Piece of Mind

Early 80's, classic Maiden. What a treat, right? Well, not necessarily. It's a little bit of a mixed bag, really. Back when all these albums came out early in the scene, the music brought about an energy that didn't exist previously. What the fans experienced is they got a glimpse into the future. Some of the tracks haven't aged much, and still qualify as bangers if one could simply look past the somewhat antiquated production. Other tracks don't translate well in the spectrum of now fully developed metal genres and are likely to only feature on the nostalgic's playlist.

The album kicks off with a hard-hitter: 'Where Eagles Dare' symbolizes mischievous Iron Maiden. The young punk-influenced Maiden. That reckless abandon and free momentum. They open the ball with a flourish, and the production feels organically heavy. This is followed by the steadier and more predictable 'Revelations'; still a decently written, pleasant track. The issue is songs like this have been produced by the thousands, and there's little incentive in arguing even back then, these were particularly original. They fit the album, but in a relatively unremarkable way. 'Flight Of Icarus' puts the balls back on the table, and there's a good buildup from the verse to the pre-chorus and to the heroic chorus. It's one of these Maiden songs with a natural impetus to them, all the way to the solo, making for a very smooth listen. In fact this is as close as one might get to the prototypical heavy metal song from around 1983.

'Die With Your Boots On' (the ultimate badass track on here) and 'The Trooper' come up next and form, with the previous 'Flight of Icarus', a power trio on the record, with 'The Trooper' as certainly the more iconic with its high energy twin-lead intro theme and that famous opening line "You take my life but I'll take yours too!" as Dickinson's forceful voice rings in solo with all instruments on hold. There's a real throw-your-fist-in-the-air dynamic to these animated early heavy metal anthems. They're tracks you'd rock for a good run out. Also, there's a strong lyrical theme of warfare/adventure, which is quite interesting as it's a subject matter that's nearly completely disappeared in today's scene, but the Maiden boys were from an era closer to major world conflicts.

Most of the tracks past that point of 'The Trooper' go to a more prog rock approach - all with strong hooks. The tracks are riffier, feature acoustic sections, the occasional unexpected chord progression, and are more on the brighter side to the mid-album's simplicity and epic ardor. Of course Maiden have a tradition of leaving the longest track for the very end of the album. They did it on the previous with 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', and they do it here with the acclaimed 'To Tame A Land' and its 'Dune' theme. They like to have that one track with a slightly exotic or foreign flavor to it (the following 'Powerslave' and its title-track, to name just one), and there's a bit of a slight middle-eastern hint in the verse in this to depict the Arrakis scenery. There's a shift in style from the first three to this one and 'Powerslave', and this record could be seen as one of the hinges in the first real transition in Maiden's discography towards more focused and mature song-writing, moving definitively away from the punk element.

How can one top perfection? The Irons might be one of the few bands in the history of metal able to answer that question: By not doing it exactly the same. From 1980 to 1988, Iron Maiden managed to produce and release masterpiece after masterpiece after masterpiece, and while fans, non-fans and casual listeners might disagree in the order and ranking of said works, one thing that’s not for debate is whether those albums changed the metal world irrevocably once they hit the stores. They accomplished this unbelievable feat throughout the decade by amping up their musical ambition and complexity without sacrificing the soul and catchiness of their compositions with each release. They remained true to their style, but also challenged themselves with each new record. Even so, the Irons’ fourth LP, Piece of Mind, comprises my least preferred Bruce-fronted record from that golden streak… though I refuse to rank it lower than the awesome PIECE of classic heavy metal it clearly is, MIND you.

Although the preceding tour de force that was The Number of the Beast was used as the main blueprint for Dickinson’s second LP with the band, there was again a major lineup change that impacted the rhythmic backbone of the band and therefore modified their sound a notch. Iconic drummer Clive Burr was replaced by iconic drummer Nicko McBrain, who came to claim the band’s skins for good. No easy shoes to fill but, more than a re-filling of shoes, I’d rather say the Irons changed shoes altogether, even if their pace was kept clockwork steady. Nicko brought proggier rhythms and extravagant accents with his long, restless arms, even though some of the speed and dynamism of Burr’s style was somewhat lost. A curious fact for one of metal’s most famous and transcendental bands, is that both drummers refused to employ double bass drums, so that remained an unchanged signature feature of their sound. Nicko gelled quite well with Steve Harris and the rest of the band, and like they say, the rest is history.

So, like The Number of the Beast side A features a couple of six-minuters, only this time at the forefront of the record. “Where Eagles Dare” is slower but more epic opener that its 1982 counterpart “Invaders”, another of Maiden’s underrated and underperformed gems. The prophetic “Revelations” is an even longer and stronger number, with an emotionally-charged Dickinson manning the reins of this excellent multi-sectioned piece of proto-prog metal. The first time I listened that song live was… when Therion came to town in 2001, and they fucking nailed it. It would take me almost another full decade after that to finally listen to it live directly from its originators. Then “Flight of Icarus” crashes in, this LPs first single, the finest under-four-minute Maiden specimen found here. “Die with Your Boots On”, which lyrically remains dwelling in bad omens and ancient turmoil, closes a terrific side A that’s pretty much just as impressive as The Number’s equivalent.

Side B is where this record loses some of its traction, if only slightly. But of course, that happens after “The Trooper” tramples the listener’s senses to the ground with its soaring melodies and galloping rhythms. That’s Maiden 101 right there; a history lesson wrapped in iconic harmonized guitars, delightful trade-off soloing from Murray and Smith, and a regal, stampeding rhythmic charge. Just as the Redcoats conquered much of the world in the centuries past, this four-minute tune would provoke utmost reverence from metalheads across the globe, spanning continents and decades alike, and eventually becoming one of the most covered metal songs ever. You could make the case that it’s a very similar composition to Side A closer, both featuring similar guitar solos and melodic patterns, but as both tunes kick major ass, I just can’t complain.

“Still Life” serves as the non-existent title-track (an Iron Maiden oddity), if only because the phrase “will give me peace/piece of mind” is uttered just before the guitar solos. It’s actually more of a ghost story than the expected exploration of madness, after which the band lyrically embarrass themselves with the weakest composition in the record, “Quest for Fire”, in which misplaced dinosaurs and cavemen coexist with a catchy chorus but not much else. “Sun and Steel” is a short and sweet track, nothing too complex nor fancy, enjoyable, but has never managed to sneak past the “average Maiden” list. Finally, we arrive at the seven-minute closer, “Dun…”, I mean, “To Tame a Land” (I’ve been imagining it being used as soundtrack for the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’, set to be released this coming November), which is miles away from the utter perfection “Hallowed Be Thy Name” possesses, but serves as a cool, climatic closer to the album, nonetheless. The Arabic melodies add a touch of exoticism and character to yet another great, but not elite, Iron Maiden track.

The production values are great, with that classic ‘Birch’ organic sound that Maiden lost past the decade. The guitars pack a mild but well-suited buzz-saw distortion, but Steve’s bass and Nicko’s drums sound almost wood-like. Piece of Mind, now 40 years old, was another step towards a more ambitious Iron Maiden, in all senses of the word. The songs were marginally longer and more complex than the ones found in its direct predecessor, albeit just not as immediately impactful and catchy. Amidst the Irons 80s catalogue, I find this one to be only superior to their debut, but as far as 1983 metal releases go, this one remains a top 10 record for me, surpassed only by a couple of Californian metal debuts, a Danish one, an International-formed outfit’s debut fronted by the guy who popularized the horns, and only one other Brit release, another debut, that one being titled Court in the Act.

Only few bands are as big and well known as Iron Maiden. Since their release and through a lot of albums, Maiden built a sturdy legacy that perdures 'til today. Many people knows them, because the name is famous even for non metal listeners. Nowadays, they are more like a big brand, they sell albums despite of the quality (not great, not terrible) and their merch is sold in normal clothing stores like H&M. But, what if I told you that Iron Maiden stands among the gods because they actually deserve it? Many metal fans love to go hard and talk about how modern groups are so much better than them and should be equally recognised, but the truth is..., no, they don't. And the only reason to state that is that without Maiden, many of those bands wouldn't exist today.

In the 80s, Iron Maiden were part of a movement known as New Wave of British Heavy Metal, or NWOBHM, but when that genre started to vanish, they made changes, big ones. Listening to Killers and The Number of the Beast is like listening to completely different bands, and not only because they hired Bruce Dickinson to sing, replacing Paul DiAnno; their sound was absolutely modified, and their juvenile wrath transformed into a more mature and grown style, a new standard for metal itself. When The Number of the Beast came out, it was an absolute blast, something completely new for the time, 1982. Then, 1983 came, and they released Piece of Mind.

You can notice changes between this work and the previous one, of course, you can see an evolution in Maiden's sound and composition, being even more mature and complex. To get started, they replaced their drummer, Clive Burr, for Nicko McBrain. And let me tell you..., it makes a noticeable difference, since I believe Nicko McBrain stole the show in this record, but we'll get into that later. This album is slower than its predecesor, because the band chose to focus on a sober style and stick to it. Many of the songs are mid-paced tracks but filled with an unusual complex style for those guys.

The album starts with Where Eagles Dare, a six minute song with a catchy riff that goes on for the majority of it. What really stands out about this track is his amazingly difficult and complex drum work. I am not a drummer myself, but I have listened to many metal albums, and when I first heard Where Eagles Dare, I knew something was off about the drumming, but I couldn't say what: it felt so complete despite being a simple rhythm and tempo. So I went to YouTube and looked for a drum cover of the song, or at least an isolated track of the drums, and what I found..., was incredible. The complexity of McBrain's drumming amuses me, because not many metal drummers went south that way and stood out like he did in this song. He chose to use only one pedal and manage to sound like playing two. His speed in the single pedal is incredible because he uses jazz techniques that allow him to perform a unique style. This song alone can be called the most difficult Maiden song to perform on a drumset.

The rest of the album follows a fairly straight line in terms of music composition. Revelations also shows how Maiden wanted to improve their technical quality with a haunting melody that transforms into a faster track as it goes on and Flight of Icarus doesn't have any outstanding features other than Bruce Dickinson's vocal performance. Die with Your Boots On is a faster approach to the same formula, but The Trooper...

The Trooper has become Iron Maiden's signature song, their most famous track, and for a good reason, because it fucking slaps. The Trooper has an amazing and memorable riff that works along with the amazing bass performance by Steve Harris, with powerful lyrics that talk about the Battle of Balaclava, inspired by a poem written by Alfred Tennyson. The gallop riff resembles the horse infantry charging against the enemy. Iron Maiden is known for being inspired by history, whether they take poems, or stories, or even music. In To Tame a Land, they chose to put a part of the classic song Asturias, written by guitar maestro Isaac Albéniz, a quality detail, if you ask me.

The individual performance of the members of Maiden is great, but it still needed some polish. Powerslave, for example, feels like an amazing orchestra, every instrument is intrinsically connected and many songs are perfectly composed. Here, I feel they were or too safe or not enough ambitious. Tracks like Still Life or Quest for Fire are amazing songs, but look like filler in comparison to the other tracks. The album is quite inconsistent, if you ask me, but only because many songs are so memorable and great and the rest pale in comparison.

Piece of Mind is by far the most overlooked album in 80s Maiden discography. If you ask anyone for his favourite Maiden album, not many people will say "Piece of Mind", and that's okay. Overlooked doesn't mean underrated (thus, overrated and underrated are two words only used by those who think their opinion is something special), it means that is many times buried beneath the amazing material Maiden released in those years: Powerslave, The Number of the Beast, Seventh Son, Somewhere in Time... Piece of Mind is an amazing album, a transition to maturity and bigger goals for the most famous band in the world, and a step you shouldn't miss by any chance.

Piece of Mind seems to be the black sheep of the 80's Maiden albums. I say this because the first two albums have a huge following, TNOTB was their best-selling and still is their most popular record, Powerslave is probably the most beloved by fans, and of course Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son are hailed as masterpieces. With that in mind, Piece of Mind rarely gets talked about in comparison to the other 80's records, but I personally think it is one of the best. It used to be my favourite album of all time, and it's still top 10 of all time easily, because this entire thing just fucking rips, even Quest For Fire is incredible.

