THE BEAST

Motorhead hasn't played a concert since 2015. There's an obvious reason for that. Their iconic frontman and leader, Lemmy Kilmister, died that year. Without Lemmy, there is no Motorhead, and no Motorhead means no gigs. That's why fans of the band - plus many casual observers - were a little surprised when the band was announced on the bill for the Ozzfest 2022 event last month. As far as anyone knew, this year's Ozzfest was to take place as a special New Year's Eve event, and the line-up was already confirmed. It's likely that the announcement was intended to stoke up excitement. It stoked confusion instead and flew so far under the radar that most people missed it until now, weeks after the event apparently happened. 

On paper, the line-up for this supposed Ozzfest event was a collection of artists that metal fans ought to get very excited about. Aside from Motorhead, the event was to feature Megadeth and Ozzy Osbourne himself - another name you don’t expect to see on festival bills anymore. The presence of both Motorhead and Osbourne on the bill ought to have been a clue that something wasn’t right - and so it proved to be the case. This was no real Ozzfest. This was a “virtual Ozzfest,” and it took place as part of the “ Decentraland Metaverse Music Festival .” 

Virtual reality rockers

For all the hype that surrounds virtual reality, augmented reality, metaverses and the like, very few people have ever experienced one. We can't help but suspect that Ozzy Osbourne doesn't even understand the concept. Concerts in virtual worlds have started to become a reality in the past couple of years, but we're talking about concerts of the kind that have happened in popular video games like "Fortnite." Fully immersive metaverse concerts are another thing entirely, and the use of the word "decentraland" suggests a connection with the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs; however that doesn't appear to have been the case. Anyone who wanted to watch the festival could do so by logging in either through the client app or via the Decentraland website. VR headsets would make the experience better, but they weren't required. In any event, the festival wasn't well-attended. Decentraland says that approximately three thousand people attended the virtual "event," which must surely have been a disappointing result. The low numbers help to explain why the event stayed out of the news. 

Given the context, it's now much easier to understand how Motorhead appeared at the event - they were there in virtual form. Lemmy and the rest of the band were represented by avatars and could be "seen" in three-dimensional form by anyone attending the event via a virtual reality headset. To anybody watching without one, it looked no different to watching Motorhead "play" on a game like Guitar Hero. Still, the appearance wouldn't have been possible if the remaining members of Motorhead agreed to it. Lemmy may be long gone, but this posthumous festival appearance hopefully made a contribution to his estate for his family. 

This venture into the metaverse - which would likely have baffled Lemmy if he’d lived long enough to see it - isn’t the only unlikely way Motorhead have found to carry on making money since their frontman passed away. In 2016, the Swedish casino game developer NetEnt released the game “Motorhead Rocks: The Tour.” The casino game featured digital appearances from every “current” member of the band as per its final incarnation, plus a full jukebox of Motorhead’s greatest hits. There’s been a trend in the past decade for rock and metal bands to partner with casino companies and make “jukebox slots” of this kind, with Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne among the others who’ve jumped aboard the bandwagon. Checking a sister site database reveals that the official Guns n’ Roses slot is the most popular among casino players, but Motorhead’s isn’t far behind. Saxon and Megadeth have also released casino games, but theirs haven’t caught on in quite the same way. 

New Motorhead material

You won’t hear any new music from Motorhead in either the band’s official casino game or in the set the band “played” at the Decentraland Metaverse Music Festival, but that doesn’t mean that no new music exists. In November, we found out that not every song that Lemmy and Motorhead recorded before his passing has yet been released to the public. A special “deluxe edition” of the band’s final album “Bad Magic,” entitled “Seriously Bad Magic,” is scheduled to be released at the end of February 2023. The special release includes a track that wasn’t included on the original album - and the track has been released ahead of schedule to whet the appetite of fans. It’s called “ Bullet in your Brain ,” and was released to YouTube with a video on November 30 th . It’s a classic Motorhead song with driving riffs and sandpaper vocals, and the video of the band recording it in the studio is a fascinating look at their process.  

There's still one more previously-unreleased Motorhead track to come, but that;'s being held back until the release of "Seriously Bad Magic" next year. It will be the final track on the album and is called "Greedy B*stards." The asterisk is ours rather than theirs - Motorhead would never dream of censoring anything. The fully remastered album will come with a live recording (including video) of the band playing at the Mr Fuji Rock Festival of 2015, which was one of their final live appearances. A lot of "anniversary" or "special edition" releases of previous albums from bands are cash-ins, but this one looks to have enough new content to justify the release. We can't help but wonder if there's any other Motorhead material out there that's been recorded but never released. This year we've seen Queen release a new track with Freddie Mercury on lead vocals more than thirty years after he died, so there might be more out there in a studio's archives, waiting to be found. We live in hope.