When you lay your seven year old eyes on such an album cover, you know your life will have be forever changed. Spellbinding artwork aside, the music contained in this magnum opus is the pure work of gods, heavy metal at its finest, and when it acted as a gateway album into metal to my virgin ears it was just magical. Had this album never existed, it would have never been the same for me.
Dual guitars like you've never heard before, a bass that tears through the music like a hot blade, Nicko smashing drums into oblivion and newbie Bruce Dickinson pulling the vocal strings on this LP, yet the songs themselves really don't sound humanly possible. Outtathisworld. I remember hearing my 5th grade religion teacher telling me how he got hold of an Iron Maiden album in the 80s and saying that their evil music sounded inhuman, mechanical, impossible.
As "Invader" jumpstarts the album into lightspeed riffs and solos you get a taste of things a-coming, "Children Of The Damned" is just about the greatest heavy metal song ever written. "The Prisoner", "22 Acacia Avenue" and eponymous track are living proof of Maiden's evolution from the Di'Anno years. "Run To The Hills" is the single definition of a hook that stays in your brain years on end, while tunes "Gangland" and "Total Eclipse" bring the NWOBHM groove thrashing down.
And then there's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", an overture for all ends. How to finish on a high note. How to bring home the bacon. How to make your mark on the mind of millions upon millions of young music enthusiasts that want to explore new horizons. Make way not for the greatest metal album of all time, but for one of the biggest musical achievements in history.
It goes without saying that if this LP had not been, it would mean the non-existance of so many heavy metal bands that took the flag further and bowed before The Beast.
He's walking like a small child
But watch his eyes burn you away
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