The songwriting has become slightly more ambitious compared to Number of The Beast, and it will continue to progress later down the line, but most of these songs are written eloquently and performed intricately. This was Nicko Mcbrain's first performance for Iron Maiden, and he plays his heart out. Whereas the previous record had a very melancholy overtone, Piece of Mind sounds a lot happier, of course with the exception of the iconic Revelations and the mighty To Tame A Land, which is my personal favourite from the album. Every solo is on point, Adrian and Dave may be at their best here, in terms of lead playing.

So many tracks on this record are anthemic, particularly Where Eagles Dare, and two songs that everyone knows, Flight of Icarus and The Trooper. Almost every riff on this album is triumphant and strong, but there are also more dynamic and varied parts, like the call-and-response vocals during the pre-chorus of Die With Your Boots On, and the aforementioned Revelations, which is almost entirely acoustic. Bruce's vocals are great, he hits some of his absolute high points throughout Piece of Mind.

There is also an addictive, somewhat passionate sound to the record, that isn't present in the rest of the Iron Maiden discography, it sounds like the band is completely enveloped in the music, and they capture the atmosphere of the songs perfectly, which may be why I hold this album in such a high regard. To exemplify what I mean, listen to the intro of the severely underappreciated Still Life. The lead guitars have a bluesy groove that the rest of the albums don't have, it makes the music sound warm and inspired.

The songs are catchy here, the chorus of Sun and Steel shows that, and despite what people say about the last few tracks on here being filler, I would argue that there is a lot of substance to be found in these tracks, although side B definitely does not have the same effect as side A, which is comprised of entirely unforgettable arena-friendly tracks. Don't get me wrong, I still love side B and may even take it over side A depending on what day it is.

The production is heavy and in your face. I've heard some people complain that the guitar tone is dry, but I think it sounds fine, and the lead guitars especially stand out. The drums of course sound excellent, and you can clearly hear Steve Harris' bass. Piece of Mind is absolutely essential for any heavy metal fan; it's accessible, it's consistent, and impactful. The excellent songwriting and almost unmatched performance make it one of the best albums ever made.

Not many hard rock and heavy metal bands in the eighties enjoyed the commercial success while not deviating an inch from what they wanted to do the way that Iron Maiden did. All of the albums they made in that decade are considered heavy metal classics, but the complexity was never away from their music. And while the band would become more adventurous with varying degrees of success later on, ‘Piece Of Mind’ was the first album on which Maiden really dove head-first into longer songs with more complex structures. It’s not their most consistent album, but one of my favorites nonetheless.

Every Iron Maiden album from the eighties has a perennial classic that is still frequently played live and in this case, that would be ‘The Trooper’. And rightfully so, because its characteristic harmonized guitar theme, goosebumps-inducing solo section and Bruce Dickinson’s stellar vocal performance make it an incredible track. The thing is that the deeper cuts on ‘Piece Of Mind’ are at least every bit as good, although the album does take a bit of a dip after ‘Still Life’. Alternating longer, quasi-progressive tracks with shorter, catchier tracks also extends the attention span here, even though the former are easily my favorites.

‘Where Eagles Dare’ is a serious rival to ‘Moonchild’ as my favorite opening track Iron Maiden ever did. New drummer Nicko McBrain is introduced by means of a fantastic drum roll, after which an amalgamation of – for the time – crushingly heavy riffs and what might just be Dickinson’s best recorded performance to date makes this a top 10 Iron Maiden song for me. Compositionally, I really like how the song doesn’t have any guitar solo, but opens up to have a completely different atmosphere during the section where normally the guitar solos would be. Steve Harris’ songwriting triumph.

Dickinson contributed his first solo composition on ‘Piece Of Mind’ and surprisingly for a song written by a lead singer, ‘Revelations’ is one of the most proggy songs on the album. The song features some great start-stop riffing and some well-placed tempo changes, as well as a handful of incredible melodies. ‘Flight Of Icarus’, which he co-wrote with guitarist Adrian Smith, is a more accessible track and though I think the chorus is repeated a bit too often, the song is an excellent exercise in dynamics with a fantastic finale. ‘Still Life’ was always one of the hidden gems in Maiden’s discography to me. Its atmospheric nature may not be for everyone, but it’s still an excellent, multi-faceted Iron Maiden track.

As stated before, ‘Piece Of Mind’ is not perfect. ‘Quest For Fire’ and ‘Sun And Steel’ reek of filler, though the latter has its moments, and ‘To Tame A Land’ spots a few really cool bass riffs, especially in how the bass carries many of the melodies, but falls short of Maiden’s other closing epics. Harris really crammed too many words into too little room. Overall though, ‘Piece Of Mind’ is an incredible piece of eighties heavy metal with a perfect production. The guitars have just the right amount of crunch and the drums sound far more natural than on many modern metal records.

Recommended tracks: ‘Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Revelations’, ‘The Trooper’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Believe it or not, I’ve gotten a fair amount of slack for selecting Piece Of Mind as my favorite Iron Maiden disc, despite it being the one that established that classic lineup and whatnot. It’s also pretty famous for being the first album to truly reflect the band as a whole, doing away with any scraps of the foundation that was built by the band three years prior. Nah, they hadn’t fallen into the pool of epic supergiants, nor was anything overly progressive yet. But everything else hit advanced levels that Iron Maiden had never truly replicated in a way that still felt fresh. The lyrical themes that the band would continue on with for basically the entire run was greatly amplified here as well.

But much like “Phantom Of The Opera” on the debut, “Revelations” smokes the living hell out of anything the band has written. Think about it; this captures the entire dynamic that made Bruce and co. so great in the first place. The guitar leads and soft rhythms in the bridge-breaks are some of the smoothest and soothing melodies ever written by anybody. The erupting heavier chugs that cake on Steve Harris’s bass backing fold into the mix flawlessly, creating enough of a body before any vocals are even added. Now bring on Bruce’s exceptional lyrics and poetic flow with clean clarity in delivery, and you’ve got a God-tier track. But even after that, the slow build to the solo and heavy riffing that has an unmatchable sound gives even more character to this.

Hey, that’s just one fucking song! While nothing else may match that, the rest of this cuts it apart and does something in common with it somewhere. Let’s look at some of the ones that critics like to nail hard. “Sun And Steel” or “Quest For Fire,” for example. Compared to the bulk, these are rather simplistic and maybe even silly. But the melody is strong, the rhythms are beefy, and they really fulfil most of what a classic metal song should need. The former uses gang harmony to its advantage for extra oomph. I compare these to the likes of “Future World” by Helloween (which is funny, because nobody seems to slam that song).

To the same point and a different end of it, “Flight Of Icarus” hardly had a different approach, and that one’s an obvious giant. So take this aspect of the album as you will. If nothing else, it adds variance. Not every song is going to be an anthem (which, if you’ve ever written music, should be obvious). Returning to tunes with a harder grip on technicality are other classics, and the band was smart to open with “Where Eagles Dare.” This song loads on so much energy not only with the sound effects and drawn-out riffing, but Nicko’s drumming. Opening on that little pummel may have been ballsy, proving the man to be worthy. Similarly, “Die With Your Boots On” extracts the guitar structures and throws it on the forefront, containing banger solo after banger solo and endless riffs.

You may have noticed that Piece Of Mind feels front-loaded, since all of the technical advancements reside (mostly) on the A-side. It’s as if after “The Trooper” they decided to dial back some of the complexity. But to me, that makes for a more digestible progression. “Still Life” following it allows the harmony to ease its way in before hitting the outlier track that is “Quest For Fire.” The chorus there is a rather powerful one, and the drum-backing on the verses add so much life. What also tends to get overlooked is “To Tame A Land,” the closer that actually returns to earlier form. The opening sequence of those dialed-back lead passages grow into a hefty bulk, and then slowly back down to close things out.

I totally get why people would pick other Iron Maiden albums over this one. They’ve achieved so much in such a massive period of time, but I think this was where all of the greatest aspects of said career came together on one disc. The second half of this gets unfairly overlooked. There may not be any “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner”’s on here, but equally as good ideas are dispersed all across the board.

Since writing my reviews for Iron Maiden, I have now listened to them go up and down like a roller coaster. On "Iron Maiden", the instrumentals were phenomenal, but the lyrics were dated. On "Killers" there was a lot of filler, but the repetitiveness of the lyrics improved. On "The Number of the Beast", Maiden improved on everything and put out probably the best heavy metal album of all time. On "Piece of Mind", they put out "The Trooper". When looking back to this album, "The Trooper" will probably be the only song I truly remember.

Now, I knew Maiden was not going to top "The Number of the Beast". That album is damn near perfect in my eyes. My past with "Piece of Mind" is basically the song, "The Trooper". It's been played to death, I know the lyrics, but that's pretty much it for the album really. I have listened to it in its entirety before, but nothing ever stuck out to me. I was hoping revisiting this album would change that. In my review for "Iron Maiden" I said I preferred this album to that one. I unfortunately can't agree with that any longer.

This album was sort of a chore to listen to. It started off well enough with one of the better songs on the album, "Where Eagles Dare". Bruce sounds fantastic on it and the chorus was super catchy. It's a solid first listen to the album, but then things quickly turn south. "Revelations", "Flight of Icarus" and "Die With Your Boots On" all lowered my enjoyment song by song. They aren't bad songs by any means, but they really made me look at the time seeing how long until the end. The problem is that there is so much filler in these tunes. This filler is what Maiden improved with on "The Number of the Beast", but returns on this album. The second song on this album, "Revelations" is close to seven minutes long and I have to tell you, it's no "Hallowed Be Thy Name". Those longer Maiden tracks are interesting because they tell a cohesive story. It's the Maiden I love, but this? Maybe I just don't "get" it, but what the hell are they talking about in this song? Honestly, I have said this in every Maiden review, but the only thing to look forward to in these songs is the musicianship itself. Every song on every album is just performed wonderfully. I absolutely have no issues with anything maiden has written music wise.

Alright, maybe the B side will be better. Immediately, "The Trooper" starts playing and I have to tell you, this song is damn near perfect. I'm not sure if this song has been ingrained into my brain after all these years, but it's definitely the best song on the album. It's on the shorter side and the lyrics are super fun. The song is about a man charging into battle with a bayonet. It starts off with the person charging and ends with them dying. It's absolutely great in all aspects. "Still Life" comes up next and while the song is a bit slower, the lyrics and Bruce's singing make this one very fun. It's something that will stick out and have you humming the following day. "Quest for Fire" is bizarre because Maiden talks about early man searching for fire and they throw in dinosaurs, so fuck it. The problem with this song is that the "story" Maiden tells ends half way through the song. After that, they just repeat lyrics and throw in a solo near the end. It's the same formula for almost every single song. Maiden sets up an interesting premise and then they just repeat the damn chorus. On "Quest for Fire" the song ends half way and then they repeat,

"Drawn by quest for fire, they searched across the land
Drawn by quest for fire, discovery of man"

It's a cool song, but they could have expanded on the lyrics when writing. I could think of a thousand badass subjects to sing about while talking about the quest for fire. "Sun and Steel" is god damn forgettable and easily the worst song on this album. It takes 10% of a story, about a child killing someone at the age of 13 and then becoming a warrior at 16, and then beating it into the ground with repetitive lyrics. "To Tame a Land" is this album's "Hallowed Be Thy Name". It's a seven minute song about a planet called Dune? I'm not sure if this is about the movie Dune or something they made up. The first half of the song is interesting, but eventually it falls flat. I honestly listened to this song about 10 minutes ago and the only thing I kind of remember are the goofy names to the places they were singing.

I wanted to stay away from talking about each track, but hot damn this album is all over the place. The lyrics are half-assed in most songs and the repetitive lyrics return from Maiden's early days of writing. I just don't get how THIS is the follow up to "The Number of the Beast". "Piece of Mind" isn't this super shitty album though. There is some good on here with the musicianship of everyone, including the newest member Nicko McBrain on drums. These guys play and sing with such passion. It's a shame the lyrics are too forgettable. The solos are always fantastic on a Maiden record and I appreciate how the bass is crystal clear. Bruce rarely disappoints, although some of his high notes on here are a bit too high if that makes any sense. I really wanted to love this album, but now the only thing I know this album for is "The Trooper" and "Quest for Fire" when they sing about dinosaurs.

