BUY THESE DISCOUNTED RELEASES

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

 

	RELEASED: 1982 PRODUCER:Martin Birch LABEL:Captiol Records BAND: Clive Burr Dave Murray Bruce Dickinson Steve Harris Adrian Smith
+ More diverse songwriting, great instrumental skills, all-time classic - Slightly uneven song quality	TRACKS: 1.Invaders 2. Children of the Damned 3. The Prisoner 4.22 Acacia Avenue 5. The Number of the Beast 6. Run to the Hills 7. Gangland 8. Total Eclipse 9. Hallowed Be Thy Name

OVERVIEW

Do I even need to introduce this record?  If you have even the slightest bit of metal flowing through your veins, this disc has likely been a heavy hitter in your CD player (or tape deck, or record player, or 8-track…) since the day you bought it.  You know all the words, you know when to shout along with Dickinson’s powerhouse vocals, and you might even be able to air-shred fast enough to keep up with Dave Murray and Adrian Smith on a good day.  Although not a perfect album, it’s darn close, and it not only takes the title for one of Maiden’s best efforts, but one of the best heavy metal albums or all time, bar none.

            Most of what makes this album so great, in my opinion, is that we get Dickinson’s glass-breaking banshee-shriek vocals, but Harris’s writing is still clearly influenced by the speed and intensity of early punk, and drummer Clive Burr is more than willing to bash the crap out of the skins like a good punk drummer should.  The whole album has relentless energy and barely contained aggression, but the composition is much more complex than “Killers”, and the styles Harris writes in continue to get more diverse – compare anything on “Killers” to “Hallowed Be Thy Name” or “Children of the Damned” if you don’t believe me.

SONGS

“Number of the Beast” opens up with one of Maiden’s most aggressive songs to date – check the furious downpicking, nasty solos, and Harris’s turn-on-a-dime bass fills in this one.  Surprisingly, “Children of the Damned” is notably slower, MUCH darker, and builds longer than just about any Maiden song before it; it’s not exactly what one would expect after the rock blitz of “Invaders, but fear not, ‘cause “The Prisoner” is a speedy rocker with a 5-star vocal performance and is 100% guaranteed to get the adrenaline going.  This brings us to “22 Acacia Avenue”, a song I’ve heard Adrian Smith wrote for his old band and brought to Maiden, which would make sense because it really kind of sounds like a song that’s been altered to fit Maiden’s sound, rather than a real Maiden song.  Definitely not one of my favorites on here.  But up next…we have the legendary title cut, and “Number of the Beast” not only features the highest note I’ve ever heard just about any singer hit, but is undoubtedly one of the best metal anthems of all time, period.  After that, we’ve got “Run To The Hills”, which is probably the most well-known Maiden song of all time and the best example of the famous “gallop” they play so well.  “Gangland” and “Total Eclipse” are both great (I have no idea why Capitol would leave “Total Eclipse” off of the original pressings), but they pale in comparison to the epic awesomeness of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, a 7-minute blockbuster that’s one of Maiden’s deepest, most memorable, and well-written songs of all time.  If there ever was a song born to close a record, this is it.

CONCLUSION

Essential.  Timeless.  Classic.  And worthy of all it’s legendary status.  I still have a good chuckle every now and then that Rolling Stone only gave this record 2/5.  Losers!

 

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images, logos, and pictures are trademarks or registered trademarks of Saviours Of Rock or their respective owners, and are protected by copyright laws in the USA, Australia and other countries.  Except as required for normal use by a viewer of this web-site, nothing pertaining to this web-site or  its contents may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or  by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of Saviours Of Rock or its respective owner.

Copyright ©2007 Saviours Of Rock TM. All Rights Reserved.