The lineup today
The SSOASS lineup
Eddie makes his apperance on stage for the Run for your Lives tour
Many versions of Eddie!
Maiden live in Brooklyn
Considered one of the greatest heavy metal bands, Iron Maiden have been reshaping music as well as many lives (including mine) for over 50 years and 17 albums, as well as over 40 singles! Let's get into why they're so good, what they mean to me and metal as a whole!
Now, unlike the other band's I've talked about Iron Maiden have a loooot more albums and i don't exactly have the time to talk about each one. I will however touch up on the most important ones as well as the different era's the band went through.
Bassist Steve Harris formed Iron Maiden in 1975, a few months before Christmas. He attributed the band's name to a film adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask. The band would make their debut at St. Nicks Hall in Poplar on 1 May 1976 before taking residence at the Cart and Horses pub in Stratford which has now become associated with the band due to the many times they played there. Even early on the band had many changes in their line up, from vocalist Paul Mario Day and guitarist Bob Sawyer. Vocalist Dennis Wilcock invited his friend, guitarist Dave Murray to join which would prove to be a bold but good choice. The band briefly disbanded before coming back together. The band experimented with keyboards and had most of the members leave. In 1978, while rehearsing and looking for a singer along the way, they met now legendary Paul Di'Anno who many fans seem to forget even though he was crucial to the early days. Harris said how he liked the raspiness and the edge Di'Anno's voice gave to the band.
The same year the band would record a demo and give it to Neal Kay who would play the demo regularly at his club The Bandwagon. With the growing popularity the band made an EP and soon signed a record label deal with EMI. Their first appearance with the label was on a compilation tape. Through December and January of 1979 and 1980 the band would record their self titled debut, which finally came in April of the same year.
At 37 minutes in length this album is full of memorable tracks which show the bands roots. The album cover was also the debut to the most legendary mascot in heavy metal history: Eddie!!! The album managed to have it's place on the UK Album Charts at the number 4 spot. The songs, compared to other work at the time, are fast and energetic making everything else look weak in comparison, but there's also clear prog rock and punk influence. The album had 2 singles, with the controversial Sanctuary having a cover art that depicts Eddie stabbing then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and i just gotta say: you go Eddie, keep it up!. My favorite track: Prowler
Only a year later the band would release another banger, that being Killers. This was the last album with Di'Anno as the vocalist before he was kicked out due to drug related issues. Many of the songs on this album were written years before the actual recording, which i would say just proves yet again how ahead of their time Maiden were. The production, in many ways, is cleaner than the first album but it still has a strong 80s feel thorough, which was due to producer Martin Burch stepping in. The album, initially, wasn't received as well as the first one but over the years has taken its place in the hall of fame and i gotta say i prefer it over the first one. There's just catchier songs and the production, as i stated, is better. While Eddie debuted on the self titled album, and had a more modern appearance on the cover for Running Free, this was the first time we saw him in the light and how we know him today. These days you don't really see Eddie as a regular guy, he's always a robot, a samurai, or something. My favorite track: Murders in the Rue Morgue.
After Di'Anno was kicked out of the band they were looking for a new singer. Bruce Dickinson, who left the band Samson, auditioned and was immediately hired. This sparked what i would consider one of the greatest era's of any metal band any gave light to one of the best frontmen of all time! After joining the band played songs for their upcoming album Number of the Beast which came out in 1982. NOTB is often considered one of the greatest metal albums of all time and rightfully so. It has songs that defined generations such as Hallowed be Thy Name, Run to the Hills and the title tracks, as well as some songs which aren't talked about as much but are some of my favorites like 22 Acacia Avenue. But let's be serious, there isn't really a song on this album that is underrated or not known. Despite the bold lineup change this album would prove to be a chart-smashing hit that sat at the No 1 spot on the UK charts, sold 20 million copies to this day and it's singles all did well too. The album would also start a world tour across the US, Japan, Europe, and more. My favorite NOTB tracks:Run to the Hills, 22nd Acacia venue. This album would spark an annual release, with the next being my personal favorite: Piece of Mind
A bit before the recording of the album drummer Clive Burr was fired and replaced by legendary Nicko McBrain. In March of 1983 Piece of Mind came out and got to number 4 on UK album charts. It features hit songs like The Trooper and Flight of Icarus which have appeared in countless movies, tv shows and more and even shirts like the one that I own of The Trooper that i own! This album sounds great, with Harris' galloping bass, amazing drumming and even more powerful vocals by Dickinson. There's even a secret message if you play the song Still Life backwards, intended to make fun of parents accusing the band of Satanism. My favorite tracks: The Trooper, Sun and Steel.
Powerslave came out in 1984 and while i love PoM this is the album that got me into maiden, and a wider horizon of metal in general. The song 2 Minutes to Midnight, which is still amongst my favorites, was included in GTA: Vice City. That game had some other great metal songs like the absolutely legendary Raining Blood by Slayer, Peace Sells by Megadeth and Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne. Powerslave had some other good songs like Aces High and the title track. I will say the entire album is good but a bit too long for my taste. Somewhere in Time came out in 1986 and added many more good songs to the discography, and while the track number was smaller the songs got longer, with most being over 5 minutes long. The cover is also full of references on the front and the back, like the clock being 2 minutes to midnight, the street name being Acacia and the cat from the live album Live After Death close to Eddie, who has a now iconic cyborg look. My favorite track: Wasted Years. And last but not least we have Seventh Son of a Seventh Son which is sorta like a concept album following the titular son who acquires mystical powers and embarks on a quest to bring peace to the world. This time around Eddie is a weird creature floating above primordial waters, and each single also follows a similar premise. I think this album is my favorite from the three as it's a perfect balance of melody, length and memorability. It is also the first Maiden album to go into prog-metal territory. It also has one of my favorite Maiden music videos (Can I Play With Madness). My favorite tracks: Can I Play With Madness, The Clairvoyant. During this time Iron Maiden were also the first western band to play behind the Iron Curtain.
After nonstop touring some members began releasing their solo work as well as celebrating the bands 10 year anniversary. In 1990 they released No Prayer for the Dying which had the now iconic Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter. But the 90s were a changing time for metal, and many well known and classic bands were now starting to fade into obscurity or desperately try and change their sound just to ruin their careers. Subgenres like death metal and black metal were also begging to emerge. I would say Maiden did just fine, but the 90s overall had many ups and down's in their career. Fear of the Dark came out in 1992 and the title track became a hit and constant part of their concerts, which at this point gained a reputation for theatrical sets and appearances from Eddie. Bruce Dickinson left the band to pursue his solo career, leading to vocalist Blaze Bayley to take the mantle. With him the band made 2 albums: Virtual XI and X-Factor.
Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane, was one amongst thousands of vocalist fighting for the place amongst the band but ultimately got the place. Many argue to this day weather he was a good or bad vocalist, and i think he's okay and has his style but nobody can replace Bruce. X Factor came out in 1995 and while it was the bands lowest place in the album charts at the time i still think it's okay. It definitely has catchy tracks and my favorites would have to be Lord of the Flies and Judgment of Heaven. Virtual XI came out in 1998 and was the real stinker of the discography so far, and maybe in their entire career. It just drags on too much and has a song which many consider to be the worst of the worst:The Angel and the Gambler. At 10 minutes long it's not their longest song but feels like it, with it basically being played twice to enhance the runtime. Oh and don't forget the fucking chorus which is repeated 12 times. And we never even learn if he's a savior! Well, Bayley sure as fuck wasn't as this was his last album. The cover is pretty sick though I can't lie.
After Bayley left in 1999 Bruce Dickinson finally came back and with that came one hell of an album: Brave New World. The title, for me, means many things. It is the return of Dickinson on the vocals but also the entering of a new millennium, and it's also a reference to a book of the same name. Brave New World is very ambitious and an album I really like, it has many great songs that are often lengthy but never boring, and hearing Dickinson on the vocals again is refreshing. The album artwork shows Eddie as a cloud monster, with the top and bottom of the cover being done by separate artist. It also looks like a cover for an RTS game! My favorite tracks: Ghost of the Navigator, Wicker Man. The next album was Dance of Death which came with one of the worst covers of all time, but was received well, and fans and critics alike were back to being used to Dickinsons powerful vocals as well as the powerful riffs and drums the bands are known for. Then there was the dark and daring follow-up, 2006’s A Matter Of Life And Death with my favorite track being These Colours Don't Bleed. The band were playing to millions of people, the most legendary of tours being the Somewhere Back in Time Tour which saw the band fly on their own plane, The Ed Force-1, flown by none other than Bruce Dickinson himself! The 3 modern albums: Final Frontier, Book of Souls and Senjutsu. These albums went further into prog-metal territory that was established with 1986's SSOASS. These albums are all pretty epic and 2021's Senjutsu was long awaited after a 6 year wait and had the album be number 1 in charts in over 20 countries, which shows Maiden are able to lead their way into the 21st century just fine.
Now I personally love Iron Maiden for many reasons. The riffs, the singing, the storytelling, and the covers all tie it together into one of the greatest to ever do it! While i love me some death, black, or thrash metal i sometimes just want classic British heavy metal. I hope Maiden keep making albums cause i know they still got it in them, and if they do let's hope they're good ones! Personally I'm ready to keep my Maiden collection growing, with shirts, CDs and posters to show my love and appreciation for not only what they've done for me, but to many people around the world and metal as a whole. Up the Irons and long live Eddie!
The lineup today
The SSOASS lineup
Eddie makes his apperance on stage for the Run for your Lives tour
Many versions of Eddie!
Maiden live in Brooklyn