1275. Iron Maiden / The Soundhouse Tapes [EP]. 1979. 4/5

Arguably the most famous demo tape ever released to the wider public is Iron Maiden’s “The Soundhouse Tapes”, recorded at the end of 1978 and distributed by the band through bass guitarist and band founder Steve Harris to various outlets through 1979, before finally being self-released by the band in November 1979.
Having been formed in 1975, it took over three years and numerous band member changes for Iron Maiden to get to a position that they decided to record their first demo. Four guitarists, three lead vocalists, two drummers and a keyboardist had all walked through the band before they got to December 1978. Steve Harris had of course remained the mainstay, alongside guitarist Dave Murray, who had also had his own short vacation from the band before a change of mind brought him back into the fray. All of these changes are discussed at length in the excellent band documentary “The History of Iron Maiden, Part 1” released in 2005. By the time the band reached the winter of 1978, Harris and Murray were joined as members in Iron Maiden by lead vocalist Paul Di’Anno, drummer Doug Sampson and guitarist Paul Cairns, also known as Mad Mac. According to Sampson, Cairns did not fit in the band properly and left after three months. Cairns himself stated that the band dismissed him as they did not like his stage performance. It is interesting that Cairns is generally uncredited as having appeared on the recording of “The Soundhouse Tapes”, with interviews on the History DVD cutting out any reference to him. Despite this, it is acknowledged that Cairns did indeed play on the demo, though given he had left the band some time before it was released as “The Soundhouse Tapes” there is some understanding as to why his name does not appear on a release promoting the band as they approached their first record contract.
Harris had decided the band needed a demo tape in order to distribute to venues in order to gain gigs, but given that most of the band members also worked day jobs, and that they little money in order to fund the project, they would have to find a way to do it, but without sacrificing quality for cheapness. The band decided to record at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge after hearing a demo tape recorded there by former vocalist Dennis Wilcock's band, V1. In the History doco, Harris says “The only way we could afford it at the time was to go on New Year’s Eve, because no one else wanted to then. We were gonna kip in the back of the van [but], because it was snowing, it was so bloody cold. We were in this pub and Paul pulled this young nurse. She invited us all back to kip on her floor. She only had a bedsit, but we were very grateful.”
The two day session cost the band £200, but when they asked for the master tape, they were told they would have to part with another £50 to do so, which they didn’t have. They instead took the tape that had been recorded for them, but when Steve came back the following week with the £50 required, they found that the master had been wiped. Thus, as they were unable to create the editing and embellishing they had been hoping to do, they instead had to settle for what they had done on those two days.

The band recorded four songs during those sessions - "Prowler", "Invasion", "Strange World" and "Iron Maiden". In Mick Wall’s excellent and contemporaneous biography of the band “Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills”, Harris is quoted, "We didn't know what to expect, going into the studio for the first time. We just hoped the engineer was gonna be good enough to record us, and that was it, really. We just went in there with a naïve attitude and, as it happens, it was pretty good. The songs were very together already. We didn't have to arrange much. They were very tight, 'cause we were doing them live all the time. We knew exactly what we needed to do. It was just a question of whether we could record it all in time. But we went in and the tracks went down really quick. I think we did most of them in the first take."
The most famous story of this demo tape is when it came to Neal Kay who was the main man at the Bandwagon Soundhouse in Kingsbury who, after almost blowing it with Steve Harris (a great story retold on the History doco) began playing the tape heavily, which led to the song “Prowler” topping his Soundhouse charts, which then was being published in Sounds magazine. This helped lead to the band being found by manager Rod Smallwood, and through him their first record deal with EMI in December 1979, a year after those recording sessions.
Between this time however, while waiting to sign their EMI contract, the band decided to self-release their demo, for a not unobvious reason. As Harris said, “because everywhere we'd go we'd do really well at the gigs, and then afterwards there'd be, like, all these fans asking where they could buy one of our records and when we told 'em there wasn't any yet they couldn't believe it. They'd seen the charts in Sounds and a lot of 'em just assumed we must already have a record deal of some kind, but we didn't. Not then. So then, they'd be, like, 'Well, where can we get a copy of the tape?' And I think that's when we really got the idea of putting the Spaceward demo out as an actual record."
Though the demo tape contained four songs, the band decided to only release three, with “Iron Maiden” being the Side A of the EP, and “Invasion” and “Prowler” on the B Side. “Strange World”, which along with the eponymous track and “Prowler” would eventually end up the debut album, was considered ‘not up to quality’ in its current recorded version, and was left off as a result.
When you listen to these three tracks compared to the versions that came later on, there are some noticeable differences. Which of course in the long run makes this EP worthy of owning or at least listening to. They are rawer in both music and vocals, with a different timing throughout. Doug Sampson’s drumming gives them that slightly different feel from the versions that would appear later, but are no less impressive or enjoyable. Di’Anno’s vocals, even though they had been performing all of these songs for some time at their live gigs, are still developing into what they would become. And, when you listen to it, for a demo tape, you have to say that it is amazingly impressive. Think about the demo tapes you have made with your first band. You couldn’t possibly have released it in this format. Iron Maiden, or course, were a different breed even then.
The band decided to press 5000 copies of “The Soundhouse Tapes”, and had them for sales through mail order and their fan club. The demand was outrageous, and retail chains tried to order quantities of up to 20,000 each. However, the band and management refused to budge. As Smallwood said "we could have really cashed in at that point. It was our record, not EMI's, and we could have made enough to clear our debts, if we'd wanted to, maybe got it in the charts, even. But there was just no way. It really was something special for the true die-hard Maiden fans, and we'd already made that quite clear. If we'd changed our minds, just to get our hands on a bit of cash, it would have been selling out the kids who'd gone to all the trouble to send in for one of the original 5,000 copies. We thought, 'No, we'll wait until we can do it properly with EMI.'

I suppose what I would like to say now is that, yes, I own a copy of the original “The Soundhouse Tapes” EP on vinyl. As I’m sure you are aware, I do not. I have a copy of it digitally, which I have burned to a CD and keep in my collection that way. I have often trawled through Discogs, and found copies for sale for about £1900, which is about A$3300... and that’s when I stop dreaming.
If you are a Maiden fan, you have heard this EP at least once. You may not be as obsessive about it as others, and that’s okay. Because being a fan isn’t about owning the most stuff from that band, or listening to the most stuff released by that band, or collecting the most memorabilia or bootlegs of that band. You don’t even have to know the history of the band. It’s about loving the music.
However!...I love this kind of stuff, the history and the releases and all of those things. I don’t always enjoy them, but this has always been a really interesting period of history of the band that intrigues me thoroughly. The changes to the band. The travelling around together in the Green Goddess. Those early gigs. All leading up to the recording of this demo and then to this EP. It’s all fascinating, the time of the band when they were still poor and working gig to gig, hoping to pull off something special and maybe get a recording contract, and then maybe get a few more fans. Looking back from this point in time, it's still hard to believe that they could have been that small, just beginning to explode.
So here it is, “The Soundhouse Tapes”. Yes, it’s worth a listen. And yes, it is interesting to hear Paul Cairns on guitar even though it is never mentioned anyway. And hear Doug Sampson on drums before he was forced to give the role away. And hear Paul Di’Anno before he truly commanded his own personality. It’s worth a listen, and to think about its place in history. Because without it, Iron Maiden may never have traversed to the peaks they now reside at.

1259. Iron Maiden / Powerslave. 1984. 5/5

There could have been few bands in the world in the early to mid 1980’s in a better position to reach a period of dominance than Iron Maiden. They had done their time in the pubs and clubs, five years of grind and toil that saw them attain a recording contract, and then release their debut and sophomore albums “Iron Maiden” and “Killers”. Through this saw some rearranging of the furniture, bringing in Adrian Smith as guitarist, who had always been destined to find his way into the band, then Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals, whose powerful range gave the band a wider scope of songs to aspire to, along with the songwriting ability of both he and Smith, and finally Nicko McBrain whose drumming and personality completed the outfit. This line up had recorded the band’s previous album “Piece of Mind”, which had built up on the enduring success of “The Number of the Beast” and pushed on further, showcasing longer and more complicated song structures while retaining all of the characteristics which made Iron Maiden such a unique proposition in the music world at that time. Alongside the boss Steve Harris and the ever present Dave Murray, the band had toured for 8 months to promote the “Piece of Mind” album, which was completed in December 1983. They then allowed themselves a three week break (yep, that’s it) before reconvening to begin writing for the follow up album. Is it any wonder maintaining families under these time pressures was extraordinarily difficult. And this wasn’t unusual in the days of a 12-month cycle being write an album, record an album, release an album, tour the album.
The band returned to the Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas to record the album, the same place where “Piece of Mind” was recorded and that the follow up to this album would also take place.
The success of “Piece of Mind”, which had gone to #3 in the UK, #14 in the US and #17 in Australia, proved there was a marketplace for their music, and having already shown they could write fast paced and heavy singles such as “Run to the Hills” and “The Trooper”, and longer and technically proficient songs such as “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “To Tame a Land”, in order to go to another level with their music, just what could they produce for their new album that would satisfy these requirements? The answer came in the form of 8 amazing tracks that make up the album that became “Powerslave”.

