Metal Impressions II: Iron Maiden's "Piece of Mind"

Metal Impressions II: Iron Maiden's “Piece of Mind”

Greetings rider fans, this is The Nightmare Rider here once again with my Metal impressions!

What can you say about Iron Maiden? No really, what can you say about them that hasn't already been said a million times over? They are probably one of the most recognized and well known metal bands of all time. Even most none metal fans know who they are! So why am I talking about them now?

As I said in the introduction to this series at the start of my first review, this series is about my emotional impressions of various metal albums. And Iron Maiden is probably my favorite bands for that very reason! They have such a wide range of material across their 30 year period together and convey so many lyrical themes that they always resonate with me and millions of Maiden fans all over the world! As such, it's likely that most people who are reading this review will already own all of the albums that I plan to review. But even for those that don't, I hope to offer my own personal perspective as to why I love this band and just why so many of their albums have gained this band the fame that they deserve.

Now I could start and go through all of their albums in chronological order like a complete retrospective...but I have a small confession to make. I haven't actually listened to the first two albums in full! Bruce Dickinson was the singer who drew me into the band and I HATE lineup changes, so for the longest time I ignored the first two albums and the Blaze Baily albums. Only now when looking up for the concert setlists that I heard the recorded content for their first two albums which introduced the world to the legends that are Iron Maiden!

But to get back on track, I am going to go in the order of the albums which I feel had the most impression on me as well as the order that I actually bought them in. So with that, I think the perfect place to start would be with the first album that I ever got by them; Piece of Mind.

Track 1: Where Eagles Dare

Right away we get introduced to the heavy and energetic riffs that Iron Maiden are famous for! Bruce Dickinson's air raid siren voice introduces us to the daring mission of the fight pilots, flying deep into enemy Territory to complete their mission despite the harsh weather closing in on them fast! As with all of Metal the guitar solo is the climax of the song, giving a vision in my head of the of the pilots using all their wits and skills to maneuver their planes through the near impossible conditions. Lyrics such as “They're closing in, the fortress near, it's standing high in the sky. The cable car's the only way in, it's nearly impossible to climb!” keep us on the edge of our seats and hammer home how difficult this mission is supposed to be. And yet it still keeps the riff steady while still being energetic, keeping up the tension as the song draws to a close with the lyrics “The Panicking cries, the roaring guns are echoing all around the valley. The mission complete, they make their escape away from the eagles nest”. The comparison to a bird of pray shows the real talent in the writing for this song, which gave me a fantastic introduction as to what their music to come would be like!

Track 2: Revelations

Once again the opening guitars grab my attention, as if we are flying down onto this fantasy landscape while Bruce does a fantastic job of putting a real sense of desperation into the opening hymn passage. After a couple of short guitar segments and pauses, the adventure begins as the pace picks up, grabbing my attention before slowing down to the more melodic main verse of the song. The lyrics to this song are incredibly poetic, with the lyrics of the song giving me almost a window into the minds of perhaps a man in dark age England, expressing his sorrow at how easy it is for those ignorant of sin to partake in activities that would almost certainly have them meet a brutal fate. Or at the very least, this is what comes to my mind. The whole song is a jumble of metaphors that, while playing off the pacing of the music very well, does get confusing as to what it's trying to convey if you think too hard like I do! But regardless of this flaw, this song changed my whole idea of what metal can be when I was 14 years old, which is something I hope for many other young fans who are just getting in to the world of metal.

Track 3: Flight of Icarus

A dramatic marching riff introduces us to a man of Greek mythology, determined to see his dream come true and fly on wings of wax and feathers! This album has a consistent quality of Bruce's voice giving power and drama to almost any song that he performs, while still blowing minds with guitar solos that would shape the sound of metal for decades to come. Most of you should know how the flight of Icarus story goes by now, but while it doesn't fallow the myth to the letter, you can easily forgive this as Bruce once again blows me away with his long held vocal notes on the word fly while another guitar solo leads us out into a metal scream and jam of instruments. This is Heavy Metal history right here folks!

Track 4: Die with your Boots On

This song is fast paced, heavy and gives me a brilliant vision of an army general who loves his job!Nobody knows when war will next time, or what impending disaster awaits us all. But as the chorus says “If you're gonna die, die with your boots on. If you're gonna try, well, just stick around. Gonna cry, just move along. If you're gonna die, you're gonna die!”. So if the end is near, may as well go down fighting and fight for what you believe in! Both solos both thunder through the song which no doubt blew minds in 1983, and blows minds still to this day.

