This is the thread where we talk about Iron Maiden!!

"Aces High" is the single greatest song to sing at the top lungs at 3am in your underwear...

"The Trooper" is their masterpiece though.

Also Brave New World is probably the best 'comeback' album by a metal band ever.

-- Roger Fascist (RogerFascis...) (webmail), November 11th, 2002 12:06 PM. (Roger Fascist)

lol

They are touring US again, and I am so fukcing there, .. i won't miss this for the fucking world

most rulest

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE!!! Oh, c'mon Bruce ... please do 1 or 2 songs for the headz...

As mentioned in the rolling metal thread, their five Western Canadian dates all sold out within a couple hours today...60,000 tickets. The Calgary pre-sale outsold the one for MSG. We've missed them a lot out here. Can't wait for June 8th!!!

"flight 666" is showing here tonight, i think it's sold out though ;_;

Dying to see that.

i got "the early years" a 2-dvd thing from netflix in the mail yesterday and watched 30 min of concert footage from a gig in late '80 or '81 (copyright) from a place called 'rainbow'? where they played iron maiden the song. it was paul di'anno, adrian smith and clive burr with dave murray and steve harris. they looked so much like fuckin spinal tap! my mouth was open when i wasn't head-banging. so awesome! can't wait to see the rest of this thing

Early Years is great! You are in for a treat and a half. But 'Beast Over Hammersmith' blows Rainbow away. Hearing/seeing Bruce with full pipes back then...glorious.

oh man i can't wait to get to my dvd player, dudes

Why did we never talk about this:

http://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/eddie-jessica-parker.jpg

From metalsucks back in 2008.

i'm shocked (shocked!) the final frontier is being ignored in year-end roundups. it's too bad, since "isle of avalon" is one of their great epics

It's really good but a combination of High On Fire and Cathedral has booted it out of my end of year list.

that cathedral album is GREAT and i cannot knock high on fire ever. seems like maiden somehow always gets the shaft though

Yes. YES. They're touring North America this summer...

http://www.ironmaiden.com/maiden-on-the-charge.html

V. sad news -- Clive Burr has passed on:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=f7aff587-1038-49c6-9d83-e27c0b007e53

So sad. Such a lovely-seeming guy, and man what a beast of a drummer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmswOIYWlg

ah fuck it, play this whole thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfU_zLWsh6I

ragh screw that link, it's way out of sync

this one's better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWF-B95qZj0

got home from a morning appointment and my daughter immediately runs up to me and says "I have something very sad to tell you. One of your drummers died"

:(

:(

yr daughter is the cutest

That guy could pull off drum fills like no other. I remain a big fan of Nicko's, but Clive really did bring a lot of personality to those early Maiden songs.

Yeah Nicko is terrific. I do think there was something special about Clive's drumming though (possibly sheer nostalgia for him talking but I'd like to think not) - I feel like he helped to set the speed and the punk feel of that first album and helped informed their early style through full-out metal transition with Dickinson and NOTB. I don't know if you could do that with just any drummer.

They did "Clansman" last year as well so it's become a bit of a staple I think.

FREEDOMMM

Revisiting Senjutsu in advance of their show in St. Paul in a couple days. It's even better than I remembered. At this point I hold post-2000 Maiden in just as much esteem as '80s Maiden. Their hook writing post-Bruce reunion is so consistently strong

It's been announced that Paul Di'Anno has passed:

https://hellorayo.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/iron-maiden-paul-dianno-dead/

:-( damn. i had some very hopeful dreams that the big 50th anniversary London show planned for next summer may include mini appearances by Paul and Blaze, shame that can't happen. those first 2 albums KILL!

Best Maiden singer by a long way! Not the greatest human being by all accounts but who cares, that first pair of albums is all the Maiden I ever need.

damn, rip to a real one. throwing on maiden japan IMMEDIATELY.

So sad. Playing 'Remember Tomorrow' and 'Charlotte the Harlot' on blast several times today.

RIP — the Dianno stuff still goes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9vPhim7mQE

Sad news. The only incarnation of Iron Maiden I ever saw was the Paul Di'Anno one. So great!

Oh Well, wherever, wherever you are,
Iron Maiden's gonna get you, no matter how far.
See the blood flow watching it shed up above my head.
Iron Maiden wants you for dead.

Killers was my first Maiden album. It still rules. RIP.

(Also, related by material, I've only just discovered *Beast Over Hammersmith*. Holy shit!)

