Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time (1986)

Now it is time for some classic Heavy Metal. Iron Maiden are one of the most important, definitive metal bands on the market - having the solid, melodic stylings and intricate guitar work. They were one of the most important bands to rise from the NWOBHM movement. This is one of their classic albums, being the sixth they released and one of the only ones I own on CD, not cassette. Mine is the 1998 digitally remastered version, which includes full length videos, band biographies and a photo gallery, plus "much more" alledgedly. We'll check that out after we listen to it!

 The packaging has an 80s sci-fi feel to it - with Eddie as a cyborg, roaming a city, gun in hand. He's all sinew and metal. The font is that classic digital one that mimics an LCD screen. On the back of the booklet, the band parade across and you can see that the city seems changed from what it once was and something floats in the air - a satellite, perhaps? Whilst behind a pyramid crackles with lightning. The wee cartoon band are very cute. And the names of the places pertain to tracks on the album and other Iron Maiden songs/influences - including "Bradbury Towers", "Aces High Bar", "Herbert Ails", "Ancient Mariner Seafood Restaurant" (and the TARDIS!). Inside the booklet there are loads of pictures - of the band, of Eddie and the lyrics, each on a star spangled background with a band member posing beside them. They look so young!

Iron Maiden are awesome and immortal. Let our aural dissection begin!

The immense, slow chords open "Somewhere in Time" galloping into the traditional Maiden rhythms - catchy, solid.

The awesome strumming and early rifts of "Wasted Year" are unmistakable. A good, solid metal piece, with a soaring chorus and inspirational edge to the rhythms. This is despite the negative connotations to the lyrics - which are about the exhaustion of touring, homesickness and alienation. The anthemic chorus suggests that you should move on, see a way further to a brighter future.

The next track, "Sea of Madness" is a surging maelstrom of drama. The guitars chug along like the relentless waves, pounding the shores. The vocals are like an albatross riding the waves.

"... like the eagle and the dove, fly so high on wings above..."

"Heaven Can Wait" is another catchy piece with plentiful synthesizers and great melodies. Repetitive chorus, but decent message. It falls into a galloping, sing-a-long rhythm where you can just image Bruce strutting across the stage, coaxing the audience to join him in the chanting. Then another musical shift into a faster, slightly desperate pace before we fall back into the anthemic chorus.
This song is completely different from Gamma Ray's track with the same name, apart from the line:

"... Heaven can wait til another day..."

A solid, racing song "The Loneliness of a Long distance Runner" has the sort of beat that you could use to pace yourself - if you wanted to run both fast and long too. Pounding drums, galloping guitars. Soaring solos. This is a song of energy and endurance, with a touch of solitude.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" has a heavier, more ominous sound. It seems to be about a young man, alone and lost, who died in the snow and had his body preserved for the future to find. The guitar solo is melancholic, moody, evoking vistas of endless skies and glaciers - a land unrelenting in its isolation and inhospitably.

Achingly slow chords open the next track, haunting, before we are bowled down by a charge of drums and guitars. Have we been here before? Not quite, but this is still "De Ja Vu". Dickinson's voice has dropped to a snarl before rising into his more typical not-quite-screams. Short, fast.

Slower, building into an epic we have the saga of "Alexander the Great". With typical slow baseline, the echoing intro rhythms and the light strumming of guitars as they build and build in complexity. Surging in comes the heavier guitar, an increase in pace and bass.

Iron Maiden are one of the most accessible metal bands I've found, with their catchy, repetitive choruses and solid rhythms, they are destined for stadium immortality and noone who has seen them live can resist their charms. They are professionals, polished and have a sound that is distinctly their own. For this album I shall give a rating of 8/10.

Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark (1992)

After selecting randomly the Second Worst Maiden cd that I own (the worst being the one with Blaze Bayley) on the first time through the alphabet, I decided not to rely on chance this time and selected instead one of the first I owned. Since I was 14 when it was released, and had no disposible income, I borrowed this from a friend at school. Well, maybe not quite a friend, but a person that shared my taste in music. Also, it should be noted that when I was in school the internet did not exist and I grew up in a small country town where the one store that rented videos and occasionally sold music always looked at my requests with a raised brow. Incidentally, there was one music store over the hill and not-so-far away from where we lived that we frequented, and even some fifteen years later the proprieter still recognised me (the other store, Everymans, had a higher staff turnover). I guess you could say that my brother and I thrived on music. It was our soul food. To him, it still is, but to me it had lapsed, until this blog has revitalised it.

Anyhow, I since acquired my own, legitimate, copy. It is the 1998 enhanced version, and thus has the videos on it as well. I have also seen Maiden live in concert and that was an AMAZING experience. Better than Nightwish - but only because it was far more theatrical and a much larger venue.

The cover of this album depicts good ol' Eddie (new illustrator, however). Here he is either emerging from a tree or turning into a tree. It's pretty jolly creepy with his gnarled fingers and root-hair and bristly-branch-chin. The booklet is really thick, with lyrics and photographs.

The first two tracks on the album are probably the most commercial. It opens with "Be Quick or Be Dead", a furious rollercoaster ride of a song. The second, "From Here to Eternity" is funnier, and makes you wonder "who's Charlotte?"* It's entertaining, but not exactly deep and meaningful.

