Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.82 You Save: $4.16 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $8.57 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Iron Maiden
Free Music Review: Heavy metal gets a kick in the pants
Hit: 5 Stars
There were tons of metal bands coming out of England in the ealry 80s. A lot of people these days may only know a few of these bands nowadays, but Iron Maiden is one of the bands most people DO remember. And for good reason! These guys make some of the best damn metal music known to man. A lot of their later material was made in a more progressive metal fashion, but this first album is raw and untamed. Very punk like and mean. Hardly any progressive shades, this is just an all out metal attack.
Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton make a good team, the guitar solos here are amazing. Paul di'Anno may be known as "the guy who came before Bruce Dickenson" but he holds his own pretty well. I think his singing is pretty good. Prowler is a killer opener. I love that opening riff, very punkish and awesome. A nice catchy song with a very melodic solo. I told you the solos on here were good! Sanctuary is probably the most punkish song on here and Charlotte the Harlot is a very rockin' tune. I love the part where it slows down, and then we get some nice drum work and the song speeds back up again. Running Free is a very anthemic song that I love to sing to and I am sure others do too. Even the guitar riffs on here are catchy, how do they do this stuff? Iron Maiden is a nice little tune with a catchy opening riff, and a nice speedy pace (speedy for its time anyway). I love the way Paul sings it, he has such authority to his voice.
Transylvania is an awesome instrumental with some of the best f*cking guitar playing you will ever hear! Just check out those solos! Amazing. Remember Tomorrow has soft and heavy parts, and a rip-roaring solo. Paul sings very well on the slow parts, very calm and relaxed. I love when the song gets heavier from out of nowhere. Strange World is a ballad, and an awesome one at that! The guitar solo on there is simply beautiful, whoever thought a guitar could convey such emotion? Phantom of the Opera is a 7 minute centerpiece. It hints at the band's future progressive works. Those opening riffs are nothing short of powerful. Paul sings very fast on this one. I love that instrumental section in the middle of the song, I mean those riffs and solos are mesmerizing. Simply wonderful!
I had a LOT to say about the guitar playing, but trust me, just check this album out and you will know why. For a first album, this really is a job well done. Guitar players need to check this album out, they will love the riffs on here. But of course, you should have already had this for some time now....
Free Music Review: One of the best metal debuts? OF COURSE!
Hit: 5 Stars
Well I said in my review of 'Killers' that I'd review this when I wasn't so lazy, so here I am folks. I'm not quite sure what I can add to what has already been said but I'll give it one of my sad attempts at reviewing.
As you all know this album has the great underrated Paul Di'Anno on vocals here and that's what gives this (and Killers) that unique edge that the other Maiden albums don't have. I personally have grown to love this dude I tell ya! Sometimes I think he's better than Dickinson! Key word being SOMETIMES. In the end though no one can beat out Bruce's operatic energetic cries. Anyway that's an arguement for another day. But it's just a damn shame Paul didn't go on to other successes.
Let's get to the songs shall we? This album is packed with classics if you ask me. It has a couple soft ballad-esque songs in Remember Tomorrow and Strange World, the album's 'hit' Running Free which honestly I find to be a tad overrated, the friggin' awesome epic "Phantom of the Opera" and of course the anthemic concert classic, "Iron Maiden". Which reminds me, I think there's an official unwritten rule that whenever a band has a 'self titled' song it has to kick @$$. Other examples would be Deicide and Exodus. Oh wait a minute how could I forget the killer instrumental Transylvania!? Also one of the best on the album, although I like 'Genghis Khan' from Killers a bit better.
The other songs are great too. The opener Prowler begins the album to a great rockin' start, Sanctuary is probably my least favorite on the album but aint half bad, and then there's the somewhat humorous Charlotte the Harlot which is one of the only songs that Dave Murray completely wrote. Man, I hope that song doesn't have any truth in it because that would really suck for him! (It's about a man who eventually falls for a hooker)
Although we don't have the 'classic' lineup here, the album still owns. Actually the more I think about it the more I think Clive Burr was better than Nicko McBrain. Not having Adrian Smith doens't even really hurt them seeing as how Dennis Stratton pulled off some nice riffs here. It's too bad he didn't really do anything else. All of this helped to create Mainde's original rawer image that I do like actually. In the end I gotta say this is ESSENTIAL METAL people, you have to get it! Although if you're new to Maiden I suggest starting with NOTB, POM, or Powerslave then move on to the Di'Anno albums.
Free Music Review: One of the Top Ten Rock/Metal albums of all time.
Hit: 5 Stars
To some Iron Maiden are a joke, well because to them heavy metal itself is a joke (whereas other bands like for example Coldplay, U2 are the modern day Beatles) and there's not much point in trying to convince them how incredible something like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is.
But this album is a whole different thing, before Maiden evolved into a more "traditional" metal sound. This is before the time of Bruce Dickinson and Number of the beast, when Paul Di'anno with his shorter hair, more raw, slightly punk style vocals was the leader. There is simply no way you can dislike this album, no one sang with that much feeling and sincerity, no one more determined than Steve Harris (who wrote nearly all the songs here) to lead his band to true greatness. This comes from a time when Iron Maiden had SOUL, not something that metal music in general is associated with. The Maiden signature sound is present from day one, but the song writing and playing is of a higher standard, whether it's Harris bass lines, Clive Burr's (one of rock's most criminally overlooked drummers) grooves or Dave Murray's Hendrix influenced, unstructured soloing. When Paul Di'anno sang no one listening to it is left in any doubt that he felt how he sang. If you can't feel the being of Remember Tommorow and Strangeworld you have no soul. Dennis Stratton's opening solo on the latter track (atleast I think that's him) is out of this world and should rank as one of the best guitar solo's written for it's emotion if not complexity. Sad he was fired after the first Maiden album because his evolving music style was at odds with the bands.