 
One of the immediate impacts of this album, that if you look at the cover of the album feels so mystical and mythical, is that the first two songs heavily reference and describe war, such that when initially listening to the album you could believe that it is going to be an album all about war. And part of the perfection of the tracks is that the music of each almost makes you feel the differing emotions of the actions being drawn. The opening battle cry of “Aces High” moves from the twin guitar montage before diving hell for leather into the song at a careering pace, which barely lets up for the entire song. As with so many of Steve Harris’ composed songs, the subject takes its basis from the movie of the same name, 1976’s “Aces High” {put in some context of the movie here]. Even the screaming solos from Dave and Adrian through the middle of the song make it sound like you are watching the planes dogfight above you, rolling and turning and diving, and the pace of the song exarcebates that as well, and the conclusion you almost see two of these plavnes colliding as the final note is played. It is a sensational opening track, setting the album off in cracking style.
This is followed by the iconic opening riff of the Smith/Dickinson song “2 Minutes to Midnight”, and while the opening track speaks in a romantically yet realistic tone of the way that air fights occurred during WW1, there is immediately a more sinister sound about the following track. There is a more serious tone about the lyrics here, referencing the Doomsday Clock, which symbolises impending doom, and is set closer to midnight the faster that this approaches. The guitars are more menacing, as Bruce starts singing lyrics such as “The killer's breed or the demon's seed, the glamour, the fortune, the pain. Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain, Don't you pray for my soul anymore”. The solo section is a brooding piece as well, the tempo rising and falling, until at the end it falls into Nicko’s rising drum roll, and crashes back into the main riff, and the tone of the whole song builds to its crescendo as Bruce spits out his lyrics - “The body bags and little rags of children torn in two, And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you. As the mad men play on words and make us all dance to their song, To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun”. It is an incredibly powerful finish to the track, one where the built up emotion spills over and crushes to the conclusion. Still just an amazing song.
After two heavy war based song lyrically, the third track takes on a different direction, with the instrumental and cleverly titled “Losfer Words”. Some have questioned why the band would place an instrumental on their album when they have the voice of Dickinson to call on, but this works really well, and does gives you the opportunity to fully concentrate on the music and musicians themselves. The middle piece of the song, with Dave soloing and Steve’s incredible bass guitaring underneath, is still an amazing piece of music.
From here the album moves into two songs that may not be about war but are certainly referencing the use of weapons. Bruce utilises his love of the sport of fencing in composing “Flash of the Blade”, where the lines “the smell of resined leather, the steely iron mask, as he cuts and thrusts and parries at the fencing masters call” is surely a reference to his own early travails in the sport. This song moves along at a quick tempo driven my Nicko’s fast rated drum beat, vastly underrated on this song in particular. Bruce’s doubled vocals through the chorus increases the energy as well, adding that extra layer. It’s a simply structured song but each part is played to perfection. This segues perfectly into the start of “The Duellists”, Steve Harris’ depiction of an old-fashioned duel. The bassline that runs through this entire song, but especially through the middle instrumental solo section that links the two lyric bound stanzas, is truly remarkable. It is the mainstay of the song, and it is no wonder the band has never played it live, because even Harry’s fingers would be bleeding at its conclusion if he did. Take a listen to this track and be amazed at what he puts into this track, that sometimes just seems to blend in so well that you don’t even notice it. It really is a remarkable piece of bass playing. The two solos played over the top sound amazing, but it is the bass underneath that provides the real superbness of the song. An underrated classic.
Opening up side two is “Back in the Village”. Now, I love “The Prisoner”, not only do I love Iron Maiden’s song, but the TV series that it is written about. So who would ever have thought we would get a sequel to that song? Well here it is, the Smith/Dickinson composition that once again returns to the eponymously named ‘The Village’ of the TV show, and we have more rollicking fun lyrically as they again canvas us with the goings on of the show. It is a rollicking ride musically, wonderfully fast paced with great guitar licks from Adrian, that incredible rumbling bass from Harry and Nicko’s drums crashing along the way. Bruce has a ball with the lyrics, both soaring and spitting as he moves through the song. It’s yet another great track with so much energy and purpose you can’t help but be transported along for the ride.
The final two tracks of the album take a different direction and are both arguably some of the finest work that Iron Maiden has ever done. “Powerslave” is Bruce’s second solo composition for the album, and fourth overall, stamping his mark on the direction the band was taking. The Egyptian theme was apparently something Bruce had been working on while on tour for “Piece of Mind” and then eventuated during the writing sessions for this album. It is an epic song, highlighted as with many of the songs here by the two bands of lyrics connected by a long solo section that allows the two guitarists to showcase their ware. Bruce’s vocals here are amazing, but for me the epic brilliance of that middle section is unmatched in all of music. Harry’s bass once again takes the reins of the music, the way he runs his fingers up and down and around the fretboard during this interlude is truly brilliant. The mood he creates here is perfect for the song, less intense than the verses and chorus have been, and amplified by the guitars of Smith and Murray, whose perfect harnessing of the mood brings it all together amazingly. The mood swings lower and higher, serene to more intense, until again the conclusion to the solo section is hammered down the slope by Nicko’s drumming to crash back into the main riff, and the song is off again. Just magnificent, and an epic track that has stood the test of time to retain its magnificence.
And yet - there is still no song written by this band, or perhaps any band ever, that is a more perfect embodiment of bringing a poem or story to life than Steve Harris’ masterpiece, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Inspired by and referencing direct lines from the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it is a brilliantly conceived retelling of the story of the poem, with the songs going through all of the lulls and rolls, highs and lows, anguish, fear and redemption that the poem has to offer. Each part of the story has music composed to relate to that part of the tale, and while it isn’t an opera, it is a piece of musical theatre where you can see what Bruce is singing about by his descriptions and the music bringing it to life. Again, the middle section is a superbly written and performed piece, picturing the boat stranded on the lifeless sea, the dead lying around the mariner, with the spoke passage from the poem itself. This then feeds into the return of the band proper, as the mariner accepts the curse and wishes he had taken his shipmates place, as Bruce sing and the music builds, into the cacophony of his scream, and the roller coaster of guitars and drums scream down the precipice into the heart of the solo section, one of the heaviest and brilliant pieces of music the band has ever written and played. I still get shivers down my spine every time I hear this lead into the Dave and Adrian solo pieces. It is magnificent, emotional, headbanging stuff, which continues back into the verse and the end of the tale and the song. The whole song is an experience, not just the final track of the album. Maiden has a lot of long songs, that have their own tales to tell, and the majority of them and brilliant. But “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a step above them all. If Maiden had never written another album, another song, following the release of “Powerslave”, it would barely have mattered, because this album is so utterly brilliant, and this song is the crown that rests at the top.

Back at the end of 1985 I was on an end Year 10 school camp at a place called Bundanoon on the NSW Southern Highlands. For a week 50-60 of us spent that time camping and running around like the 15 and 16 year old maniacs we were and having a superb time. The conclusion of the camp was a skit concert on the final night, where all campers were asked to participate. Some of my friend group got together and pretended to be a rock band, miming to the Stiff Little Fingers instrumental track “Go for It”, and in the process enthralling the crowd so much, that at the end they decided to do an impromptu second performance. This one saw the band miming, quite well from memory, Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”, receiving rapturous applause at its conclusion. This, as it turns out, was the first time I had heard an entire song from start to finish by Iron Maiden. I had heard one of my best friends all camp walking around humming and singing a couple of songs throughout, without knowing what they were. As it turns out, he had recently rediscovered Iron Maiden in a big way. And so, the following week when we were back at school, as I had on quite a few occasions in the past, I brought in a blank cassette, and asked him to record me some Iron Maiden for me to experience. This friend, who at this point became and remains my heavy metal music dealer, came back two days later with the album “Powerslave” for me to listen to.
That day was Wednesday 27 November 1985. It was the first day I had truly sat down and listened to a heavy metal album. It was the first time I had listened to an Iron Maiden album. More importantly, it was the first time I had listened to “Powerslave” the album. And it was captivating. I sat in my bedroom that afternoon, with my portable tape player that had just spent the past week taping my friends laughing around campfires and playing hijinks on teachers (tapes that still exist almost 40 years later), listening to this album for the first and second times in my life. And, it was surreal, that’s what I remember feeling. Because the journey of the album is quite a winding one, of battles and fights of different eras, of mythology and poetry and mystery. And that’s not an easy thing to understand and take in when you only have your blank cassette cover with the names of the songs on it, rather than the album itself. It was something that I wanted to rectify.
About six months later, on Friday 2 May 1986 as it turns out, I had completed an English exam for my year 11 half yearlies, and was faced with the prospect of either waiting at school for about four hours for the end of the school day to catch the bus home, or instead face the walk home, a journey of about an hour and 20 minutes from school. I decided on the second, so that I would at least have some time at home before the rest of the family arrived. On the way however I decided to divert into town, and take a look at Kiama’s one and only record store, Kiama Sight & Sound, just to see what was in stock at the time. And, beyond my surprise, there was a vinyl copy of Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave” in the racks. My heart leapt, and within moments I had made my purchase ($11.99 for those interested) and returned to my journey. It was warm for the start of May, and the walk home wasn’t a pleasant stroll, but the anticipation of being able to get home to listen to my new acquisition was enough motivation to keep going. And I still remember that afternoon, putting the album on my parents' stereo, and hearing it in pristine condition, holding the album and going over every centimetre of detail in both the cover design and the information contained within.
This has been a very long winded explanation of my discovery of this album, but I feel it is important, because of the momentous occasion that it was. It was my first Iron Maiden album, and first experience of both the band and heavy metal as a genre. Is it a simple and accurate statement to say that my life changed that day forever? Probably, but a more accurate one was that over the proceeding eight weeks of the summer holidays of 1985/86 my whole world changed. The album grew with me at different stages, the rollicking opening of “Aces High” and the intangible opera of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” the first to cast me under their spell. Then came that middle solo sequence of the title track, one that is still so amazing to the present day. The urgent charging of both “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “Flash of the Blade”, driving relentlessly forward. The utter bombasticness of “Back in the Village”, and the amazing instrumental influences of “Losfer Words”. And finally, the sheer underrated brilliance of “The Duellists”, once again through that middle solo section with the three guitarists and the drummer putting together an amazingly connected interlude. Each piece of that puzzle came to me in different times, and eventually combined to become the whole, the album that is “Powerslave”.
So I wore that cassette out that I was originally given, and countless others once I had the vinyl album. Eventually came the CD as well. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I have listened to this album in my life. It is not unreasonable to guess that it was over 500 by the time I left high school and that was 37 years ago. It has been a constant companion, an album that has never lost its sheen, never lost its lustre. The writing and composition is so superb, with all contributors arguably at the peak of their powers on this album. And the performance of the music, under the brilliant production of Martin Birch, is beyond compare.
The band that my friends and I created not long after high school eventually had a crack at five of these eight songs, with a reasonably high success. “Flash of the Blade” was one of the first songs we learned and was always fun to play. “Aces High” was well received whenever it was brought out, as was “2 Minutes to Midnight”. “Losfer Words” would give the long suffering vocalist a rest during a set, while we famously debuted “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” at our mates 21st birthday party, which saw the metal heads in attendance open mouthed in awe, and the rest of the party bored to death by the end of its 15 minute journey. There’s still video footage of it somewhere.
Today, this still ranks as one of the best that Iron Maiden has produced. Discussions will always occur between people’s favourites, but in writing, music and production this album ranks at the top of the tree. The band went forth on the World Slavery Tour to promote this album, which eventually led to one of the greatest live albums of all time, “Live After Death”. It heralded a remarkable run of success for the band built on talent and hard work.
This was my introduction to this band and heavy metal. And over that timeline of 39 years, hundreds of bands and thousands of albums, I have still heard nothing that betters this album. I believe there are a number that are of the equal of this but nothing exceeds it. Is it just because it is the first I heard? Or because I lucked out on finding it at the exact right moment that I was looking for it? Believe what you will of that. As an album and a band, you would be hard pressed to argue against it. I think it is one of the best albums of any genre ever. And still my favourite of all time.

