Phew!!! *wipes sweat off brow* I've been doing this on and off at work all day since about 9am
Worth it though!!!
Iron Maiden
Strangely enough, despite being obsessed with Maiden since aged 12 (1992), I only bought this album on CD last year. I’ve had it on vinyl for 16 years but chose to keep it in pristine condition (ya never know what it might be worth at some point, eh?) I’m digressing though, for a debut album it is something quite special. Heck if they only released Phantom of the Opera it would’ve gone down as a classic in my eyes!! I’ve read here that a few people think the production helps it more than hinders it, and I agree. It does give it a low down, dirty feel which suits the general flow and mood of the album. Don’t know if that was intentional at the time, I’d say yes as I’m pretty sure Maiden have always been genius at everything, but for songs like Prowler and Transylvania et al I think that s*it hot production and nice squeaky clean digitalism would’ve ruined them somehow. I can’t imagine Strange World and Remember Tomorrow would be the atmospheric, ethereal masterpieces that they are if they were produced and recorded any other way. Actually I can’t, off the top of my head right now, think of any criticisms for this album. The production did bother me a bit when I first got it but, having given it time and a fair few listens, I now feel the polar opposite about it. It is just a damn good raw, rock album. I don’t know why they redrew the cover for the ’98 re-release though (the CD I have) id’ve preferred the original cover I think. Splitting hairs though really. I’ll rate it at a nice, healthy 9/10
Killers
Ok, the 3rd Iron Maiden studio album I owned. It really did blow me away. At the time it was like nothing I had heard before, either from Maiden or anyone else. The pace and energy of the album is unreal and I feel that it bridges the gap between the debut and the seminal NoTB perfectly, whether it was planned to or not. In fact if they left Drifter off the album completely then I don’t think there would be a single thing wrong with it. 9/10
The Number of The Beast
Almost speechless. Even with Gangland this album just doesn’t age. I remember thinking just before I first heard it that surely it couldn’t live up to the hype I had heard about it for x amount of years. It did that and more! I really can’t imagine life without this album, and it’s not even my favourite! Haha, what a band! 10/10
Piece of Mind
I know a lot of people rate this as their favourite and I can see why, but as an album its in the lower middle of my “Maiden chart.” It has got 2 of my all time faves on it, in Revelations *swoon* and The Trooper (sure, I’ve heard it a billion times but it still does it for me every time) and an honourable mention has to go to Still Life and Where Eagles Dare. I find that it lulls in places though, I’ve never really enjoyed Flight of Icarus and find Quest for Fire and Sun and Steel too cheesy to be able to disregard the cheesiness in order to see their good points, if you know what I mean. Reading the IM commentary has helped to a degree, as I now know more about the subject matter they were written about (I just thought it was a load of made up gobbledy goop at first to be honest *oops*) but I think the seed was planted a long time ago, so to speak. As a follow up to NoTB it does stand up extremely well but I really feel that the 3 songs I mentioned tarnish it as a “complete listening experience” though. Still, a respectable 8/10.
Powerslave
I first got this on tape and remember thinking “side 2 looks shorter than side 1” I mean, I had heard a bit about Rime… but no-one I had spoke to had informed me of it’s length. I could probably write a page on that one song (haha, couldn’t we all?) I don’t think there is a lot one can do in order to prepare to listen to this album. I mean, by the time I heard it I thought I’d heard enough metal/hard rock stuff over the years, and certainly by this time enough Iron Maiden, to know what to expect from my next purchase. There wasn’t a part of me that was prepared for the sheer genius of Dave and Adrian’s guitar work in this album though. The only song I’d heard before purchase was 2 minutes… on A Real Dead One. I loved it, obviously. I dare say I love each song on Powerslave just as much, apart from maybe Losfer Words. I like it but it would probably be my least fave instrumental after Genghis… and Transylvania. Even nowadays I get slightly taken by surprise by the way the “fast bit” kicks in at the start of Aces High, just after the 8 bar intro. It just makes me stop what I’m doing and sit up and take notice. Every. Time. The greatest opener they have I think, mainly for that reason. After that, to me anyway, it’s a smorgasbord of dual guitar bliss. I mean the triplet of songs starting with The Duellists, through to Back in the Village can almost be forgotten due to the “big 4” and disregarded as fillers. Other bands would sell their souls to have songs like this as the highlight of an album though, I think anyway. 9/10 though, as Losfer Words should’ve been a B side I think.