Then there's the rockers Prowler, Running Free, Charlotte, Sanctuary. Any album with a string of songs like these could only be called classic. A band nowadays could build their career with just one of these songs. And ofcourse there's the first of their long epics, Phantom of the opera which despite it's subject is not a cheese fest like Webber's awful music. This is one of Maiden's definitive moments one that would influence scores of musicians worldwide in the decades since.
This is an incredibly powerful album, there has been no rock/metal album that has mattered as much as this since that time (all due respect to people like Nirvana, Radiohead, Metallica, but sorry you never stood a chance against Maiden circa 1979-88. Maiden's debut stands at the pinnacle of greatness, it's as essential listening as Led Zeppelin I & II.
Free Music Review: As Classic A Debut As One Will EVER Find
Hit: 5 Stars
Ahhh...a very familiar beginning to one of metal's most revered giants. Iron Maiden was, is and always will be absolutely legendary for many reasons and this album is a perfect reason why: because with the release of this lone, self-titled album, they were one of the select few bands who were to usher in the new era of rock music. They were the bridge. While Led Zepellin was ending due to the death of John Bonham, Black Sabbath was gonig through a roster change, Kiss was toying around with the sounds of disco and 70s rock was being shown the door, Iron Maiden came along with a sound that embraced both the sounds of the bands that influenced them such as Jethro Tull and Yes while adding the aggressiveness of punk and early heavy metal and the result was the phenom that is their self-titled debut. Blending a healthy mix of the sounds of Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath along with their own now-famous trademark style, Iron Maiden laid the foundation for an alter that would be worshipped at for years to come.Much like Iron Maiden's entire 1980's catalog recordings, there isn't a whole lot of music that would ring a bell with your average rock radio afficienado but any loyal Maiden fan, the gems are many and to this day, still round out Maiden's live tracklist. Songs like "Sanctuary" and the absolute masterpiece "Iron Maiden" (which I contend to be one of the best heavy metal songs ever written) are some of the more familiar content that are often found in Maiden's live set but other classics are to be found within as well. "Charlotte The Harlot", the pre-cursor to TNOTB track "22 Acacia Avenue", is one of my personal favorites along with the very melodic Floyd-esque "Remember Tomorrow". Other songs that have been hailed as metal mainstays amongst Maiden's minions would be "Phantom Of The Opera", "Running Free" and "Transylvania".
This album, for all intents and purposes, is the beginning of absolute greatness in music. While recent interviews with today's musicians finds the singer from Disturbed praising Iron Maiden as an influence and Kirk Hammett from Metallica (as if his opinion matters) claiming Iron Maiden to be no longer relevant, ask any Iron Maiden fan and it is near unanimous what the ultimate verdict will be. Iron Maiden are as legendary as Led Zepellin, Black Sabbath and The Beatles and this album was responsible for starting it all. Up the Irons, indeed.
Free Music Review: Maiden Voyage
Hit: 5 Stars
This one helped to open up the doors for what was to come.. And for a few years what was to come was awesome. I was torn between 4 and 5 stars, only because Killers and Powerslave are a little better, but how can you not give this 5 stars.
This is Maiden at their unrefined raw best. Again, you have to put this album into its proper perspective. In 1980-1981 there wasn't ANYTHING like this around. Yeah you had some Metal, but this was different.
Priest was releasing Point of Entry (Screaming for Vengeance was coming), the Scorps had just released Animal Magnetism (one of their best ever.. Blackout wasn't out yet). Def Leppard was releasing On through the Night and High and Dry (before totally selling out).. Sabbath was teaming up with Dio for 2 decent albums...
Then came Maiden... Maiden took the new look British Metal and added a Black Sabbath bass (just listen to Sanctuary) to it and bam.. There it was, metal at its best shoved right down your throat. You almost didn't know what to make of it, but you loved it.
Yeah Paul Di'anno wasn't as accomplished as Bruce Dickinson, and yeah Maiden would mature as song writers, but that was a couple years down the road.. In 1980-81 what we had was "Iron MAiden' and we loved it. From the moment you looked at the Album cover while listening to the first chords of Prowler, until the last song faded out, this was METAL, and it was great.
Yeah you wondered what they were thinking when they wrote Charlotte the Harlot, and in later years you would wonder why Dickinson continued to butcher 'Running Free' by adding that idiotic audience participation part, but when you listened to Prowler, Sanctuary, Transylvania and Strange World you just had to love it.
Maiden opened the doors for the brief onslaught that followed, unfortunately too many of the bands (Leppard, Scorps, Priest) decided that there was some money to be made in power ballads, opening up the door for the hair bands..
Is this the best Maiden Album, probably not, it falls right behind Killers and Powerslave, but before you go and 'follow the herd' and buy the overated 'Number of The Beast', do yourself a favor and BUY THIS ONE INSTEAD. You will then know where it all began.