Why was/is Iron Fist so frowned on?
I actually like more songs from IF than AOS...
I always thought "Chase" is slow and boring, never understood the fascination with that one.
The only songs from AOS that I like are Bite The Bullet(One of Fast Eddie's meanest IMO) and Fire Fire.
Iron Fist, while not "catchy and mainstream" sounding, Heart of Stone is great, Dont Need Religion has IMo the baddest-assed riff ever, Bang to Rights is a dirty, bad-assed song. Even the most obscure songs on there like Im the Doctor, Loser and Go To hell have cool, badassed riffs.....
So why all the hate on this album?
I liked the title track when I first heard it but it got old kinda fast to me and thats the only song that seems to get any praise on Iron Fist.

What to say on this? Many people, many opinions. I say nothing against yours, all what can I do to say mine. People didn't like Iron Fist because Eddie did very poor sound on this, he was producer on this one I think? But it is not only that. I think there are few albums which had a "special" sound, they are not "standard" Motorhead sound, those albums are: On parole, Another perfect day, Iron Fist, Sacrifice.. MAYBE that's one of the reasons. Me personally when I look on all albums from year 2012 those two are not in league of best albums, but from 1975-1982 era Iron Fist is again MAYBE the worst album. Overkill and Bomber from Kilmister/Clarke/Taylor line up are much better albums than those two I think. March or die is not so bad album to me but for many fans with Iron Fist and Hammered is the worst album.. First album "On Parole" is one of mine favorites of all Motorhead albums but many fans doesn't feel the same way. We are all different, we can only agree with one thing, we all like Motorhead but everything else is on personal level.

One more thing: "The chase.." is about sex so it's really funny actually. "Don't need religion" yeah great riff but great lyrics too, the truth. Fire Fire one more I think if I remember sex song... "Dance" is great on AOS great solo. "Doctor.." great song too. "Sex and outrage" is good too specially when I chase my girlfriend . Grind ya down is good too......

well, some people like this, some people like that.
I'm using Iron Fist as my nickname bcs. the album saved my life (no, don't ask, I'm not gonna answer any question on that subject )
I think it's a great album, but there is Motörhead stuff I like more.

And dude, The Chase.... is one of the BEST songs ever written

I think AOS is better, but I like both.
And "The Chase" is in my Top 3...

I reckon iron fist gets a bad deal its good album and sex and outrage is fucking awesome the only album that i dont like all the way through is march or die....still got some good tracks though

I asked Lemmy back in 1986 and he dismissed Iron Fist completely. It was, after all, the album with bad memories of a band disintergrating noisily, that was delayed and not out in time for the British tour. The stage set came down on chains and got stuck a couple of times. Very Spinal Tap. As was the image. but wasn't it great? That silly great Iron Fist Philthy pushes in your face at the end of the promo film was just great....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjX0SaG4vA

It was a downward spiral for the band after the number 1 UK album No Sleep Til Hammersmith, which incidentally their management released despite the band's threats while they were touring the States. Lem has said many times where can you go after you have had a number 1. The band was running out of steam a little after a great deal of touring including the US. Toronto 82 shows the band cracking at the seams as tensions between Fast Eddie vs Philthy and Lem were coming to a head. Then there was Stand by Your Man with Wendy O Williams (RIP) which Eddie hated. Vic Maille was involved in producing the recording sessions to begin with but then Eddie brought in his friend Will Reid Dick to produce the album together. They had done this reasonably well with Tank on Filth Hounds Of Hades, but there were issues when it came to bringing in WRD to produce Motorhead with Eddie.
The main thing here is that Ace Of Spades was done on an upward curve in contrast to Iron Fist, with the band in very good humour on tunes like We Are The Road Crew, where Eddie's wonderful use of feedback was due to him falling over in tnhe studio and still playing amid fits of laughter from the band. The whole spirit was pretty positive with 'Dance' being a great example of this. 'stop wincing about...' indeed.
I love both albums for different reasons. The production is notably poorer on Iron Fist but for a band that sounds best with a dirty sound, quite frankly, who cares? I love all of the songs and, as they are so embedded in my psyche now, I can't choose between the two. I'm glad they are there. Remember Me I'm Gone and Dirty Love. They were just B-sides on tracks taken from both albums. Such are the quality of these songs, we forget they weren't even on the albums!

I like Iron Fist a lot, it was the first Motorhead LP I owned, having to borrow earlier stuff from my brother. Personally I prefer the overall sound of AoS but IF does have some fantastic songs, and the title track is still one of the bands best numbers live.

As for AoS, how can you not love an album that has The Hammer?

"I'm in your life, just might be in your wife" is just a genius line

I feel that Iron Fist may be the weakest album from that lineup.

Biggest reason is probably the production and as Lemmy once said, some of the songs don't have proper endings.