Recommended songs: "Where Eagles Dare", "The Trooper", "Still Life", and "To Tame a Land"

"You’ll take my life but I’ll take yours too
You’ll fire your musket but I’ll run you through
So when you’re waiting for the next attack
You’d better stand there’s no turning back

The bugle sounds as the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath
As you plunge into a certain death...O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh! (X2)..."

What metal head, young or old, isn't familiar with such lyrical gold, timeless verses which firmly introduce Iron Maiden's classic, "The Trooper", from Iron Maiden's fourth release, 1983's Piece Of Mind? Never mind its historically militant, Crimean War theme portraying Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" which alludes to the Battle Of Balaclava (October 25, 1854); this top highlight also instantly brings to mind the patriotic mosaic of a battle-charged, Union Jack waving Eddie which surely should have featured as the cover of this heavy metal mainstay instead of the rabid and rancorous, straight-jacketed Ed boorishly portrayed above. That said, allow me to further bombastically rhapsodize on what could very well be the NWOBHM masters' most contested and debated album despite its visceral multitude of toothsome albeit rather unheralded - and rarely, if ever, played live - gems such as "Revelations", "Die With Your Boots On", "Still Life", "Sun And Steel" and fantastical closer "To Tame A Land", inspired by Frank Herbert's arcane science fiction epic "Dune".

While it may not be the most exciting or inspiring opener, "Where Eagles Dare" manages to set the tone for Piece Of Mind's chivalrous and valorous undertones with its intrepid lyrics and stout but unvarying song structure; admittedly, the rather atmospheric lead break over the sound of machine gun fire isn't quite up to par with further stellar soloing on behalf of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray, such as the double whammy solo sections of "Die With Your Boots On", the sizzling chops amidst "The Trooper"'s unforgettable guitar harmony - which greatly emphasizes the band's classical musical training - or the mysterious and soulful "Still Life" and "To Tame A Land", where, as with other long-winded narrative closing dirges, the musicianship duly takes off at the mid-point, thus also wrapping up on a high note.

Obviously worth mentioning is how Piece Of Mind constitutes new drummer Nicko McBrain's first foray, replacing Clive Burr (RIP) and drastically altering the quintet's sound from a grittier, rabble-rousing edge to a much more predictable albeit compact one. Regardless, the reason this release doesn't fare quite as well as its predecessor, 1982's Number Of The Beast, or successor, 1984's Powerslave, is a handful of weaker offerings such as "Where Eagles Dare", "Flight Of Icarus" (despite its fun Greek mythology) and especially the somewhat dorky "Quest For Fire" which features a lame singsong chorus and tepid guitar riffs - even the leads lack bite. Other than these slight let-downs, expect to be thoroughly rocked by an early goose-bump giving "clean-progression" incepting number akin to "Children Of The Damned", the wickedly poised "Revelations" which features Bruce Dickinson alternating between soothing biblical crooning and sardonic yawping before Murray and Smith crank things up a notch with their slickly phrased, highly emotional leads.

Satisfying as the first quarter-hour is, the kid gloves fly off with wicked trio of personal Maiden favourites in "Die With Your Boots On", The Trooper" and haunting "Still Life". While latter lugubriously begins to sound of Dickinson solemnly waxing skooky (spooky/ kooky) backwards followed by his halting, breathless verses to the backdrop of an eerily melodic, low-tempo guitar lick/ riff (dig the part before the solos when he lopsidedly echoes "Nightmares will give me piece of MIND!"), Die With Your Boots On" jarringly hooks the listener with a killer, evil and mean sounding opening/ main guitar riff and bass line whilst the lyrics are, coyly put, to die for whether or not ya got your boots on: dig the verse following the first chorus (which I concede sounds a bit awkward when considering the song's overall snarky appeal):

"...13, the beast is rising, the Frenchman did surmise
Through earthquakes and starvation, the Warlord will arise
Terror, death, destruction pour from the eastern sands
But the truth of all predictions is always in your hands..."

Like I said, the guitar solos on this track and "The Trooper" (awesomely covered by Corsair and Hand Of Glory might I add!) are out of this World; in fact, I'm shocked - dismayed even - "Die With Your Boots On" has never been a live staple or fails to pop up in everyday "Maiden lore/ adulation". The same goes for the triplet infused, lyrically poignant shit-kicking battle anthem "Sun And Steel"; considering it's only 3.5 minutes long and really does sound a bit like "a wheel, rolling on and on...", although I've heard through the grapevine it's been played at a show in Japan once.

Although Piece of Mind is far from being Iron Maiden's best album, it's an excellent showcasing of the Brits' stellar rock solid line-up which would go on to record such timeless worthies as 1984's Powerslave, 1986's Somewhere In Time and 1988's Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, along with the must-have Live After Death "World Slavery Tour" double CD of course.

*In regards to the bonus cover tracks released in 1995 under EMI, I'd eschew the trite ruination of Jethro Tull's golden oldie "Cross-Eyed Mary" but strongly recommend checking out the cool hot rockin' reprise of Montrose's "I've Got The Fire".

"Take you and your blade and break you both in two, break you both in two!"

I'm wondering always why this wasn't one of first Maiden albums I bought since the band's official biography suggest that this is one of their best stuff, which I obviously agree. After many listen, my perception of this album has improved a lot, Piece of Mind looks like the logical direction after the apotheotic The Number Of The Beast. The differences between those albums seem to escape from an untrained ear, this album is somewhat more laid back, melodic, while the guitars are less sharp than on the previous album. Clive Burr did not resist continuing in the band, but his substitute, the incredible Nicko McBrain was willing with all world forces. The record features a luxury cover which we see how the band's members are sitting at the table about to taste a tasty brain.

This new lineup has a lot good to offer. The twin guitars of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith offer you devilish rhythms, harmonized melodies, and overwhelming solos perfectly compensated. The ardent Murray is blended with the melodic Smith, Steve Harris continues to demonstrate solidity, full of imagination as always and playing in a very comfortable way in his role as third string. The new drummer McBrain, who possessed a quite different style to Clive Burr, but easily the same technical ability, shows his skills since the record's first second. And Bruce Dickinson, fully incorporated, delights us with his various vocal lines. In conclusion, five members in top form providing one of their best exhibitions in heavy metal history.

The raw and metallic production by Martin Birch is perfectly combined with excellent lyrics and a handful of classic riffs, giving as a result, an almost perfect album. However, there are quiet moments which balance the speed songs, which are the bits in Revelations and Still Life, kinda different to what came before them, I mean, the lovely solo at the start of Still Life might be a reminiscence of Strange World and Infinite Dreams in the future. The last three songs tend to be acknowledged as the weak moments of the albums, well, not the last song in most cases, but I remember for a long time not thinking much of these three. Since then, however, I'd say only Sun & Steel falls into this category, for just not being as good as the other songs. Quest For Fire is a really cute song, the lyrics are quite fun. To Tame A Land, meanwhile, is a great song worthy of being an epic among the likes of Phantom Of The Opera and Hallowed Be Thy Name, probably not as accessible as those two though. It conjures up some great imagery, much like Still Life.

Maiden's second real label blast was a strong effort which still holds a certain charm. Maybe the production is not "perfect" at all but is very good for its time and allows the guitars to cut and slice through the rather animated drum/bass work. Bruce Dickinson is at his best screaming here, Maiden's riffs are awesome and they show enthusiasm about thought things, with a standard production which is enough to capture the vibe, making it a timeless masterpiece. They went far with their quality over and over again, that's why Maiden have lived so long: they’ve kept the bar high. Other bands may have done it better at any time, but Maiden have done extremely well for a longer time than any of them.

This is a more melodic work. It's also lengthier than its predecessor, a positive thing which only contributes to fan's pleasure. It's very important the band doesn't proceed to create another album like "The Number Of The Beast Part II", although it would be a perfectly easy and successful thing to do. Conversely, they evolved and progressed their sound, resulting one of the best, fullest albums. Who cares what detractors have to say, this is undoubtedly a very strong release. A true landmark in heavy/power music.

Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind has always been a mixed bag for me. This is partially due to the fact that the album was released in between two milestones called The Number of the Beast and Powerslave. Maybe it didn't help that I discovered the outstanding Live After Death record before this studio album because I ended up missing the pace from the live cuts on the studio album. I think that the album has a lot of fluctuation. There might not be a real stinker on it but the songs range from average to amazing.

The middle section has always been a highlight for me and might even be the best middle section of any Iron Maiden record for that matter. Tracks like the galloping ''The Trooper'' and the vibrant ''Die with Your Boots On'' have that ferocious and juvenile energy I was initially missing on the album. ''Flight of Icarus'' is a great classical heavy metal track that manages to sound epic despite its short length and relatively simple music thanks to an absolutely stunning performance by Bruce Dickinson who delivers one of his best career performances on this album. My favorite song is though the atmospheric and slightly progressive ''Still Life'' that already gives us an idea of the band's future sound.

This brilliant quartet of songs is surrounded by five tunes that can't fully convince. ''Where Eagles Dare'' kicks things off very well with a short drum solo, heavy riffs and Bruce Dickinson's powerful and majestic vocals but the great start loses its momentum in an overlong instrumental middle part that goes nowhere. ''Revelations'' has similar issues. The lyrics are really intriguing, the calm and melodic parts are haunting and Bruce Dickinson sings like a god among mortal men. However, I prefer the much faster live version and always thought that the middle part was a little bit stretched without adding anything to the tune. Album closer ''To Tame a Land'' has almost identical problems. The track builds up a haunting and mysterious atmosphere and the initial storytelling is quite gripping but the middle section just plods along, loses momentum and fails to elaborate upon the great introduction. The song has some great ideas and interesting lyrics but can't convince from start to finish like other epics of the band such as ''Hallowed Be Thy Name'' and ''Rime of the Ancient Mariner''. Iron Maiden's songwriting is slightly off focus in the longer tracks. It isn't as bad as some of the band's contemporary epics but a more collaborative input during the songwriting might have made these songs a little bit more creative, diversified and fleshed out.

The other two songs are simply stated quite average and easily forgettable. ''Sun and Steel'' only has Bruce Dickinson's vocals that rate things up while ''Quest for Fire'' doesn't even have that. Dickinon's vocals sound overtly expressive and almost ridicolously exaggerated and the vapid chorus doesn't help either. The vivid rhythm section saves the track and pushes it to an average level but it's still clearly the worst tune on this album and one of the weakest songs in the band's early years.

The production has its positive and negative sides. What I like about it is that it sounds heavy and thundering and especially the bass and drum sounds are really tight and energizing. On the other side, the guitar sound stands out a little bit less than usual and isn't as clear and melodic as on some other records. Piece of Mind has a distinctive and original production but I prefer Iron Maiden's classic sound on both this record's predecessor and follow-up.

In the end, it's a matter of taste whether you prefer this record that is more heavy, grounded and slow or Iron Maiden's more melodic, progressive and vivid releases. I tend to prefer the latter and that's why Piece of Mind is an album that I respect from an objective point of view but that is neither among the band's best nor its worst records on my list. Whenever I revisit the album, I tend to listen to the awesome middle section only because the rest of the record doesn't really blend in with that and might even be slightly incoherent. Piece of Mind is still an essential part of Iron Maiden's discography but new or occasional fans should rather grab a copy of both The Number of the Beast and Powerslave and not choose this album first just because it includes ''The Trooper'' and has an iconic artwork.

Iron Maiden continues to kick ass with this excellent follow-up to The Number of the Beast. Everybody does their part well, and I must say that I am not alone in hoping that this band lineup never ever changes, because it doesn't get any better than this right here.

Like any major label band that releases a great many albums, the Iron Maiden formula generally follows the idea that half the songs will be outstanding, and the other half will be okay, only pleasing to the die-hards. This is especially true of Piece of Mind, but the half that rules really rules. “Where Eagles Dare” is an unmitigated classic, as is “Flight of Icarus” and “Die With Your Boots On”, but the true gem of the album, and one of the top 3 or 4 songs that Maiden ever wrote, would be “The Trooper” – What a fantastic song! Even after 34 years, it is as fresh and powerful today as it was when it was written. The video that was released for it is pure classic Maiden, and it remains both one of my favourite metal songs and music videos. (Thought I like “Aces High” more on both counts). “To Tame a Land” is generally popular among Maiden diehards, but also it's a good way to close the album. It reminds me of “The Nomad” which Maiden would later go on to do in their disc Brave New World.