1228. Iron Maiden / Live at Donington 1992. 1993. 5/5

As has been noted on a few recent episodes in regards to Iron Maiden albums, 1992 and 1993 were not easy years for the band. Bruce Dickinson had already made his decision and announced that he was quitting the band by the time the Fear of the Dark tour concluded late in 1992, and yet the band had already announced further dates for 1993, which Bruce somewhat reluctantly agreed to complete, which took up another 6 months of 1993. During this time, the band did not get on as they had done, and by its conclusion it is probably fair to say that everyone was relieved.
With Bruce leaving the band, they had decided to record and release two separate live albums in 1993, being “A Real Live One” - the episode of which you can find in Season 4 of this podcast - and “A Real Dead One” - the episode of which you can find just a few episodes back here in Season 5. While both sold well as you would expect, one of the main criticisms of the releases was that they were both a collection of live songs, taken from different concerts at different times during the tour. Having had the wonderful “Live After Death” album eight years beforehand, what most Maiden fans were after was another complete concert recording, which reflected how Maiden sounded at that time.
Now, whether this was taken on board by the management and record company, or whether they just saw another opportunity to make a great big pile of cash, something facilitated the release of this album, along with the concert footage in full on video as well, which is the complete set of Iron Maiden’s headlining gig at Castle Donington in August 1992, one where perhaps for the final time before the full reformation of the band seven years later showcased just how good this band was when they were at the peak of their powers. The fact that the gluttony of releasing three live albums in the space of eight months was possibly overlooked in the chase for sales didn’t stop the fans from rushing to their record retailers and buying all three albums up in huge numbers.

Initially this was a limited edition 2 CD release, with the plain white cover and not meant to be a full album release. As such, when it first went on sale 30 years ago it was highly sought. Eventually, with all things such as this, it was re-released to a wider audience worldwide and on various formats.
The gig contains the full setlist from the Fear of the Dark tour than the band was in the middle of at the time, this containing a large mix of recent release songs and then the well worn classics (not as well worn then as they are now!). The then current album had plenty of representation, with “Be Quick or Be Dead”, “From Here to Eternity”, “Wasting Love”, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers”, and “Fear of the Dark” all appearing in the first half of the setlist. All of the versions are great here, even the title track, which I admit I have tired of over the years. But the versions done on this tour, when the song was fresh and new, are all terrific, and is again here. Also, as I am sure was made obvious on previous episodes, I am not a fan in any way of the song “Wasting Love”. To me it was a mistake releasing it as a single, and in ever playing it live, as it is a momentum killer. On the other hand, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is a gem, mixed with both high velocity power and also emotion. A great song performed beautifully here. These songs on the first CD are all perfectly interspaced with old and new, with “The Number for the Beast” and “Wrathchild” coming at the top of the song list, and ten “Can I Play With Madness?”, “Tailgunner” ad “The Evil That Men Do” providing a great lift as soon as they come out of the speakers. The whole first CD – well, OK, apart from “Wasting Love” - is a real triumph.
The second CD starts with three fantastic songs from the then middle age of Iron Maiden’s great hits, the brilliant “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”, the magnificent “The Clairvoyant” and the fantastic “Heaven Can Wait”. What a truly awesome run of three songs to be able to watch live in concert. Action packed, fast paced and Bruce’s vocals at the top of their game.
This then leads us into the prehistoric era of the band, finishing off the night with those great songs that their earliest fans grew up with and still demand in the live setting. You know them all. “Run to the Hills”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “The Trooper”, and then “Sanctuary” into “Running Free”. A pretty fair way to finish off your night, and this album. The final song “Running Free” also features an appearance from former guitarist Adrian Smith, coming on stage to be reminded of what he left behind when he left the band in 1989.

It was an interesting time when this live album came out. As already mentioned, this was the third live album that Iron Maiden had released in 1993, which is overkill in anyone’s language. Beyond this, there were mixed emotions, because when this album was actually recorded it would have been one of the highlights of the band’s career, headlining the Donington Festival in front of 80,000 fans, and yet when it was released just over a year later, it was at one of the lowest ebbs that the band had faced. And as a fan I felt that same way. This was a great album, showcasing everything brilliant about one of my favourite all time bands, and yet it was also showcasing what we would now miss with the departure of Bruce Dickinson.
This album is not in question in regards to quality and quantity. As I often remark, live albums should be an automatic 5/5 rating, because they have the band’s best songs played in their best environment. And that is certainly the case here. While the other two live albums released in 1993 may have some flaws, this full concert album does not. A great set list, all performed fantastically.
Is it an essential album for fans of the band? In the main, if you have “Live After Death” you have the band’s best live album. Both the “Maiden Japan” EP and “Maiden England” album from the Seventh Son tour are also terrific, and this actually makes a solid set with those three albums. Iron Maiden does have a lot of live albums now, but this is still great to listen to.
I saw Iron Maiden for the first time two months after this gig was played, in Sydney in October 1992. Due to a terrible mix and soundboard problems it was, unfortunately, a forgettable concert in the main. And this album was both a relief that it is so good when it came out, and a disappointment because the night I saw them sounded nothing like this. Thankfully for me, better Maiden concerts were to come, but not for a very very long time.

1203. Iron Maiden / Piece of Mind. 1983. 5/5

Iron Maiden’s popularity had exploded worldwide with the release of their third studio album “The Number of the Beast”, and the success of the lead single from that album “Run to the Hills”. The story of that album can be found in an episode of this podcast back in Season 2 if you are interested in reliving the story that came with it.
Once the touring schedule for that album had been completed, the band could concentrate on the writing session for their follow up, something that was going to be a tough ask. The first part of that puzzle had already occurred by this point. Drummer Clive Burr, who had been a staple of the first three albums, had been let go by the band after he had taken a short leave of absence due to the death of his father. Filling in for him while he was away was drummer of the band Trust, Nicko McBrain. On Burr’s return, a meeting occurred where the band had decided that they needed to move in a different direction. What brought this on? There is no definitive answer to this. Several reports at the time suggested it was drugs and alcohol that had caused the separation, but more reliable quotes suggest that Clive and band leader Steve Harris had had too many disagreements and Steve’s patience had run out. Clive was quoted in “Classic Rock” magazine two years before his sad demise from multiple Sclerosis as saying - “Steve used to say I played the songs too fast, he was always telling me to slow down. My abiding memory of recording “The Number Of The Beast” album is Steve telling me to slow down.” There were odd spats, he says, but nothing major, nothing serious. Bruce Dickinson in his autobiography says he felt Clive’s dismissal came from personality conflicts with Steve, but that he had always wished he had been able to stay longer, as his drumming was his favourite of Maiden’s drummers. Without knowing anything for certain, it appears from the outside that when Nicko came in for Clive for those shows, something clicked for Steve Harris and he decided that it was this style of drumming the band needed, and he made that decision to fire Clive and hire Nicko full time. Nicko, of course, has been Iron Maiden’s drummer ever since.

