Iron_Maiden

Iron Maiden 'The Number Of The Beast'
EMI , 1982
Lord Pale :
Iron Maiden have always been a band of contradictions , how can they honestly write timeless classics like 'Children Of The Damned' and 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' and then write an abyssmal piece of shit like 'Gangland' and cheesy anthems like 'The Prisoner' and put them on the same album ? This pattern of for every good song , there is an equal and opposite shit song , has haunted Maiden since the dawn of their career . Number Of The Beast is the first album with the godly Bruce Dickinson and his powerful and vibrato vocal style perfectly complements Iron Maiden's rocky semi tech powermetal and finally allows the music to shine without the enormous drag factor that was Paul Dianno . Songs vary from the short and the sharp 'Run To The Hills' and 'Invaders' to the long and epic 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' . It is unfortunate that Iron Maiden feel the urge to write so many fillers , no band can survive respectfully of 2 classic tracks per album , there has to be a consistant standard , but for Iron Maiden it seems they are quite content .
Favourite Tracks - Hallowed Be Thy Name , Children Of The Damned , Run To The Hills
Mark - 8/10

Iron Maiden ‘Piece Of Mind’
EMI , 1983
Lord Pale :
The second album with Bruce Dickinson sees Iron Maiden getting better and better . Starting in good form with the lengthy ‘Where Eagles Dare’ a great track with a chunky riff and off time drum beat , Iron Maiden follow it up with perhaps their crowning glory ‘Revelations’ , with a heavy stop start riff and purely magical vocals lines – this is my all time favourite !!! Next up is another classic the rocky yet driven ‘Flight Of Icarus’ with its short concise structuring and emotional lyrics , before the token Maiden sing-a-long ‘Die With Your Boots On’ , and the more aggressive ‘The Trooper’ rear their heads . The tail end of the album doesn’t disappoint either with ‘Still Life’ ( one of Iron Maiden’s weirdest and most underrated songs ) with its psychotic melodies and lyrics , followed by ‘Quest For Fire’ a prehistoric fantasy romp , and ‘Sun And Steel’ another fantasy tale with a quick sing-a-long chorus . The closing track ‘To Tame A Land’ is perhaps another of Iron Maiden’s most underrated songs ( based on the ‘Dune’ series of books ) , it builds up intensity through out and is a good strong epic track with another great vocal performance . Overall my favourite Iron Maiden album , and a must have for all powermetal freaks !!!
Favourite Tracks – Revelations , Still Life , Flight Of Icarus
Mark – 9.5/10

Iron Maiden 'Powerslave'
EMI , 1984
Lord Pale :
Iron Maiden haven't really progressed very far musically in 2 years , Steve Harris' bass is still to the fore of the music grumbling amidst the highly tuned guitars displaying dexterous melodic rocky wank . However Iron Maiden almost managed to write a whole album without any crap songs this time ! Apart from the cheesily named 'Losfer Words' ( an instrumental ) which has no real musical merit to justify itself as a no vocal track , the only truely lame song on here is 'Back In The Village' a stupefying romp through some rather repetitive lame lyrics . However this is overshadowed by great tracks like 'Aces High' ( WW1 dog fights ) , Flash Of The Blade , Powerslave ( Egyptian theme ) , and the mighty 13+ minute epic 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' . Bruce Dickinson's voice again works wonders ( he gets better all the time ) and the song writing is of a high standard for the most part across the album . Throw in some live sing-a-longs like '2 Minutes To Midnight' and what we have here is a gem in Iron Maiden's powermetal supremacy crown .
Favourite Tracks - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner , Flash Of The Blade , Powerslave
Mark - 9/10

Iron Maiden 'Live After Death'
EMI , 1985
Lord Pale :
Live After Death … the epitome of how a live album should be and another must have triumph for these English legends . Iron Maiden power through a near flawless performance of their classics over the course of the two cassettes with a total of 18 tracks lasting a huge 100 minutes taken from 2 concerts . The great presence and banter of front man Bruce Dickinson adds to the live flavour of the album as he stirs the crowd up and even gets them to sing along with 'Running Free' . The excellent opener 'Aces High' is kicked off with Winston Churchill's famous speech whipping the crowd into a frenzy before Maiden chew through a good selection of all their albums even speeding most of the tracks up . The obvious favourites were included like 'Revelations' , 'Flight Of Icarus' , 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' , and 'Children Of The Damned' , alongside the more epic moments of 'Powerslave' , 'Phantom Of The Opera' , and even the colossal 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' . Couple all of this with superb artwork and excellent sound quality and there is really no excuse as to why anyone would not already own this metal masterpiece . A must have .
Favourite Tracks - Flight Of Icarus , Revelations , Hallowed Be Thy Name
Mark - 10/10

