So about two weeks ago, on a whim, I decided to finally dive into some Iron Maiden. Prior to then, my only exposure to them has been Dream Theater covering any of their songs, and of course, their album cover of
The Number Of The Beast.
After some research into the band's albums and history, I figured I'd give their first nine albums a spin, and in the last two weeks, I've probably listened to most of them at least twice (mostly their 3rd through 7th albums). Over the last decade, I've really shied away from heavier music, and even drifted away from listening to Dream Theater as often as I used to, so I was never really interested in checking out any of the classic metal bands from the 70s and 80s (though I've always enjoyed what I heard from bands like Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Deep Purple, who I own several albums of).
My first impressions are pretty positive. I've enjoyed what I've heard so far, and really enjoy the run of Beast-Seventh Son, which I assume is their godly/unequaled 5-album-run that a lot of classic bands seem to generate. They're a bit more proggy than I had thought, especially closing
Powerslave with the near 14-minute epic "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner". In fact, I found it very intriguing that a fair number of their songs from this period were 6 minutes or longer!
I haven't heard any of their albums past 1992's
Fear Of The Dark, though I did read that Bruce left for two albums, then came back with 2000's
Brave New World. I think one part of the reason I enjoy their 80s albums is the production. There's a sound and feel to them that feels very much of the age but I like it that way, similar to a way that Rush sounded in the 80s. It's a bit dated, but very characteristic and adds to the charm of the music.
It's still way too early for me to pick out any favorite albums or song, but as a fledgling Iron Maiden fan, I'm quite enjoying the journey so far. As I began to listen to these albums, though, I recalled I a LONG time ago (at least 10-12 years back), I had bought a used CD copy of
Live After Death from a pawn shop, thinking it would be a nice jumping off point to get into the Maiden (which never did happen for me at the time), so in addition to listening to their studio albums, I've also been listening to this live album as well. In fact, I was so invested in it that I took the time to integrate all of the bonus tracks from that album to create a 21-song "complete" version of the album, even re-ordering some of the songs to better reflect the setlists of the era. It's good live album, but the whole "SCREAM FOR ME LONG BEACH" from Bruce got a biiiiit annoying at first. I guess that's part of the charm, right?
Then I remembered the story of Steve Stone performing with Dream Theater live for his first and only performance and it got me laughing whenever I hear Bruce say it on the live album.
Anyways, that's where I'm at with my maiden voyage into discovering this band, which I am sure has been a long favorite for many folks here. Like most of you, Dream Theater was a gateway into many other bands, but for me, they got me into the proggy side of music rather than the metal side, so this is the first time since discovering Dream Theater that I am now also diving into one of their major heavy metal influences (because before, it was always Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, etc., and not Maiden or Metallica). I guess 20 years into my journey with progressive music, it was never too late to get into Iron Maiden.
-Marc.
Topic: The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls (Read 573530 times)
