Quote:
Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier
Yep Marillion are pretty sissy sounding!
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Uh, yeah... nothing as hard or butch as Toto, named after a little girl's little dog!
and just for that, Batlord...
In the eighties I was a metalhead. Oh you wouldn't believe it now would you, but I was. Had the long hair, the leather jacket with hand-stitched band logos (yes I learned to do embroidery: what of it? You want me to hit you with my rolling pin??), the whole bit. Another album that was featured in my "Albums that changed my life", Iron Maiden's "The number of the Beast" has come in for a lot of criticism, both from so-called hardened metallers and Maiden fans, but it's always going to be close to my heart as it was the first Maiden album I ever bought, and more, the first metal album. It started off a love of heavy metal that, while it didn't stretch to the extreme metal scale of the likes of His Batship (I prefer to be able to hear what's being sung) still encompassed bands from Motorhead to April Wine, Saxon to Twisted Sister, and Manowar to Sabbath. But this was where it all started for me.
The number of the Beast --- Iron Maiden --- 1982
For me, this album has it all. Kickass cover that would scare/scandalise the God squad, great songwriting, Brice Dickinson remaking the band in his image, killer twin axe attack and a closer to die for. It annoys me when people diss "NotB" because it "doesn't flow" or "has weak tracks". I just love it. From the opener "Invaders" through to the almost operatically dramatic "Hallowed be thy name" I really see no bad tracks. And then of course you have the big hit singles, the comeback as it were, "Run to the hills" and then the title track itself, with that intoned "Woe to you, O Earth and sea..." that now presages the track when they play live.
Showcasing themes as diverse as sci-fi author John Wyndham's work and organised crime, to life after death and history, Iron Maiden proved with this album that they were moving away from what were seen as typical metal tropes, singing less about girls and beer and more about gods and demons, less about who's the toughest and more about where we came from, and where we are going. Maiden became --- perhaps surprisingly given the somewhat punkish nature of their first two albums --- the thinking man's metal band. And it all happened with this album.
A true classic of its time, and I'll defend it to the death against anyone who says otherwise.
TRACKLISTING
1. Invaders
2. Children of the damned
3. The Prisoner
4. 22 Acacia Avenue
5. The number of the Beast
6. Run to the hills
7. Gangland
8. Hallowed be thy name