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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

Spooky.

"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.

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!

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

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.