The other major change for this album was that Bruce Dickinson was now officially able to contribute to the writing process. Because of contractual problems with his previous band Samson, Bruce was legally unable to be credited on any of that album’s songs, despite the fact that it was later revealed that he had made significant contributions to the songs "The Prisoner", "Children of the Damned" and "Run to the Hills". Now however he was free to be completely involved in the writing process and be credited for this. It gave the band an amazing set of songwriters in Steve Harris, Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson, who were able to write songs on their own but also with each other, something that began to create the amazing template for the Iron Maiden albums of the 1980’s. With Dave Murray also offering his one or two contributions per album, it truly made the band a full unit on the writing front.
When it came ot the writing and recording, the band left UK soil to do both. The writing for the album took place off the coast of France in Jersey in January of 1983, before they moved to the Bahamas to complete that job and then also record the album.
One of the interesting parts about this part of Iron Maiden’s career was the controversy that had come with their previous album and the branding of the band as satanists and devil worshippers as a result. Despite the ridiculousness of those claims, mostly from the conservative religious elements in the US, the band was somewhat branded in some places as a result. On this album, they decided to fight back. In an interlude directly preceding the track “Still Life”, there is an incomprehensible recording, which for all money sounds like it is backwards masking. As it turns out, that is exactly what it is. In order to put the wind up the kind of people who like to protest about ‘this kind of thing happening’ on albums, the band actually recorded Nicko saying "What ho said the t'ing with the three 'bonce', don't meddle with things you don't understand...", and then put it on the album backwards, no doubt driving those that like to protest about this kind of thing mad. And, let’s face it, could there ever be a better way to fight back against that kind of simple thinking than doing exactly this?

There are many elements that still make this a great album. First off, the writing and inspiration of the tracks. For me, I think it is a terrific thing to have so many songs here inspired by stories, either in the written form in the shape of books or poems or short stories, or by movies and the stories told in that art form. And that’s what helps make the songs interesting even 40 years later, because the stories are still there to be told and heard. And then you have the music itself, and the highly developed way it has progressed since their first album just three years previous. Yes, the drums are different because of the change of drummer, that is to be expected. And Nicko is spectacular on this album. But the guitars and the melodic trade off between Adrian and Dave throughout are immense. The switching of solos, the harmony guitars when used, and the amazing rhythm riffs are even more intense and perfectly constructed that they were even on “The Number of the Beast”. And that galloping bass guitar of Steve Harris that is completely unique in metal at the time. All of it combines here to make an unreal album.
And in some places it is just the small things that make it so amazing. The machine guns in the album opener “Where Eagles Dare” are actually just Nicko on his hi-hats. His amazing fills that flesh out the song so much but are often overlooked when it comes to the brilliance of the track itself. Even if you haven’t seen the film that the song is based on, you can almost see it occurring before you anyway as you listen to the song. And Bruce’s vocals lines, into that final high pitches scream at the end of the song is just shivers down the spine stuff. So much air guitaring goes on while this song is played. It is one of the great album openers of all time. This is followed by Bruce’s amazing “Revelations”, which swings between the faster and heavier to the moody and thoughtful, the power of the track being in his own incomparable vocals. His lyrics here, combined from several sources and focusing especially on the writings of Aleister Crowley, are mesmerising, and beautifully expressed.
Many people remained surprised that “Flight of Icarus” was released as the first single from the album, but given its length made it radio friendly, and the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus composition also gave it that radio friendly appeal, perhaps in the long run it was not. Of course, it proved a hit in the US where it reached number 8, so the question is probably moot. Based around the Greek mythology story of Icarus it proved a hit to those who studied ancient history in high school. Side One of the album then concludes with the galloping joy of “Die With Your Boots On”, based on the story of Nostradamus and his visions that many believe foretold the future. Beyond that though, two great guitar solos and that superb bass guitar from Steve Harris drive the song along at the perfect clip and make it one of the best, most underrated Iron Maiden songs in their catalogue.

“The Trooper” is still regarded by most fans as the band’s greatest ever song. Everything about it seems iconic. The cover to the single, the second and final single released from the album, which of course then sold in the millions on T-shirts and posters. The sight of Eddie coming at you with the tattered Union Jack and the sword in his other hand is still one of the most decorated in music history. The amazing combination of the twin guitars on this song is unparalleled, with both Adrian and Dave producing an amazing performance. What makes the song so unique though is the fact that it tells the story of the Charge of the Light Brigade, one of the most famous battles of the Crimean War, and the galloping of Steve Harris’s bass guitar correlates perfectly to the sound of galloping horses, becoming the most iconic of songs as a result. And the sight of Bruce Dickinson standing astride on stage in both the music video for the song, and every night they play it live on stage, completes what is the perfect storm in heavy metal music. 40 years on, it has lost none of its power and standing in the metal world.
“Still Life”, preceded by Nicko’s reverse warning, is another of Maiden’s most underrated songs, and as Dave Murray’s sole co-written track again proves that less can be more. This is a beautifully moody yet melodically heavy track, that builds and wanes perfectly, lulling you into its spell before crashing into the main crunching riff and Bruce’s mood-changing vocals. It is an awesome song, one of my all time favourites with two perfectly played solos again through the middle of the song.
“Quest for Fire”, on the other hand, often gets short shrift when discussed by fans and critics alike. Unlike the other songs here, it seems a fairly simple one, with the only real outstanding feature being Steve basslines, especially through the chorus. Perhaps that is so, and it seems unlikely that anyone would ever put “Quest for Fire” on a pedestal. But to be honest, it never bothered me in the slightest growing up with the album, or now. It is part of the furniture, a song that is a part of Piece of Mind, and that is all that has ever mattered to me. But it is interesting that “Quest for Fire” is often paired up with “Sun and Steel” as being the weak links of the album, and I say interesting because I freaking LOVE “Sun and Steel”. Similar in what many call a ‘simple’ style, I love Bruce’s harmony vocals through the chorus, the melodic guitars especially in the solos, and Bruce’s climbing vocals at the end of the song. I still love it.
What is surely not in dispute is the awesomeness of the album’s closing track, “To Tame a Land”. Based on the novel “Dune” by Frank Herbert, "To Tame a Land" was meant to be called "Dune". They sought permission from Herbert’s agents to do so (much as they had done with Patrick McGoohan for “The Prisoner” on the previous album) but apparently the message they got back as quoted as such - "Frank Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially bands like Iron Maiden". Thus this epic track is called “To Tame a Land” which to be honest is a much better sounding name for a song of this stature than “Dune”. It is one of Maiden’s most elaborately brilliant songs, amazingly sung by Bruce Dickinson, and then performed by the band itself. Nicko’s drumming is superb and also helps to dictate the mood of the track which is quite a feat for a drummer on this scale. Much like the opening track, even if you don’t know “Dune”, the song paints its own picture and allows you to see everything that the band wants you to see. And it also dictates to you once it has finished that you must turn the album over, and start it all over again.

You may have guessed by now that “Piece of Mind” is an album that I think pretty highly of. I didn’t actually hear the album until the final weeks of 1985, some two and a half years after it had been released. It was the very start of my journey into the love and obsession with the heavy metal genre of music. The previous week I had been handed a cassette with Iron Maiden’s next album, “Powerslave” recorded on it, and then my impatience for new material in this genre was curbed slightly by my heavy metal music dealer providing me with a copy of this album as well. And I began listening to both albums in the two weeks that led up to Xmas that year. Perhaps surprisingly, one song began to stick in my mind, and I began to play it over and over until I had all the lyrics right. That song was “Flight of Icarus”, and it became the song that truly got me into Iron Maiden. From there, the remainder of the album came along for the ride, first with “Die with Your Boots On” and of course “The Trooper”, which soon outstripped “Flight of Icarus” and became the anthem of my final two years of high school. I walked our school cross country the following year with my metal dealer, singing the whole album from start to finish to pass the time, playing each guitar solo on beautifully immaculate air guitars. I began bringing my portable cassette deck to school, so we could listen to this album and others like it during lunch and recess every day. My taped version had “The Trooper” where it jumped a couple of times – in fact, all of us in our group at high school did, because our same metal dealing mate was recording his album for everyone, and his vinyl jumped in the same spot every time. In fact, until we got “Live After Death”, we didn’t even have a copy of the song that was the full version without skipping. That was the joy and bane of the vinyl days of music. The band we were in during the early 1990’s played “The Trooper” in every setlist, and even began to play “Still Life” to rapturous applause during the concluding days of that band’s existence. I have “The Trooper” poster, framed and hanging on my wall in the Metal Cavern. And my 15 year old son Josh has one on his wall as well.
By the time I’d returned to school at the beginning of 1986, I was hooked, an addict. Iron Maiden was a drug, and this album was the affinity of it. It was the beginning of a journey for me, one that in 1986 included Iron Maiden, and the discovery of Metallica and Ronnie James Dio, the three artists that for me have defined a major portion of my teenage years, and my post-teens life. And for those last 30 years, if I was ever asked what my favourite albums of all time are, I can still confidently narrow down as my top three of all time. A Metallica one with crosses all over the front cover, an album that has a pyramid emblazoned on its front cover, and “Piece of Mind”. Come at me with suggestions that you think might be better. You’d be wrong.

