Albums2010 #30: Ace Of Spaces

I'm not a huge heavy metal fan, but for Motörhead, I have to make an exception. Headed by Hard Rock pioneer Ian Klimster (better known as Lemmy) they helped revitalize heavy metal and change the genre at the start of the 80s-- with a dash of punk rock thrown into their music they helped to pioneer speed and thrash metal and generally rock so hard that they put other bands to shame.

I first stumbled into Motörhead courtesy of a piece in Rolling Stone some months back which profiled lead singer Lemmy Klimster, who proved to be a fascinating guy. First of all, my old man has long had an obscure love for the psychedlic British rock band Hawkwind and lo and behold Lemmy was actually kicked out of Hawkwind for doing too many drugs- which needless to say was apparently a very impressive feat back in the day. So that got my attention. The rest of the metal world seems to hold the guy in extremely high regard (Ozzy and company speak of him with great reverence) and that caught my attention as well.

But, as always, it's the music that matters and happily Motörhead delivers all the goods and then some. Believe it or not, one of my chief complaints about hard rock and/or metal music is that honestly, some of it is too loud and unintelligible for my taste- but Motörhead is the perfect balance between rock, roll, noise and music. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but let me take another run at it: good music has melody and isn't just noise and this band delivers the perfect balance of bad-assery and rock n'roll. These guys are loud, proud and don't give a damn and it makes for one helluva album to listen to- 'Ace of Spades' is one of the greatest rock n'roll songs of all time and one of my all time personal favorites to be completely honest with everyone- it's fast, hard and blows your face clean off.

Overall: If you're looking for the original pioneers of hard, kickass rock, then this album is a must-own, must-have, must-listen-too at all costs. For realz, kiddos if you like to rock hard and you've never heard of/listened to Motörhead then you are for sure missing out on something amazing. Rectify this situation and do so damn fast. You won't regret it.