In theory, one would think that after having two big albums that the band would be rich, but as is often the case, new bands are forced to sign terrible contracts or as is often the case they get ripped off by the record company/distributors. I know about this somewhat personally as I had produced and directed a horror movie. It had 1 VHS release where we received no royalties (because they doctored the sales records); It had 2 DVD releases and all I got was a $2000. advance from one of the DVD companies (still no royalties). From what I read the band couldn't afford to bring in a proper producer. Eddie had done some production work before, so they asked him to do it.

I don't like the echo used on some of the songs for example (including the Iron Fist song).

Regarding the Chase... on the Ace of Spades, Lemmy snuck in a dance bass beat that I didn't notice until just last year. In order to hear the dance beat you need to play it on a really good sound system that can put out alot of bass.

It seems like everything blew up at the Toronto show. The official reason Eddie left was because he did not want to go in a punk direction. That may not necessarily be the real reason.

The day after the Toronto show, Motorhead was on the TV news. What was reported was that Motorhead broke up so at the time I assumed Philthy was gone too.

In trying to find an uncut version of that show, I noticed they did one more show with Eddie which I think was in New york. I'm assuming that they may have tried to continue together or that they might have paid Eddie to do that show because it would have been impossible to get a new guitarist that quickly. There is an audio recording of that show but I heard the sound isn't too good.

Anyway, Iron Fist has some great songs still, although I think they may have sounded better without the echo (on Lemmy's voice for the song Iron Fist for example).

Unlike Ace of Spades and No Sleep till Hammersmith, Iron Fist didn't really get much airplay on the radio.

By anybody elses standards at the time,it was a cracking album.
The hardcore fans back then didn't really frown upon it.
What did probably happen is all those who found Motorhead because they became fashionable after AOS,turned away.
It's what they do,they follow fashion.
We were just gutted that Eddie left.

We've certainly had a good deal worse since then IMHO.

i feel the same

aos vs if - its like 1 of the all time greatest hard rock albums (aos) vs a very good album w/ 1 collosal song - iron fist, which is 1 of the best hard rock songs ever, by any band, imo


ps: agree w/ terenteks above comments 100%

iron fist =================shear class always one of my favs !!!

That's still not a bad statement on behalf of Iron Fist. The other albums from that line up are classics, esp Overkill and AoS. As Terentek states above, IF is still alot better than a healthy dose of what was to come.

Dont Need Religion was the song that made me a MH fan for life...no turning back.
As much as I admire ALL current/past members of the band, Fast Eddie is the only one I wish I could meet just to tell him what the IF album did for me and how insanely powerful his guitar on "Religion" is.
And I am so hooked on Bang To Rights right now. I LOVE the riff in that one too and the guitar that comes in towards the last 10 seconds of the song just gives me chills!!
Long live Fast Eddie. His interviews in the Ace of Spades DVD are EXCELLENT.

2 great albums and I had to go for Ace Of Spades because of Bite The Bullet, one of the best songs ever.

Bite the Bullet-Another Fast Eddie gem with insanely badassed riffs.
For the longest time that was second only to "Religion" as my top faves.
I always wished it was longer but oh well...

Well, this is the battle between my first VS one of my favorites.

Can't really raise any hands about this battle, but I'll say and stand behind it: Iron Fist is so unfairly underestimated by the band, it's horrible. OK, I know that CD probably stands for some bad times for the band, but itself, it's more Motorhead in my opinion than, let's say... Another Perfect Day (which gets quite a credit between the haters who hated it back in its day).

Speedfreak, Religion, TBSA, Heart of Stone and THE GOD DAMNED AWESOMENESS called LOSER... Those songs shouldn't be bashed by Lemmy and Co. in such a way.

I remember when they toured in 1982 for the Iron Fist tour. They did play far too many songs from the album...From memory - I Don't need Religion, America, Iron Fist ,Heart of Stone, Loser,Grind Ya Down. Which was a big'no no', when an album is new and only been released for a few days. Hardly any of the fans have had a chance to hear the album. Fast forward to present day and how many tracks do they play from the new album ?2 at a push. We'd like to hear more, because the 'new' album has been bought by nearly every fan since it's release. It's down to personal taste how many fans bought 'Another PD' and thought it was shit. But the album has came back into the set over the years and it's a liked album again. I think AOS is the better album Jailbait, Reptile, SYITB, Road Crew, Hammer timeless classics.

At the time when APD came out it was somewhat shocking to people who knew their previous material, when they first heard it. It was a different direction from the earlier stuff but it got next to no airplay anyway so probably many people didn't even know it was out. I personally don't recall ever hearing a song from that album on the radio. If it got some airplay, I think it would have done well even though it was different.

I never understood why people had (have?) a problem with APD. I remember the day I've bought it (right after release) and liked it right on the spot. APD is one of the best Motörhead albums ever!

Same view here.