Motörhead released 23 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums and five EPs over a career spanning 40 years. Usually a power trio, they had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades and, particularly, the live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith cemented Motörhead's reputation as a top-tier rock band. The band are ranked number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. As of 2016, they have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.
Most often classified as heavy metal, Motörhead has been credited with being part of and influencing numerous musical scenes, thrash metal and speed metal especially. Lemmy, however, always insisted that they were a rock and roll band. He said that they had more in common with punk bands, but with their own unique sound, Motörhead is embraced in both punk and metal scenes. Their lyrics typically covered such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse and, most famously, gambling, the latter theme being the focus of their hit song "Ace of Spades".
Lemmy died on 28 December 2015 from cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. The day after his death, drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell both confirmed that Motörhead had disbanded. By 2018, all three members of Motörhead's best-known line-up (Lemmy, Taylor and Clarke) had died.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motörhead
Discography
Motörhead (1977)
Overkill (1979)
Bomber (1979)
On Parole (1979)
Ace of Spades (1980)
Iron Fist (1982)
Another Perfect Day (1983)
Orgasmatron (1986)
Rock 'n' Roll (1987)
1916 (1991)
March ör Die (1992)
Bastards (1993)
Sacrifice (1995)
Overnight Sensation (1996)
Snake Bite Love (1998)
We Are Motörhead (2000)
Hammered (2002)
Inferno (2004)
Kiss of Death (2006)
Motörizer (2008)
The Wörld Is Yours (2010)
Aftershock (2013)
Bad Magic (2015)
Voices From The War
Motörhead Lyrics
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From the battlefields?
Where are their exploded bones
Their useless swords and shields?
In the Hall of Ancient gods,
Are they now at piece,
Or are they fighting evermore
To earn their last release?
Midgard, Heaven, Kingdom Come
Are they all the same
Fallen heroes warriors
The valiant the slain
Did they believe or did they die in vain?
Immortal dead, fathers and sons
When all is said and all is done,
Running for your life, dying for the cause
Pawns in the game
Voices from the war.
The men they march away to fight
Their fate is never clean
They never all come home again
To tell of what they've seen
In the battles bloody fury
Is the verdict just?
Executioner, judge and jury
Forgotten in the dust.
Valhalla Happy hunting ground
Are they all the same
Fallen heroes, warriors the valiant the slain.
Did they believe or did they die ashamed?
Immortal dead, brothers and sons
All is said, all is done
Fighting to the death
What did they do it for?
Soldiers of the cross
Voices from the war.
The battlefields are silent now,
The graves all look the same
The crosses without number
And so many without names
In the battles misery
Drowned in blood and fear.
A hundred hundred thousand
For a hundred thousand years
Are they in a better place,
Or do they lie unclaimed,
The heroes, the deserters, the cowardly, the shamed
Did they know or did they die insane?
Mourn for the lost,
Stolen from their lives,
Gone before their time
No chance to say goodbye,
Fighting to the death
How could they be so sure?
Voices from the grave,
Voices from the war.
The song “Voices from the War” by Motörhead is a deep reflection on the fate of soldiers who lay down their lives in battle. The lyrics start by asking where all the dead men go from the battlefields, and pondering about their exploded bones and useless swords and shields. The song then goes on to question if the fallen soldiers are at peace in the hall of ancient gods, or if they are still fighting to earn their last release. The lyrics also touch on the different beliefs and opinions of the soldiers who fought in the war, and whether or not they believed in their cause or died in vain.
The song further highlights the heavy price paid by soldiers on the battlefield, with the fate of many of them being uncertain. There is also a reflection on how the verdict of justice is often forgotten in wars, and how some soldiers are left forgotten in the dust. The use of words like “Valhalla Happy hunting ground” creates an image of different afterlife destinations, and the song questions whether there is a better place for the fallen soldiers or if they lay unclaimed. The lyrics express a mourning for the lost soldiers and the fact that they were stolen from their lives without the chance to say goodbye.
Line by Line Meaning
Where do all the dead men go
From the battlefields?
Where do the corpses of soldiers end up after they die in warfare?
Where are their exploded bones
Their useless swords and shields?
What happens to the shattered bones of the deceased soldiers along with their now useless weapons?
In the Hall of Ancient gods,
Are they now at piece,
Or are they fighting evermore
To earn their last release?
Do the warriors who lost their life in the battle reach eternal peace in the afterlife? Or they keep fighting to attain their freedom?
Midgard, Heaven, Kingdom Come
Are they all the same
Fallen heroes warriors
The valiant the slain
Did they believe or did they die in vain?
Is the afterlife same in every culture, be it Midgard or Heaven? Were the heroes who sacrificed their life during war fighting for the right cause, or was it a pointless death?
Immortal dead, fathers and sons
When all is said and all is done,
Running for your life, dying for the cause
Pawns in the game
Voices from the war.
Soldiers are pawned in the game of war, forced to run for their lives and die for the cause. In the end, they become immortal dead whom we refer to as voices from the war.
The men they march away to fight
Their fate is never clean
They never all come home again
To tell of what they've seen
Men go to war for their country, but they never come back the same. Their fate is never clean in the battlefield, and the stories of horror and terror remain untold.
In the battles bloody fury
Is the verdict just?
Executioner, judge and jury
Forgotten in the dust.
In the midst of the bloody fury of battle, is the verdict passed for justice? The executioner, judge, and the jury forget to dispense justice and end up being forgotten in the dust.
Valhalla Happy hunting ground
Are they all the same
Fallen heroes, warriors the valiant the slain.
Did they believe or did they die ashamed?
Is Valhalla the only happy hunting ground for the dead, or are there other afterlives? Did the slain warriors die believing in their cause or lost their lives with shame?
Immortal dead, brothers and sons
All is said, all is done
Fighting to the death
What did they do it for?
Soldiers of the cross
Voices from the war.
The deceased soldiers of the cross become immortal dead after fighting to death with no purpose or gain. They are the voices from the war, still unheard in the noise of weapons.
The battlefields are silent now,
The graves all look the same
The crosses without number
And so many without names
After the war ends and the battlefield is now silent, the graves all look the same. The markers - in the form of crosses - represent so many nameless soldiers.
Are they in a better place,
Or do they lie unclaimed,
The heroes, the deserters, the cowardly, the shamed
Did they know or did they die insane?
Are the departed soldiers in the afterlife or lying unclaimed? The dead consist of heroes, deserters, cowards, and shameful people. Did they know they were dying? Or were they already insane?
Mourn for the lost,
Stolen from their lives,
Gone before their time
No chance to say goodbye,
Fighting to the death
How could they be so sure?
Voices from the grave,
Voices from the war.
Mourn for the lost soldiers, who were robbed of their lives, with no chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. They died fighting to the death, thinking that they were sure of their cause. Their voices resonate from their graves, reminding future generations of the brutality of war.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ian Fraser Kilmister, Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou, Philip Anthony Campbell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind