Review - Motorhead in the studio

I fancied writing a very short review about the book Motorhead in the studio which I have been reading and finished recently. I've never focused on their music a great deal so was interested in hearing how their records have been made and shaped metal culture along the way.

The book depicts all the bands catalogue up to 2009 explaining how they went about preproduction, interviews with band members past and present, the engineers and producers mainly. Where they recorded and the choices for doing so.

As a sound engineer it was interesting to hear anecdotes about stories from the studio and reasoning's as to why this microphone was used over that one. Unfortunately once you've read one chapter you have pretty much read them all. You are soon to discover that Motorhead have a set method of just walking into a rehearsal space writing tunes while Lemmy write the lyrics. They have a bust up with the producer make amends and release the record. Rinse and repeat.

The book is good at explaining Motorhead's production method as repetitive as it is but as a sound engineer and musician I found I learned nothing new from one chapter to the next and felt the book didn't have a great reward at the end.

If you want to hear some stories about Motorhead in the studio having bust ups with producers and have them explaining their song writing process you'll like this book as it delivers that in spades.

If you were looking for specific insight into making classic records or what you may want to consider when recording a Metal band (Lemmy would suggest Rock'nRoll) look else where.