MOTORJESUS - 'Hellbreaker' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Drive Through Fire

2. Battlezone

3. Hellbreaker

4. Beyond The Grave

5. Dead Rising

6. Car Wars

7. Firebreather

8. Lawgiver

9. Black Hole Overload

10. Back to the Bullet

11. The Outrun

Dirty Hard Rock is probably the best way I can think of to describe MOTORJESUS. They are a band who know what they want to sound like, who their audience is, and how to play the best Metal-tinged Hard Rock that they can. And do you know what? They do a damn good job of it. I’d never heard of them before reviewing this album, and this, their seventh album, seems like a perfect distillation of their sound.

It opens with the scene-setting “Drive Through Fire”, which is a perfectly serviceable (if slightly forgettable) opening track, but then takes itself up a notch with the one-two punch of “Battlezone“ and “Hellbreaker”, both of which are Balls to the Wall anthems that are both going onto my playlist of the year without a doubt. They both have different highlights – "Battlezone" is just a perfect rocker, and "Hellbreaker" mixes things up with some dual guitar riffing worthy of Iron Maiden, as well as a solo that perfectly encapsulates the song.

They’ve also both got choruses that are easy to sing/shout along with, and I can imagine the sheer excitement of seeing either of these songs live would be immense. And the groove-orientated fourth track “Beyond The Grave” continues the winning streak, though it’s not quite as perfect as the previous two tracks. And then “Dead Rising” smashes the quality right back up to ten again, a perfect track that it is impossible to not bang your head along to.

And then “Car Wars” is another slice of absolute brilliance! I don’t normally review albums like this, going song to song, but I just wanted to highlight quite how good this album is. Out of the first six tracks, I would say that four of them are ten out of ten tunes, and the others are only a seven and an eight, which by and large makes it this an album well worth checking out – even before we’ve got to the end!

The good news is that the rest of the album keeps the mood going without any real drop in quality. It doesn’t quite reach the perfect heights of “Battlezone”, “Hellbreaker”, “Dead Rising” and “Car Wars” again, but the remaining tunes are still absolute rockers and all gel together to make an absolutely great Hard Rock album. “Black Hole Overload” is another favourite of mine – a bit slower than the others and very groove-orientated, it is perfectly located in the second half of the album.

In short, this album is a great antidote to the misery and deluge of depressive news that 2021 is bringing us. Instead of Doomscrolling through terrible news, why not close out the outside world for about forty-five minutes and put on something that will get your head banging and your pulse racing. MOTORJESUS have produced an absolute barnstormer of a record here, and “Hellbreaker” is definitely an album that is worth your time, your money and your ears.