Here begins the greatest chapter in Heavy Metal history with IRON MAIDEN The Number of the Beast in the early part of 1982. After this, album after album from many bands would be released comprising most of the greatest Heavy Metal Ever written. With the *Cough* *Cough* departure of Paul Dianno Iron Maiden had to really hit it out of the park to replace DiAnno and hit it out of the park they did! The band had achieved a fair level of success with their second album having hit number 12 on the English charts and afforded them the chance to work with higher level producers and budgets. Recruited on vocals was Bruce Dickinson who sang in a reasonably well known band around the traps called Samson.
The First half of The Number of the Beast I don’t feel is that far removed from Killers. The production is better and new singer Dickinson, really stamps his mark on the band from the moment the vocals kick in. While it’s immediately obvious that Dickinson is a much better singer (I will conceed this can be a matter of taste as well) I’m going to call it and say I think the band used the less vocally flamboyant tracks on the first side of this album. I don’t know if it was used as a way to ease fans into Bruce’s style after the well loved DiAnno had been given the boot or if its just a co-incidence. Either way though, Invaders kicks the album off in style. The sound is much punchier than ever before and the whole band is soaring to new heights. Musically this is more dynamic than Killers as the entire band contributed in writing the album (Where as Harris pretty much wrote “Killers” by himself) and from the outset you know Maiden are in the best form they’ve ever been in in their career to date.
Next up “Children of the Damned” Definitely a standout track on what is a stand out album by this band. The musical complexity of this is beyond most of Maidens songs released before this but this was the reason they’d wanted Dickinson to take over, as the band felt Dianno wouldn’t have been able handle the songs vocally that were written for this album. The brilliance continues with “Prisoner” and “22 Accacia Avenue” closing off the first half of this record in fine style.
Despite the brilliance of the first side of this record, the second half of this is where it really goes next level with tracks “Number of the Beast” and “Run To the Hills” which besides being some of the catchiest Iron Maiden material to date went on to become staples in almost every Iron Maiden live set from that date till now. These are metal anthems for the ages. These two songs are the songs in which Dickinson really stamps his authority on the Maiden songs. He was hereby baptised the “Human Air Raid Siren” for the heights his voice could reach. Dickinson contintued to soar majestically over the now much more musically advanced sound of Iron Maiden with “Gangland” and “Children of the Damned”
Over all this is another album (Along with a few other Maiden albums) that can be judged as close to the perfect metal album. It is a landmark in Iron Maiden’s history and Metal History in general. All I can do is say if you’re one of the few metalhed’s that haven’t heard this give this a listen now!
The Album went on to be Maidens best selling album to date charting in both the US and UK and in many countries around Europe. Calling the album “The Number of the Beast” also set the band up for some great free publicity when the American Right Wing religious campaigned against the album and band when they toured the US, thereby thrusting them further into the limelight and straight into the record collections of rebellious teenagers the world over.
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