If you doubt my taste, just listen to the opening track, "Where Eagles Dare" and let the free flow of pure badassery ooze over you like lukewarm honey my brothers and sisters.
Iron Maiden has been rocking their asses off for over 30 years now. Sick and serious instrumentals backed by the sweet, sweet pipes of Brucie Dickinson who joined the band in 1982 and cut The Number of the Beast after the original members went through several vocalists. The man really knows how to let it all hang out.
The bass is also nice and heavy on most Maiden albums, supplied by the "gallop style" of Steve Harris, one of the only original members who still plays to this day and who also supplied most of the band's lyrics and compositions throughout his tenure
Maiden came from a long line of British metal bands that were obviously influenced by Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Unlike their American counterparts, hair-metal bands like Poison and RATT, and glam rock bullshit that came later (I'm looking at you Warrant and Cinderella), Maiden was about great music. Part of Iron Maiden's sound comes from their five, and in recent years, six man line up.
Rivaled only by amazing work by Judas Priest and Motorhead at the time, Piece of Mind, along with Number of the Beast, Somewhere in Time,and Powerslave, I believe are Iron Maiden's most solid albums. Piece of Mind stands apart, especially because it just has that great Maiden sound, that perfect level of time when the band finally got their shit together and found all the necessary pieces to their particular puzzle. It's one of so many they made in the 80's. Need more examples? Click below and turn the volume up past the regular girlie levels you have it at.
Yeah, those outfits are gay as hell. But the song still rips.
1983 witnessed many debuts such as Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil (A personal guilty pleasure), Pyromania by Def Leppard (Cutesy, overproduced but still decent), and Metal Health (Garbage rock) by Quiet Riot. Even Ozzy's Bark at the Moon was a lukewarm cut compared to his Sabbath days and a point when Ozzy became a little too theatrical for my taste. These albums may be considered classics, but they just didn't cut the mustard and display the pure level of sound, composition and artistry of Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind. The only metal album of '83 that may come close is Holy Diver partly due to Dio's breadth of voice.
At any rate, Iron Maiden is the soul controller of early British metal, part of the triumvirate which also comprises Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Can these guys hold a candle to the founding fathers of thrash metal, (also called the American Big Four) which includes Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer? It's a tough call. The styles are completely different. The big four feature a heavier, speedier and more guttural sound that veers more toward the Black Sabbath side of things than Judas Priest, albeit with faster, chewier guitar.
I could talk about metal forever, so let's get to the Warhammer 40,000 part of this goddam post already...
Iron Maiden lept into my mind because I was painting this guy.
Head: Warriors of Chaos warshrine beast
Arms: Helbrute
Weapon: Kitbash of Dark Eldar Talos scythe and helbrute thunder hammer
Legs: IG/AM sentinel
Torso: Dark Elder Talos
Other odds and ends: The air scoop is from the ork flyer and the jetpack is obviously from the CSM forgefiend box. I used land speeder missile launcher bits for the air-intakes on the jetpack and various chaos tubes and tentacles where I could. The single jet engine on the back of the carapace is from one of those awful Dark Angel land speeders.
Nurgle chaos daemon prince #2. Coming to a tabletop near you.
Flip pin' my shizzle, indomiel and Eddie are gonna need to rumble in the pit of some godforsaken planet soon. That guy looks kickass.
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