Iron Maiden ‘Somewhere In Time’
EMI , 1986
Lord Pale :
The British powermetal gods’ 6th album is adorned with excellent futuristic artwork seeing a cybernetically enhanced ‘Eddy’ in a neo tech backdrop . Somewhere In Time sounds a little different to the bands back catalogue , probably due to the guitar tuning , but all the other classic Iron Maiden elements are included , Bruce’s wailing vocals and Steve Harris’ rumbling prominent bass lines . Following in true Iron Maiden tradition , Somewhere In Time features your token classic tracks alongside some good sing-a-longs as well as some material that just leaves you wondering why . This time around the stand out tracks are ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’ with its great opening riff and huge chorus , ‘Wasted Years’ an emotional power ballad of sorts , and ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ the albums heaviest track . ‘Heaven Can Wait’ is a classic Maiden sing-a-long live crowd pleaser , whilst ‘Sea Of Madness’ is a rather straight forward tracks with weird vocal lines , and ‘Alexander The Great’ is more reminiscent of the bands earlier epics like ‘To Tame A Land’ . Unfortunately the album is graced with ‘The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner’ , and ‘Deja Vu’ , which whilst musically fitting in with the album quite well , lyrically they provide an enormous drag factor on the albums atmosphere as a whole . Overall good release which should please all their fans .
Favourite Tracks – Caught Somewhere In Time , Stranger In A Strange Land , Wasted Years
Mark – 8.5/10

Iron Maiden 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son'
EMI , 1988
Lord Pale :
Iron Maiden return on their hot streak with a concept album based around a fantasy theme . Alot more acoustic passages are used in SSOASS and the introduction of keyboards into the Iron Maiden repitoire on the title track . I have always prefered the slower acoustic style Maiden songs so this album is automatically appealing to me . Some truely beautiful musical passages flow throughout the album and the vocal delivery is superb complementing the music perfectly in tracks like 'Infinite Dreams' , 'The Prophecy' , and 'Moonchild' . This is the most epic Iron Maiden album to date and their best since Powerslave , with classic live tracks like 'The Evil That Men Do' and 'The Clairvoyant' to back it up . Not much more can be said about this album , except get it !
Favourite Tracks - The Prophecy , Infinite Dreams , The Evil That Men Do
Mark - 9/10

Iron Maiden 'No Prayer For The Dying'
EMI , 1990
Lord Pale :
Hmmmm back to good old days .... a good track for a bad track trade off . For every genuinely good song like 'No Prayer For The Dying' , 'Public Enema Number One' , and 'Run Silent Run Deep' , there is an equally lame or purely cheesy track like 'Hooks In You' , 'Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter' and 'Holy Smoke' . However unlike previously these tracks still have an inconquerable appeal as lame as they appear to be due to better song writing on the bands behalf . The album is a solid more consistant effort than their earlier albums and introduces a litle more emotion in to the vocals , and a more modern sounding lyrical approach . This is the first Iron Maiden album featuring Janik Gers , Adrian Smith's replacement on guitar who does an admirable job fitting in just nicely . Overall a fairly good release that fans shouldn't be dissapointed with .
Favourite Tracks - Run Silent Run Deep , No Prayer For The Dying , The Assasin
Mark - 7.5/10

Iron Maiden 'Holy Smoke'
EMI , 1990
Lord Pale :
The single from the album 'No Prayer For The Dying' is only a short 2 track affair with only a single exclusive track which seems rather pointless in my opinion but anyway … Maiden fans will either love it or hate it 'Holy Smoke' is a rather short inoffensive but cheesy Maiden track with a catchy chorus and a typically infectious execution , but sadly has a rather restrained and unusually gruff vocal performance by Bruce Dickinson . The exclusive track 'All In Your Mind' is a rather mellow affair with a militant style drummed intro and the same gruff vocals as the single with a similarly catchy and infectious structure . Overall quite unnecessary .
Favourite Tracks - none
Mark - 5/10

