Produced by Martin Birch
Released: 1983
Tomorrow evening Iron Maiden will be playing their first Sydney concert since 1992 and I will be there somewhere screaming and pumping the air with my fist like 15,000 other people. So what better time than now than to examine the album that is arguably their best?
Lacking a title track and with its comparatively understated cover art, there was some initial concern that Iron Maiden's fourth album wouldn't catch on. Of course, the concern was unfounded, because where The Number of the Beast had opened the gates of the world to Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind blew them off their hinges. On this album, the band's creative talents truly flowered and the material benefited from the input of four songwriters for the first time. With the exception of one track, Piece of Mind is as flawless an album as Iron Maiden would ever make. It is here that the band not only finally developed its signature sound, but perfected it, and it could be argued that they never quite matched this ever again.
As usual, primary songwriter Steve Harris took as his inspiration an eclectic group of influences, from avant-garde French cinema, to the Charge of the Light Brigade, to the pulp war fiction of Alistair Maclean. Tempering this was some fine contributions from Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. Dickinson's majestic "Revelations" is almost spiritual, a glorious rebuttal of the accusations of devil-worshipping levelled against the band by America's lunatic fringe after the previous album. Murray's portrait of insanity "Still Life" has a haunting quality and is nicely slotted into the running order after the typical Harris gallop of "The Trooper". On "Die With Your Boots On", the boys sound like they're simply having a blast as they poke fun at wanton prophecy-makers and their faithful. "Flight of Icarus" is Maiden at their catchiest, with an awesome vocal display from Dickinson as he holds his note over half of Smith's climactic solo. The oft-overlooked "Sun and Steel" is also something of a gem, an uncharacteristically simple song with a massively catchy chorus.
The album's only real fault lies in the lyrical awkwardness in some of the songs, most particularly the infamous "Quest for Fire", the only bonafide filler track on Piece of Mind. Almost redeemed by some typically nifty guitar work from the incomparable Murray and Smith, it still fails because almost every line is nothing short of embarassing absurdity. Bruce Dickinson has conceded in interviews that he often took Steve Harris to task over some of his lyrics. I can't imagine the argument that must have taken place when he skimmed his eyes over babies like "They fought a vicious, angry battle" and "In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth", but I'm sure it must have been a doozy. The album's closing epic, "To Tame a Land" suffers from lyrical excruciation also, but considering the subject matter, Frank Herbert's overblown and almost incomprehensible sci-fi saga Dune, that is perhaps understandable. Despite this, "To Tame a Land" remains one of Maiden's best long songs, with Murray and Smith conjuring up some nice Middle Eastern-inspired motifs and Dickinson again shows the incredible power of his voice, even if the task of trying to fit words like "He is the Kwizach Hadarach/He is born of Caladan/And will take the Gom Jabbar" into a workable metre must have had him pulling out his (then) considerably long hair.
While Piece of Mind was to be eclipsed by the monumental Powerslave and the incredible two-year tour that accompanied it, it remains debatable as to whether Iron Maiden ever actually bettered this album. No matter if they did or not, Piece of Mind is easily one of the best heavy metal releases of all.
Released: 1983
Tomorrow evening Iron Maiden will be playing their first Sydney concert since 1992 and I will be there somewhere screaming and pumping the air with my fist like 15,000 other people. So what better time than now than to examine the album that is arguably their best?
Lacking a title track and with its comparatively understated cover art, there was some initial concern that Iron Maiden's fourth album wouldn't catch on. Of course, the concern was unfounded, because where The Number of the Beast had opened the gates of the world to Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind blew them off their hinges. On this album, the band's creative talents truly flowered and the material benefited from the input of four songwriters for the first time. With the exception of one track, Piece of Mind is as flawless an album as Iron Maiden would ever make. It is here that the band not only finally developed its signature sound, but perfected it, and it could be argued that they never quite matched this ever again.
As usual, primary songwriter Steve Harris took as his inspiration an eclectic group of influences, from avant-garde French cinema, to the Charge of the Light Brigade, to the pulp war fiction of Alistair Maclean. Tempering this was some fine contributions from Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. Dickinson's majestic "Revelations" is almost spiritual, a glorious rebuttal of the accusations of devil-worshipping levelled against the band by America's lunatic fringe after the previous album. Murray's portrait of insanity "Still Life" has a haunting quality and is nicely slotted into the running order after the typical Harris gallop of "The Trooper". On "Die With Your Boots On", the boys sound like they're simply having a blast as they poke fun at wanton prophecy-makers and their faithful. "Flight of Icarus" is Maiden at their catchiest, with an awesome vocal display from Dickinson as he holds his note over half of Smith's climactic solo. The oft-overlooked "Sun and Steel" is also something of a gem, an uncharacteristically simple song with a massively catchy chorus.
The album's only real fault lies in the lyrical awkwardness in some of the songs, most particularly the infamous "Quest for Fire", the only bonafide filler track on Piece of Mind. Almost redeemed by some typically nifty guitar work from the incomparable Murray and Smith, it still fails because almost every line is nothing short of embarassing absurdity. Bruce Dickinson has conceded in interviews that he often took Steve Harris to task over some of his lyrics. I can't imagine the argument that must have taken place when he skimmed his eyes over babies like "They fought a vicious, angry battle" and "In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth", but I'm sure it must have been a doozy. The album's closing epic, "To Tame a Land" suffers from lyrical excruciation also, but considering the subject matter, Frank Herbert's overblown and almost incomprehensible sci-fi saga Dune, that is perhaps understandable. Despite this, "To Tame a Land" remains one of Maiden's best long songs, with Murray and Smith conjuring up some nice Middle Eastern-inspired motifs and Dickinson again shows the incredible power of his voice, even if the task of trying to fit words like "He is the Kwizach Hadarach/He is born of Caladan/And will take the Gom Jabbar" into a workable metre must have had him pulling out his (then) considerably long hair.
While Piece of Mind was to be eclipsed by the monumental Powerslave and the incredible two-year tour that accompanied it, it remains debatable as to whether Iron Maiden ever actually bettered this album. No matter if they did or not, Piece of Mind is easily one of the best heavy metal releases of all.
- Where Eagles Dare
- Revelations
- Flight of Icarus
- Die With Your Boots On
- The Trooper
- Still Life
- Quest for Fire
- Sun And Steel
- To Tame a Land
Rating: 98%
Piece of Mind is an excellent album. I've been playing my tape of it repeatedly in the car over the past week!
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