Another year, another line-up change for Iron Maiden. That’s
\nwhat people had to be thinking by the time their third effort,
\nThe Number Of The Beast<\/i>, came out in 1982. In this case, out
\nwas vocalist Paul Di’Anno, in was former Samson lead throat Bruce
\nDickinson.<\/p>\n
And, as this disc still proves today, in were the years of Iron
\nMaiden’s greatest successes. Dickinson proved to be a perfect match
\nfor the band, and this disc was the quintet’s most solid release to
\nthat point.<\/p>\n
These days, this disc is revered for such songs as “Run To The
\nHills” and “The Number Of The Beast,” easily two of Maiden’s
\ngreatest songs. But some of the real gems were the ones not getting
\nregular attention. “22 Acacia Avenue,” the only song in Maiden’s
\ncatalogue (to the best of my knowledge) that was a sequel to an
\nearlier song of theirs (in this case, “Charlotte The Harlot”) and
\n“The Prisoner” are songs which are burned into my memory, having
\nheard them on the only heavy metal radio program we had in Chicago
\nwhen I was a teenager.<\/p>\n
But these songs all do share a common bond – namely, they
\nillustrate how much Iron Maiden had grown in two short years, and
\nhow well the band was gelling together. With all respect meant
\ntowards Di’Anno and his contributions to the band, Dickinson seemed
\nto be the perfect frontman for the group, exuding energy and
\ncharisma that seemed to know no boundaries. His vocals also seemed
\nto be a shade more powerful, even if the ranges of both men’s
\nvocals was comparable. (Listen to Di’Anno on the early song “Women
\nIn Uniform” if you have any doubts.)<\/p>\n
There have been so many re-issues of this disc that you almost
\nneed a program to keep track. (I happen to be working from the 1998
\nre-issue on Raw Power.) Recent re-issues include the song “Total
\nEclipse,” originally supposed to be on the album but dropped at the
\nlast minute. Its inclusion is indeed welcome, and is further proof
\nof how well Iron Maiden was playing as a unit.<\/p>\n
Qualms? I have but one. Maybe it’s because I first was
\nexperienced to the funereal live version on
\nLive After Death<\/i>, but the introduction on “Children Of The
\nDamned” just feels like it’s being rushed. But, that’s a personal
\nquibble, and doesn’t take away from the overall power of the
\nsong.<\/p>\n
\nThe Number Of The Beast<\/i> didn’t stop Iron Maiden’s revolving
\npersonnel door; drummer Clive Burr makes his final appearance with
\nthe group on this disc. But this disc does launch the band into
\nrealms of success they could only have dreamed of up to this point
\n– and the engines were just about to kick into overdrive.<\/p>\n
There’s a reason this album has remained popular for over 20
\nyears. All it takes is one listen to understand why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5725],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38088","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iron-maiden","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38088"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}