Ace of Spades (album)
| Ace of Spades | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) |
||||
| Studio album by Motörhead | ||||
| Released | 8 November 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 4 August–15 September 1980 | |||
| Studio | Jackson's Studios, Rickmansworth, England | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, speed metal, hard rock | |||
| Length | 36:42 | |||
| Label |
Bronze (Worldwide) (1980) Mercury (North America) (1980) Castle Communications (1996) Sanctuary Records (2005) |
|||
| Producer | Vic "Chairman" Maile | |||
| Motörhead chronology | ||||
|
||||
| CD & DVD | ||||
.jpg)
Cover of the 2005 CD remaster and Classic Albums DVD release
|
||||
| Singles from Ace of Spades | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B |
| Sounds | |
Ace of Spades is the fourth studio album by the band Motörhead, released 8 November 1980, on Bronze Records. It peaked at No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart and reached Gold status by March 1981. It was preceded by the release of the title track as a single on 27 October, which peaked in the UK Singles Chart at No. 15 in early November.
It was the band's debut release in the United States, with Mercury Records handling distribution in North America.
By 1979, Motörhead released two successful albums, Overkill and Bomber, and had gained a loyal fan following by constant touring and television appearances. Their ferocious, loud proto-thrash playing style appealed equally to punks and heavy metal fans, but in 1979 Sounds writer Geoff Barton coined the term "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM) to classify a slew of newer bands such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Saxon. Motörhead — a band that resented being labeled anything other than rock 'n' roll — was placed in this new genre, which would go on to influence the emerging thrash metal movement that would include bands like Metallica and Megadeth. In the 2011 book Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead, Joel McIver quotes vocalist and bassist Lemmy:
"..I like Iron Maiden and Saxon out of the new mob, and that's about it, really...We were too late for the first metal movement and early for the next one...Motörhead don't fit into any category, really. We're not straight heavy metal, because we're a rock 'n' roll band, which no-one knows how to market anymore.."
...
Wikipedia