Ace of Spades

The band recorded Ace of Spades with Vic Maile at Jackson's Studios in Rickmansworth in August and September 1980. Maile had worked with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and the Who, and knew Lemmy from Hawkwind. The band called him Turtle. Clarke said Maile took sole responsibility for the mix, where the band had previously had a say, and that the result was that you could finally hear everything. Lemmy said Maile got him singing instead of just shouting, and Taylor said he got him playing more solid.

Bronze Records released it in 1980, and Mercury handled North America, making it the band's first release in the United States. It entered the UK chart in November 1980, reached number 4, and was gold by March 1981. The single of the title track came first; see Ace of Spades. Among the other songs, (We Are) The Road Crew is a tribute to the band's roadies. Clarke said they thought of themselves as a good time rock and roll band and were not trying to get a message across.

The cover has a western motif. The band had first planned gunfighters at a card table, but chose instead to dress as cowboys, and the desert-style pictures were taken in a sandpit in Barnet, with the sky airbrushed in because the day was cloudy. Clarke's costume was based on Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name, and Taylor wears a Snaggletooth badge. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP with Girlschool followed in February 1981.

Robert Christgau described Lemmy's style as metal without the heavy, with no preening solos. Rolling Stone placed the album at number 408 in its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A Classic Albums documentary on its making came out on DVD on 28 March 2005, with Lemmy, Taylor and Clarke interviewed and performing. BMG issued a 40th anniversary box set on 30 October 2020, which includes the live albums Riders Wearing Black and Dead Man's Hand.