When you get your first denim vest, The Number of the Beast should come with it. Iron Maiden stand tall as metal gods, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and other bands that defined the genre. Listen to any of Steve Harris’s bass lines. First of all, you can hear the bass in the mix, which seems untoward in most metal nowadays, but secondly, there is a complexity that fills out the melodies perfectly. Every member of Iron Maiden is front and present in every track (unless it’s an instrumental and then you’re getting nit picky) and that’s what heavy metal is supposed to be.
Invaders leads the album with a swift boot to the solar plexus, letting you get a feel for the gallop rhythms and fantastic guitar work yet to come. The song has a complexity that seems to step away from NWoBHM contemporaries, and the album drops you into the mix without an overly dramatic intro. Like I said earlier, the bass line has a complexity during the verses that fills the melody much more similarly to what you hear in bop era jazz. And as much as I love a big instrumental intro- The Hellion is guitarmony incarnate- it’s fun to see a band floor it right off the bat.
Children of the Damned has the brooding and ominous intro that is part & parcel of many metal ballads. You can hear similar work in later songs like Afraid to Shoot Strangers. Early verses are very minimal, opting for distortion free finger plucking on the guitars and building, in my mind, the sense that you’ve wandered into the wrong town in Nebraska. No offense to Nebraska. I think that’s where Children of the Corn takes place. The choruses drop into the same heavy riffs that are part & parcel of heavy metal and act as a fantastic bridge to the midpoint tempo change. If this song were a movie, this is the break between act two and three, when the horror movie really turns crazy.
I don’t know how many songs can be built on a television series and do it well. I don’t see Full House getting a heavy metal treatment anytime soon, though hearing like Corpsegrinder yell “Whatever happened to predictability” would be a special treat. And yet Iron Maiden’s “The Prisoner” builds on an exchange from early in the British drama and translates it into a song that sets the feeling of fleeing tormentors. Using quick snare hits and cymbal splashes to set a frantic runner’s pace to the song, you really feel like you’re on the run, killing to eat.
Starting a song with a bible reference is difficult. Especially since the title track for The Number of the Beast came out over 30 years ago and set the bar so high. The lead up to Bruce’s patented falsetto has a bit of an echo, like they’re in a big old creepy temple. Once the scream hits, the song jumps into gear. I’m sure it helps I’ve seen it live and the big fire pots that go off are just amazing as a transitional device as well. Bruce’s scream puts him shoulder to shoulder with the metal gods like Halford, and for him to bring such talent in his debut with Iron Maiden is awesome. Number of the Beast is one of those songs that transcends time. Secret chants were phrased! The guitar work in all of these tracks is fantastic, but I feel like Number of the Beast does a great job of highlighting every member’s immense skill, making it the ideal first track for a budding metalhead.
You don’t expect a band from such a widespread imperial power to write about the horrors of colonization. I mean, I guess you can, but I didn’t really peg heavy metal to be big in social justice when I started listening. Run to the Hills, identifying the struggle of Native Americans against invading British and colonial encroachment, plays the plight of Native Americans in the first half, then the perspective of colonists in the second. Since then they’ve made points against exploitation in action and in song, but it is still interesting to see how broad a well of source materialĂ‚Â they have. The intro drums and guitarmonies are fantastic, dropping into their gallop rhythm soon and, again, setting the feel of fight or flight that comes for those facing invading and exploiting hordes. The vocal harmonies in the chorus, coupled with the face melting solo, make for a song that’s solid all the way through.
Number of the Beast, as a whole, manages to set a wide range of feelings in 41 short minutes, showing off the band’s tremendous range as musicians. Delving from frenetic flight or flight emotion to the foreboding fear of execution to the nervousness of losing your v-card to a broad on 22 Acacia Avenue, they hit all the right notes with aplomb. Here’s another way to look at how awesome this album is. 37.5% of Number of the Beast is on most karaoke lists in the US. How many bands outside of like… uh… Katy Perry can make a similar claim?
Key Tracks: All of them (there are only 8)