Slartibartfarst42
Trooper
I'm giving away my age with this one, but here goes!
I started secondary school in 1976, just when the Punk explosion really took off in the UK. It captured the mood of the time and it captured my imagination , so for the first time in my life, I really became involved in music. The music was angry, basic and raw, but most of it wasn't exactly great. One day, in 1980, I was at some guy's house, who was a friend of a friend, and he put this album on. I had no idea who it was but this album had an immediate impact. It had a lot of the raw edge of punk, but it was immediately obvious that the level of musicianship was significantly higher. I really liked what I was hearing and we still weren't that far into Prowler - then the solo arrived!!! I had absolutely no idea anyone could do that with a guitar and it blew my mind. To this day, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I hear that solo and from that moment, my life would never be the same again.
The next day, I started to sell all of my Punk stuff and launched myself into the world of Heavy Metal. I grew my hair long, I bought a biker's leather jacket and I had my denim jacket with the sleeves cut off and adorned with embroided bands' names, badges and patches. I don't know what it was like in the rest of the world, but in the UK at that time, this was the uniform of Heavy Metal. I also really wanted to play guitar, so I started to try teaching myself because I wanted nothing more than to play lead guitar in a band. All these years later, I'm still awful at guitar, but I also still love it and I have played lead guitar for a few bands so I guess I can get by and I did fulfill a childhood dream, given to me by Iron Maiden.
This is an album unlike anything else Maiden have ever done. It has the rawness of the time and in that respect, they had the perfect singer in Paul DiAnno. He had a real Punk quality about him and it was a voice that suited the time and suited the songs to perfection. Bruce does really well with the DiAnno era material, but ultimately they are songs that benefit from Paul's more raw delivery. This has to rank as one of Maiden's best ever albums because there really isn't a weak song here. If I was forced to choose one song to skip, it would be strange world, largely because its more melodic, ballad foundation seems at odds with the rawness that is on display elsewhere on the album. I think that coming from Punk, this song was also a bit too much of a leap for me at the time, though it is a song I have definitely warmed to over the years.
It's difficult to explain to younger people who weren't around then, just what an incredible album this was in 1980. The level of musicianship was incredible, the quality of the songs was awesome and Eddie was perfection. Most other bands would happily take this as their 'greatest hits' album, but for Iron Maiden, this was just the start. If you've really only heard Bruce's material before, or maybe Bruce and Blaze, I urge you to take a listen to this album because it really is stunningly good.
I started secondary school in 1976, just when the Punk explosion really took off in the UK. It captured the mood of the time and it captured my imagination , so for the first time in my life, I really became involved in music. The music was angry, basic and raw, but most of it wasn't exactly great. One day, in 1980, I was at some guy's house, who was a friend of a friend, and he put this album on. I had no idea who it was but this album had an immediate impact. It had a lot of the raw edge of punk, but it was immediately obvious that the level of musicianship was significantly higher. I really liked what I was hearing and we still weren't that far into Prowler - then the solo arrived!!! I had absolutely no idea anyone could do that with a guitar and it blew my mind. To this day, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I hear that solo and from that moment, my life would never be the same again.
The next day, I started to sell all of my Punk stuff and launched myself into the world of Heavy Metal. I grew my hair long, I bought a biker's leather jacket and I had my denim jacket with the sleeves cut off and adorned with embroided bands' names, badges and patches. I don't know what it was like in the rest of the world, but in the UK at that time, this was the uniform of Heavy Metal. I also really wanted to play guitar, so I started to try teaching myself because I wanted nothing more than to play lead guitar in a band. All these years later, I'm still awful at guitar, but I also still love it and I have played lead guitar for a few bands so I guess I can get by and I did fulfill a childhood dream, given to me by Iron Maiden.
This is an album unlike anything else Maiden have ever done. It has the rawness of the time and in that respect, they had the perfect singer in Paul DiAnno. He had a real Punk quality about him and it was a voice that suited the time and suited the songs to perfection. Bruce does really well with the DiAnno era material, but ultimately they are songs that benefit from Paul's more raw delivery. This has to rank as one of Maiden's best ever albums because there really isn't a weak song here. If I was forced to choose one song to skip, it would be strange world, largely because its more melodic, ballad foundation seems at odds with the rawness that is on display elsewhere on the album. I think that coming from Punk, this song was also a bit too much of a leap for me at the time, though it is a song I have definitely warmed to over the years.
It's difficult to explain to younger people who weren't around then, just what an incredible album this was in 1980. The level of musicianship was incredible, the quality of the songs was awesome and Eddie was perfection. Most other bands would happily take this as their 'greatest hits' album, but for Iron Maiden, this was just the start. If you've really only heard Bruce's material before, or maybe Bruce and Blaze, I urge you to take a listen to this album because it really is stunningly good.