The production is good, and typical of the quality found on metal albums in the 80s. The riffs are strong and the beat is always pushing forward. We have come to expect nothing less from Iron Maiden. The guitar work is fantastic coming from Dave and Adrian, the gods of heavy metal guitar playing. Bruce has soaring yet strong vocals that do nothing but add to the greatness of the album. The drumming is solid, and Nicko McBrain is a solid member of the lineup (though I really liked Clive Burr). The remaster punches up the mids and bass nicely, to bring the overall tone more in line with what is considered normal for a metal record, but overall the sound is essentially the same as when it was released.

One thing I don’t like about this disc is that it hasn’t aged quite as well as some of the other Maiden discs. Maybe I’ve listened to it too much over the years, but “The Trooper” and “Flight of Icarus” just don’t have that same punch they once did. Probably because I’ve discovered so many bands better than Maiden since then.

Still, Piece of Mind is a damn good album from a damn good heavy metal band, and no matter what anyone says, it’s worth the purchase if you’ve somehow missed it all these years. The remaster is preferable over the original, but either one is great.

My personal opinion is completely irrelevant. We do not need to discuss this topic. With that said, I start this review with the undeniable statement that "The Number of the Beast" was a great, gargantuan and groundbreaking album. Only fools (such as me) do not realize this, but even these guys like some tracks of this milestone. Apart from this, we all know that every excess is followed by a grey morning and how many formations have failed to substantiate their newly gained position? Iron Maiden does not belong to my most favourite bands, but they had the necessary creativity to write a "milestone after the milestone". In short, "Piece of Mind" is the best Maiden album. You do not share my point of view? Ha, only my opinion is relevant!

After this stringent introduction, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. We all know a lot of good albums, pretty decent and anything else but mediocre, yet there is often a small problem. A certain number of individual tracks lacks of a unique identity. This is exactly the point where "Piece of Mind" beats thousands of other albums. Yes, there is a pretty weak track on the fourth full-length of the British flagship. "Quest for Fire" is its name. The beginning of the song is not very exciting, the melody of the chorus wallows in simplicity and the voice of Bruce sounds slightly tearful, the instrumental part is boring until the strong solos give the tune a better direction. Compared with the other tracks of this album, "Quest for Fire" must be branded as a filler. Compared with many songs of other (Maiden) albums, this piece falls under the category "too bad to be good and too good to be bad".

However, any other track of "Piece of Mind" takes, in alignment with its title, possession of a small (or not so small) piece of the listener's mind. The most courageous track is "Revelations". At first glance, its exposed position and the partially soft approach are not really compatible with each other. But this pioneering work grows constantly, the outstanding melody lines form a colossus and without an iota of cheesiness, commercialism or half-heartedness, the band delivers nothing less than pure heavy gold (the pretty ordinary term "metal" does not do it justice). But don't jump to conclusions, "Piece of Mind" cannot be blamed for delivering partly mellow tracks. The guitars of ironclad monuments such as "Flight of Icarus" (great, original lyrics with a topic that matches very well the unwritten laws of heavy metal texts) or "Die with Your Boots On" leave no doubt that Iron Maiden adopt a clear position. This is the album of a heavy metal band that does not beg for the attention of the mainstream audience. "The Trooper" goes in the same direction as the aforementioned pieces, although the guitars deliver, among other things, some almost light leads. Yes, these tracks possess roughly the same degree of vehemence and harshness. Nevertheless, they cannot be confused with each other. Their excellent melodies make the difference. By contrast, the formidable "Still Life" is not cut from the same cloth. After an emotional beginning, the song turns out to be a generic metal track which finds the perfect balance between powerful harmonies and profound heaviness.

The more or less progressive "To Tame a Land" sends the final rocket to the stars of the metal universe. Its brilliant instrumental parts keep up the suspense all the way to the end and Dickinson finds the right tones with instinctive certainty. There is a few number of parts where the guitars sound almost fragile, but believe me that this piece is brewed by the metallic purity law. I would even go a step further. This track and the overwhelming opener are the Alpha and the Omega of Maiden's music. On the one hand, we have the gutsy, meticulously constructed, multi-layered system, on the other hand, "Where Eagles Dare" sparkles with flattening leads, very vigorous drums and pure power. (It's lyrics are based on an idiotic movie which followed a book of Alistair MacLean, but I have learned to ignore this fact.) Finally, the production. Well, what can I say? Back in the early eighties, albums like this one defined the sound of true heavy metal and, to avoid misunderstandings, I do not speak of the this kind of true heavy metal which is nowadays supported by the "trve dvdes ov metaltöwn". These jesters do nothing but worshipping nonsensical clichés while they torture us with their exhausting yet primitive compositions and their moronic attitude. Enough said. Forget the beast, this is number 667. "Piece of Mind" is the real milestone.

It should go without saying that I love Piece of Mind. I also appreciate when bands choose different production sounds as it let’s fresh air into the stuffy room. But coming off the perfect production job of Number of the Beast, the change really felt like a backstep. Coming hot off of one of the greatest guitar tones ever, what’s presented on Piece of Mind isn’t terrible, but it feels a lot less thicker and less crunchy. Especially critical to note is the fact that Maiden was coming into a year where a new generation of metal was breaking through, and just about every band that made its debut had a guitar sound 10 times heavier than this, whether it was well produced or otherwise. See even though the previous year Maiden created [arguably] the best metal album ever, 1982 was still an overall weak year for metal. Restless & Wild makes my top ten for the year whereas in any other circumstance I'd never have Accept as a top ten entry in anything. In 1983 the quantity of quality bands grew drastically, and while none of them would take Maiden’s spot away, they were slicing at their Achilles tendons requiring the band to step up their game.

Another step back I thought was Bruce Dickinson’s voice. Oh of course it grew in range, but something was lost in ferociousness. On Number of the Beast Bruce sounded like a howling wolf ready to leap out of the vinyl rip your throat out with it’s fangs. Here....well he becomes the swashbuckling hero we all know and love today. Oh he would still kill you, but the mess of entrails made would be much less sloppy and bloody.

Nonetheless, for each setback Maiden gained a plus to make up for it. They certainly get an drumming upgrade in the form of Nicko McBrain, whose superior skills become apparent the second the record begins, with the monster known as Where Eagles Dare. There's something I have to say on his behalf, knock off giving Nicko shit over riding the hi-hat so much. All you asshole Paul Di'anno fans who like whine on how Nicko's a one rhythm drummer, you would have a lot more ground to stand on if the drummer you weren't comparing him to was Clive "Zoot Suit Riot" Burr. 90% of the time the guy played with a swing-time rhythm. Even on Running Free. Yes he would occasionally pop out of that tempo with moments like Run To The Hills and Genghis Khan, but it felt more often that not that he had to coaxed out of that time. I also don't recall hearing Clive give a single kick drum performance along the lines of Wicker Man or Caught Somewhere In Time or Alexander The Great over the years. Look I loved Clive, he was a great drummer and his passing in 2013 was heartbreaking. But calling him a better drummer than Nicko is like calling a punk guitar player better than Eddie Van Halen. It's laughably dumb.

In any case, Iron Maiden's songwriting, although inconsistent at times (Quest For Fire) was getting stronger and much more dynamic. The Trooper, overplayed as it may be, is the first riff that pops up in my inner jukebox most days. Flight of Icarus as well. That's practically an alarm clock song to get your ass out of bed, particularly with the lyrics "as the ground warms to the first rays of light...etc." The album overall is a solid cross section between their short songs and their long songs (the first three Maiden albums had one epic number. This one has 3 and they all rule).

While still an effort better than most, Piece of Mind just wasn’t as good as the albums that would come before and after it. My least favorite of their glorious 7 album run of the 80s. Still, the high ranking should tell you something.


Recommended Songs:
The Trooper
To Tame A Land
Die With Your Boots On

After the Beast On The Road tour, Iron Maiden and Clive Burr parted ways, and he was soon replaced with Nicko Mcbrain. Now, the band had to follow up their most successful album, so they hit the studio and began to record Piece Of Mind. When the album was released, it went 3rd in the UK charts and was globally praised once again, and not long after Iron Maiden embarked on the World Piece Tour.

The production on this album may be Iron Maiden's best to date. The band sounds tight and clean, and Martin Birch did a phenomenal job.. Performances wise, Nicko really shines on his debut, with the drums as featured as they've ever been. Meanwhile, Bruce gives some of his most passionate vocals to date. Meanwhile, Steve, Dave and Adrian give great performances on the bass and guitars. Overall, nobody really seems to be particularly lacking. The art was done by Derek Riggs as usual, and though it is more simple that previous works, it still gives a jolting image to anybody who sees it.

This album is Iron Maiden's first album that really exemplifies the sound they've became known for to this day. Iron Maiden and Killers had a bit of punk and blues influence to them, while Number Of The Beast was a period of transition. Here, the band has fully transitioned away from these influences and are playing more heavy songs. While there are no particular standouts here, nearly every song has awesome moments, and in that is where its beauty lies. Opener "Where Eagles Dare" features incredible drum fills, while "Flight Of Icarus" features amazing vocals. And it is impossible to forget the main riff in "The Trooper", or maybe the soft guitar intro of "Still Life". On a different note, there are a few songs that do lack. While the song "Sun And Steel" has a catchy chorus, it is a bit lost in the overall sound, however even it isn't really bad. However, "Quest For Fire" seems to fail the most here. The riffs sound somewhat recycled from other tracks here, and the lyrics aren't up to snuff.

When looking at this album as a whole, from the amazing opener to the incredible close "To Tame A Land", this album seems to be very strong and consistent. Even though most of the songs don't seem to be featured by the band as much, the overall album is one of Iron Maiden's strongest.

'Piece of Mind' is one of the Iron Maiden albums that I've never completely "got", not because I don't understand how or why they wrote songs like this, but more because there are a couple of songs that are instantly recognisable to most metal fans and a few that remain obscure, sometimes for good reason. To make it plain, I mean that everyone knows 'The Trooper' (and can probably hum the whole song without much trouble) and it's likely that you'll have encountered 'Flight of Icarus', as well as 'Die With Your Boots On' or 'Where Eagles Dare', while the two shorter songs towards the end and even 'Still Life' have been neglected almost since they were put to tape. This happens to many bands with a multitude of albums, as Maiden now do, yet it is rather conspicuous that 'Piece of Mind' was only the fourth Maiden release and seems not to have the band's full concentration.

Released just a year after 'The Number of the Beast', this album cemented Maiden's position as the leading band in the NWOBHM, really solidifying the group's signature sound of active, agile bass riffing, soaring guitar leads, and dramatic vocals. Setting aside much of the aggression and snarling pace of their earlier work, Maiden continued to develop in a more expansive direction, as evidenced by the extended instrumental section of 'To Tame a Land' and the broader horizons of the opening pair of 6 minute songs. The riffs here are generally less hard-edged and brutally to the point as those from 'Killers', suggesting that the Londoners had spent some time listening to Judas Priest's 'Screaming for Vengeance', which also chills the metal down to a more temperate groove, though with some additional hard rock feelers that Maiden never included. Also, in a song like 'Revelations' or 'Still Life', there is a great deal of texturing and softer touches, with frequent drops into acoustic verses in the former and the long mellow introduction of the latter.

Deciding whether these changes were for the better is a little like deciding whether you'd like to have two children or an amazing dog, since for sheer content and fulfilment you would prefer the more complicated task of raising the children, though the dog would probably be more fun and less trouble, even if it doesn't have the longevity of a person. You might have guessed that the amazing dog is 'Killers', especially in the way it bounds forward at high speed and just seems so much more free than this, while the more "mature", slightly progressive, Maiden is likely what has meant their 80s work has endured as interesting and challenging for more than 30 years. On the one hand, it's great to get caught up in the intriguing twists of 'Still Life''s story or the mazy, intricate leads of 'To Tame a Land', but there's also a fantastic appeal to the way that 'The Trooper' shoots out of the gate with that awesome riff and doesn't let up for its duration. I suppose the balance can be seen in 'Where Eagles Dare', which is the song with everything, including the more straightforward riffs and a slightly higher pace, plus several minutes in the middle that work out knottier musical ideas without becoming dull.

To some extent, your opinion on this album can be judged from your answer to this question: are 'Quest for Fire' and 'Sun and Steel' filler songs? If they are, then it's a definite lazy point, especially since the album would have been more or less complete without them. I would say that 'Sun and Steel' is certainly unnecessary, having nothing in the way of riffs or memorable moments in the first half (the chorus is particularly plain, being driven along by power chords) and picking up a bit for the solo, which however copies a very specific idea - the dizzying whammy-bar nosedive towards the end - directly from 'Still Life', which itself nabbed it from 'Total Eclipse', the B-side from the 'Run to the Hills' single. Then there's the problem with 'Quest for Fire' and its fucking annoying lyrics and vocal pattern, spoiling half-decent instrumental parts, especially the main riff. That said, the lead section is pretty pants for 80s Maiden. So - to sum up - yes, they are filler.

I suppose I should pull up something complementary about the album now, but I have one more negative first, which has been commented on previously, so I'll make it snappy. There are lots of mid-paced songs or parts of songs (verses are the worst culprit) that make use of palm-muting to create classically chugging and trotting rhythms, plus more than a few simple power chord bridges. The "trotting" parts are my take on the traditional "galloping" Maiden rhythm losing some steam, because they not only lose pace but momentum and excitement, making the songs less intense than the earlier work and resulting in the highlighting of the only really fast song, 'The Trooper'. The power chord parts are just whatever - uncreative and blah.

To address these issues, we helpfully have Steve Harris in a very prominent position during the album, noodling and gurgling away like a contented infant and putting in a bit more work at mid-pace than either of the guitarists. That somewhat helps the situation, as does Bruce Dickinson, who manages to inject enough drama and power into thankfully interesting lyrics, so that one may overlook the simplicity of the verses of 'Flight of Icarus' and concentrate instead on the unfolding story or the neat solos or the shrieking ending. Drums lack a bit of aggression, tending to stay fairly quiet, which could certainly have been imrproved.

Therefore, 'Piece of Mind' is a pleasant album to listen to and easier to get into than some of the more aggressive early 80s and more progressive late 80s output, but ends up bowing to both ends of the spectrum, with few exceptional songs and a couple of naff ones. Still not bad by any means, just a little too comfortable.

The only complaints that ever come from reviews of Piece Of Mind are that the record contains a couple of fillers in the form of Sun And Steel (which I wholeheartedly disagree with; it’s full of great riffs and is a terrific yarn about Samurai soldiers) and Still Life (which people may have a point about). Regardless, the only problem I have with this record is the production.

Imagine if you will an elastic band which has been pulled and stretched until it’s just about to snap. That is how thin and tight this production is. It’s too distracting for me and why the album isn’t in my top three records for 1983. People including Steve Harris himself have often cited the debut self-titled record of having the weakest production in the Iron Maiden catalogue, but I think the buzzsaw guitar sound worked really well on that. Three years later Martin Birch simply produced the hell out of their new record, being far too clinical and precise. Luckily, fans only had to wait a couple of years to hear the majority of songs as they should have been recorded when Maiden released the incredible live album Live After Death. The sound quality was vastly improved, being richer and fuller and giving the instruments the amount of scope they really needed for that epic metal sound.

So with that major gripe out of the way, I can tell you that Piece Of Mind kicks off in the usual triumphant Maiden style. First track up is Where Eagles Dare. A rolling drum segment from new drummer Nicko McBrain kicks off proceedings before the galloping bass and dual guitars begin their attack. Every song contains at least one classic (I know classic is a term I throw around, but in every sense of the word these songs are truly classic.) lick, bridge, solo or vocal that has been with me as long as I can remember. It’s ridiculous that when I listen to the record I know each and every word before Bruce sings it and I know each and every guitar line (with air guitar at least) before it arrives as well. These songs have grown with me throughout my teenage and adult years. Maiden fans will all say the same about the band. How the hell can any unit come up with so many great ideas? Just from Nicko’s opening snare hit I know that Quest For Fire is about to begin and I still laugh at the teenage me trying to come to grips with playing the record backwards to decipher the oddness of the message that precedes Still Life. It’s that iconic to me.

Steve Harris said at the time that his favourite track was To Tame A Land, which was to originally meant to be called Dune after Frank Herbert’s novel. Unfortunately for the band, Herbert was disgusted about a band such as Iron Maiden using his title and Harris promptly altered the song’s moniker. The worst thing about the song is its title. Everything else is perfectly crafted. This is what the band do best, seven and a half minutes of intricate and yet totally accessible heavy metal. To Tame A Land is up there equally with Iron Maiden's other lengthy tour de forces in Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. Harris had every right to be proud of it.

As well as this, the album contains two of the band's greatest singles in The Trooper and Flight Of Icarus. It contains one of the true great live songs in Revelations (its recorded counterpart is just a fraction too slow). Nicko’s addition to the band completed what most fans call their definitive line up and the band's upcoming two tours made them huge all over the world. If the production was better, then this really would be in with a chance of being labelled one of the greatest records of all time.

Piece of mind is an album that has been basically forgotten by both Iron Maiden and its fans. Except for The Trooper, which is easily one of the most popular songs by Iron Maiden, the band plays basically no songs from this album live. Some say it is a masterpiece that has been defeated by time; some say that it is simply underrated. I, however, say that Iron Maiden has done stuff much better than this album.

Piece of Mind is Iron Maiden's second album featuring Bruce Dickinson, and in this one, Steve Harris clearly tried to push Bruce's vocals to the limit. It works well in the first half of the album (mainly in Where Eagles Dare, The Trooper and Die With Your Boots On), but fails spectacularly on Quest For Fire. The bass is completely audible and plays a very important role in every song, but hey, this is Iron Maiden, it is always like this. The guitars... Oh well, the guitars aren't as complex as they are in albums like Brave New World and Somewhere in Time. Harris tried to focus on the bass and the vocals, while leaving McBrain and Murray with interesting but predictable stuff.

Let me start with the song that is probably the worst one Iron Maiden has ever recorded: Quest For Fire. The lyrics are dumb, the drumming and riffing are predictable and even the bass sucks in its own way: it is way too quiet and sometimes non-existent. Actually, Steve Harris probably had an idea for making Dickinson hit the highest possible note, and structured the whole song in order to fit this note, which leaves us with a song that looks like a Dickinson's solo project.

The album starts out nicely: Where Eagles Dare is not an Iron's masterpiece, but it has every quality that made Iron Maiden so respected and known. The song starts out with a pulse-like, emotional beat, and is followed by a heavy and catchy (although predictable) riff. Even if the middle sounds way too repetitive, this mistake is easily covered by the quality of the guitars, which were very well produced and had all the attributes of true heavy metal.

Alright, the last part was a lie. The guitar's timbre is terrible in a lot of ways, and ends up turning Piece of Mind into a mix between hard rock and heavy metal. Whether it was intentional or not, I am not sure, but it would surely ruin the riffing and most-likely the whole album if it was not for Steve Harris' consistent bass and Dickinson's amazing vocals.

The Trooper is one of Iron Maiden's best songs live, and I beg the reader to not hate me when I say that it is not that good in the album. Don't get me wrong: the vocals are nice, the galloping drums are cool and the lyrics are emotional enough. However, the guitar attack, which is supposed to be the best part of this song (well, it really is live) suffers from the poor production. Anyway, it is worth noting that "amazing" is "not that good" in Iron Maiden's standards, so the song is far from bad.

"Flight of Icarus" shows that even The Trooper's lyrics are not epic enough, and is probably the most emotional song of the album. It is also helped by Dickinson's amazing chorus, a part that was so good that people that are not into metal at all tend to like it very much. Maybe that is due to the nature of the song: excluding "Quest For Fire", "Flight of Icarus" is the song that resembles metal the least. Suffering from the weak-toned guitars, it is easily mistaken as an old hard rock song.

"Revelations" is an atmospheric song, that manages to be both dark and beautiful. Bruce's performance here is the best he would deliver until the album "Brave New World", varying from soft to aggressive (not actually agressive, more like... Forceful) easily. The guitars do have great moments here, which is surprising since Dickinson wrote it (if you are his fan, remember his "contribution" to Powerslave before bashing me).

"Die With Your Boots On" is awesome. The lyrics kill, the drums kill, the vocals kill (Harris and Smith do some nice backup, by the way), and even the guitar is unique in this amazing song. This song is probably the one that suffers the least from the hard-rock guitars. Although it does feel like hard rock sometimes, "Die With Your Boots On" is very metal-oriented, having nice riffing and epic (and kind of dark) lyrics.

"Still Life" is one of the songs that most benefits from double guitars, and is at least partially into power metal. The melody here is good, but there are no memorable parts, which makes the song become ultimately boring once it reaches four minutes. Also, the spoken introduction tries to create a heavy atmosphere to the song, which fails miserably. Another song that exemplifies the epic tendency of this album is "Sun and Steel", but the melody here is much better and the song is actually epic, while "Still Life" simply tries very hard in order to be epic.

"To Tame a Land" is a decent way to close the album. However, even if it has some nice melodies and lyrics, and very good vocals, it falls in the category of "regular", partially because it definitely shouldn't be almost 8 minutes long, partially because it has simply no memorable parts.

"Piece of Mind" is a nice album, but definitely doesn't live up to its "epic masterpiece" status, mainly due to the crappy production on the guitars. This release has a terrible filler (Quest for Fire is barely tolerable), and when compared to releases like "Brave New World" and "Somewhere in Time", it is kind of weak. Although these musicians have proven us that they are incapable of recording something terrible, they could have done much better in this recording.

Piece of Mind is the 2nd Iron Maiden album to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals, the first with Nicko McBrain replacing Clive Burr on the drums, and the source of one of the band's biggest hits, "The Trooper". Strangely enough, these days, most of the tracks feel like forgotten gems, due to the fact that so many have been seemingly ignored in the band's live sets for a great many years now. But the bad tastes of band and audience aside, this is easily one of the best of Maiden's entire career, and certainly one of my personal favorites after Somewhere in Time or Powerslave. Each of the 9 tracks are splendid, powerful, melodic metal, and the album as a whole has a more reined in appeal than The Number of the Beast, giving it the slight edge in my opinion.

Just about anything I've ever loved in Iron Maiden's music is here in spades. Wonderful lyrics that reflect upon religion, war, history, science fiction and mythology, drawing on a number of classic sources. More guitar hooks than a bait & tackle shop, and an excellent, crisp tone to boot. An excellent performance out of Dickinson, who had really meshed into the band's landscape by this point. And a production which does not sound to me as if it has aged a single day in 27 years. Add to that the dark atmosphere of emergent NWOBHM gone 'eavy as all hell, and a great if simple cover image featuring the most recognizable mascot in metal music. We have a winner.

"Where Eagles Dare" is a sturdy track to open the album, with a lot of shuffle in its step. Twin guitars rambling out a passionate if somewhat predictable rhythm, and lyrics based on the 1967 novel of the same name, which was itself adapted to a film in '68 featuring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. The airy nature of the melodies in the bridge makes for a fine if elegaic tribute to the story and the war in which it was fought. "Revelations" features one of the most simple and unforgettable verse rhythms of the 80s, with the perfectly placed little bass steps and the beautiful, simmering melodies that transform the tempo into a fist flying rager, and then down into a thoughtful tranquility. The song feels compelling and timeless, as if it could have been written and recorded in the late 60s or 70s and wound up much the same. "Flight of Icarus" tells the tale of its titular, tragic Greek character, and was also used a single for this album. It's more of a narrative than the previous tracks, with the riffs structured about the story. And who would ever forget Dickinson's shining chorus vocal?