This probably has less potential for controversy than my post above about the two Dickinson eras, but: I think the Di'Anno albums are still the best records they ever made. They were tough and grimy with him in a way they could never be with Bruce

i think that’s true for a lot of ppl who maybe find Bruce a little much idk

ppl say it semi regularly & it’s not like fighting words, its ultimately personal taste

but in retros D’ianno

ugh

but to be fair, in hindsight D’Ianno was never going to be the singer that takes them through 4 decades plus

like he’s working on a smaller canvas & that limits what the band can do too

it sounds cool, i agree, i love his voice and those 2 albums rule— but “better” comes with a hell of a lot of qualifiers imo

i think it’s unfair to make it a binary of better/worse

theyre completely different types of singers with different skillsets & they can totally exist side by side for our enjoyment :)

anyway

WRATHCHILD

Even though I grew up on a steady of diet of Powerslave, Live After Death, & Somewhere in Time, his gruff delivery & the band's primordial thudding on early stuff like "Running Free" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" kind of stillisIron Maiden to me, RIP Di'Anno, obv he wasn't as suited to material that came after him, where they really became a different sort of band, but those two records with him are peak NWOBHM greatness

definitely

RIP Paul.

He had a rough life, but what an impact he made on those two colossal records. That East End snarl of his, nothing like it.

really love the early maiden stuff, he gave it a real punk toughness, great singer

dude was just a real rocker

When I first became a Maiden fan there was nearly as much Di'Anno material available as there was Dickinson material, so me and my friends had a lot of fights about who was better. I eventually came to prefer Di'Anno, probably because I began to like punk rock too. RIP.

those two records really changed my life. I love Iron Maiden throughout the years but when I heard those, after I'd heard Number and Piece, a sense of metal's depth and range was clearer to me. and the fuckin hooks. Di'Anno had an ear for a chorus hook, one for the ages.

listening to the first record now, what a ripper 2 tuff

obv he's the gruff belter to bruce's operatic thing but i find his clean, melodic singing here to be very affecting and almost touchingly naive in a way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fkD-jzgMXE

i like what the guy contributed very much and love the era of maiden he emblemizes, but there's a lot of "the first and best maiden singer has died" today, and it comes from people who say they're all about metal and maiden now, but who very obviously looked down on maiden, metal and metalheads in the 80s.

and that is true, UMS, that at the time he and thus surely Harris were invested in projecting a hard man/ world weary POV, and the music makes it clear that it was transparently but touchingly not so.

xpost yeah otm i think there is a lot of truth to that

The first two Maiden albums are really good. But if they'd never changed vocalists, they would have never gotten bigger than, say, Motörhead. When you listen to Di'Anno's post-Maiden work, his limitations (vocal, creative) become very apparent very fast.

Yeah I only care for the first two records nowadays but clearly they made the right choice in binning him off and getting Brooce in. Also he was completely unreliable.

yeah that’s what i was half-saying upthread - there’s only so far you can go with that. It is sort of self-limiting

xpost

At least from where I was from, you had to be a pretty serious head to know those first two Maiden records in the 80s as they were imports for a long time.

i'd forgotten how much killers is just souped-up and speedier deep purple. i haven't heard it in a zillion years.

i never listened to iron maiden much. they were always "my brother's band". back when you laid claim to bands. he got maiden and motorhead and i got priest and black sabbath. he got aerosmith. i got rush.

Same deal in my house; I listened to Judas Priest, my younger brother listened to Iron Maiden.

This was a fun time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvHb7q5UXYI

Nicko retires! I heard Steve Harris's son-in-law will be the replacement.

https://www.ironmaiden.com/an-announcement-from-iron-maiden/

genuine shock when i saw that. A shame but unsurprising. Hopefully he pops up for a song or two at least at the big London 50th anniversary show next summer?

Nicko did have a stroke in early 2023. He recovered nicely and adapted quite well, he changed his mechanics to minimize arm movement. I saw Maiden in September 23 and October 24, and he held his own very well.

But time catches up to all of us. I remember Rod telling me years ago that Nicko's age was the one big concern when it came to planning, because they plan things years in advance. This seems like a lovely way for Nicko to end his 42 year run. He's a true gentleman, the kindest fellow, and will be missed.

(also it would not surprise me at all if Maiden indeed keep it in the family regarding a new drummer)

yeah he’s had a rough go of late, i am glad he’s going to be taking care of himself

and what a fucking legend
42 years! he still feels like the new guy lol

The farewell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39JgVCMpLc

And the final live song and goodbye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VxufJ8pqR0

Wonderful clips!

Simon Dawson from British Lion (Harry's side project) will be taking over as Maiden's touring drummer.

Now he just has to grow some extra arms or something.

Formerly of Dearly Beheaded!

No double kick drums allowed. Right foot only. No cheating.

I love how Janick Gers is no longer the newest bandmember, having served a 34 year run of hazing involving getting the other members' gear or whatever.