Motorhead-Ace of spades, 1980

The year 1980 is often thought as the year that the New Wave of British Heavy Metal emerged. Yet some times so little is mentioned of the veteran British bands that released albums that year. Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Judas Priest and Motorhead all released strong albums that year. For Motorhead it a point that they spent several years building up to. The On parole and the self titled album were a starting point that established their rough powerful sound. Yet it was really the next two releases Bomber and Overkill where they started to come into their own. Then came this album which to me is one of their best. I think the overall feel of this album was that it was their heaviest at this point in their career. The aggressive, to the point attitude that has been with this band for most of their career is in full bloom here. The album starts with the fantastic title track which has become one of the real staples for this band. Next up "Love me like a reptile" with it's slightly odd riff and even stranger title. Other real standouts are (We are) the road crew which reads like a list of things the band's road crew has to do. It's humorous and certainly different.Down the home stretch we have "Fire fire" and "Dance" which are songs I only began to really appreciate in recent years. "Jailbait" is a tight paced track that moves along well. However it has to be mentioned that this album contains what is probably one of my favorite Motorhead tracks of all time. That is the closer "The Hammer" which to me is an absolute masterpiece which comes at you like uh....well, a hammer. I think this just edges out Iron Fist to be Motorhead's second best album of their long career. Certainly a must have album.