'Fly, on your way, like an eagle, fly as high as the sun
On your way, like an eagle, fly and touch the sun'

At this point, the hammer drops and the balls fly out of their zippers as Maiden crushes through two of their more pronounced exclamations, beginning with "Die With Your Boots On", a self-determination anthem, and a nice little deconstruction of omens and the prophetic bullshit that fuels so much religious nonsense throughout our history. Smith and Harris have some swanky little backup vocals here, and the chorus is just the type of manly expression that makes you want to leap onto a motorcycle, or a horse, or something. A jet ski if you've got it. But people might look at you strangely if you're wearing boots on a jet ski. Speaking of boots, "The Trooper" follows, ready to plant both of them, leather and steel, straight up your arse. Basically the ultimate war metal song before there was 'war metal', maybe not as good as "Disposable Heroes" but it came first. How many metal fans out there learned their first guitar or bass riff from this song? How many people who don't even like metal music remember this song? How many have covered it? It's an indispensable classic, and just as brilliant as the pageantry requires. Trotting, equestrian guitar rhythms and spiky vocal latitudes, excellent popping bass beneath the lead, and the lead itself...gorgeous.

The rest of the album is the half that I feel is sadly the more forgotten, but it's no less rapt or impressive. "Still Life" has a great melody that charges below the vocals, and Dickinson even has a robotic like tinge to the 'piece of mind' lyric. The dual guitars are brilliant here, especially as they quaff off into the slamming leads, and "Quest for Fire" follows suit with an epic hymn about early man and his travails against nature and beast, and the advent of the one thing that would raise them from beasts themselves into a more potent force. Many have pointed out to me that this is a bit of a silly track, but fuck, I'll take Iron Maiden singing about cannibals and dinosaurs any day over Dethklok or 3 Inches of Blood inhaling and exhaling their stale irony. Once again, there are some killer leads here, and a very pulp adventure feeling that is simply too rare in metal.

"Sun and Steel" is a hooky melodic samurai tribute with various literary references to the famous swordsman Musashi, and it's another of the tracks here which could easily have fit the decade prior, due to the soaring vocal harmony which could have just as well been Freddy Mercury of Queen. It's an amazing track, one of my favorites even among this lofty crew, and it's a goddamn shame that this didn't take off like "The Trooper". I'd kill to hear this one live, and if you've seen them do it...well, don't tell me about it. I've got enough in the world already to envy. "To Tame a Land" caps off the album, a morose, wandering epic based on the classic science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. The tiny arabesque rhythms and edgy, warlike atmosphere of the track really fit the contested desert world of Arakkis, and certainly it has to be one of the best tributes (and one of the ONLY tributes) done to this literary masterpiece in all of rock or metal music. The bass and leads are unsurprisingly exquisite here, and though its the longest track here at over 7 minutes, I hardly noticed. Though I consider it my least favorite track on this album, it's still pretty close to perfect.

Piece of Mind is both a hallmark album and a wave of beautiful nostalgia. Old, indeed, but far from irrelevant, as its another essential fragment of the band's Golden Age (1982-1988) which catapulted them to the very top the pack. 1983 was the year of two of the greatest debut albums in all of metal history (Metallica's Kill 'Em All and Slayer's Show No Mercy), but even against those monstrosities, this album still holds its own, and I have a feeling it always will...

Highlights: All of them, but with To Tame a Land at the rear of the marching order.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Well blow me...this album is underrated. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised by that though - most good things are, unfortunately.

A strange statement, you may be thinking right now. Piece Of Mind? Underrated? Is he mad? That album is a well known classic!

Yeah, except in comparison to its painfully opposite followup, it is. That album suffers from the reverse extreme - it's overrated, and doesn't deserve it. In fact, for the most part it's total crap. But that's another review.

Still, it's an important factor, one that I feel is often missed in discussing the albums of our favourite enormous heavy metal band, a band so well regarded, known, and praised by damn near everyone from 13 year old teeny boppers to 68 year old geriatrics with "nostalgia" for the "good old days". Of course, in doing so they often neglect the true Metal Gods, a band that laid down all of the blueprints for pure heavy metal following Sabbath, and without which Maiden would be nothing like they are. Sad as it may be it's true - face it, Judas Priest is not as well regarded by the majority of the world, or even by most metalheads, as Iron Maiden. Is this right? No, and in fact the opposite should be true. But it isn't, because mediocrity draws people to it in droves like a swarm of flies is drawn to a dung heap. Sure, it tastes like crap, and it is crap, but it's sustaining.

Ok, that was a cruel and unfair comparison. Iron Maiden aren't remotely a dung heap. Nevertheless, their music has and never will be as influential or as purely great as Priest's, in my opinion, and hopefully the opinions of everyone with genuine intelligence.

How is this relevant to my review of Piece Of Mind, you may ask? Well, much as I far prefer Priest, I still like Maiden, and comparing their stuff to Priest's albums from the same period is very interesting. What we have here is exactly the reason why Maiden have been more respected everywhere, including a lot of the most extreme fringes of the metal world, than Priest - an album of daring inventiveness, with epic lyrical subjects, brilliant compositions, fantastic musicianship, and awesome performances all around. By comparison, Priest in this time was releasing albums that, while great, were not, for the most part, either as progressive or(and this is the false part)as "properly metal" as Maiden were. Do I agree with this? On the former, yes, but most certainly not on the latter, which is why I labeled it a "false part", because it is. Judas Priest are and always will be more purely and truly heavy metal than Iron Maiden could ever be.

But I digress. The main point is that It's albums like this that have gotten Maiden an almost ridiculous amount of respect and recognition from everyone, even pop critics, as they are daringly progressive and epic, not afraid to go way over the top in order to fulfill this potential while still keeping a tether on the level of cheese to make sure it doesn't go too far. And here, they genuinely succeed at this brilliantly, with only a couple of weaker songs amongst(gasp)actually consistent quality for once.

One of my biggest gripes with Maiden(which I still have)that applies to almost all of their albums, including the "classics", is their level of consistency, or lack thereof. They have a good song which becomes shitty due to some idiotic songwriting, then a brilliant song, then an average one, then a great one, then an overrated good one, then an overrated bad one, then a terrible one, then an underrated good one, and end it with a brilliantly thought out, stunningly epic closer which somehow manages to overshadow the vast pool of mediocrity that fills a lot of the previous tracks on the album. What I just described is, in a nutshell, The Number Of The Beast. Great in places but painfully shitty in others, and still dreadfully overrated.

It seems to me as if Maiden has "wild streaks", or something along those lines, as after an extremely inconsistent yet still widely loved classic, they released this piece(pun not intended)of proto-power metal majesty, which believe or not is completely consistent from start to finish. Even the weaker tracks are as they fit within the pattern properly - there's nothing here along the lines of "Gangland" being followed by "Total Eclipse", or on the original version of that album, "Hallowed Be Thy Name". Instead, the worst of this album is simply boring and not all that great. Not to mention, the first six songs on the album are all good! Wow...for Maiden that is really impressive. If only the same was true of their next record...

"Where Eagles Dare" is a great opener, using all of the classic qualities of the band to its advantage. Starting with an almost pulse-pounding drumbeat by the then new drummer Nicko McBrain, the heavy riffing kicks in soon afterwards, and it's great. At the same time, the album's one significant flaw becomes apparent instantly - the guitar tone. It's quite shitty in a lot of ways, sounding cardboard and fairly thin, and gives the album more of a hard rock vibe than a heavy metal one. This is a problem I've always had with Maiden, that frequently makes me question their metal status - if they are the best example of true heavy metal, then why does even one of their classic albums sound more like hard rock than heavy fucking metal?

One could blame the producer I suppose, but he's Martin Birch, the same chap who produced Killers, Number Of The Beast, and the next five albums after this one, so I don't know why. It's a problem that Powerslave also shares(and which is even worse in that regard), but that Somewhere In Time does not, and then Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son just sounds weird. What the fuck? It's weird. I find it very hard to believe that Maiden intentionally asked Mr. Birch to make the guitars sound shittier than they did on the previous album, or to make everything slightly less loud and heavy, yet that's exactly what happened. Of course, maybe Birch was ordered to make it sound weaker by the record company in the hopes that it would be less abrasive to pop listeners and thus make more money. Considering that it did, that's entirely possible. And despite the fact that Maiden supposedly never sold out during this period(which is a lie anyway), I bet they liked the idea of extra cash, so they thought "fuck it, who cares...we'll be richer. If it's a little less metal, we can just tell the fans that ol' Martin was drunk when he produced it or something! Yeah, that'll work! No one will figure out the real truth!" Sorry, Maiden, but you didn't fool this metalhead.

Sarcasm aside(and I wasn't joking entirely, in fact a large part of me believes that could genuinely be the reason why the guitars sound so weak), this aspect of the album is it's one serious failing, and a rather large one at that, one that made me detract points from the score which would be a lot higher if the album actually sounded completely like a heavy metal album.

In any case, Where Eagles Dare is a good song, maybe even a great one, and certainly more consistent and interesting than "Invaders" from NOTB. However, it's not perfect. Its middle section is way too repetitive. The solo is pretty good, but as good as they are, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith are no K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Also, this song isn't very progressive, but it goes on for far too long. However, this is still a very good song and easily the best way Maiden could have opened the album. I must also point out that Bruce's singing here, while great, is far from flawless. Try as he might, Bruce is no Rob Halford. He just doesn't have that indelible "inhuman banshee" quality that Rob is possessed of. To be blunt, he's too ordinary a singer in comparison. Sure, he wipes the floor with the majority of normal rock singers in terms of range and ability, but those two aspects of singing aren't everything, and sometimes a little grit is nice. Bruce has none here at all - he's constantly hitting the high notes, often sounding very cheesy in his vocal acrobatics, and at the same time not extreme enough to transcend cheesiness and go beyond normal human singing.

Next we have a power ballad, "Revelations", a tune penned by Dickinson. Considering Bruce is responsible for co-writing two worthless abominations on Powerslave, and for directly and solely writing another song on that album so terrible that it makes me want to eat my own shit, I don't have all that much faith in his songwriting skills, and it's a telling fact that Somewhere In Time, which is probably the best album Maiden ever released, has no contributions from Dickinson at all. However, in this case, "Revelations" is actually a great song. Very well written, and while it's obviously tailored for the best possible usage of ol' Bruce's vocals(understandable I suppose as he wrote it, but still, metal is not about vocals), it works excellently from start to finish. Very dark, beautiful atmosphere, and some great guitar moments too. Here Bruce's singing is at it's best too: instead of wailing high all of the time, he uses much more of his range; not sounding gritty or anything, but singing both forcefully and softly depending on what's needed. Unlike his over the top performances on Maiden's faster songs, Bruce is completely convincing here, which I think is partly because he doesn't try so hard. Either way, despite its non-metal elements, this is a great power ballad, with a fantastic atmosphere and really is a proto-power metal song in numerous ways.

"Flight Of Icarus" follows, and while a good song, I wouldn't say it's great. For a start, aside from Bruce's fairly good(if, again, slightly cheesy)performance, it's not very metal at all. From the tempo, to the breaks, and that awful, weak guitar tone that is a constant weakness on the entire album, this is more hard rock than heavy metal. It's no wonder it cracked the Billboard 200 - plenty of hard rock has and still does. The only truly metal aspect here, aside from the lyrics and(to some degree)the singing, is the occasional chugging in the riffs, and even that isn't anything special. So why did I say this album is consistent? Well, it still is - even though this song isn't great, it's good, because of Bruce's singing, the fun and easily headbangable riffs, and the solo, which is fairly inspired for once. It really does scream "single", though, which is hardly a very metal quality and one more likely to be seen on a very commercial hard rock or pop album than a metal one. It's not perfect, but it's good nevertheless.

Next up is "Die With Your Boots On", another song with a somewhat hard rock vibe to it, that all the same remains metal for the most part. Here Bruce's singing is far more interesting - for once, there's a little grit to his voice in some of the verses. Also, the riffs are quite aggressive almost and pretty heavy, and the lyrics are very dark. Not much else to say really - another good song, not as good as the first two really but better than Flight Of Icarus.

Now we reach one of Maiden's supposed "finest classics", The Trooper. However, does it live up to its reputation? Absolutely. Yes, this is one of those songs that really is "all that", like Hallowed By Thy Name, Killers, Phantom Of The Opera, Wrathchild, and numerous other classic songs by numerous other bands. Although it's very melodic in a way that could be considered overly commercial, I wouldn't say this is nearly as sickeningly prominent a 'quality' as it is in "Run To The Hills", "Aces High", Two Minutes To Midnight", or even Flight Of Icarus from earlier on this same album. For a start it's quite pounding. It's very fast, and has heavy riffs throughout as well as a good performance by Dickinson that, while again going over the top on more than one occasion, works very well here. I still have a lot of trouble seeing most of the stuff on this album as pure heavy metal, especially with that horrible guitar tone, but this song really is genuinely great. A little overrated, but nowhere near as badly as the shit on Powerslave.

