The Rebirth of Iron Maiden?
WAN HAMIDI HAMID writes about his fascination with Iron Maiden, one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre.I LIKE punk rock. But when I was in college in the early 80s, not many people knew what punk and New Wave were all about. Most guys then were into heavy metal and hard rock. Scorpions, Rainbow, Dio, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were big, really big. So if you can’t beat them...
It was then that I discovered Iron Maiden. I don’t know why but I thought this band was different from the rest. With some nutty friends, I would shriek along to vocalist Bruce Dickinson’s scream on Run to the Hills and Hallowed be Thy Name. We played air guitars all night long.
After first discovering the Maiden from their third album The Number of the Beast which featured those two songs, I had no choice but to find the first two albums. Those were the days when we were listening to everything on cassettes. And the music pirates knew about supply and demand.
From the Maiden’s self-titled album and its follow-up Killers (released 1980 and 1981, respectively), I knew that this was a serious hard rock band. The singer then was Paul Di’anno, a flawed superstar who drank too much. He’s still around today with his own band and the old boys in Maiden continue to help him promote his music.
The Maiden’s early songs were really powerful. Remember Tomorrow, Running Free, Phantom of the Opera, Transylvania, Charlotte the Harlot and Iron Maiden were among the first melodic yet hard rocking songs. The band expanded further with The Ides of March, Wrathchild, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Killers, and Purgatory.
When the Beast appeared in 1982, it was with new vocalist Bruce whose operatic style of singing in a tough macho voice captured many boys’ hearts immediately. The next album Piece of Mind was further strengthened by his powerful vocals with songs such as Flight of Icarus and The Trooper. Bruce replaced Paul when the latter was too drunk to appear on stage. Ah, rock stars.
Further momentous songs such as 2 Minutes to Midnight and Aces High were featured on Powerslave when it was released in 1984, plus the more adventurous Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The band began to show off their chord changing style in the middle of songs. Not that I know anything about that but most songs sounded good with that progressive, power metal style.
By 1986, almost a decade of being together in a band that saw a few personnel changes, Iron Maiden hit it big with its most commercial tune so far — Wasted Years. From the album Somewhere in Time. But that album also began to show a tendency towards (what most critics described as) being more complicated in arrangement. For me, it was less rocking and more boring. The experimental 7th Son of a 7th Son, released in 1988, was a great album according to many fans but I didn’t find it too appealing.
The next 10 years, the Maiden released five more albums, the first two with Bruce until he left for a solo career. For the remaining three albums, the Maiden for whatever reasons, chose a mediocre vocalist to sing for them.
That was when I decided to forget about the Maiden. It was also time to leave college and find a job. After more than a year of being unemployed, I did manage to land into something I never thought of before — journalism.
That meant living and working in Kuala Lumpur, meeting new friends and colleagues, but my fascination with punk rock continued, even though by then it had begun to evolve into something else.
That was it for the Maiden and me until a couple of years ago when I accidentally clicked on a song sample on the Internet. That was when I heard the song The Wicker Man. I thought, hey is the Maiden still around? And wasn’t that Bruce Dickinson on vocals, again?
Yes, he had rejoined the band in 1999 and that song was from the album Brave New World released a year after his comeback. I happened to have some extra money so I got the album and the subsequent one Dance of Death which was released three years ago.
I also managed to get some DVDs of their old music and concert videos, including Rock In Rio that catalogued most of their best-known songs and the recent favourites from the last two albums. It was also a chance to recapture my missing Maiden years with a couple of their better songs such as Fear of the Dark and Sign of the Cross.
For me, this is the rebirth of Iron Maiden. They are even more melodic now. Even if you say their songs sound the same, yes, that would also be my reason for liking them. Unlike most recent bands that seem to love killing their own career by experimenting with their second album. Even before they had reached their “difficult” third album.
From Brave New World, I love Ghost of the Navigator, Blood Brothers, Out of the Silent Planet and the eight-minute-30-second epic The Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Plus the title track, of course.
Dance of Death actually offers more of the same but even better with No More Lies, Paschendale, Journeyman and the title track, also another eight-minute-plus song.
Most of Maiden’s 21st century classics were immortalised on its Death on the Road “live” album released last year. So far, I have yet to see the DVD version on sale here. Even the pirates seem to be sitting on it.
While I’m waiting for the DVD, the ever-productive band has come up with its latest offering. This time it’s a bit different from the last three albums. Not that it’s bad. It should appeal to fans who prefer the harder Maiden sound of albums like The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.
The Maiden — Bruce, bassist and main songwriter Steve Harris, guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, and drummer Nicko McBrain — have come up with A Matter of Life and Death. The first single of this album was a hard rocking number — The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg — which appealed instantly to all the global rockers. When the album was released, it was the Scandinavians and South Americans who put the album on the top of their music charts.
Now the band is releasing Different World as the second single from the album, a song that immediately reminds me of Wasted Years, a radio-friendly tune that could bring in more converts to one of the best heavy metal bands in the world.
Other strong tunes include Brighter than a Thousand Suns, The Pilgrim, The Longest Day and Out of the Shadows. Listening to The Legacy, an almost 10-minute song, with further complicated arrangements and an acoustic opening and ending, has strengthened my belief that they are still relevant. Well, no one is complaining about the Rolling Stones continuing to make music.
The Maiden has been around for almost 30 years. Next year, all the band members will be in their 50s. I don’t mind listening to a band whose members are older than I am. Oh, those ageing rockers...
With new bands such as Wolfmother and The Answer bringing back the good old days of hard rock, maybe it’s still cool to listen to the Maiden.
And I still like punk rock.