Iron Maiden werent a key band for me as far as getting into music in general, but they were hugely important for me getting into metal. A friend of mine is somewhat slightly obsessed and so made it easy for me to learn about them and borrow his records and so on. Yeah, maybe their lyrics are sometimes poor and they definitely have some old school cheese to their music and their live performances but they wouldnt be the same band if you took any part of it out of the equation. I'm not one for stageshows, and I may go as far as to say that sometimes massive, expensive, flashy or over the top stageshows just seem to be there to distract from a poor band but Iron Maiden are an incredible live band and even though their stageshows can certainly be a prime example of what I mean by old school and cheesy they just add to the excitment of their live performances. Iron Maiden have some great records but in my opinion they are very much a band that shine on the live stage which is why I have no problem with the sheer amount of live albums they have released over the years. I think to really comprehend what they are about you need to listen to the studio album and then either listen to or see the same material performed live. Plus i've never experienced a crowd quite like a typical Maiden crowd.
My favourite albums would be the self titled and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
|