OK, here we go with the second IRON MAIDEN album, Killers. Released in early 1981, the album opens up in fine form with the extremely catchy “Wrathchild” and from the start it’s pretty clear the band mean business. After the success of their first album the band now have Martin Birch (who’d stick with them all through the 1980s) producing the record, which means we’ve now got much more professional production qualities on the album. For the record though, I think the first album sounds great and has it’s own character, but this is definitely setting the band up for bigger things moving forward. It’s also quite obvious after “Murders in the Rue Morgue” kicks in that the band are looking to create more progressive and complex songs.
This is also the first to feature the talents of lead guitar player Adrian Smith, with Dennis Stratton exiting the group. I don’t know how much difference this really made to the sound of the band as at the time most (If not all) of the songs themselves would have been composed by Steve Harris. I do think the solos on the band have a more melodic edge but where ever the band was going, wasn’t affected too much by this. The album continues on in brilliant form with “Another Life”, which again it’s hard to fault anything Iron Maiden did at any point in the 1980s but I think this is the first chink in their armour. Personally, I feel this the first time Di’Anno’s voice didn’t seem to keep up with the direction the band was going in. I should say, like Di’Anno’s vocals and his style on this and the first album but let’s face it the dude was a punk rocker and with the band going in the more progressive direction they were moving in, there were some parts where Di’Anno struggled. “Genghis Khan” follows as another brilliant instrumental show-casing more brilliant lead guitar work. Lastly “Innocent Exile” closes off the first side and the band are in great form.
The second side of this continues on with the brilliant “Killers” and whilst the bigger and more enduring Maiden songs are on the first side of this album there’s no fillers on this and there’s a lot of variation in the songs with “Prodical Son” and “Purgatory” continuing to take the listener on a wonderful heavy metal journey. Lastly we close off with “Drifter”. If I had to choose between this and their first album I think I’d have to go for their debut album over this one, but that’s just me. I feel that the songs were a little more coherent on the first album where the band was stuck a little between heavy metal and prog rock on a few songs here.
From a career point of view this album cemented the band as a mainstay in the British music industry charting at number 12 in the UK and even making their first inroads in the lucrative American Charts! I know it’s not really the most relevant thing to say but I also feel this is where long time Iron Maiden artist Derek Riggs really came into his own, with the brilliant artwork on this levelling up immensely from the first album. Then again the imagery Iron Maiden created with their mascost Eddie (Who features in some form on every Maiden studio album) is an important part of the Iron Maiden Branding and Heavy Metal imagery in general.
For more great Heavy Metal reviews and articles be sure to keep checking back on Metalhed.com as often as you can!