"Still Life" follows, and here we reach a song that is often criticised. Why? I have no idea. If people really allow themselves to be bothered by a humourous intro or the fact that a song that is SUPPOSED to have a long buildup does have one, then they obviously have other issues in their lives. Seriously, this song kicks arse. I find the backwards intro to be quite funny, and the rest of the song just bleeds atmosphere. So very dark, and that's another thing I love about it. It's quite a disturbing subject, about a man who loses his mind and, seeing faces in a pool from his madness, commits suicide and forces his woman to do so at the same time. Bruce's performance here is fantastic - really using the calmer side of his vocals earlier on in the song, and then taking on a great tone for what follows after the heavy guitars come in at around 1.21. The one and only weakness here is the "Nightmares! Spirits calling me!" section, which comes across as cheesy due to its hokey and obvious nature. Other than that, a great and unfairly underrated song.

"Quest For Fire" then starts, and I have to ask myself: Just what is wrong with this song? Why is it so widely panned and even hated? Oh, yeah...the lyrics. They're silly, inaccurate, and cheesy. So what? I'm more inclined to believe it was an intentional bit of fun on Maiden's part when they wrote the part that mixed dinosaurs with humans in the same time period, rather than them actually getting something very important wrong by accident. One of metal's biggest problems is that it often takes itself too seriously, and what I really do like about Maiden is that they don't usually do this. This song may be somewhat silly, but Maiden knows that - they're just goofing around, writing a fun yet epic little song that makes one feel invigorated and inspired. Its simplicity is its beauty - it only has a couple of riffs, but all of the guitaring here is uniformly excellent. In addition, the epic feel created by Bruce's singing, the lyrics themselves despite(or perhaps because of)their cheesiness, and the guitars all add up to create a marvelous atmosphere that really is a proto-power metal sound. If I had to name one song as possibly the first power metal song ever, this would likely be it, silly lyrics or not.

Then we ge to the album's first actual weak spot, Sun And Steel. Not a bad song at all - just plain boring, to be honest. Not much to say...the special part is Bruce's vocals, which are overdubbed during several points in the song to create a choral effect. Very epic and definitely a precursor to power metal vocals. This was done several times before on the album too, but it stands out the most here, I think, although that could be because the rest of the song is so boring and ordinary, which is rather disappointing.

Finally, there is "To Tame A Land". This song is based on Frank Herbert's Dune, an excellent book well worth reading, although I'm not sure if the lyrics here are entirely accurate or not. Either way, this song is excellent and a great and suitably epic closer to the album. From the soft(ish)melodic intro to the heavy chugging riffs that follow, plus all the other numerous sections, this song is close to a masterpiece and has no problems. While not the best of their "epic" songs, it fits this album perfectly. Maiden was going into really grand stuff, but they didn't want to take it too far at this point, with this new proto-power metal style they were playing only starting properly right here, on Piece Of Mind. So, while this song isn't a work of compositional genius, it doesn't have to be - it's great on its own terms.

The most interesting aspect of this song is the history behind its conception and inception. Apparently Steve Harris asked Frank Herbert for permission to title the song "Dune". However, Mr. Herbert's agent apparently said something back along the lines of: "No. Because Frank Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially rock bands like Iron Maiden". Hilarious. Another example of the "older generation" pooh-poohing metal, supposedly at least. In actuality they probably all love it but just pretend to hate it because it's how they are perceived. Thankfully this didn't become a big controversy like the idiotic "Maiden are Satanists" hype that took off in the US because of Number Of The Beast. Funny nonetheless.

To conclude: this is a very good album, one of the better 80's Maiden records. Its biggest strength, and the thing that firmly keeps in in metal territory despite its weak and hard rockish guitar tone, is this: it actually uses heavy guitar riffs as the basis for driving a song forward. On Powerslave and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, instead of doing this, Maiden would start with a heavy riff, and then subside into a melodic and weak one that one couldn't even headbang to, and vice versa. Instead of staying heavy, like heavy fucking metal is supposed to do, and keep the flowery melodies in the solos where they belong, Maiden planted their sickeningly commercial flowery melodies all over the place, but because they covered it up with "amazing songwriting" and "progressive tendencies", they got away with it and weren't called sellouts and pop-metal wannabes when they rightly should have been. Meanwhile, Priest laboured on producing real heavy fucking metal, and releases such as Defenders Of The Faith, a masterwork of heavy metal if there ever was one, were largely ignored in favour of the likes of Powerslave. It's disgusting, and just goes to show how the majority of people are too stupid to look past mediocrity for genuinely good music, and would sooner accept the former than the latter. That would be bad enough, but let's face it, the majority of people are not metalheads. If an album reaches No.1 on the charts, it's because everyone is buying it, not just metalheads, but rockers and evidently even pop lovers as well. So I could look past that. I can't and won't look past the fact that Powerslave is to this day more respected in the metal world, amongst genuine metalheads, than Defenders Of The Faith is, even though the former is a lame proggy hard rock album with an obscene level of cheese and disgusting poppy tendencies while the latter is a heavy fucking metal album with real balls.

That said, this album is also infinitely superior to Powerslave, yet gets less good reviews on average everywhere than it. Shows you just how easily people accept mediocrity.

Keeping all of that in mind, this album, while not fantastic, is extremely good, with no real weaknesses aside from the occasional overuse of silly vocal acrobatics by Bruce and a guitar tone more suited to hard rock than to heavy metal. It's a great album, underrated as it's stuck between two horribly overrated records, neither of which are as good as it is. If you are a fan of power metal(especially the earlier stuff), epic songs, interesting lyrics, or just good old classic heavy metal, then this album is well worth getting.

After the sucess of “The Number of the Beast”, Iron Maiden released the acclaimed “Piece of Mind”. And while it is a good album, it suffers from the same problem as its predecessor: the existence of too many fillers. The album released after this one, “Powerslave”, solved this problem, as it probably is the only Maiden record 100% filler-free.

Anyways, this record shows Maiden adopting more epic lyrical subjects, with “Flight of Icarus” speaking about greek mythology, “The Trooper” about some battle between Russia and England (I love History, but I really can't remember the name of the battle now, damn) and “Die with your Boots On” about the prophecies of Nostradamus. Iron Maiden continued writing this type of songs later on with songs like “Powerslave”, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Stranger in a Strange Land” or “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. This epic feel that many tunes share and the fast, melodic guitar work, give Maiden a more power metal (or proto-power metal) sound, “Piece of Mind” being arguably the first of many power metal-ish albums the band recorded. Gone are the punk influences that made the debut, “Killers” and parts of “The Number of the Beast” what they are.

Another key factor of “Piece of Mind” is the presence of the excellent Nicko McBrain, a drummer that while not trying to surprise the listener every time with some technical fills, still sounds great. “Where Eagles Dare” is absolutely dominated by his tight playing, one of the most complex (from the drummer's point of view) songs Maiden ever composed. The tune also shows the immense vocal range of Bruce Dickinson: got to love that fantastic chorus. “Revelations”, a Dickinson penned take, follows, carrying a very egyptian/oriental vibe that was explored further by the band when “Powerslave” was released. It also features some nice tempo changes, the song changing constantly between calm and more aggressive sections. Again, the drumming is very good on this track too.

“Flight of Icarus” is another strong song, insanely catchy and enjoyable, and the exact same thing goes to “Die with your Boots On” albeit this one is a bit weaker. The bass solo, courtesy of Steve Harris, is the highlight of the song, showing that Harris still plays an important role within the band. However, his bass here is a bit more buried under the guitars than on the previous albums, a thing that was fixed on the next pieces the band released (especially on “Powerslave”, where is bass is, at times, as loud as the guitars). The production is pretty competent, nevertheless, not the best the band had nor the worst. “The Trooper” is a classic that everyone that is into metal knows, the fantastic guitar riff featured on it are absolutely unforgettable and so are the “ooooooooooaaaaaoh” parts. You can sing along to this song until you die, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, the next three tracks absolutely kill the flow of “Piece of Mind”; those, friends, are the ugliest and the most annoying fillers that Maiden ever recorded, that's right. “Still Life” is unforgettable and boring, got to hate that silly spoken intro. “Sun and Stell” is a bit better, the chorus is listenable, but the song is lame, all in all. I like the “life is like a wheel... and it's rolling... stiiiiillll” part quite a bit though. Finally, “Quest for Fire” is another abomination just because you'll hardly ever remember anything about the song. The most horrid trilogy of songs ever put into a Maiden CD? I think so, lads. The closer, “To Tame a Land” contains some nice melodies, working decently well as a closer. However, I don't like the tune that much, especially when I compare it to other album closers like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Alexander the Great”, “Hallowed be Thy Name” or even “Iron Maiden”.

After all, I've got to say that the performances of the musicians are top notch, this is Iron Maiden, not KoRn, isn't it? The guitars are excellent as ever, with the Murray-Smith team delivering some quite good solos and riffs. Nicko McBrain is the man of the album as I've already said and Steve Harris is always there, performing some tasteful bass solos on some tracks. The biggest flaw of the piece is its unconsistency, the afore-mentioned trilogy of fillers killing the flow of the record and harming the whole listening experience.
Summing up, this album is very overrated, Maiden made better albums undoubtely (“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, the debut, “Powerslave”); however, the first five tunes are worth listening, they are all classics in their own way. “Piece of Mind” would be a killer album if that awful trilogy of fillers wasn't present. Meh.

Best Moments of the CD:
-the guitar attack of “The Trooper”.
-”Life is like a wheel... And it's rolling still!”.
-the final repetition of the chorus of “Flight of Icarus”.

Well, there are people who think this album was even better than Number Of The Beast. For one thing the sales on this one were massive. But that is always to be expected with an album following a breakthrough release. Me personally, I think “Piece Of Mind” is excellent but balancing between two even better albums. Whereas Number Of The Beast was an album finding a new way with a new vocalist, this time that new vocalist also contributed material and the band had to get used to a new drummer, Nicko McBrain.

Opener “Where Eagles Dare” immediately proves the new dude can play. Such dynamics and power. However the fastest songs on this album do not feel as fast as, let’s say, Invaders and Gangland were earlier (not forgetting to mention early days songs like Purgatory). On Piece Of Mind Nicko McBrain clearly has less tendencies to pick up the tempo or he just doesn’t sound that fast. This is something I always disliked despite how good the man actually is.

The guitar sound is pretty weird on this album. Later on it would prove to be the missing link between their raw early days and their more massive works from the late eighties. On this album however the guitars sound as if they were recorded in a small cardboard box. This works for some songs (Flight Of Icarus and even “To Tame A Land”) but isn’t really good enough for songs like “Where Eagles Dare” and “Revelations”, which could have done with a wider sound.

There are only three songs on this album that are debatable in terms of quality. “Still Life” (the only Murray contribution here).This song is more about melodies and dynamics than a catchy song structure. It is the rather generic “Nightmares, Spirits calling me” section that will raise some eyebrows now and then because the rest of the song is remarkably beautiful. The others are two songs which are considered fillers by many. We’re talking “Quest for Fire” and “Sun and Steel” here. Now “Quest for Fire” has a strong chorus but indeed is pretty much average material. “Sun and Steel” is slightly better but has an over generic fist banging metal chorus. Neither of these songs can be considered really bad though. They’re just fillers compared to the rest of the songs.

The power ballad “Revelations” is a Dickinson song and even though it is a rather simple one, the melodies and dynamics of the song are strong and certainly Maiden-proof. The biggest highlight however (together with opener “Where Eagles Dare”) is the closing song “To Tame a Land” which is the epic anthem on this album. Darker than Hallowed Be Thy Name was yet having a more prominent role for Harris’ bass.

“Die With Your Boots On” is a straight forward rocker with some typical Smith riffing yet fitting into the Maiden sound. His other composition, the single “Flight Of Icarus”, is fairly simple but efficient. This song dramatically pounds along with some nice vocals details on the chorus. The other single “The Trooper” is a galloping Harris song and one of the best Maiden singles ever. Sheer power and superb dynamics. The energy of the song has withstood time with ease. The only complaint about this song is hearing it too much on every live performance, compilation etcetera.