Somewhere in Time
My personal favourite. I love everything about this album. From the guitar synths, to Bruce’s voice (to me, it is the best he has ever sounded. Which I find slightly ironic with him not getting any writing credits.) to the artwork, to the futuristic style and feel of it. After hearing this album for the first time I thought that I would burst. I really couldn’t contain myself and must’ve had it on perpetual repeat for weeks. Even now I can listen to it a few times over the course of a few days and just not get bored with it.
From start to end, a total work of artistic genius. 10/10
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
The “masterpiece” in the eyes of the rock world and, well that is exactly what it is really. 2 songs that don’t really “fit” for me though, those being Can I Play With Madness and The Prophecy (although for some reason Bruce’s singing gives me goosebumps in The Prophecy so it deserves a special mention.) It in no way ruins the album as an entity but I feel that, conceptually at least, some work could’ve been done on these 2 tracks that would’ve done the album even more justice. Every other song here though, to me, is a hands down Maiden classic and the thing I like about it is you don’t have to listen to the whole album to enjoy it, even thought it is a concept album the tracks stand up really well individually too! 9.5/10
No Prayer for the Dying
Ok, this album has a lot of sentimental value for me as it is the first Maiden album I heard. Indeed I hadn’t even heard an Iron Maiden song until I pushed the play button on my tape player and heard the dulcet tones of Tailgunner way back on that memorable day in 1992. I remember wanting an Iron Maiden record just to see what the fuss was about really, at the time I was heavily into Gn’R and Metallica (eek) and knew of Maiden’s standing but I was living in South Africa in my childhood and their popularity wasn’t such that I could readily hear them without actually buying them, - everything I’d been reading about was in imported music mags and such like. Anyway, I’m digressing again. It was one of the best things I had heard at the time, only really beaten by other superior Iron Maiden albums that I bought at a later date. I’ll talk about it from the way I feel today about the album though. There are good songs all the way through I think, but nothing that jumps out at you, grabs you buy the testes and swings you round the room in such a way that you need to sit down and re-evaluate your general view on life. All the other albums, for me, have a moment (or a lot of the time several moments) that does this so for this reason No Prayer… gets my lowest Maiden album rating, despite the oodles of sentiment I hold for it. 7/10
Fear of the Dark
This was the first “real time” release that I bought and at the time I wasn’t disappointed at all, but at the time I only had No Prayer… to compare it with so, again, I shall “review” it from today’s standpoint. Reading all the other entries here it looks like I’m with the majority as far as this album goes. As in it is reasonably inconsistent from start to finish, yet is saved by a few standout out tracks, Afraid to Shoot… FotD, BQoBD and Fear is the Key, I know a lot of people may regard this as one of the fillers to end all fillers but it really does something for me. Someone mentioned that they could’ve combined the best of NPfTD and FotD and made a belter of an album. I agree wholeheartedly. I think that would’ve really worked, not to the extent that we would’ve had another “golden age” classic on our hands but a 12/13 track “amalgamation” of the 2 albums would’ve got the point across better I feel, with the rest as B-sides maybe… The standout tracks do justify its 8/10 rating though.
The X Factor
First of all I’d like to voice my utter disdain for Simon Cowell! Thanks.
