Number Of The Beast, The [ECD] - Iron Maiden

...true. Honest. This is officially number two in my series of reviews of my most favouritest albums that I am writing at he moment. Although it is you, dear reader, who’ll have to let me know whether or not it is indeed number two. If you see what I mean? Sadly enough, it is also my second Iron Maiden review... old habits die hard, I guess.


SOME HEAVY METAL HISTORY
Number of the Beast, or "Nob" as it is ...
...album, but thanks to a number of coinciding factors it became much more than that and can truly be regarded as a classic.

The late seventies and early eighties saw the heyday of the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWoBHM). A new underground of youngsters, sick of the stadium rock nonsense of Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Styx and the like and inspired by the energy of punk, began creating a new scene. They had a distinctive, ... more

It’s a long one... The opinion, I mean!

In the beginning was the word and the word was ROCK. The gods of Metal gazed down upon this firmament and gave us great gifts. And man was grateful. Lo! he went forth and created cacophonous sounds with curious looking pointy tools. Yea! it was good.

But soon FOREIGNERs came and the gift was stolen. Man trembled in the darkness and feared that he would never be delivered from our suffering. Condemned eternally to endure melodic harmonies from idiots with home perms.

But the barren times, as they were later to be known, could only last a short while as the metal gods did smite these impostors, returning them to the perverse lands from whence they came. Preparing us for the second coming and the New Wave.

It’s all true. Honest. This is officially number two in my series of reviews of my most favouritest albums that I am writing at he moment. Although it is you, dear reader, who’ll have to let me know whether or not it is indeed number two. If you see what I mean? Sadly enough, it is also my second Iron Maiden review... old habits die hard, I guess.

SOME HEAVY METAL HISTORY
Number of the Beast, or "Nob" as it is affectionately known, was a massively influential album at the time of it’s release. It’s popularity propelled the fledgling East End metal band to world recognition and at the same time sealed their fates as Rock (ahem)legends. This album could easily have just been another regular early eighties metal album, but thanks to a number of coinciding factors it became much more than that and can truly be regarded as a classic.

The late seventies and early eighties saw the heyday of the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWoBHM). A new underground of youngsters, sick of the stadium rock nonsense of Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Styx and the like and inspired by the energy of punk, began creating a new scene. They had a distinctive, extremely basic, high energy rock sound and the movement soon took off, giving birth to a clutch of bands that would go on to enjoy a great deal of success.

Motorhead was the godfather of the movement and probably the catalyst for its creation, but soon bands including Saxon, Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Samson, Iron Maiden and another favourite combo of mine, Tank, were touring non-stop. By 1980 these and many more bands had converted grass roots success into the record deals they all craved. After three or four years of almost constant touring Maiden had honed themselves into a tight performing unit with a strong collection of material and two excellent albums for EMI were quickly produced, "Iron Maiden" and "Killers".

By 1982 many of the NWoBHM bands had petered out or were about to self-destruct and the heavy metal scene looked collectively to the few bands who remained to "take the next step" and set the standard for the next few years. Def Leppard leapt in one direction, getting their hair permed and sodding off to the US to record radio rock and for them the rest is lucrative history. For Maiden, it was also make or break time.

INFERNAL PROTEGE
A few months prior to the recording of Nob, long time frontman Paul Di’Anno, weary of the constant touring decided to call it quits and it was necessary to draft in a replacement. This came in the shape of Samson’s Bruce Dickinson, a singer with a radically different style - making a shift in the band’s sound inevitable. Thankfully, by now they also had the services of veteran Metal record producer Martin Birch at a time when somebody of his extensive experience would be essential.

A further ingredient was the material itself. They’d used all their best stuff on the first two albums and now the cupboards were bare, so to speak. It was time to knuckle down and write some more. Bass player and principal songwriter Steve Harris was a big fan of British twin guitar rock titans like Judas Priest, UFO and Nektar which may have gone a long way to forming his opinion that "two guitars are better than one". An opinion that was to significantly influence his songwriting.

The final product emerged from London’s Battery Studios in the first quarter of 1982 and hit number one in the UK album chart by the second week in April. Continued success was inevitable.

Everything you’d already have been expecting is in there. Crunching guitars, galloping bass, rock solid drum work and of course Bruce’s mock-operatic vocals, sounding for all the world like some infernal protégé of Ian Gillan and Arthur Brown. But there’s more to it than that. Here's why...

SIDE ONE
The opening track, "Invaders", practically climbs out of your speakers, picks you up by the collar and shakes the life out of you. You can sense the energy bristling from the band right from the word go. There’s an utter sense of purpose, absolute concentration - this is a hit and run operation with absolutely no possibility of failure.

Not only that, it’s tight and I mean really tight, tighter than the jeans we used to wear in 1982. These boys had gigged so hard for so long that each instrumentalist knew what the other was doing at any and every instant, and that gives the music an unbelievable focus that takes the energy already produced and squares it.

As quickly as it started, however, the bludgeoning ceases and we’re into the second track, "Children of the Damned". An idea based loosely around the film of the same name it starts quietly with some arpeggio guitar work that builds some sinister tension. Of course you know by the time the chorus hits it’s all going to be blown into oblivion and it is, by some towering, doom-laden Tony Iommi-style riffwork.

Right away, we see that more than lipservice is being paid to tonality and the use of contrast in songwriting. Rather than hammer away for 40 minutes they opted to use a full range of sounds and atmosphere throughout the entire album, a tribute to both songwriter and producer for taking this more sophisticated approach.

