The Number of the Beast

They asked vincent price to speak the intro.

He declined to do it for anything less than £25000. (according to bruce)
He may be overstating this.

They heard of someone who read ghost stories in the capitol radio station and got him to do it.

He was a thespian and had no interest in maiden.

They got him to put on a Vincent price style voice and he was amazing.

from bruces mouth on a radio scotland special 2 hour Download festival show.

In contrary to what people (even the Commentary!) keep claiming, the introductory quote is not entirely from Revelations 13:18.
Only the bit beginning with "Let him who hath understanding..." is from that passage. The beginning of the quote is from Revelations 12:12.
There are very many English translations of The Bible, and all vary in this particular passage. I remember having read the exact quote somewhere on the web, but I couldn't find the site. A quick search on [a href=\'http://www.bible.com\' target=\'_blank\']http://www.bible.com[/a] showed that the "Revised Standart Edition" comes closest to the quote (though only three translations were given for this passage).
Note that the line "For the devil sends the beast with wrath" is in NO translation I have ever read, and I read that passage in every version I could find. The "Revised Standart Edition" quote reads:

[!--QuoteBegin--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short![/quote]

The other part of the quote, at the end of Revelations 13:18 is the exact quote that is also spoken in the song.

Therefore:

Woe to you, o earth and sea Rev. 12:12
For the devil sends the beast with wrath Unknown, perhaps a particular translation
Because he knows (that) his time is short Rev. 12:12
Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Rev. 13:18

This common misconception should be cleared in the commentary.

Gee, I sound like a Bible preacher [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

I gave it 5. This song is on of my favourites. I don't know why do I like it so much. Maybe the solos: they are cool, and the little "pause" between the two solos is also adds to the atmosphere of the song. And that bass line after the solos is also a classic IMHO.

A good song, with a classic intro and great guitar work. Bruce sounds great on this one as well, as does Clive. On the other hand, the song has been overplayed, they could really do something like Children Of The Damned or 22 Acacia Avenue instead.

I wanted to thank Gor and Perun for their feedback. The [a href=\'http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/index.php?url=album03_notb/commentary03_notb&lang=eng&link=albums#track5\' target=\'_blank\']commentary of the song[/a] has been modified accordingly. [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Overplayed, but an undeinable classic. Excellent stuff.

classic Maiden. This song is always fun at parties, to play along to or just sit back and listen to. Great musicianship, classic intro and possibly the most wellknown Maiden song ever. 5 stars, what else?

For some reason, this song reminds me of their later work from Somewhere In Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

I like it a hell of a lot; a bit overplayed, and the chorus is kinda cheesy, but it IS a Maiden classic, and deserves to be recognized as such.

Five stars and I never get tired of it. Bruces scream is in the beginning is just amazing. Rhythm section works great. Dave's fast solo just the way I like it, Adrian is even more compelling.

Everyone who ever misinterpreted the lyrics should have concentrated on the last lines, a clear warning:

I'm coming back, I will return...
...I have the power to make my evil take its course

It is also written in the Bible: "He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. " Rev, 13:7
And here I could use a quote from another song, The Prophecy:

Suffering and pain impending disaster, souls crying the devil's laughter
I've heard the cry of the seven whistlers, Lucifer smiles looks on and waits

No one believed in my true prophecy and now it's too late
Does anyone think so? [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Man, I sure as hell love that video! The cheesiness is delicious! [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Very powerful, badass lyrics. I like this song a lot. I really hate when people misinterpret it and start on the whole "Maiden is satanic!" routine. 5/5 either way.

Just a heads up for the commentary: the NOB live version from the Aces High single is actually from the 17th December 1983 Dortmund gig, one day before the Dortmund gig that appears on 12 Wated Years and The Early Days. Compare and you'll see it's different. Also, it has been confirmed by someone who has the 17th bootleg. Cheers!

Thanks a lot, Gor. I'll update the page as soon as I can (if the server lets me in!). Great job once again!  :mellow:

This is an amazing song, one of their best.

I was interested in the contraversy that surrounds the song though, so  looked it up one day. I checked it out on wikipedia and found a great argument to throw at those people who call Maiden satanic:

I also found this to be rather funny about the Beast on the Road Tour:

I seem to recall this to be true. He offered the garage, by all accounts, £667. I think the story is retold on the "Classic Albums" DVD, but I certainly do remember reading it in Sounds and/or Kerrang at the time.

Yes. The story is indeed, among with a bunch of others is told on the "Classic Albums" DVD. But Martin doesn't
mention he offered 667£.

Well, of course does some nouns and priest etc who don't know better. But I recall, not too many weeks ago, two girls in my ex class believed Maiden to be satanic. Of course, it was related to NotB. At first, (before I explained)they seemed to think it was some kind of a praise to Satan. But of course, if you just reed the lyrics you'll understand it's not a question of Satanworshipping.


Kids nowadays...  

Yes. Several years ago, my religion teacher played NOTB to us as an example of Satanic music.

That's how I got into Maiden. And that's also why this song keeps being really special to me.