Overkill

Bronze signed the band in 1978 and booked them into Wessex Studios in London for a single, Louie Louie, with a new song, Tear Ya Down. Gerry Bron of Bronze later said he put the single out as a favour without hearing it, and was horrified when he did. Its success took the band onto Top of the Pops and gave the label the confidence to commission an album. Clarke said they had stored up energy through false starts and disappointments by then.

Jimmy Miller, who had worked with Traffic and the Rolling Stones, co-produced it at Roundhouse Recording Studios and Sound Development Studios in London. Damage Case was co-written with Mick Farren, and Lemmy said he wrote the words to Metropolis in five minutes after seeing the film at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road. He also said he took the riff of No Class from ZZ Top's Tush and stole it blind, though the band did not go where ZZ Top went after the riff. On the title track Taylor used two bass drums, after practicing alone at rehearsals until he had the coordination. Joe Petagno made the cover art in about a week and a half and felt rushed.

Bronze released a green vinyl edition of 15,000 three weeks after the first. The album reached number 24 in the UK. Kerrang! placed it at number 46 in its 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time, and Rock Hard put it at 340 in its 2005 book of 500 Greatest Rock and Metal Albums. Classic Rock magazine said Miller's production made the band sound claustrophobic, wasted, irritable and gloriously unwashed. Joel McIver called it a revelation. The American thrash band Overkill took its name from this record.