Motorhead may not be the world's most popular heavy metal band, in fact as far as many are concerned they may lack any talent whatsoever, but there is a cult following for this band throughout the world. With their thrash metal style and the unmistakable vocals of lead singer Lemmy Kilmister, they are definitely an acquired taste. Spanning 25 years, there have been several line-up changes but the style of music has never varied much from the original.

In 1979 the band recorded a promotional live video, capturing them miming to several of the songs from their first two albums Overkill and Bomber, attempting to capture their stage presence. The original video ran for 30 minutes and, along with the miming, included a dubbed audience noise, simply to imitate the full concert feel. This DVD release is that thirty minute video along with other actual concert footage taken from a show at the Hammersmith, making a running total of 48:34.

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The most notable aspect of this performance is the terrible miming. It is to a degree understandable that a lead singer may miss the odd word or that the drummer may not be drumming in time, but this can be covered easily by a distance shot or even focussing on another band member that is in time. Lead singer Lemmy Kilmister is generally not too bad and only makes a few obvious blunders. There are the odd times when he forgets that he has to be at the microphone when singing, but these are excusable offences, especially when you don't seem to care. The main culprit here is Phil “Philthy Animal� Taylor on drums. Sure this style of thrash metal is very fast, but he is continually out of time and seems to be playing a completely different song, missing intros to some is also his downfall.

This is definitely one that only diehard fans will get any pleasure from. Heavy metal fans with a passing interest in this band will be totally disappointed and should buy a Motorhead CD if they wish to investigate the band further. Perhaps miming was acceptable in the late seventies, but for a band like this, which thrives on live performances, this is just not good enough. Motorhead fans are not ones that you want to mess with, and even though attempts at justification on behalf of the producers is made via a warning on the case that this is mimed, it should also be taken into account that fans will not just buy anything that is released by their favourite artist simply because it IS released. Perhaps the next Motorhead DVD release will in fact really be the best of?

Due to the source material used for this release, the standard is not the best. Presented in full frame and therefore not 16x9 enhanced, there are several problems to be found. The prime problem is the microphony effect, which appears quite regularly and can be quite annoying. Colours are over-saturated and there are many instances of bleeding. For its age, the picture is not as bad as it could be, but in my opinion this should have been cleaned up a lot more than it has. It is watchable, but I would suggest it is no better than the original 1979 video. Note that this is also an NTSC release only.

There are two choices in the way of audio, Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1. The problem here is that there is little to choose between the two. Both are very quiet and could just as easily have been mono to give the same sound. The separation is hardly noticeable, with sound primarily spread evenly across the front speakers. Source material may have also been an issue here, as it is with the video, but this is by no means appealing. Audio synch never seems to pose a problem, but as the artists are miming this cannot be said with 100% accuracy.

For extras we have the Bonus Video Killed By Death. Whereas the other footage used is in a concert style, this one is a “made for MTV� style video. The picture seems a little better than the main feature, but also shows its age. Running for 4:19 this is a nice addition for fans.

Overall this is not a great DVD release. Fans of the band will be happy to see something released, but will be disappointed in the overall quality. The band act like the whole thing is a joke in their rebellious way and frankly, if they can’t take it all seriously, then why should we? If you like the band, buy one of their CDs, at least the sound will be decent.