1194. Iron Maiden / Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988. 5/5

Iron Maiden had conquered the world several times over by the time it came to the end of 1987. On the back of albums such as “The Number of the Beast”, “Piece of Mind”, “Powerslave”, “Live After Death” and “Somewhere in Time”, they had increased their fan base a number of times over, traversed the world, and had more than they could ever have dreamed possible. They had become the standard bearers of melodic heavy metal the world over. Steve Harris was undisputed as the most amazing bass player on earth. Nicko McBrain’s drumming had raised the bar and pushed the band to new heights. The twin guitars of Dave Murray and Adrain Smith had created an unparalleled sound, and the vocals of Bruce Dickinson carried the songs the band created to a new platform. Evern when the band had dabbled with guitar synths on their previous release “Somewhere in Time”, a practice that had fans nervous as to the direction the music was about to be taken, it proved to be a triumph, with that album added further plaudits on an already overcrowded mantlepiece. Indeed, as the tour supporting that album wound down to its conclusion, the world began asking, “what the hell are they going to do to follow all of this up?” There was even a school of thought that perhaps the band would rest on their laurels and perhaps take a break. What actually followed could well be said to have been the culmination of the building of the Iron Maiden sound over the past decade.
The seeds for the direction of the new album came from band leader Steve Harris, who had recently read a novel titled “Seventh Son”, a fictional tale of the purported special powers that a seventh son born to a seventh son would acquire. With his creative mind once again activated, he called Bruce Dickinson to share his thoughts with him, and discussed basing their next album, which was to be the band’s seventh album, around this idea. In interviews at the time and since, Bruce has acknowledged that he was considering his place in the band, as on “Somewhere in Time” all of his song ideas had been rejected, and he had no writing credits at all, and as a result he wondered just what his place in it all was. When Steve mentioned his idea, Bruce not only felt a part of the writers group again, he immediately began coming up with his own ideas, and it was the collaboration between Bruce and Steve, along with Adrian Smith, that drove the creation of what was to become “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, an album that in some respects came close to perfection for a band that was amazingly still on the rise.

“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” is often considered to be a concept album, but I’m not sure this is entirely true, and as it turns out in a good way. A true concept album, such as Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” which was released a month later, and will have its own episode dedicated to it very soon on this podcast, has a crafted storyline, one that also involves specific characters telling their own story, and including some dialogue that is not in song. Whereas, with this album, there is a definite story that is crafted by the songs, and that the lyrics tell the tale of, but it is not held together by that storyline. Apart from the opening and closing monologue sung by Bruce, each of the songs stands on its own and can do without requiring explanation. They can be interpreted as a part of the tale of the life of the seventh son, or they can also be taking as a separate entity and have their lyrical content judged on a different level. For me this is a part of the success of the album as a whole, giving it multiple layers rather than just a linear motive.
Having used guitar synths on the previous album, it was keyboards that made their pieces noticed on this album, though not to the extent of hiring a keyboard player for the band. The history of the band showed that before they got their first record contract there was one gig where Iron Maiden had a keyboard player and one guitarist, but it lasted just that one gig. Now, however, the band was beginning to flux, and to continue their transformation that addition of keyboards – not a dominating factor but a background addition to help fill out the songs in a better way – was necessary. It added to the progressive nature of the music the band was writing, something that was probably never fully followed up on until the “Brave New World” album some 12 years later. Here though, especially on songs such as “Moonchild” and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, it created the atmospheric mood that the band wanted and needed for this album to work.
So yes, there is a pattern to the journey that this album takes, from the opening stirring of the protagonists struggles with what is going on in their mind, to the awakening of the powers that he discovers, to the abilities and the pitfalls that come with all people with power, to the ultimate end of the tale. And each song plays its part in that story as well as being a story in itself.
Each of the eight songs on this album is a beauty, and that is not always the case. The opening of “Moonchild” is just fantastic, a different sound from opening tracks on previous Maiden albums and brilliant as a result. “Infinite Dreams” surpasses it in its complexity, starting off in a melodic smooth way before pumping into the second verse with greater power and feeling, through to the chorus. It remains a wonderful song. This is followed by the first single from the album “Can I Play with Madness”, the video of which featured Graham Chapman in his final screen appearance. Side One of the album then concludes with the amazing “The Evil That Men Do” with that galloping Harris bassline and typical Dickinson vocals soaring over the top in anthemic style. Great lyrics, wonderful guitars.
Side Two opens with the Steve Harris classic title track, which bends and winds its way through the majestic theatrical first half of the song, before the second half busts out into what makes Iron Maiden so great, with Adrian and Dave and Nicko stealing the show. It perfectly continues the run of great long-form tracks by the band, following “To Tame a Land”, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Alexander the Great” as the showpiece tracks of those albums they appeared on. “The Prophecy” follows and continues the tale through to “The Clairvoyant”, with Steve’s brilliant bass intro, and then into the finale of “Only the Good Die Young”, which ties all the strings together, and completing what is yet another triumph from this magnificent band.

Back in 1988 I was in my first year of university, living the poor life with very little income and many things that I wanted to be able to experience – mostly beer, but also new albums. And I had saved dollars and cents for weeks leading up to this album being released. There was also an hour long promo that the band filmed on the making of the album which appeared on the music program “Rage” the weekend before this was released, which I recorded at the time but eventually lost in the way VHS taped tended to disintegrate when watched a thousand times over. And I bought this album on the day of its released, immediately recorded it to cassette, and that tape didn’t leave my car for months, playing over and over again. At home the vinyl barely left my parents stereo system in our lounge room. This was the album we had been waiting for. And often, when you are so built up with anticipation for an album, it becomes a disappointment when you eventually get your hands on it. But not this one. From the very moment I listened to it, I loved it. The opening of “Moonchild”, the slow burn of “Infinite Dreams”, the power of “The Evil That Men Do”, the majesty of “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, and the magnificence of “The Clairvoyant”. Every piece of this album was a triumph, and worth every single moment I had spent waiting for it to arrive.
Playing it now, as I have for probably over a month leading up to this anniversary, I don’t think it has lost anything. In many ways it was a true precursor to how the band began to progress in the next century, once Bruce and Adrian had returned to the band and recorded albums such as “Brave New World” and “Dance of Death”. It always felt as though it was this album that they were channelling at that time. And that would make sense, as Adrian left the band after this album because he felt that THIS was the direction the band should have been heading in, rather than the stripped-down basics they went for on “No Prayer for the Dying”. On his and Bruce’s return, they did.
But I loved this album then and I do still now. I remember vividly driving two of my fellow uni friends to and from lectures with this album blaring out the windows of the car, and probably driving too fast as a result of that built up adrenaline. It was pure magic, and it has retained all of that 35 years later. Sitting in the metal cavern, drinking a beer and letting this wash over you... it is still an amazing experience.
This was, in my opinion, the last of the truly great Iron Maiden albums. The first two albums with Di’anno, Burr and Stratton involved are terrific albums, but the six that followed them – "The Number of the Beast", "Piece of Mind", "Powerslave", "Live After Death", "Somewhere in Time" and then this album, are legendary. They are ‘moment in a bottle’ stuff. What has come since has been mixed, and some of it has touched brilliance, but could never hold a candle to these albums, and especially this, where the planets aligned for that final time.

1191. Iron Maiden / Virtual XI. 1998. 3.5/5

To look upon the band Iron Maiden in the year 1998, compared to where they were five years earlier, is quite an interesting affair. For those of you who listened to the recent episode for the Maiden live album “A Real Live One” from 1993, the Maiden ship was taking on water, with Bruce Dickinson leaving the band and the future of the band up in the air. Eventually, Blaze Bayley, lead singer of the British band Wolfsbane was brought in as his replacement, and the album “The X Factor” was released, and the band toured on the back of it. The album received mixed reviews from the fans. While Bayley’s performance was intially well received, the album itself was, in some quarters, thought to be very un-Maiden, with the songs and issues much darker than the band usually tackled, and the tempo of the album lacking the gallop that the 1980’s Maiden albums thrived on. There was also concern on tour for Bayley’s vocals which struggled with the older material, and also under the constant touring regime that Iron Maiden kept.
Coming together again to compose the follow up, two events came together to help inspire the album cover and the name of the album. The band was in the process of creating a video game which eventually became “Ed Hunter”, starring Eddie the Head, which brought about the ‘virtual’ part of the album concept, with the advent of virtual reality. It was also the year for the football World Cup, and the band’s members were all football fans. As a part of the tour to promote this album, the band decided to organise football matches against teams in the cities they played in, also roping in celebrities along the way. And as such the name “Virtual XI” came into being. The 11 fitting nicely with the 11 members of a football team, and the fact that it would be Iron Maiden’s 11th studio album.
Even by this stage however, Iron Maiden was on a hiding to nothing. The loss of Smith and Dickinson, along with the changing music landscape, meant that holding onto fans who were both more interested in the music the band had released a decade ago as well being drawn into the new music being produced that was of a much different style of heavy metal than Iron Maiden would ever produce, meant it was difficult to retain the fans popularity that they had cultivated over the previous 20 years. Falling album sales, falling concert ticket sales... it was a time when you imagine that Iron Maiden as a band probably felt they needed to produce an album that was going to change that course and get them back in the spotlight for all the right reasons. It would be something easier said than achieved.

