Ace of Spades

Ace of Spades is the fourth album by the British heavy metal band Motörhead. Released on 8 November 1980, it peaked at No. 4 on the UK album charts 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.

The album was recorded in August and September 1980, produced by Vic Maile at his Jackson’s Studio in Rickmansworth. This is the first of what would be a series of projects with Maile, and members of the band commented at the time about finding the right producer. Whereas the band had previously had an input at the mixing stage, Maile took sole responsibility here, Clarke explaining that the result was that “you can finally hear everything that’s going on”.

Of the performances, Lemmy claimed that “Vic got me singing instead of just shouting all the time”, while Taylor added “and he got me playing more solid”.