The lyrics are a fun side note in light of what the band would later produce, with several of the songs discussing the pulling of birds, the driving of pick-up trucks, the doings of London prostitutes, or the showing off of private parts to unsuspecting girls while «crawling through the bushes»… From the very beginning, Iron Maiden would be a band that wrapped their excellent music in images that built a fantasy world.ĭave Murray, Steve Harris and Dennis Stratton, touring for the first Iron Maiden album in 1980.
The tradition of great Iron Maiden album packaging, and the effort to tell stories with album and single artworks, was already being established with the band’s first record in 1980.
The black vinyl is a faithful reproduction of the original packaging, and it looks great.
IRON MAIDEN DEBUT ALBUM FREE
The picture disc gatefold has a late 1980 live shot of the band, while the disc carries the Running Free and Sanctuary single artworks. The vinyl re-releases of this record, both the black 180g and the earlier picture disc, thankfully restore the original Derek Riggs painting to the album cover, Eddie the Head as seen at the top of this review, ditching the pointless 1998 remake that came with that year’s CD reissue. Read more about the creation of the Iron Maiden sound here! The rest of the material, and the band’s performance, is outstanding. In fact, only the subpar title track and the addition of Sanctuary to the 1998 version of the album tempers a great batch of songs that are unfortunately also let down by the poor production values. Mascot Eddie keeps a close watch in the background. The short-lived line-up that recorded the first Iron Maiden album, l-r: Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Paul Di’Anno, Clive Burr, Dennis Stratton. Thankfully, the most recent vinyl, digital and CD reissues revert to the original tracklisting, where Prowler gives way to the otherwordly Remember Tomorrow, the original quiet-beginning-erupting-into-metal-fury Maiden track. The remastered 1998 CD version of this album inserted the overrated Sanctuary right after the opener, previously only included on the American pressing of the album, and a track that never matched the best of Maiden’s early output. But the energy of the band still crackles in spite of the dry sound and unhelpful producer. The production by Will Malone (or rather without him, as the band tells the story of his arrogant magazine-reading and disinterested comments) does the record few favors, and has been much maligned by band chief Steve Harris. The timeless Prowler opens the first Iron Maiden long player in excellent style.
IRON MAIDEN DEBUT ALBUM SERIES
We took this opportunity to set up a series of reviews, and first up is the album that started it all! Iron Maiden’s album catalog has been reissued many times, most recently as 180g black vinyl and digital remasters, the latter of which also appear as CDs.
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