Motörhead to be celebrated on punk rock tribute album featuring Pennywise, Anti-Nowhere League and others

Rancid, Anti-Nowhere League and other punk rock legends will commemorate Motörhead on a new, 14-track tribute album.

Killed By Deaf: A Punk Tribute To Motörhead – also featuring the likes of Pennywise, The Casualties and GBH, as well as a collaboration between The Damned and Motörhead themselves – comes out on October 31. The collection will feature covers of Motörhead’s greatest hits to celebrate the heavy metal trio’s impact on, and affinity for, punk music.

The artwork and full tracklisting can be seen below.

Motörhead were formed by late singer/bassist Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister in 1975, following his dismissal from space rockers Hawkwind, and released their early albums during the UK punk rock explosion in the late 70s. Despite the band being categorised by many as heavy metal, Lemmy spoke multiple times about his kinship with punk artists.

He told Juice Magazine in 2005: “Well, we came up at the same time as punk. We kind of dove-tailed with it. We were the only band with long hair that they’d come to see. We sounded punk. Once they go to the gig and realised that we had long hair, it was too late. We had them. Then they’d stay. Both audiences learned to live with each other. We still get a lot of punks at our shows. We get all kinds of people.”

In a 2020 interview with Classic Rock, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said that Motörhead helped to bridge the metal and punk scenes.

“All these punks, skinheads, alternative kids and metal kids… fucking everybody loved Motörhead,” he said. “In a time of division and segregation and ‘Fuck you, you can’t be in my gang’ and ‘I don’t wanna be in your gang’ and ‘We’ll beat each other up, football hooligan-style’, Motörhead were the first band to really unite fans across all these different genres. They blew away all that division.”

Lemmy considered The Damned to be his favourite punk band, and Killed By Deaf ends with a recording of the two bands performing a version of The Damned’s 1977 track Neat Neat Neat. It’s the only non-Motörhead song to appear on the new album.

Lemmy died on December 28, 2015, four days after his 70th birthday and two days after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Motörhead, then rounded out by guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee, immediately disbanded following his death.

In May, a statue of Lemmy was erected in his birthplace of Burslem, Stoke-On-Trent. The 2.25m (7.4ft) bronze statue depicts the frontman in his signature onstage pose, looking up at a highly-positioned microphone, and was revealed at a ceremony attended by Stoke-On-Trent Lord Mayor Lyn Sharpe.

“Lemmy was one of us,” Sharpe said at the unveiling. “Stokie-born, he never forgot his roots. Today, we in the city are proud to honour a son of the city, with this magnificent statue.”

Killed By Deaf: A Punk Tribute To Motörhead tracklisting:

01. Pennywise – Ace Of Spades
02. Rancid – Sex & Death
03. The Bronx – Over The Top
04. Lagwagon – Rock ‘N’ Roll
05. FEAR – The Chase Is Better Than The Catch
06. GBH – Bomber
07. Murphy’s Law – Stay Clean
08. Slaughterhouse – Love Me Like A Reptile
09. The Casualties – The Hammer
10. Anti-Nowhere League – Born To Raise Hell
11. Love Canal – Voices In The Sky
12. Soldiers Of Destruction – Overkill
13. Wisdom In Chains – Iron Fist
14. Motӧrhead & The Damned – Neat, Neat, Neat