The album contains eight songs, and while they are not as dark and moody as those on the predeceasing album, there is still a less jaunty mood about them than on the albums from the 1980’s. This had been a growing and creeping part of the Iron Maiden sound since “No Prayer for the Dying”, and one that prevailed in all four albums released in the 1990’s. It could be argued that this came about because of the change in personnel and thus the change in the writers contributing to the songs of those albums. It was certainly a contributing factor to some of the fan base, who blamed Blaze’s contributions as the cause of this. But overall this isn’t the case. The main songwriter continued to be Steve Harris, who had his fingers over most aspects of those albums, so the direction the music was heading in most definitely had to have been orchestrated by him. This has always been my biggest concern over the albums of this period. I just don’t think the right people – or person – has been attributed with the way the songs are, and therefore where that disappointment, if it existed, should have been directed.
Despite all of this, the album opens with a classic. “Futureal” is a terrific song and atypical of most opening tracks on Iron Maiden albums. It gallops along, the guitars and drums are great, and Blaze gives it all with his vocals over the top. If Dickinson had recorded it, it would still be played in set lists to today. Unfortunately because it wasn’t, it has been confined to Blaze’s own shows ever since.
“The Angel and the Gambler” follows, and was also released as the first single from the album. Not only that, the single release was heavily edited to get it down to a length that radio stations would play, and had a video-game-like music video made for it as well. And I will never understand that decision. Because “The Angel and the Gambler” is a pretty average song. It’s almost ten minutes in length, it has too much keys and synth in the mix in places, and has too much of the same lyrics being repeated ad nauseum, something that haunts many of the songs on this album. There has never been anything much to write home about this track, and it remains one of the greatest mysteries of the band’s history as to how it got through meetings to actually appear on this album.
To me, there are two songs on this album that are like twins, and not because they sound like each, but because they seem to be on the same wavelength. “Lightning Strikes Twice” is the first of those songs, a nice twist of lyrics with dual meanings, and a great performance from Blaze where he really emotes the song terrifically, backed by the drums and guitars which also kick in at the right time to emphasise it. I still really love this song, which is only pulled back slightly by the repeating of the song title for the second half of the song. Great solos by both Dave and Jannick punctuate the back half of the song as well. Another great song under utilised in set lists since this tour.
The other twin is “When Two Worlds Collide”, which seems as though it may have been inspired by two films released in 1998 - “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact”, except that both of those films were released well after this album came out. But the scenario is the same, and again, like “Lightning Strikes Twice”, the important lyrics of the song are sung with great gusto and force by Blaze, with the other members also providing the appropriate backing. And, again, the over repeating of the chorus through to the end of the song just overplays itself, taking away a part of the impact the song makes.
The outstanding song on the album is “The Clansman”, arguably the best Maiden song of the 1990’s decade. Based around the events of the movie “Braveheart”, this Steve Harris gem perfectly gets the mood right throughout the whole track, and Blaze’s war cry of “Freeeeedoooom!” makes crowd participation when played live easy. It is the song that could have sold this album on its own if it had been marketed that way. Someone missed a trick there, without doubt.
The back half of the album is perhaps the most maligned, and not without some cause. “The Educated Fool” trundles along in second gear for much of the track, before the solo section brightens things up a little. Of all the tracks here, this is the one that sounds most like it came from the previous album in style. “Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger” again tends to over repeat certain lines, and at over 8 minutes in length is again probably too long to retain interest all the way through. Then the closing track, “Como Estais Amigos”, whose loose translation is “how are you, friends”, is written as a tribute to the fallen on both sides of the Falklands War. I know these have proven lacklustre over the years, and when listening to the album it does prove to be the case. Up until the end of “When Two Worlds Collide” the album still holds its own, but the finale does eventually become something that feels a little less exciting.

Of all my friends from high school, who had been so enthralled by Iron Maiden as we grew up in the 1980’s, I was the only one who bought a copy of this album on its release. As far as I know, I am still the only one who owns a copy of this album. As it stands, I own two, both the original CD and the remastered double vinyl from a couple of years ago. And I was determined to like this album. I had enjoyed “The X Factor” and Blaze’s contributions, even though the tempo of the songs had come down markedly on that album from the earlier albums. And come on – when you first put on this album and you hear “Futureal” come through the speakers, you can’t be disappointed!
Am I biased? Perhaps somewhat. But that’s the thing. I love Iron Maiden, and I love Blaze Bayley’s solo material he has released since this album. But on repeated listens to the album, the truth of the matter came to pass. In the long run, this is only an average Iron Maiden album. And while that may make it better than most other bands good albums, it really doesn’t hold your interest all the way through. It does for me, because I have had it from the beginning, and I have listened to it a lot over the years, but for the casual listener, it is going to be a difficult album to get anything out of.
I am happy to nominate five of the eight songs as good songs, but most will only feel as though “Futureal” and “The Clansman” have any chance of being held in the same high regard as the great songs of the past.
In 1998, I listened to this album for a while, and then, with no chance of the band touring Australia or of this growing any fonder to me, it was returned to the shelves and only occasionally brought out for a relisten. And I probably didn’t really listen to it much again until five years later when Blaze Bayley released his first live album, which included both “Futureal” and “When Two Worlds Collide” on it, and I went back to “Virtual XI” to see if it had improved for me. And it had, it must be said, though that perhaps was on the back of the fact that Blaze’s first two solo albums “Ghost in the Machine” and “Tenth Dimension” were so good, and I just wanted to hear his stuff with Maiden again. Since that time, I have had the album on sporadically as I work through the Maiden back catalogue along the way over the years, and I enjoy it every time I put it on. No, it isn’t one of their great albums. And Blaze is often held up as the cause. But a couple of things disprove this point. The first is that Steve Harris wrote the songs as well as co-producing the album, and they were arranged the way he wanted them. It isn’t Blaze’s vocals to blame on the studio album. The second is that Blaze’s first two solo albums released after he agreed to leave Iron Maiden in order for Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to return, are both better than this album. And he wrote all of those.
In the long run, the fans, and probably the band itself, wanted and needed Bruce and Adrian to be back in order for it to be felt as though it was really ‘Iron Maiden’. And this would have been a major reason why it didn’t sell as well, simply because they weren’t there. Their return allowed the next album “Brave New World” to be a monster, and kickstarted Maiden’s return to the top of the heavy metal tree. For “Virtual XI” though, at least it can still hang its hat on one of the band’s best songs of the past 30 years.

1155. Iron Maiden / Rock in Rio. 2002. 5/5

There wouldn’t have been a heavy metal music lover in the world who hadn’t been full of anticipation of the release of Iron Maiden’s “Brave New World” album in 2000, the first album after the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to the fold. Following on from this, the fans began to wonder just what the live line up would sound like, not only with those two coming back into the band, but with the retention of Jannick Gers it meant three guitarists in a live setting. Just what did that mean for the sound the band would produce? Following on from the band headlining the Rock in Rio festival in 2001, they released a live album and DVD of that performance, to help answer that very question.

Welcome to the next century, the new millennium! The back half of that final decade of the previous millennium had been a difficult one for Iron Maiden, on the back of falling sales and concert attendances, which had occurred for various reasons which were not limited to the change in lead singer and the changing landscape of music in general, and whether or not heavy metal music in its 1980’s form still had a place in the world. All of this was answered with the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, and the release of the “Brave New World” album which returned album sales back to figures not seen in a decade.
The following World Tour went to most of their popular destinations, though once again ignoring the parts of the world that were seen as too difficult and expensive to reach. And yes, that comes from a very disgruntled Australian resident. The 2001 edition of Rock in Rio was the final date of the “Brave New World” world tour, and given the huge exposure of the concert, and the fact that it had the size and ability to create a great stage show, the band decided to record and release the performance for a new live album. It acted as a celebration for the fans, to hear many of the new song (6 in all) in their live setting, as well as hear how the band sounded now on the older songs, and how that incorporated the three guitarists. And though as I have said on various previous podcast episodes on live albums, you can hardly go wrong with a collection of basic ‘greatest hits’ songs, sometimes it can be easy to be a little bit picky when it comes to the result.

There is little doubt that all fans of Iron Maiden will enjoy the set list that the band played on this tour. Given the significance of the return of both Bruce and Adrian to the fold after a long period of time (in the whole scheme of the band at least) with Bruce having been absent for two albums and Adrian four, and the way fans had taken to the new album as a result, having six songs from “Brave New World” in the setlist was a given. And even by starting the gig by playing the first three songs of that album back-to-back was also a terrific way to start off. “The Wicker Man” into “Ghost of the Navigator” and then the album’s title track still sounds great to this day.

Beyond this there is a great mix of the old and new. When a band gets to the age that Iron Maiden was 20 years ago let alone today, being able to please everyone with the set list becomes a real juggling act. In this regard, the band has done a great job. The classic songs such as “Wrathchild”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “The Trooper”, “Fear of the Dark” and “The Evil That Men Do” are interspersed with other songs from the latest album in “Blood Brothers”, “The Mercenary” and “Dream of Mirrors”. But, just in case you were an old fan, a REALLY old fan, then the band does the right thing by you to end the gig, coming at you with an old fashioned heavy metal combination of “Iron Maiden”, “The Number of the Beast”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “Sanctuary” and “Run to the Hills”, all of the old favourites performed with aplomb and finishing off the gig, the album and the tour in style.
Everything about this is excellent. All the band members are as terrific as you could imagine. Bruce’s vocals are supreme, and he drags the audience along for the ride the whole way. Steve Harris on bass is still the leader, which admittedly still comes through more on the older songs than the newer ones. Nicko McBrain is a beast on the drums, always the driving force. And the switching between the three guitarists still sounds amazing.