"Afraid to Shoot Strangers" is a somewhat mellow number, with melodic chords and a beautiful, haunting beginning.  The vocals dominate, with the music more to create and enhance the atmosphere of wondering. It is another song linked to the Gulf War - from the point of view of a soldier.

The drama continues in "Fear is the Key", one cannot help but feel a certain tension in the brisk chords and chug of the guitars. The lyrics are not exactly positive:

"I remember a time when we used and abused..."

 And Bruce's voice is slightly tortured, and discordancy in the music adds to the mood.

"Childhood's End" is another political song -  the lyrics indicate it is about the children affected by war - starvation,

"... no hope, no life, just pain and fear. No food, no love, just greed is here..."

Their sole power ballad "Wasting Love" is beautiful. I could actually play a few chords of this on the piano (Along with Testament's "Return to Serenity"). I believe it is more about wasting life than love.

A heavier number, "The Fugitive" follows an innocent, caught in the wrong place, wrong time, being hunted down like game. The lyrics are very evocative, and the music matches this. Spectral guitars for mist, faster pace for the running.

"Chains of Misery" has a decidedly sinister edge to it.

With its staccato beat, "The Apparition" is filled with lots of helpful little aphroisms, such as:

"...In a world of delusions, never turn your back on a friend..."

 It's probably one of the most quoteable songs, even if it feels a little contrived.

A bit heavier is "Judas be my Guide". Good bridge, and catchy chorus, but not overly outstanding or memorable.

A lighter-weight piece, "Weekend Warrior" is about the sort of person that becomes someone else on the weekend. I kinda imagine this as being about the sort of person that undertakes pseudo-battles in their freetime. Of course, is a weekend warrior a weakened warrior?

Final track, "Fear of the Dark" is a beautiful, haunting piece which will send genuine shivers down your spine. It is the only song from this album that they perform live (and it is WICKED).

This is probably the most emotive of Maiden's albums. It gets the energetic numbers out of the way in the first two tracks, and then concentrates on making the mood. It has a combination of really good songs - mostly the emotive ballads, and a few blander, rockier numbers. It did not receive particularly good reviews and was the last album with Bruce, but I feel the lower points are far outweighed by the high points.

Rating = 7/10.



* Until you remember "Charlotte the Harlot". There are four songs that make mention to this fictional prostitute - I'm not sure what the other two are - but I'm guessing one is "22 Acacia Avenue".

Iron Maiden - No Prayer For The Dying (1992)

Now to continue with Epic Metal Friday.

Following up Helloween with the masters of the Metal genre, the forerunners of the Power Metal scene... Iron Maiden.

And, once again, I've (randomly selected, in this case) one of their less-than-stellar CDs. Which is a bit of a shame - because I probably won't be doing the band justice this early on in my reviews. But never fear, I have plenty of Maiden albums, so we'll be sure to get something good out of it (I also, regretfully, have their album with Blaze Bayley).

It opens with the rockin' "Tail Gunner". Dickinson's voice is in fine form, although this album also seems to lack the passion of the earlier works of 'Maiden. It's a little repetitive and maybe a tiny bit too polished.

"Holy Smoke" is nicely catchy a wee bit controversial - and rather tongue-in-cheek. Is it about burning preachers? Why yes, it does appear to be. Hah, good stuff. Nicely catchy and a wee bit raucous.

The following "No Prayer for the Dying" is a nice song, with some slow moments, but oddly unmemorable. Some nice guitar rifts though.

"Public Enema Number One" is not just a good title, it's a solid metal song, with a nice smooth chorus. Ultimately, however, the lyrics are perhaps a bit too politically hard-hitting and complicated to make this an overwhelmingly memorable track.

A slow start to "Fates Warning" makes me wonder if we're in for a ballad - but no, the guitars and drums take over and we're thrown into the rock once more. Again, a decent song but nothing that really stands out amongst the others.

Some nicely twiddly guitaring leads us into "The Assassin", a slightly threatening track. The verses are unremakarble, but I quite like the chorus.

"Better watch out, better watch out... Cos I'm the Assassin..."

 Again, "Running Silent, Running Deep" has the strong choruses and elaborate guitar solos, but still fails to inspire that spark inside of me. And nor does "Hooks in You" (is it about bondage?). So far I can take or leave this album, and I can see why it does not rank amongst the "must hear Maiden albums". Admittedly, the punnihs lines in "Hooks in You" are quite funny:

"...Hooks in you, hooks in me, hooks in the ceiling, for that well hung feeling... No big deal, no big sin, strung up on love, I got the hooks screwed in..."

At least "Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter" is one I'm quite familiar with. It's catchy, albeit rather more-than-a-little vicious and somewhat misogynistic, but the repetitive nature of the chorus rather insists that it sticks in your head for some time afterwards.


We conclude with "Mother Russia". With its intricate and senstive opening bars, it has promise, but this falls down with two short verses, then a lengthy guitar etc solo, before we fade into what is the closest we get to a chorus and is actually pretty good, but disappointingly brief.

Ultimately, this is a decent metal album - it's got solid rifts, intricate lyrics, powerful vocals, but there is something about it that is sadly lacking. Maybe it's just that the lyrics are too intricate, the chrosuses not quite catchy enough. Very few of the songs of this album became Maiden classics - I think the only one I was particularly familar with was "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" and I wouldn't even say I particularly liked that one. Maybe if I listened to it multiple times I would grow more familair with the tracks, and perhaps more fond of it - but for now I shall rate it a rather disappointed 5/10.