I is for Iron Maiden

Ahh yes, the headliners of the NWOBHM movement! With bands like Deep Purple, Priest and Sabbath leading the charge on heavy metal – the literal sound of going to school in a London suburb and hearing the heavy machinery of the factories – Maiden had a clear path to pave the way for this kind of metal music. I myself first heard the band sometime in the late 80s. (Run to the Hills was on every damned radio station.) I know for certain that in maybe 1990, when I started doing the Columbia House 12 CDs for a penny(!) thing, I owned a Maiden album on cassette but admittedly, when you have so many choices, you may not get to all of them. And there were others bands I was more into than them, such as Ozzy.

Luckily, I rediscovered them in about late 2015. And boy howdy, I was INTO them. I can’t say it didn’t have to do in large with with Bruce because I’m a sucker for a charismatic front man. He’s cute, energetic, and charming. His voice has such range and the way he can scream – whoo buddy. ::fans self::

No shame in my game; the look is just as important as the voice sometimes. But to defend the music, the depth of storytelling and the sheer skill in each of these musicians cannot be argued. It may not be your type of music but that cannot be denied: they hit the nail on the head for this time in music history.

Each album has its own sort of story and lore revolving around it and of course, I like some more than others but even the pre-Bruce albums have value. The post-Bruce albums, well, I choose to pretend those don’t exist. It’s not like Judas Priest where, when Rob exited and Ripper took over, the songs were still amazing. For Maiden. Virtual IX and The X Factour are nonexistent to me.

If I had to pick my favorite album, it would have to be Somewhere in Time, because it feels the most complete. Many may argue that they used a few too many synthesizers/keyboards but to me, they used them properly.

Though Piece of Mind and Powerslave were also amazing, I think Somewhere… just fully embodies when this band caught their true stride. Like, the pinnacle of song-writing for them. Every song on that album is amazing. But, if I had to pick my all-time favorite song, it would have to be this one:

It often makes the number one slot on “best Maiden songs” lists but I don’t care if my pick is the same as everyone else. This song is – pardon my language – FUCKING SICK! So dang good.

As mentioned in a previous post (G) I was album to see Maiden live in 2017 and OMG I was in metal heaven. I dragged my husband, who was less than impressed, but we did have a good time. Here we are with our friends Kyle and Kara, who we knew from college, and then the guy in the back works with Ash and that’s his wife, who I had not previously met. But we all had an amazing time in Tampa.

For that show, I made my first battle jacket. If you know anything about the metal scene it’s that fans tend to wear a jean jacket or vest and adorn it with patches and pins, sometimes chains, studs, and spikes. Well, I love a good art project so my first one was a classic heavy metal theme.

It was my first outing here so yes, there’s a lot of blank space and one crooked patch. But hey, we can always improve right? Before I saw Slipknot, I made another jacket with harder, newer bands, and I am currently working on a hair metal/80s themed one. In fact, I am just about to make the back patch, but I am nervous because I am using an old t-shirt to do so. I have fabric scissors, fusible non-woven interfacing that I will use for the back of the fabric to attach it to the jacket, and a variety of patches. I’m not done gathering those yet because some bands are harder to find than others. I ordered some from an ebay seller in Mexico and it took well over a month to get. Conversely, I got one from a Swedish band and it got here in record time. Score one for the Swedes!

But back to Maiden, they are still one of my favorite all-time bands and even if I am not high on them right this moment, if a song comes on, I listen!