As is my wont, I bought this on double CD as well as purchasing the DVD a couple of months later when it was released, with Maiden once again pulling in double my money for what is essentially the same product. And I didn’t regret it, though it is the CD version that gets the most use. And all of the live versions of these songs still hold up today, even the very old songs. However, my three main observations on this album would be these. One, it is fantastic to hear “Sign of the Cross” and “The Clansman” with Bruce on vocals. And that is not having a go at Blaze Bayley at all because they are both his songs and he sings them superbly too. But hearing Bruce, with his different range, bringing both of these songs to life, ones that he had no involvement in originally, is perhaps the best part of this live album. If not for covid I would have had the chance to hear him sing both songs again on their current Legacy of the Beast tour, but that was cancelled before it arrived in Australia. Joy.
Secondly, also on Bruce’s vocals, for some reason Steve Harris, who ended up doing the editing and production of the live album, decided that in all of the places where Bruce calls for the crowd to sing along and participate and he deliberately doesn’t sing to give the crowd its moment, to cut and paste vocals from other parts of the song or recorded from warm ups, and insert them into those gaps so that it sounds like Bruce is singing the entire song. Now... while Steve obviously had his reasons for thinking this sounded better, I absolutely beg to differ. A live album is to hear the songs live, and that includes hearing the crowd participation, especially when there are 250,000 of them joining in! I have never understood it, and the sections stick out like dogs balls to, because Bruce will cry out ‘come on!” in beckoning to the crows to sing the next line, but then he does anyway, and it is pretty obvious it is not in the same pitch or key or anything like it would be if he had done so naturally. It’s a small thing, and not that big a deal, but I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it.
And thirdly, it’s terrific that the band went to three guitarists with the return of Adrian to the band, and I’m sure all fans like me were looking forward to hearing some great things musically, such as three way harmony and melodic guitars sewn through all of the material, new and old. However, that wasn’t (and hasn’t) been the case. The only change that has happened is that on the songs prior to ‘Brave New World’, some of Adrian’s solos are played by Jannick to ensure he isn’t left out of the mix entirely. Apart from that, each guitarist plays their solo, and the other two hold the rhythm together. It’s a tad disappointing in that respect.

Still, aside from those observations, “Rock in Rio” is a most enjoyable live album. It’s no “Live After Death”, but as a moment in time, to mark the start of the next chapter of the Iron Maiden story, it is mor than worth your time in checking out.

1134. Iron Maiden / Senjutsu. 2021. 4/5

The rumours of a new Iron Maiden album had been around for over a year before the announcement of its pending release came to pass. That reliable source of information, the internet, did indeed quote one particular user who claimed that he had seen members of the band around the studio in France where they had recorded before back in 2019 and that he had been sure new material had been recorded. There had been silence from the band and management, indeed few questions seemed to asked at all, and considering the band was still in the middle of its Legacy of the Beast World Tour, it seemed a long shot at best that a new album had been finished. Then the covid pandemic hit, and all tours were cancelled – including Maiden’s which was also supposed to stop in Australia – and the music world stood still for almost 12 months.
Eventually, Maiden released a new song and music video on an unsuspecting world, “The Writing on the Wall”, and not long after indeed came clean. They had secretly recorded a new album at the time that was suspected by some, and the intention had been to release it after the Legacy of the Beast tour had finished, giving them a break between touring and writing and touring again. Covid had ruined those plans – and goodness knows exactly what they will now do with the tours they had previously announced now that there is a new album out as well – and so Senjutsu was released upon the world.

Iron Maiden is still one of those bands that engenders an anticipation prior to a new album being released. It is not always the case with bands who have been around forever and have released so many albums, but Maiden still does it. It is possible that in the current day it could be because you never really know when their next album will be their last, and the thirst for more material adds to that anticipation.
The album opens with the title track “Senjutsu”, and in many ways sets the tone for the whole album to come. Rather than having an up-tempo and faster paced opening song like so many of Iron Maiden’s albums produce, this is indeed the least of both of those descriptions of almost any Iron Maiden album. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t capture your attention, but it is a different entry into a Maiden album than of most of the discography. The eight minutes of Nicko’s remarkable tom beating throughout the length of the song is the star attraction of this song, allowing Bruce to emote in harmony over the top. It is unlike any Iron Maiden song before this, abandoning a real metal feel of the album and replacing it with the moody and atmospheric sound that still subtly draws you in and arouses your anticipation for what is to come. The first time I put the album on I was surprised and yet comforted by the way the song plays out. Bruce’s vocals also remain in a range that allows him to sing without forcing the issue.
“Stratego” gets about as fast a tempo as we find on the new album and while it is an enjoyable song there are moments when listening to it that you hope for something to jump out and really grab you.
The first single “The Writing on the Wall” is a much different style than Maiden have offered us before as well. The guitar riff to open the song has a country sound to it, which on the first few listens is a bit difficult to fathom, though some interviews with Bruce and Adrian suggest it has more of a Celtic twang about it rather than country. Take your pick, it certainly is drawing from areas not often travelled by Iron Maiden. Once the song is in full swing, and the three guitarists have brought their solo pieces into play the song becomes much more fully formed and less strange to the ear.
“Lost in a Lost World” is almost the stereotypical Steve Harris song now, one where the solo pieces are the saving grace... but I’ll get back to Harry’s writing again shortly.
“Days of Future Past” brings us back to the kind of songs Adrian and Bruce have always been good at, picking up the pace and vibe, a great rhythmic riff from Adrian and Bruce and his vocals motoring along and driving the song in a positive fashion, which is then fleshed out by powerful and anthemic guitar solos by all three men involved. At four minutes in length it is the shortest song here, but also the punchiest, in the tradition that this writing pair have done in the past. Without wanting to sound negative, there should have been more of this kind of song on the album. This is followed by the excellent “The Time Machine”, written by Jannick and Steve, and harks back to the style of songs they have written together over recent albums. While it isn’t as high voltage and brilliant as “The Talisman” from "The Final Frontier” album, it has similarities throughout. It just seems unusual to change and stop within the song like it does rather than just letting it run through naturally, as it would have been much better if it had.

“Darkest Hour”, which opens the second disc, is just far too close to the deplorable “Wasting Love” from the Fear of the Dark album. It has the same tone in the singing, the same sort of weeping guitars, and although the subject matter is different, it is another attempt by our fine song writers to institute a power ballad type song into the Iron Maiden agenda, and that just isn’t doing it for me in any way shape or form. At over seven minutes I think it is exacerbated and drags it out far too long as well.
Something that does remain the same from Maiden songs written by Steve Harris over the past twenty years or so is the way they start and end with the quiet and often acoustic guitars and lyrics. Now, this has been happening for a long time now, and has almost become a trademark of Steve’s songs. But, and I say this with the utmost respect and deference... is it at all necessary? Can these songs survive without those parts being introduced? Yes, all of Steve’s songs tell a story, and a part of those stories is told in those introductions and conclusions, but my problem is that Steve’s songs just become a bit too predictable, not only with the opening and closing, but the lengthy underlying guitar riffs in the middle of the songs where nothing much seems to happen in them. It is absolutely as though all of this is there just to get the songs lengths into double figures, which is very much the way of progressive rock bands especially in the 1970’s, but is that what Steve is trying to achieve? Is he, in the latter years of the band he formed and took to the pinnacle of music, now simply trying to regress to those years of the bands he grew up with and try to out-progress or out-prog them? That may seem like an over-simplification of what is happening here and also on recent Maiden albums, but I could line up a dozen songs from that time and make that argument.

And, is it just me, or is Bruce singing along with the guitar melody guide far more on this album than he ever has? What has often set Bruce and his singing apart has been his ability to find a way to sing the lyrics of a song by not just following the riff, but by having it move in a different pattern to it, which gives each song a much different sound and flavour. Ronnie James Dio was able to do this as well, whereas Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath often just sang the lyrics along the same guide as played by the guitars. Here on Senjutsu, I think Bruce does this a lot, certainly a lot more than he has in the past. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a change in thought processes.
All of this seems more noticeable in the final three songs of the album, all written solely by Steve and harbouring all of these things I have just spoken about.
Is “Death of the Celts” just an attempt to create another “The Clansman” which Maiden did on the Virtual XI album? If it is, they made a bit of an error of judgement. This lacks the energy and heartfelt vocals of that song, though having said that, the three part guitar solos in the back third of the song are just superb, the absolute highlight of the song in my opinion. This is followed by “The Parchment”, the longest song on the album, and one that reminds me so much of Deep Purple it isn’t funny. Bruce’s singing is very much like latter day Ian Gillan, while Jannick Gers’ guitaring is a dead ringer for Ritchie Blackmore in places, though Jannick has always had a bit of that about him. For me, “The Parchment” is a bit of a plodder, jutting along with the same drumbeat and rhythm line and not really changing its expression throughout. And finally the album is concluded with “Hell on Earth” where Bruce hits the heights once again through the middle of the song and the guitars again do their party trick of three different men offering three different solos that all bind together pleasingly well. What interests me about these three songs is that, with every person I have spoken to over recent weeks who are fans of Iron Maiden, and in all of the reviews I have read published about this album, everyone seems to have a different opinion on which of the three songs is the best and highlights everything great about Maiden, and which song is overblown and a bit weak. I don’t know of anyone who absolutely loves all three songs nor anyone who doesn’t enjoy any of those final three tracks. As you can probably guess from what I have said here, for me it is “The Parchment” that feels a bit average in the long run.

One of the things I have noticed with all of Maiden’s album from A Matter of Life and Death onwards is that I have enjoyed them immensely more on the second round of listening. By that, I mean I give the album its usual time span in my playlist, anything up to 3-4 months, and then the album goes back to the shelf and I move on to the next set of albums – and then sometime over the next 6 months I pull it out again, and find a greater and deeper understanding and enjoyment of it having given it a rest for awhile. I have done that without fail for the three albums that preceded this album, with an initial overall disappointment apart from a few songs replaced by a better complete enjoyment of each album as a whole when I rediscovered them the second time. My guess is that “Senjutsu” won’t be any different from those albums for me. All four of those albums are very similar in the way the songs are written and the way they are set out on the album. Many won’t agree with me, but that similarity is what makes getting into these albums a more time consuming concept than the electrifying albums of the 1980’s was.

