Sacrifice is the twelfth studio album by British rock band Motörhead. It was released on 27 March 1995 via SPV/Steamhammer, the band's first release on the label. It is the second and final album to feature the four-piece lineup of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel, and Mikkey Dee, as Würzel left the band after the album's recording. It is also the last album to feature any four-piece band lineup as they would revert back to a trio-lineup starting with Overnight Sensation (1996)
Recording
Motörhead reunited with producer Howard Benson for Sacrifice. "This is a very good album", vocalist and bassist Lemmy wrote in the sleeve notes, "Put it in your system and your girlfriend's clothes fall off." Lemmy views Sacrifice as one of his favourite records the band has made, despite the difficulties involved, which he explained as:
In the documentary The Guts and the Glory, all three band members express regret over Würzel's departure, but insist it was inevitable, with drummer Mikkey Dee commenting:
Dee added in 2021 that Würzel's wife was to be blamed for his departure from the band, calling her a "bitch."
Campbell, who joined Motörhead with Würzel in 1984, recalls:
In the same film, Lemmy reveals that Würzel began to suspect that he was being ripped off financially:
The band went into the studio with some great songs, Lemmy recalls, although "Sex & Death" was written in ten minutes on the last day of recording, "In Another Time" was altered beyond all recognition and there were three sets of lyrics for "Make 'Em Blind". Dee and Campbell didn't realise that "Out of the Sun" was only two and half verses and had rehearsed it as such but Lemmy added another section when nobody else was around, with him playing bass and Jamie, his guitar roadie, playing guitar. He then gave the others a tape of it. According to Lemmy, when Würzel played it in the rental car he nearly drove off the road. "Make 'Em Blind" came from improvisation, with Campbell recording the solo in one take, falling over the couch and onto his back laughing uproariously. Lemmy states that the album contains more nonsense than most of the previous album – the lyrics don't mean anything you can really get a hold of – but that they convey the mood, especially the title track and "Out of the Sun". "Dog Face Boy" is about Campbell, but Lemmy decided that only after having written it, likening the line "Poor boy out your mind again/Jet plane outside looking for another friend" to Campbell's habit of quickly hitting town and looking for fun after getting off the plane.
The American version of the album cover had Würzel airbrushed out but, according to Joel McIver's book Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead, Lemmy insists that this was the record label's idea, not theirs:
Critical reception
AllMusic states that: