on their mosh pit friendly rendering of Sex And Death, proof that there are chances to do cover versions – and then there are chances to do cover versions.

Lovers of history will be most taken with the presence of some leather jacketed UK originals in GBH and the Anti-Nowhere League, who with Bomber and Born To Raise Hell prove there are different ways to do this thing.

Hard as everyone tries here though, you end up circling back to the same absolute truths: Motorhead are an incredibly difficult band to cover in any sort of meaningful way, and Lemmy himself with his JD and broken glass delivery was a sandpaper larynx owning one off.

The closer has something of a Holy Grail feel to it. Recorded in 2002, a version of The Damned’s Neat Neat Neat with Lemmy and Dave Vanian trading vocals has been rescued from the archives, the result suitably chaotic, nostalgic and ferocious in equal measure.

Killed By Deaf (A Punk Tribute To Motorhead) tangles with a legend and comes out on the credit side.

The old hellraiser’s probably listening in Valhalla with a sideways grin, demanding that everything gets turned up just a little bit more.

Andy Peterson

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Tags:andy peterson, Motorhead