On The Final Frontier the immediate standout songs were “The Final Frontier”, “El Dorado” and “The Talisman”. The rest I thought were fine until that second run through later on, at which point I began to love them all and the album as a whole. On The Book of Souls the immediate standout songs were “If Eternity Should Fail”, “Death or Glory” and “Empire of the Clouds”, before the second run through brought to me the glory of songs like “The Red and the Black” and “The Book of Souls” and “Tears of A Clown”, and the joy that album now brings. I have the same feeling about this album, and my guess is the same story will occur. For me, the immediate standouts here are “Senjutsu”, “Days of Future Past” and “The Writing on the Wall”. There are others competing for spots the more I listen to the album, but my guess is that they won’t come to fruition until I get to that second run sometime next year.

The band sounds terrific as always, which is the most gratifying part of the exercise. As I’ve mentioned, each of the guitarists plays their part superbly, especially in each solo break where their styles are individual but combine to create the perfect sequence. Steve’s bass is as always sublime, and Bruce has controlled his vocals superbly to match the nuance of every song in his own inimitable style. For me though the MVP of this album is Nicko McBrain, who at 69 years of age is still producing amazing performances both live and in the studio. I’ve already mentioned how his performance on the opening track makes that song what it is, and again throughout the album he is a dominating force.

In concluding my thoughts on this album, I will again utilise something I have said over the past few Iron Maiden albums, which I believe is still completely true.
If you are going to try and compare this album with the work that this band did through the 1980's then you are never going to accept the wonderful things on offer on Senjutsu. It is a false facade in doing so. Try comparing Black Sabbath's “13” to “Paranoid”. Try comparing Scorpions “Return to Forever” with “Love at First Sting”. Try comparing Judas Priest’s “Firepower” to “Painkiller”. Try comparing anything Metallica release in the next couple of years to anything from that same 1980's era. Any album not from a band's 'great era' will rarely stand up against them, and that is the way it should be, and always will be. These are different men from 35 years ago. They are older, and they have seen and experienced the world since then. For lack of a better word, the music on this album shows a maturity that comes with age and a comfortableness in their lives and with themselves as songwriters. For the most part, the ferociousness may not be as prevalent in their music anymore, but their style and formula is still there to hear. Perhaps you won't jump around and headbang as much to this album as you do some others, but I'm 35 years older too, and I can appreciate what the band has written and recorded here.
This is Iron Maiden. Rejoice in the past. Accept the present. It is more than worth it.

1132. Iron Maiden / Somewhere in Time. 1986. 5/5

Following the recruitment of Bruce Dickinson as the singer of the band, Iron Maiden had put together three albums that launched them from English pub band to worldwide sensation. The addition of Nicko McBrain on drums had only lifted this, and on the back of The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind and Powerslave, Maiden had then taken an 18 months trip around the world on the World Slavery Tour, conquering all corners of the globe and resulting in the amazing live album Live After Death.The band then agreed to take a long sabbatical in order to recharge and reload, and no doubt get to know their families and friends once again after such a long time away from home. Eventually, the time came for the band to put together their follow up to the Powerslave album and the tour it had spawned. No doubt they were under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task that faced them, trying to follow up the quality of albums that had preceded this.

Perhaps the biggest problem they faced was that Bruce Dickinson was facing a mini-crisis, or a slump. In both his own autobiography and in interviews about the album since, Bruce admitted that he had been completely burned out by the schedule the band had had over the recent years, and his ability to come up with material had been seriously compromised. The song ideas that he brought in for the new album had been based around acoustic instruments, as he felt at the time that the band had to make some changes to their sound if they were to remain relevant. The fact he came in with these radical ideas caught the band by surprise, and indeed Steve Harris was quoted in several interviews as saying they were ‘bollocks’. Steve admitted Bruce had suffered the most of their long touring schedule, but also rejected out of hand using any of the ideas Bruce had come in with. Bruce had even considered quitting at that point such was his reluctance to continue on.
Coming to the table as the saviour on the album was Adrian Smith. Adrian had often collaborated with Bruce and Steve on songs in the past, indeed some of Maiden’s best songs. With Bruce sidelined from the writing part, Adrian took on a much greater role, contributing three of the eight tracks on his own, and with Dave Murray helping out on one track as well, the album had its eight songs.
Though Bruce’s desire for change in the style of music the band produced was not carried forward, there was a significant change made by the band, as Dave and Adrian had been experimenting with guitar synthesisers during their down period, and for the first time on an Iron maiden album, they appeared heavily throughout the album that became Somewhere in Time.

It’s funny looking back on the kind of things some metal bands said they would ‘never do’ – Metallica would ‘never do a video for a single’, Iron Maiden would ‘never use keyboards’. Despite the fact they would do just that from their following album, the guitar synths here on Somewhere in Time added to the whole atmosphere of the album, and although the album was never meant to be a concept album, it is amazing how the songs seem to tie up to a slightly loose adaption of that. The opening track “Caught Somewhere in Time” does exactly that, and the mood set by the synths may well be different from barnstorming previous album openers like “Aces High” and “Where Eagles Dare” but it is no less effective in getting the album off on the right foot. Indeed, the opening of all of the tracks of the album is quite spectacular. The use of the synths mixes in perfectly with the guitars of both Adrian and Dave and gives these songs a unique sound in comparison to all the songs the bands had produced before this album, an even more melodic guitar sound than these two had achieved previously.
“Wasted Years” became the first single from the album, written by Adrian and becoming perhaps his best known and most recognisable Iron Maiden track. His intro riff to the song became the most played on guitar at our school during 1986 and 1987. Perhaps the best use of the guitar and guitar synth combination comes on his next song “Sea of Madness”, which switches easily between the two and also between the two moods of the song itself, in many ways giving the impression of the sea and the rolling swell such is the way the song also rises and falls in the same way. “Heaven Can Wait” is another of the best songs here, bursting with energy both musically and vocally with Bruce at the top of his form throughout, and with the crowd-inducing ‘whoa-oh-oh’ section in the middle that was perfect for when the song was played live and wanted to capture the crowd in the moment.

The second side opened with “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, another of Steve’s songs based on films. The opening of the song finds Iron Maiden at their melodic best, just a beautiful serene way to open the track before blasting into the energetic dash for the line. This is followed by the second single from the album, Adrian’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”, brilliant in its simplicity yet technically terrific drumming and guitaring. “Deja-Vu” is the shortest song on the album and one that is often the most derided of the track on this album. In much the same way the “Quest for Fire” from the “Piece of Mind” album is often overlooked in any discussion on Iron Maiden songs, “Deja-Vu” sits apart from the discussion of the album in most conversations or interviews about the subject. It is not a bad song at all, but comparatively against some of the more brilliant tracks it seems a little out of its class.
Perhaps the piece de resistance is the closing track, “Alexander the Great”. Following on in the tradition of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “To Tame a Land” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Alexander the Great” loses nothing in comparison to those three masterpieces. Like those songs it is the longest on the album and is not only the perfectly majestic way to conclude the album, it creates such an atmosphere that it is difficult not to just flip the album over and start all over again.

All albums are new to you at some stage of your life, but this was the first Iron Maiden studio album that I got to experience from the actual time of its release rather than catching up on them all a year or more afterwards. It was towards the end of Year 11 for me in 1986, and this album eclipsed those final few months of the school year. Everything was about this album, every single nuance of every single song, knowing every single word within the first couple of days, burned into my brain. It was a life defining moment, in that everything I did during those months are all brought back to me whenever I listen to this album, and that listening to this album triggers those memories. I used to take my portable cassette player with me to school, and we would listen to the album during recess and lunch every day. I took it with me when we walked to our school sport, and we would all sing along for the whole walk there and the whole walk back. On one particular day the conversation came around to which song would you leave off if taping the album to a C90 cassette in order to keep it on one side, and in trying to explain that if you left off “Sea of Madness” that would achieve that, it instead became about me hating “Sea of Madness” and believing that initially it was the worst song on the album, before expanding that to becoming the worst song Iron Maiden had written, to being the worst song ever written period. An injustice that continues to be repeated to the present day.

So it is safe to say that this album had an amazing impact on me. The changes in using synths seemed to not go down well with some people, fearing the mid-80’s influence that was being used in popular music at the time would infiltrate the band’s music further down the track. Like all bands, Maiden’s sound did change over the years since in accordance with what music trends were appearing, but they have never lost that quintessential Maiden attributes, and that is also true here. While some experts were less enamoured by the changes after the previous three amazing albums, for me and those of us in our generation, the awesomeness of Somewhere in Time is never in question. The anthemic lyrics of “Wasted Years”, “Heaven Can Wait” and “Stranger in a Strange Land” equal the emotional payoff of “Caught Somewhere in Time” and “Sea of Madness” and “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”. And when you have one of your best mates who gets stuck in an Ancient History exam, and to get out of it he simply expands on writing down the lyrics of “Alexander the Great”, and gets 3/10 for the essay, you know Iron Maiden are still being the most awesome band in the world.

Somewhere in Time is still a landmark in heavy metal music, because it showed that you could experiment with your sound without losing the essence of your music, and you could still produce a blockbuster album even without one of your main songwriters being able to contribute to it.