There is now scientific evidence that Motörhead is the hardest-rocking band on earth, according to German doctors writing in the British medical journal The Lancet.
Doctors from Germany's Hannover Medical School reported a case from January 2013, when a 50-year-old man arrived at the neurosurgical department complaining of a constant and worsening headache. A CT scan revealed the cause was a hematoma on the right side of his brain. Surgeons used keyhole surgery to remove the blood clot and drain any remaining fluid.
That solved the problem, but doctors still didn't know the cause. The patient reported no incidents of trauma and denied any substance abuse. What he did report was enthusiastically headbanging, or moving his head in time to the music, at a Motörhead concert four weeks earlier. That was determined to be the cause, and a Lancet news release noted that Motörhead helped pioneer speed metal music, which can have an underlying rhythm of 200 beats per minute.
“This case serves as evidence in support of Motörhead's reputation as one of the most hard-core rock and roll acts on earth, if nothing else because of their music's contagious speed drive and the hazardous potential for headbanging fans to suffer brain injury,” Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, the report's lead author, said in the release.
