In 1975, Lemmy Kilmister did what any vicar’s son would do after getting fired from a prog band named Hawkwind: bust out an umlaut and find the gnarliest power trio in all Christendom. No band ever quite matched the lager-and-amphetamine thrill of late-’70s Motörhead as they forged the missing link between punk and heavy metal. These CDs (each with a bonus disc of period rarities and outtakes) document the two-year golden era during which original drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor and guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke capitalized on the midrange-cranked bass and kerosene-soaked larynx of an English icon with biker gear and a child-scaring face. “Only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud,” Kilmister roars on the title track of 1979’s proto-grunge Overkill. It’s a point he’d keep making for three decades, though never better than on 1980’s fatalistic “Ace of Spades”—the unofficial anthem for as sturdy and well-tuned a vehicle as AC/DC or the Ramones, and (as three bonus versions of “Louie Louie” attest) one just as rooted in the classics.

Download “Overkill,” “I’ll Be Your Sister,” “Ace of Spades”