I hated this album when it came out, I was in denial though. No-one could replace Bruce, I mean how could they? I had only recently completed my “Bruce era” collection before I heard the news so in a fit of stroppy teenager rage I denounced Blaze Bailey and Iron Maiden without Bruce. Please forgive me, I was 15 at the time. I knew nothing. It is only in the last couple of years that I have learnt to appreciate this album’s magnitude, and indeed Blaze’s part in the Iron Maiden evolution. Sure, it takes a while to start growing maybe but once it does its almost exponential. It’s as though you realise overnight that, actually, there is not one dud on this album. From start to finish it is an all encompassing, enthralling listening experience and it holds up against, and in many ways surpasses some of the stuff in the “golden age” 9.5/10
Virtual XI
Much maligned would be the words I’d use to describe this. Like a few others it would seem, this was the album that completed my “studio album” collection. Mostly due to public reaction to it causing me to choose something else, it seemingly never being available in shops and me not buying any Blaze era stuff until about a year ago *blushes* Boy was I surprised when I enjoyed it. What a pleasant surprise it was too! Although I must say Angel and the Gambler would be stone dead last in my “all time song” list, if I had such a list. I really don’t think though that it needs an awful lot in order to make it a brilliant album. The production could be a lot better and there is a lot of space in places that I think could’ve been utilised better musically, I too am one of the ones that believe Nicko should’ve hit a few more drums than he did but, in parts at least, it feels as though the others could’ve done a bit more to enhance it too. As far as the song writing and overall feel of the album goes though, there isn’t a lot to fault and in Futureal they had an opener to rival most openers. It really is a fun album to hear now and then and is something of a curveball after The X Factor. 7.5/10
Brave New World
I remember the effect this album had on me, and indeed rock music as a whole really. All of a sudden metal seemed to have a new face. Yet it was an old face. Haha. Talk about re-inventing the wheel! The Wicker Man single came out on the week of my 20th birthday. My girlfriend, sensing my impending joy probably, bought it for me and on the basis of that one song I was hooked all over again (at the time I’d been losing interest in rock music generally for several reasons I wont go into here, although the words “nu-metal” *shudder* may have had something to do with it. So this song probably has more sentimental value than most really just for putting me back on the “right path” and getting me excited about a rock release again.) Anyway, on to the album itself: I find it as an amalgamation of the “golden era” and everything that was good about the “decline” (as its put in IM commentary.) Some “hairs on the back of your neck standing upright” moments on here, Dream of Mirrors and Nomad are monsters worthy of knighthood while The Ghost of the Navigator is almost enough to give the Mariner a run for his money (not quuuuite though, lol.) In The Wicker Man I think they have their best opener since Aces High and, after Ides, Wrathchild and Murders.. I think the opening 3 are the best on any album anywhere. I can definitely see why they opened the set with them on the tour. Inevitably though this exhilaration can’t last forever and, as much as I appreciate Blood Brothers, it doesn’t do an awful lot for me musically but I really like the lyrics and story behind it so it more than makes up for any misgivings I have really. Of the rest The Thin Line… is a Dave Murray revelation, he really seemed to come into his own on this album though with a hand in 3 absolute belters! The Mercenary could easily be seen as a filler, but I think it has a lot of guile and energy which comes across really well on the Rock in Rio performance of it. Out of the Silent Planet explodes brilliantly and is an almost instant Maiden classic. I think The Fallen Angel is something of a filler, even though it is good. 9/10
Dance of Death
I’m not entirely sure what they were taking when they decided on the cover but, still, it’s only a cover I suppose. This has really grown on me over time, to the point where I would have to put it in my top 5. Obviously Paschendale mesmerised me from the off, as did the title track but of the others there was only No More Lies that stood out as something I wouldn’t readily skip more often than not. Having given it time I now appreciate most of the other tracks just as much. I really don’t know how I couldn’t see Montsegur for the classic it is for all that time. It is powerful to the point where it almost physically punches you in the solar plexus. Songs like Rainmaker, Face in the Sand and Gates of Tomorrow seem to have an underlying genius that only rears its head once you’ve all but written them off, and Journeyman seems to age like a fine wine. All in all a bit of a “shrouded” gem of an album I think. 9/10
A Matter of Life and Death
Like so many others I love this album. I mean truly LOVE it. Unbelievably amazing. It is by far the best album I have bought in a decade. I can’t think of anything to fault so I won’t, and I would run out of superlatives if I carried on. Some of the imagery it conjures up when listening to it is bordering on hallucinogenic in places. To release such a work after a 30 year career in rock music deserves something far more worthy than praise! If it was 3/4 years down the line I’m sure I would be professing this as my personal favourite. 10/10
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Flash Of the Blade is AWESOME. I highly doubt they'll play that on the next tour, cuz of the high vocals. If they do, I'll go nuts! They have 3 guitarists, and could pull off those amazing harmonies with ease. I almost feel Losfer Words/Flash Of the Blade/Duellists could be one long song...they just flow into one another. Back In the Village is an underrated Maiden tune. It's awesome! They should play that one on the next tour and surprise everyone! The title track is killer too. Dave's solo is real nice. And then there's Rime. Enough said. If I were to rate it, it would be 10/10, no questions asked.
Pasch is the shit. Face In the Sand is unique, cuz Nicko used double bass pedals. Didn't need it, IMO. Age Of Innocence I never got into, and Journeyman is a great acoustic tune. I think Maiden should do another one in the future. Rating 8/10
Clairvoyant is a great tune, great bass riff to open it! OTGDY is a great closer. It gets a 10/10 from me.
