Iron Fist (album)
| Iron Fist | ||||
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| Studio album by Motörhead | ||||
| Released | 17 April 1982 | |||
| Recorded | 26–28 January and 1–28 February 1982 | |||
| Studio | Ramport Studios and Morgan Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, punk rock | |||
| Length | 36:24 | |||
| Label |
Bronze (Worldwide) (1983) Mercury (North America) (1983) Castle Communications (1996) Sanctuary (2005) |
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| Producer | Will Reid Dick, Eddie Clarke | |||
| Motörhead chronology | ||||
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| CD reissue | ||||
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| Singles from Iron Fist | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Martin Popoff |   |
Iron Fist is the fifth studio album by the band Motörhead, and was released 17 April 1982, on Bronze Records. It would be the last of the 'classic' line up of Kilmister, Clarke and Taylor. Iron Fist peaked at No. 6 on the UK album charts. It was preceded by the release of the title track "Iron Fist" as a single on 3 April, which peaked in the UK singles chart at #29.
As with 1980's Ace of Spades, recording commenced with producer Vic Maile at his Jackson's Studio in Rickmansworth in 1981. Motorhead was enjoying their greatest commercial success at the time, having had their live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith debut at #1 on the U.K. charts. A break in recording for the band to play some November and December dates with Tank was followed by Clarke producing Tank's debut album with help from Will Reid Dick. Soon after, Maile left the Motörhead project, and there are conflicting explanations as to why. One is that Clarke was unhappy with the Maile produced sessions and decided that the album should be recorded themselves, although Lemmy lamented at the time that:
"..it's a shame to have lost Vic in a way because I thought it was successful.."
However, in the Motörhead documentary The Guts and the Glory, Clarke insists that drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor refused to work with the producer after Maile got him an unsatisfactory drum sound, stating:
"..and then one day Phil turned to me and said, 'Listen Eddie, why don't you do it?' And I said, 'Man, I don't wanna do it, I'm playing on the record'...I swear to God, I was reluctant as fuck.."
In the same film Lemmy states:
"..I was pissed off 'cause we let Eddie produce it. I wasn't at the time, though. Fair play. But it became obvious after it was released - I sort of sobered up and realized it was garbage, most of it. And there's at least three songs on there that weren't even finished. We just finished them in the studio, you know, like cobbled it together. It just was a substandard album. But the trouble is how do you follow a live album that went straight in at #1? There's nothing you can do.."
The album was recorded during the best part of late January and February 1982 at Morgan Studios and Ramport Studios in London, with Clarke producing and Dick engineering. Struggling to think of a name for the title track for the album, Lemmy remembered the time the band had performed live under the name Iron Fist and the Hordes from Hell for contractual reasons (a subsequent album What's Words Worth? was released of that event), and decided this was an apt name for this project. The name was eventually shortened to simply Iron Fist. The title track would go on to be one of the band's signature songs.
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Wikipedia