'Piece of Mind' is really the point where Iron Maiden actually
became Iron Maiden - the larger-than-life entity; the theatrical, epic, progressive, proficient, and intelligent metal powerhouse that (in my eyes, at least) stood unrivaled as the champions of the genre. Like
Jaq said, this album was a quantum leap from it's predecessor; they'd come a long way from the tenacious punk band they were on the first two - maybe three - releases. And I think
Perpetual Change was right on the money when he attributed this transformation to Bruce Dickinson's influence. It's doesn't take long for one to tell that Bruce is (and was) a well-read, smart, intelligent, charismatic, and... well,
cultured guy (not to mention, creative - but that goes
without saying). And it was his personality (his essence, if you will) that had obviously permeated Iron Maiden as a band, and made such an impact on their direction. This album was articulate (both musically and lyrically), it was smart, it was diverse, and it was adventurous. Overall, it was simply head-and-shoulders above
'The Number of the Beast'. It wasn't a perfect album, but it's probably one of Maiden's better albums, and was
most certainly their best album up until that point.
As far as highlights go,
"To Tame a Land" really was the centrepiece of the album, featuring all the elements that made the album so strong, but condensed into one 7-minute piece; every superlative I used in my previous paragraph can be applied to this single song as well. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that this song was only penned by one guy, but hey, it seems to be something that Harris is able to do consistently. And, along with
"When the Wild Wind Blows",
"Powerslave",
"For the Greater Good of God and
"Blood Brothers, it's one of his strongest, and is also the album's finest moment. But, while it is the best song on the album, it doesn't win that spot easily; it's
very closely followed by
"Revelations" and
"Still Life", which are both just marvelous. I really love the riff of
"Still Life", especially in the quiet intro, when it's at its most prominent.
"The Flight of Icarus" is simply epic, and finishes
very strongly. The scream at the end also rivals the iconic scream in the opening moments of
"The Number of the Beast" (the song
itself trumps
"TNotB" in every way possible, though).
"The Trooper" is also another great song, but probably doesn't deserve
all of the praise it gets.
"Where Eagles Dare" is another solid track, with memorable qualities and strong songwriting.
"Die With Your Boots" is almost as good, but falls short due to the poor direction that the chorus takes; it starts off promisingly, but it sounds to me like they didn't really know what they wanted to do with it. They obviously wanted to write a chorus with the words
"Die with your boots on if you're gonna die...", but didn't have any good ideas on what to write after that. So, we're left with a sub-par chorus. Oh well.
And while I
want to like every song on this album, there's unfortunately a couple on here which just aren't great.
"Sun and Steel" is pretty much the very definition of 'filler', and doesn't really excite me at all. Still, it's better than the majority of the material on
'The Number of the Beast'. And then there's
"Quest for Fire", and there's no point me saying anything about this track, because every criticism for it has already been said, and let's just say that I agree with them all.
Anyway, here's my personal ranking. No real surprises; it's quite a safe, standard list:
1.
"To Tame a Land"2.
"Still Life"3.
"Revelations"4.
"Flight of Icarus"5.
"The Trooper"6.
"Where Eagles Dare"7.
"Die With Your Boots On"8.
"Sun and Steel"9.
"Quest for Fire"Hmm, I was expecting more conversation about this one! Anyway, let's plug along.
I think everybody used up their best
'TNotB' talking points over in the other thread, to be honest.
Never underestimate a four minute Maiden song. Never.
Amen bro
Double amen! Best example:
"The Fallen Angel" (which is exactly 4 minutes, funnily enough). Like
"Flight of Icarus", it's one of the shortest songs on the album its featured, yet one of the most powerful and epic-sounding. Songs don't have to be long to have a grand quality.