UMUR "Inferno" is the 18th full-length studio album by UK heavy rock/metal act Motörhead. The album was released through SPV GmbH in June 2004. It´s the successor to "Hammered" from 2002. The band tapped Cameron Webb to produce the album.

Stylistically "Inferno" is Motörhead as they´ve pretty much sounded on most albums since they became a trio again in the mid-90s. It´s small nuances which make "Inferno" different from the last many albums. The basis of the music is still hard edged heavy rock with strong blues rock/rock´n´roll ties. The band themselves always stated that they just play rock´n´roll. If we look at the differences from the last couple of albums, "We Are Motörhead (2000)" was one of the faster and most heavy metal oriented releases in the band´s discography, while "Hammered (2002)" was a predominantly less heavy and hard edged release. "Inferno" is a bit more on the heavy side again, but not as instantly catchy nor as memorable as "We Are Motörhead (2000)".

Again it´s small elements which decide if a Motörhead album stands out or if it´s one of their less remarkable releases, and to my ears the quality of the material on "Inferno" is predominantly of the less remarkable kind. The track which stands out the most is the acoustic blues rock closer "Whorehouse Blues", but there really aren´t that many other tracks that I can mention from the album which stand out as highlights. "Inferno" features a well sounding and professional production job, and the band are as well playing/singing as ever, so it´s the songwriting which doesn´t reach the sky on this release. "Inferno" is of course still a quality release by Motörhead (they don´t release bad quality albums) and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

Warthur Everyone remembers Whorehouse Blues from this one because it's Motorhead's left turn into rootsy blues. The studio version here is OK, though if you were lucky enough to catch them performing it live it doesn't measure up to that. (There's some production treatment on Lemmy's voice to make it sound a bit more like an old-timey recording which feels a bit heavy-handed.) Preceding this interesting experiment is a set of fairly standard Motorhead songs which largely hold up, though the very clean mid-2000s production values makes them feel a bit sanitised compared to their rough and ready early years. Still, if you want proof that Motorhead could simultaneously still surprise you and still deliver exactly what you want out of a Motorhead album this later in their career, Inferno offers it.