Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327) (JP 1980) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327) (JP 1980) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
FLAC | Artwork | 24Bit 96kHz: 859 MB | 16Bit 44.1kHz: 312 MB
Cat#: Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327 | Country/Year: Japan 1980 (original japanese release)
Genre: NWOBHM, Hard Rock | Hoster: Hotfile/Filesonic

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Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327) (JP 1980) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327) (JP 1980) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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Iron Maiden, released on April 14, 1980, is the debut album by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released by EMI in the UK, reaching number 4 in the UK album charts, and a few months later in the U.S., originally on Harvest/Capitol Records and subsequently Sanctuary Records/Columbia Records. The US release also included the song "Sanctuary", only released in the UK as a single. In 1998, just like all other pre-X Factor albums, Iron Maiden was remastered with "Sanctuary" added in all territories.

Of all the songs on the album, "Phantom of the Opera," "Running Free," "Sanctuary" and "Iron Maiden" are the most frequently played in concert tours, with the latter being played at every show since the band's inception and signalling the arrival of Eddie, the band's mascot, on stage.

Four songs from the album: "Prowler", "Remember Tomorrow", "Running Free" and "Iron Maiden" were covered for the 2008 tribute album Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden released by Kerrang! magazine.

Every song on this album, except "Strange World", has since been recorded with Bruce Dickinson on vocals, either on live albums, on studio B-Sides, or both. "Strange World" and "Transylvania" were the only songs not played on the "Eddie Rips Up The World Tour", 2005.

Iron Maiden is one of two Iron Maiden albums listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (The Number of the Beast is the other). wikipedia

Review

by Steve Huey

There may be no better place to hear how both punk and prog rock informed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal than Iron Maiden's self-titled debut. Often overlooked and overshadowed by the glorious Bruce Dickinson years, it's easy to forget that Iron Maiden was itself a game-changer when it appeared on the scene in 1980. That year also saw important albums from Motörhead, Saxon, and Angel Witch, but Iron Maiden vaulted its creators to the head of the NWOBHM pack, reaching the U.K. Top Five and establishing them as an outfit with the talent to build on Judas Priest's late-'70s innovations. On the one hand, Maiden was clearly drawing from elements of punk rock – the raw D.I.Y. production, the revved-up velocities, and the vocals of rough-and-ready growler Paul Di'Anno, who looked and sounded not like a metal god, but rather a short-haired street tough. On the other hand, Maiden had all the creative ambition of a prog rock band. Compositionally, even their shortest and most straightforward songs featured abrupt changes in tempo and feel. Their musicianship was already light years beyond punk, with complicated instrumental passages between guitarists Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton and bassist Steve Harris. When Murray and Stratton harmonize their leads, they outdo even Priest's legendary tandem in terms of pure speed. The lyrics have similarly high-flying aspirations, spinning first-person stories and character sketches with a flair for the seedy and the grotesque. Add it all up, and Iron Maiden performs the neat trick of reconciling two genres seemingly antithetical to one another, using post-Priest heavy metal as the meeting ground. The seven-minute "Phantom of the Opera" is a landmark, the band's earliest progressive epic and still among its best; with its ambitious fusion of musical styles, its multi-sectioned construction, and the literary retelling of the lyrics, it seemed to encapsulate all the promise of both the band and the NWOBHM. Two of the simpler, punkier rockers, "Running Free" and "Sanctuary" (the latter left off the U.K. version but added to subsequent reissues), made the lower reaches of the British singles charts. The flasher tale "Prowler," one of the band's more enduring numbers, is in the same vein, but ups the instrumental complexity, while the title track still remains a concert staple. Elsewhere, the band offers the first of many instrumentals with "Transylvania," introduces the recurring title character of "Charlotte the Harlot," and reimagines Judas Priest's "Beyond the Realms of Death" with the "ballad" "Remember Tomorrow," which starts out soft but closes with a speed-freak guitar section. Perhaps the only hint of a misstep comes on the more restrained ballad "Strange World," the only song from this album that was never re-recorded in a live or alternate version by the Dickinson lineup. Nonetheless, the whole project explodes with energy and ideas, and while the band would certainly go on to refine much of what's here (including the cover painting of mascot Eddie), Iron Maiden would still rank as a landmark even if the Dickinson years had never happened.

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Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Toshiba EMI Ltd EMS-81327) (JP 1980) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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