Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden is one fo the few Intelligent groups of musicians, that isn't technically Prog. Number Of The Beast is their glory child, and the tracks that make up this album are like God's commandments upon Moses' stone tablets.

Are these nine songs the greatest songs ever crafted by Iron Maiden? No, because The Trooper and Flight Of Icarus didn't come out until the next album, and Fear Of The Dark (the song) wasn't until a decade later.

Even though I know this is considered Maiden's greatest album, it is not my favourite. However, it is a spectacular work of instrumentation, mixed with Martin Birch's brilliant production and then capped off with Bruce Dickinson's vocals. This is the bands third album. The second one produced by Birch and the first to feature Bruce Dickinson. God must have personally crafted that man's voice, because not even Freddy Mercury could sound so amazingly beautiful.

The shortest song on the album is Invaders (3:24), which also is the opening track. The longest song is Hallowed Be Thy Name (7:14), which closes the album. Everything else in between is three minutes and change, four minutes and change or six minutes and change.

Some songs like the title track are surprisingly short, since they feel epicly long (but in a good way). Meanwhile The Prisoner is six minutes and feels more like a solid four. Nothing is as it seems with this album. Nothing at all.

Also instead of doing this in the usual order they are presented, I'm go ingto start with my favourite song from the album, Run To The Hills.

The story of the British invading, killing and slaughtering Native Americans, because "The only good Indians are tame." I learned something from this song. Metal bands have brains. I also learned the difference between screaming and singing. That insane high note I scream, thus ripping out my vocal chords, can only be sung by Bruce. Oh yeah, what about that crazy gallop that only Maiden can do!? HELL YEAH!!!

Gangland follows that and is a good song, but a bit of a filler. Might even be a song that had been laying around since the Killers album, or at least that's how it feels. This is the only song that sounds longer than it is in a bad way.

Total Eclipse is a lot like Gangland. These two songs are skip songs if I'm listening to just the album. Musically both are sound, and lyrically pretty typical, but you know they were put in the seventh and eighth spots, because they filled up space between Run To The Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name and that is good enough to get them listened to.

Which brings me to the last song on the album. Hallowed Be Thy Name, is long, epic, and Iron Maiden's story of a man walking to his death at the gallows. So many bands have done this story, but very few have done it with such unique style and presence. It brings to mind Alice Cooper's Killer, which makes sense because of the showmanship of Dickinson's vocals and the surprisingly intricate muscianship.

This track registers as being 7:15 on my computer. I swear the computer, the liner notes and every other counter in the world is lying. Somehow Maiden managed to magically cram at least ten minutes of song in there, and it's all worth it.

Now, since I just covered the longest song I'll now jump to the shortest.

Invader is the lead on the Number Of The Beast. It starts the album of with blazing bass speed and slamming power chords. Let me very clear about Iron Maiden and their music. It matches exactly what they are singing about. Invader is about Vikings doing what Vikings do, and it sounds like it too. This is a band that understands classical composing. The concept that a song can and should tell you a story without there needing to be lyrics.

Children Of the Damned is a song I always loved, it's actually my second favourite song on the album. I'm not sure if it's about the original Village Of The Damned movie or the sequel that shares the same name as the song. The content is pretty much the same and it could easily match both. I can't remember if they cleared that up during the VH1 Classic Albums either. But I really like the original movie, as well as the 90's remake, and this song gives me the same feeling that those movies did.

The Prisoner was a surreal and exotic kind of show. This song is nothing less. It's amazing, rapid and has a chorus that is a fan favourite live. The part I love about this song so much is the fact that it actually seems to slow down going into the chorus. Who the hell does that? Iron Maiden that's who.

Some would say that a song like Charlotte The Harlot wouldn't need a sequel. In fact I've heard friends that like Maiden say that 22 Acacia Avenue proves them wrong. Not only is it good, and enjoyable, but it's about Charlotte now working in a house of ill repute, and then being rescued, after a life of S&M and various other forms of debauchery. Why? Because she's hurting her family with her actions, so they want to take her from her Hell. But we'll later learn that Hell isn't a bad place to be...

I'll now finish with the title track. Number Of The Beast is probably the most well known song from the band. This is the song that made Satanic Heavy Metal a real thing for many religious groups, just waiting to raise a whole lot of stupidity. This song is an arrangement of complex changes and textures, with a little Vincent Price for texture. Which once again has me thinking of another great showman, that also used Mr. Price's vocal majesty. I'm not talking about the King of Pop either, because he did it after Maiden.

The only band on this planet I respect more musically than Iron Maiden is Rush. I respect no vocalist more than Bruce Dickinson. They may not be my favourite band, and this is not my favourite record of their's, but Iron Maiden is the band to beat musically and vocally and this album is the album that defines the best of the best of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

9/10 - content

10/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias