*** Motörhead

OVERNIGHT SENSATION

(CMC International)

If there's comfort in dependability, Motörhead's latest proto-punk prickly pear is a big, fluffy, bile-flavored marshmallow. They still thunder like hell, dispensing slap-leather hard rock with the same studied nonchalance with which Johnny Rotten once dispensed gobs. The guitars heave with growling muscularity, squealing and burring under Phil Campbell's indelicate squeezing; and the rhythm team of group kingpin/four-stringer Lemmy Kilmister and drum whacker Mikkey Dee rumble like a gut full of bad enchiladas -- heavy with threat. The lyrics have a biker's sense of dignity, smothered in grease and bad-ass attitude, but bearing their own code of dark-edged honor. As usual, there are a couple of hummer song titles: "Love Can't Buy You Money," which turns out to be a twist on religion-mongering, and "Eat the Gun," a wise-ass anti-military stomper. And as usual, the pulse rate is fast and relentless. Don't be a wimp; play it loud.

-- Ted Drozdowski