Track 5: The Trooper

This is the song that become a legend and a fan favorite from this album. All about the charge of the light brigade, at 14 years old I had never heard such speed and intensity from any form of rock music before. The guitar riff has become totally iconic, portraying the utter chaos of the battle around but at same time taking us all along for the thrill ride. Bruce is just unmatched with his voice in giving such vivid imagery for this song, with famous lyrics like “The horse he sweats with fear we break to run, The mighty roar of the Russian guns. And as we race toward the human wall, The screams of pain as my comrades fall!”. It's hard to say very much about this song because there is so much that just speaks for it's self. Even when the soldier finally meets his end, the simple one word chorus seals the deal and makes this song an epic once and for all time!

Track 6: Still Life

This is one of my favorite songs on the album. After a short parody of the “Subliminal message” scare that went on during the early to mid 80s, we get this Erie guitar intro to a more soft singing Bruce, acting very puzzled at how nobody ells is seeing what he sees. The music quickly intensifies as this character slowly looses his mind as the voices get clearer, telling him exactly what they want him to do. Now, I'm a fan of horror fiction and this just spoke volumes to me. You feel like you are getting an exact window into the mind of this character and how can't help but look into the pool, separating himself from everyone ells who see him as simply going crazy. Finally, after the guitar solo, the madness reaches it's peak and the character in this song finally jumps into the pool, who I think is suggesting he is taking his wife down with him. After all, one line says “I've no doubt that you think I'm off my head. You don't say, but it's in your eyes instead”. Is he really insane? Or was there really some supernatural force beckoning him to the waters edge? This is left up to the listeners interpretation and makes it a unique change of pace for the album and one of the best.

Track 8: Quest for Fire

Holding back my natural urges to point out why Dinosaurs never lived with cave men, the steady riff of this song really gives the feeling of a primal quest for early man “To regain, the power of warmth and light”. The solo of this song isn't much to speak of compared to earlier songs, but it still adds to the trudging pace of this song. Not much more I can really say about this song other than it doesn't quite feel as epic as it may want to be.

Track 9: Sun and Steel

This is much more like it! Fallowing a similar rhythm style to Die with your Boots, it gives a fast paced tale of a young man who started down the path of the warrior early in his own life. Eventually he comes to meet his match, having battled through the elements for this glorious day. Much of what I can say about this song has already been said for “Die with your Boots on”. However this is a song more about personal glory than the larger deities of a soldier. So in that respect this song is a bit samey to the others, but it still has a splendid energy to it

Track 10: To Tame a Land

The final and longest track on the album, this a song where the softer opening actually does some good. Considering that the song is based on the “Dune” novels, I get a simple imagery of a desolate, barren landscape. This song, much like Sun and Steel before it, is certainly simpler in it's lyrics than something like Revelations. The first half of the song is almost entirely build up of this character, the man destined to be King of the land who will thwart evil to reclaim this right again. But after the 4 minute mark, the solo doesn't quite carry the weight of it's set up. Without any fallow up lyrics, it doesn't conclude any sort of story or suggest where he is going to go from here. At least with Revelations and Still Life it felt like the song had an end and not just trail off.

And so this concludes my review for Iron Maiden's “Piece of Mind” album. Final thoughts; This is a strange thing for me. It not only holds allot of nostalgia for being my first Iron Maiden album, and the overall emotional impact of many of the songs is a sense of involvement, amazement and excitement from a band that drew me in with how vivid their song writing is. But when I try to analyze it from a critical standpoint, it isn't really the best. Some of the songs feel samey to one another and a couple of others just don't quite pack enough of an emotional impact that songs before it do.

But for all my critical complaining I've done, should you buy this album? Most certainly YES! This was a more poetic album for Maiden who were still in their early years at this point. It defined Heavy Metal for years to come and gave us a song that even many none metal fans know and love, The Trooper! Considering it's age and it's fame, this is not a hard album to find. Here in the UK, most HMV media stores I know of have a 2 for £10 deal on Iron Maiden albums, so you could pick this up for essentially a fiver. But for those outside the UK, you should have no trouble finding it at any big media store or anywhere online, such as Amazon. If you want to own a piece of Metal history and own some of Maiden's greatest hits with a couple of under appreciated gems in there, then this is defiantly for you!

This has been a surprisingly difficult album to review once I try and sit down and analyze it. Hopefully, the next Iron Maiden album I review won't be such a pain. When we next meet for more Maiden, we will delve into my favorite album of all time, POWERSLAVE! Until next time, this is the Nightmare Rider, riding out!