Metal Underground.com

Playing a Motorhead-style blend of punk-infused metal — or metal-infused punk, depending on the tune — Iron Lamb keeps things rocking fast and hard on "The Original Sin." It's loud, sweaty rock that will mostly please those on both sides of the long hair-mohawk divide.

Tunes like the opener, "Rotten Wood/Original Sin," show a great blend of punk fury — the blitzkrieg drumming by Daun — mixed with a bit of metal technicality in the speedy riffing and excellent solos, courtesy of guitarists Johan Wallen and Backelin. Particularly impressive is the way the band shifts from the lightspeed velocity of the first half of the tune, and into the hookier second half, with a riff that echoes Motorhead's "No Class" and ZZ Top's "Tush."

Granted, this type of music is seldom a showcase for multi-octave vocals, but singer Grga does imbue tunes like "Suicide" and "Dubious Preacher" with a suitable amount of attitude, and even shows a bit more range than you'd expect on "I Don't Wanna Be Like You." Bassist Ekeroth contributes a Lemmy-style fuzz-bass rumble, with a notable part in "Iron Lamb, Dead Inside" setting up the speedy carnage that closes the track.

The band's love for Motorhead is evident on nearly every track, which is why it's a little perplexing that the Motorhead cover, "Poison," falls pretty flat in comparison with most of the other tunes. Also, the tendency to include sampled dialogue from classic films (in this case, "The Warriors" and a Marlon Brando quote from "Apocalypse Now") has grown old.

The disc's two bonus tracks, "Another Miserable Day" and "TBC" feature what might politely be called "demo-level" sound quality, but that's actually a minor step down from he rest of the album — and I mean that in the best possible way.

Iron Lamb's speedy, attitude-laden "The Original Sin" is a ticket to hard-rock heaven for punks and headbangers alike. If Lemmy is, in fact, God, then these guys are among his better angels.