Iron Maiden 'Fear Of The Dark'
EMI , 1992
Lord Pale :
The next installment in the Iron Maiden saga sees the band focusing more on the shorter less epic feel of No Prayer For The Dying than their previous works with many of the songs not fully utilising Bruce's powerful vocals instead sitting in more aggressive realms . There is of course the title track which is purely written for the live circuit with a huge vibrato chorus and a long slow build up as well as 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' although less of a powerful track it fits the bill as a live sing-a-long , but for the most part there is little off of this album that will make much of an impact on an Iron Maiden best of . The lyrics are still a bit immature for a band that has been around this long with songs being based on movies or just plain silly topics ( From Here To Eternity ) . The song writing is the most consistant level for an Iron Maiden album so far with all the songs sitting within an above average but not exactly good range . A few exceptions rock the boat like the catchy 'Judas My Guide' , but are usually spoiled by ridiculous lyrics ( Weekend Warrior , great track poor theme ) . An obvious single has been written for the album in the form of an emotive ballad 'Wasting Love' which is unusual for the band as they have previously just released their most catchy song instead of intentionally scripting a piece . Overall a reasonable album in it's own right , but not up to Iron Maiden's usual standards .
Favourite Tracks - Weekend Warrior , Judas My Guide , Fear Of The Dark
Mark - 7/10

Iron Maiden 'The X Factor'
EMI , 1995
Lord Pale :
Iron Maiden's first album since the departure of vocalist Bruce Dickinson sees new vocalist Blaze Bailey enter the arena and attempt to fill the biggest shoes in powermetal . Why they chose Bailey is beyond me , he has a more traditional metal voice at a far lower range and has trouble hitting any kind of long notes let alone vibrato . The music hasn't even changed much to accomodate him either although The X Factor is perhaps Iron Maiden's most mature release to date with at least some socially aware lyrics creeping in . This is also perhaps their heaviest and least melodic album to date but is still unmistakably Iron Maiden . The lengthy epic 'Sign Of The Cross' features some gregorian monks and a dose of keyboards , and the medieval riffing and hum alongs of 'Look For The Truth' is obviously written for the live arena . Most of the tracks are well written and present a darker side of the Iron Maiden sound ( whether intentional or not ) that has previously not been explored . Overall a satisfying return considering their recent form .
Favourite Tracks - The Edge Of Darkness , Sign Of The Cross , The Aftermath
Mark - 8.5/10

Iron Maiden ‘Virtual XI’
EMI, 1998
Gloon:
Probably the most infamous album in the Maiden catalogue, the release that resulted in the Irons hitting new lows and leading to the unfair dismissal and some would say ‘Scapegoat’ firing of Blaze Bailey. Following on the heals of the brooding and very solid ‘X Factor’ release, Virtual XI was to have solidified the new line up and help establish Bailey as the new frontman for Maiden’s future, however due to some truly unexplainable factors it ending up being their worst release to date not because of the absence of Bruce Dickinson, but rather due to Harris’ lackluster approach and the bands total lack of inspiration. Tracks such as ‘Futureal’ and ‘When Two Worlds Collide’ are pure by the numbers Maiden with not a hint of originality or spark, then there’s the tiring attempt at the epic in ‘The Clansman’ which seems to have been written purely for the sake of epicness. Other Harris atrocities include: ‘Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger’ and ‘The Educated Fool’ both boring and totally lacking. The real killer however is the production handled by Harris and Nigel Green, it is quite simply fucking horrendous. A band such as Maiden with their budget and expertise should never have an excuse for releasing something like this that sounds so shit. In a nutshell this sounds like an album made by a band that was just going through the motions and killing time waiting for something to happen, not wanting to waste effort and skill on a release that was never meant to reach greatness. Strange then that in the aftermath of its terrible sales and global bashing that almost on cue Bruce Dickinson comes to the rescue and the original band is reformed for a promised ‘come back’ album. Sound paranoid, maybe, but there is no other explanation for why such a great band could produce such a pile of crud. An absolute waste of a great opportunity.
Favourite Tracks – None worth mentioning
Rating – 5/10