The album continues with "The Prisoner", based of course of the Sixties tv series of the same name, as we hear a recording of Patrick MacGoohan declaring that he’s not, in fact, a number. This is followed by a cracking drum intro that sets off at a good pace, pursued by huge sounding guitars. The song settles into some spicy riff-work, short choppy palm-muted chords reminiscent of Judas Priest, designed to give the feeling of The Prisoner as he is RUNNING AWAY. This is the first song where we really start to hear the two guitars working in tandem, and just to ram the point home, there’s a cracking dual solo.

If The Prisoner was reminiscent of Priest, then the intro riff for 22 Acacia Avenue is a full-blown tribute (think Green Manalishi, only tighter) solid, palm-muted stabs coming from all angles, as we hear the third instalment of the continuing story of Charlotte the Harlot. The blues break two thirds the way through is totally unexpected which is probably why it works so well, leading us through to the climax of the song with Bruce berating Charlotte for her errant lifestyle and some fine, fine basswork from Steve Harris as he duels it out with Adrian Smith on lead guitar. Judges decision - a tie.

SIDE TWO
And so we get to the title track, the one that started it all for young Paicey. Vincent Price reads from Revelations in his best Hammer Horror voice as Steve Harris allows us into one of his own private nightmares. Steve, apparently, has quite the overactive imagination and is reputed to wake-up screaming and drenched in a cold sweat on a regular basis thanks to some unpleasant nocturnal hallucinations, his mind obviously not the best place to be at bedtime.

So, the scene is set and the song tells the story like an HP Lovecraft tale, a reminiscence looking back over the shoulder, not right here, right now.

"What did I see, can I believe,
That what I saw that night was real and not just fantasy?"

Spooky.

The tale of Satanic misbehaviour unfolds and the music of course is suitably dramatic, with some good solid riff-work on a song that is closest on this album, I think, to the NWoBHM style.

This track, of course, is the one that led to such notoriety for the band after the album’s release. Screaming "666" and bandying about large chunks of biblical prophesy is a touchy subject area for some and the ensuing controversy inevitably led to a bout of book and record burning somewhere in the American Mid-West. But as they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and it probably added a good few percentage points to record sales for a number of years after the event.

So, in an effort to pacify our cousins across the pond, Maiden next weigh in with a lively critique of the historical treatment of Native Americans, in the shape of "Run to the Hills". Probably the one and only time Steve Harris ever dabbled anything that could be described as politics. Naturally, it starts off with the beating of the war drums and rolls into a fantastic, string-bending guitar intro. The song divides into two parts told from the points of view of the Indians and of the US cavalry. All the way through Harris’s bass guitar is galloping away invoking images of hot horseback pursuit.

By far and away the most commercial track, this was the first single released before the album both as promotion for the forthcoming attraction (metal fans had always preferred albums to singles) and to gauge public reaction. The single peaked at number seven, their first top ten record. It was quite obvious that great things were afoot.

"The shadows that hide you may also be your grave" is the opening line of "Gangland", the most curious track on Nob. The only one co-written by drummer Clive Burr and Guitarist Adrian Smith, it instrumentally brings out the best from these two, but as it boasts no involvement from Harris it comes from a different direction, so to speak. It’s dark and dangerous piece with an unconventional chord structure and possibly the most sophisticated percussion.

Ultimately, we come to "Hallowed Be Thy Name", track eight and probably every Maiden fan’s album highlight. If for no other reason than it’s the longest (it seemed important back then). This has long been regarded as a band classic and for me stands as a manifesto for what Maiden intended to do over the ensuing few years. It was within this track that they finally threw off the last vestiges of the NWoBHM sound that they helped forge and became the band that entirely dominated the genre for the next eight years. But that’s probably just me!

It’s here we can hear the drawn out twin guitar passages and modal harmonies that were to become their trademark sound. The song itself is titanic. We follow the thoughts of a condemned man as he waits for his fate on the gallows. Tracing his thoughts and emotions through melancholy to fear to anger and frustration. Finally he comes to terms with his fate and reconciles himself to meeting his maker. And some of it even rhymes!

"As I walk all my life drifts before me
And though the end is near, I’m not sorry
Catch my soul cos it’s willing to fly away

Mark my words, please believe my soul lives on
Don’t worry now that I have gone
I’ve gone beyond to see the truth

When you know that your time is close at hand
Maybe then you’ll begin to understand
Life down there is just a strange illusion."

Cue Dave and Adrian and more than three minutes of air guitar heaven.

SUMMARY EXECUTION
One of things that occurred to me while writing this review is how strong the album is lyrically. Few metal bands are known for their abilities in this area, and most are just plain laughable. But the words on Nob range from solid although well-constructed heavy metal nonsense right through to the odd snatch of genuine though provoking stuff. Always exciting and of course, in keeping with the music.

This album was recorded by a young band just about to head off into a new musical direction and were hungry for more success. You can sense this from the energy of the recording and the quality of the production and songwriting. It’s a mammoth piece of work.

Elsewhere, the cover art is of the usual high standard, with another Derek Riggs original artwork on the front cover showing Eddie the ‘ead in full control of the evil one. The inside sleeve, or booklet, depending on which generation of purchase you have made, has full lyrics and other assorted information. A well put together package. So get your hands off my nob! (A weak link, but the only way I could justify such a shameless title!)

THE DEVILS IN THE DETAIL
Side One: Invaders/Children of the Damned/The Prisoner/22 Acacia Avenue
Side Two: The Number of the Beast/Run to the Hills/Gangland/Hallowed Be Thy Name

Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast, EMI 1982
Produced and Engineered by Martin Birch

Vocal: Bruce Dickinson
Guitar: Dave Murray
Guitar: Adrian Smith
Bass: Steve Harris
Drums: Clive Burr

© Paiceyjohn’s Archive of Rock 2002
 

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