Iron Maiden ‘Brave New World’
Sanctuary, 2000
Gloon:
Three words had metal maniacs everywhere shitting their pants, BRUCE IS BACK!!!!! After 7 years away from the band forging a successful solo career and honing his trade to perfection while his ex band mates floundered in mediocrity, Bruce Dickinson returned to the fray to rescue Maiden from the scrapheap. And Dicko wasn’t the only familiar face returning as Adrian Smith also decided to follow suit after an even longer break, this was destined be huge. However few albums and bands ever survive the scrutiny of such a well publicised and hyped come back, to say expectations were high would be an understatement. ‘Brave New World’ in the end did prove to be a long overdue return to form however failed in its quest to re-establish Maiden as the leaders they once were. The album started well with single ‘Wicker Man’ showing the Irons could still pen that 3-4 minute metal anthem that would have fans singing in the rafters come tour time. Then came the one-two punch of ‘Ghost of the Navigator’ (their first true classic for the new millennium) and the powerful title track ‘Brave New World’. From here on in Maiden disappear and a new beast emerges as the band flirts with folk, middle eastern, prog and even revisit some already trodden over ground (Out of the Silent Planet could have easily been lifted from Dicko’s Skunkworks solo release). Its almost like Maiden try too hard to prove themselves and in the end suffer from it, tracks such as ‘Dream of Mirrors’ and ‘The Thin Line Between Love and Hate’ drag their feet and the dreaded ‘filler’ tag comes up a little too much for an album consisting of only 9 tracks. While seemingly regaining a little of their spark the band seem to have lost the art of creating a Maiden tune resorting to gimmicks and longer structuring of songs resulting in lengthy prog ridden mini epics rather than the quick punch and jab of their earlier work. In the end Brave New World was a solid album and shone in a lot of ways however with Dicko’s masterpiece ‘The Chemical Wedding’ still fresh in my mind and Maiden’s woeful last release adding to the ‘wow’ factor of this one, the album in the end failed to deliver on the promise of greatness it could of. Maiden were back but still far from their former greatness.
Favourite Tracks – Ghost of Navigators, The Wicker Man, Brave New World
Rating – 7.5/10

Iron Maiden ‘Dance of Death’
EMI, 2003
Gloon:
Three years on from the hype and funfair created by the reunion and subsequent album (Brave New World), Maiden truly seeks to return to their roots with an album that has plenty more of the old then the new. While BNW flirted with more progressive elements and hang its hat too much on gimmicks and experimentation, DOD goes back to the good old proven formula of great simplistic framework and song structuring and letting the songs and Bruce’s voice carry the album. Songs such as ‘Rainmaker’ and ‘Montsegur’ are Maiden at their best and show they still have plenty left in the tank, others that come to mind are the opener and sure to be single ‘Wildest Dreams’ aswell as ‘No More Lies’ and the epic ‘Paschendale’. The most noticeable thing I found throughout was the subtle keyboards which were used sparingly and expertly to help flesh out the songs, brilliant stuff and it shows the band can add new elements without overwhelming their signature sound. All sounds great no? well sorry to disappoint but there are some flaws to this otherwise pleasingly solid release, for starters there is still too much of a focus on the epic for epics sake with a lot of the songs dragging their feet throughout the middle sections hamstringing momentum and atmosphere as a result (Dance of Death, Paschendale). Also the band seems to flog the slow acoustic intro approach with at least 4 songs starting off like ‘Fear of the Dark’ wannabes. So overall a return to the old sound while still incorporating some new elements, a solid release if not a classic one.
Favourite Tracks – Rainmaker, Montsegur, No More Lies
Rating – 7.5/10

Iron Maiden ‘A Matter of Life and Death’
EMI, 2006
Gloon:
Lets face it the return of Bruce Dickinson wasnt all it was meant to be, Maiden neither returned to their simpler catchier anthems nor did Dicko bring with him his heavier approach and style as highlighted in his last few solo outings. Basically Maiden has evolved into a semi prog band more often then not opting for the long steady epic then the catchy punchy rock hit and never has this been more prominent than on their latest opus A Matter of Life and Death’. Opener ‘Different World’ is as close as we get to a rocking single before the epics are unloaded and feeling of weight and oppressiveness is unleashed as not seen since X Factor. However for all the moaning one must admit that when Maiden choose to do an epic they do it in style with ‘Brighter than a Thousand Suns’ and For the Greater Good of God’ being first class. Theres a fair bit to like for older fans as even though the ‘Aces High’ and ‘Bring your Daughters’ are long gone ‘The Pilgrim’ and ‘Out of the Shadows’ feature plenty of that famous Maiden riffage and Bruce’s almighty voice. As good and professional as AMOLAD is I cant help but feel its missing something a spark, a zest something is missing whether its Bruce holding back or just the lifeless production this album just lacks something that say a ‘Brave New World’ didn’t. Overall this is still Maiden and a heavier, darker one at that, just not as dynamic as I hoped.
Favourite Tracks – Brighter than a Thousand Suns, These Colours Don’t Run, The Legacy
Rating – 7.5/10

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