Now as said the production feels lacking at times and there are some fillers here. Making this album not as good as some other Maiden albums from the eighties but still having plenty of classic Maiden songs to stand firm after all these years!

It was 1983 when Iron Maiden released their fourth album, Piece of Mind. Up until this point, Maiden were undeniably one of the better bands to come out of the NWOBHM movement, with their strong bass-heavy rhythms, their harmonized guitar tag team, and a powerful vocalist to lead the way. But it was with Piece of Mind that they really stepped up to the plate and cemented their status as “Legendary.” For it was with PoM that they really upped their “epicness,” so to speak, with even more of the band’s great songwriting and the best lyrics in the business.

There’s little point in going over most of these songs, as everyone knows them already. Anthems like “The Trooper,” “Flight of Icarus,” and “Where Eagles Dare” have been staples in the band’s live show for decades, featuring all the elements that people look for in this band. Soaring vocals, melodic solo duels, an unconquerable sense of harmony: these things a good Maiden album make. This is the first album with the so-called classic line-up, with drummer Nicko McBrain the last to be recruited in replacement of Clive Burr. His addition is welcome, and everyone else has improved over the last album, most notably Bruce Dickinson vocally and Steve Harris (whose bass is not overwhelming as on their previous album).

One particular aspect of this album that I find important is the heightened emphasis on lyrical storytelling, an aspect that would become standard on Maiden’s future albums. Not that they couldn’t tell a good story before: songs like “Prodigal Son,” “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” and “Phantom of the Opera” prove they always could. But it’s here that every song gets equal treatment. From the somber tale featured in “Revelations” (the spiritual successor to “Prodigal Son” musically), the chilling and oft overlooked “Still Life,” the wartorn “The Trooper” and the epic “To Tame a Land,” Piece of Mind features some of the band’s most compelling lyrics, brought home true and direct by the mighty voice of Bruce Dickinson.

And with not a weak song (though both “Quest of Fire” and “Sun and Steel” always come off as filler material, they’re actually much more interesting than some of their past filler tracks (like "Gangland" for instance). And it’s not like either are long enough to get boring….) on the album, PoM is one of the more potent examples of Iron Maiden’s always having been a more consistent band than Judas Priest. A must-own, but then again, most people reading this probably already do.

Don't get me wrong, like most other metalheads, I find a lot of Maiden's output essential. However, Piece of Mind falls rather short when compared to Killers, or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

The album starts on a rather high note with Where Eagles Dare, with the epic-sounding drum intro, and the guitars that kick in a few seconds later, giving off the same epic feeling. Bruce's vocals are alright, but nothing too special. A typical, melodic, harmonized solo that we've come to expect from this band comes in. Revelations slows things down a bit, and kinda drags on, but it's not a bad track by any means.

However, after this, we have an incredibly solid trio of metal classics: Flight of Icarus gives us the typical galloping feel, then breaks down into a fist-pumping chorus that one can't help but rock out to. The album moves into Die With Your Boots On, which is a perfect example of how make a riff that involves pinch harmonics correctly, which is something a lot of bands fail at. The verses are kinda dull, but like Flight of Icarus, the chorus is incredibly infectious, albeit not on the same level.

However, we have one of Metal's most well known songs: The Trooper. How can anyone not love this song? The descending intro, which feels like it will drag you straight into a warzone, and the fast paced riffs, and Bruce's perfectly complimentary vocals. Amazing, it's not hard to see why this song is a live staple. I DARE you to not sing along to this song, this is a perfect example of a Metal anthem.

Still Life slows things down once again, however, I find this pace perfectly fine, and the highlight definately being Bruce's vocals. They give this song a very soaring-esque feel. Power Metal bands, take heed, this is how you make a slower paced, epic song.

However, at this point, the album tends to disappoint me. Quest for Fire seems like a filler track, not really leading the album anywhere. The riff is generic Maiden, and really fails to capture my attention in any way. Same goes for Sun and Steel.

To Tame a Land is a decent way to close the album, although I really would have prefered a much faster song for them to go out on. There are some good riffs in this song, however, they just lack the energy the band had at the beginning of the album.

There you have it, Piece of Mind. I recommend picking the album up, but only if you are a Maiden enthusiast. Otherwise, go for Powerslave or Killers.

I have a strong feeling this album was concocted by Iron Maiden to shed their NWOBHM skin entirely. They sure as hell were head and shoulders above the rest of the competition when it came to making this kind of music. Less NWOBHM and more power metal is on hand here. It has all the traits that future power metal bands would take from them: vocal acrobatics, melodic and epic sounding guitars and songwriting, technical chops, lyrics speaking of battlefields, barren wastelands and sci fi imagery, bass lines that bring along ensemble work with the guitars, and drumming that is completely over the top.
Speaking of drumming, exits ex-drummer Clive Burr and enters Nicko McBrain. I dont know which drummer I prefer more, but lets just say that both drummers have their strengths and weaknesses. This will be the 4th time and the fourth album where they lose an original member, but this lineup would remain stable until 1990. Onto the songs themselves..
Where Eagles Dare. The aforementioned power metal sensibilities come into play here. Quite the epic song if I do say so myself, stretching the 6 minute mark, with several riffing ideas built on top of the last one. Revelations, the first song written entirely by singer Bruce Dickinson, which changes feel and tempo without warning several times, alternating between heavy riffing sections, and softer, prettier sections for the verses.
The true classic on hand here is The Trooper, which is a staple in the live set today, and for good reason. This Steve Harris (bass) penned composition has just about everything good about Iron Maiden included in its four minute duration. The riffs are meant to make you raise your fist and join in with the defiance, while the lyrics are very descriptive and detailed, like many Maiden lyrics.
Other standouts include the very atmospheric To Tame a Land (which was to be based on the novel Dune, and was to be titled "Dune", but the author of the book threatened to sue Maiden if they used the title), and Still Life, a song that reminds me very much of Hand of Doom by Black Sabbath for some reason, and Flight of Icarus, the first single from the album, with a very anthemic sounding chorus.
Yessiree, this album took Maiden to the next level and beyond, as their stage show got even bigger and more theatrical, and they began touring more consistently with lengthier tour sets. The NWOBHM tag had finally been torn off and now they were the leaders of the modern metal movement of the time. The only question was...where do they go from here?

This is where 'Maiden' began to shape their classic form. Here 'Maiden' stood with their best line up and created a fully epic heavy metal album. 'The Number Of The Beast' was still in the middle between Dickinson era and the NWOBHM era, but in this album they were fully matured to their epic style and created an album which considers to one of the best classic of heavy metal from all times.

We start off immediately with 'Where Eagles Dare' which is based upon the same movie from 1968, which talks about a rescue operation of an american general from the nazi's claws in WWII. A short drumming section to introduce the new drummer comes in and then the riffing taking over immediately. It's amazing how such simple power chords riffing can produce a lot of atmosphere without too much variation, maybe this marvelous atmosphere increases more and more due to the epic vocals of Dickinson which rise his tons flawleslly and has an exciting vibe, anyway the riffing backs up the vocals perfectly and flows extremely well for the whole song. The soloing is also pretty epic and dives a lot with a bit psychedelic sense within and keeps on the precious atmosphere of this song without letting go. Very intense opener track, just puts you straight into the magical mood of this album. 'Revelations' is the half ballad of the album. It comes in with moderate riffing which sounds pretty similar to 'Black Sabbath' and has a badass vibe, then there is a nice chilling bridge and it turns to a sweeping melodic leading guitar which sounds just incredible. There is a fair bunch of powerful riffs here and pretty intense C-PART, and overall it's a very epic track as the opener one. It is maybe an improved version of 'Children Of The Damned (from their former album) if you wish to look it at that way.

Then we have 'Flight Of Icarus' which is one of Maiden's well known hits. The verses flowing alright and the chorus is superbly catchy and epic. It isn't cheesy too much, it's actually pretty good one, but it's very obvious that this song was meant to be the commercial single from this album.

This album could be a real masterpiece if it was shorter. It isn't a length problem, this album isn't overlong, but there are some tracks which aren't really at the same league with the highlights of the album. The row of 'Still Life', 'Quest For Fire' and 'Sun And Steel' is a row of fillers, honestly. These tracks sounds alright but they doesn't leaves a mark on you after you listen to it, as opposed to to the rest of the album. It doesn't sounds epic or unique and feels like a let down. However, after these tracks comes the incredibly epic closing track which take this album back to it's high level : 'To Tame A Land'. This song is one of Maiden's more progressive songs to date, and it's such a damn good way to close this album. It begins slowly and then becomes heavy at the verse, the chorus just rises up and leads to an astonishing instrumental section and so it closes up just awesome and sounds flawlessly epic. Easily, one of the greatest songs from this band, and that's means a lot.

'Piece Of Mind' marks the first level in the progression of 'Iron Maiden'. It has some of their best songs along some average fillers. Anyway, this album manages to be very enjoyable and even exciting sometimes, you just can't miss such a great album if you didn't listened it before. It combines the heavy metal style with an epic feeling pretty easily and I'm sure that each metalhead will like this one.

Every metalhead knows Iron Maiden, right? They need no introduction; the NWOBHM kings and the gateway band for many a metalhead both old and new. This was their fourth full length, and it's one of their "Golden Era" classics, one of those albums that bands still pilfer from today, and one of the albums that still retains the energy and fun factor that made it so fucking great in the first place. They've perfected the sound they created with Number of the Beast, and everything sounds first-class.

One tidbit about Maiden's sound on Piece of Mind is that the band does not recall their punk rock influences from the Di'Anno albums or even their NWOBHM influences from the previous release. On Number of the Beast, the band was still a fledgling outfit, finding their own sound and style - lyrically and musically. Well, none of that amateurishness was present here; the band had polished up their sound a lot, going for a more streamlined, almost arena-rock style that would gain them much fame in the coming years. No other band in the world was doing what Maiden was doing, pumping out heavy metal classics year after year, never growing weaker or stale (not in the 80s anyhow). This was the beginning of Maiden's sound as modern fans know it.

Tracks like the best song on the album, "Where Eagles Dare", the jumpy, catchy "Flight of Icarus", the heavy, kinetic "Die With Your Boots On", and the mandatory Maiden concert classic "The Trooper" overflow with youthful energy, the sound of this young band in their prime. They may be near-progressive, dark, and introspective nowadays, but this is Iron Maiden's heart and soul---jumpy, classic heavy metal riffs and bass lines, powerful drumming, and the melodic howls of the legendary Bruce Dickinson. This is the sound of a band having a fucking good time. "Revelations" and "Still Life" are darker and more thought provoking tracks, with the former being based around a Bible passage, and the second being a somber ghost story. Iron Maiden does this very well actually, not disappointing at all. Iron Maiden always did well with things like this; as seen in past classics like "Number of the Beast" and "Phantom of the Opera", and these two continue that tradition.

There are a few filler tracks here, namely "Quest For Fire" and "Sun and Steel." These are good songs, and full of vigor and an overall lighthearted atmosphere, but they don't measure up to the other songs of the album. Every Maiden album is like that, with a few great songs and a few fillers, and this is no exception. And we finally come to our token Iron Maiden epic, "To Tame a Land", which is based off Frank Herbert's Dune series. It's a good song, and has some Middle Eastern melodies packed in, but it's not as good as "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "Phantom of the Opera", or "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" off the other Golden Age Maiden albums. It does hold a special place in my heart though, being one of the first Maiden songs I heard in my first days as a metalhead.

The lyrics here are great, too, with themes revolving around old war films ("Where Eagles Dare"), religion ("Revelations"), war itself ("The Trooper"), Greek myths ("Flight of Icarus"), and even a prophecy by Nostradamus ("Die With Your Boots On"), Japanese samurai ("Sun and Steel") and science fiction literature ("To Tame a Land"). I can't blame Iron Maiden for having a bit of fun, but "Quest for Fire" is lyrically ridiculous, and historically off balance. But what else does one expect from an 80s NWOBHM band? The lyrics are one of the strongest points of Piece of Mind, though, as every song here is about something completely different, transporting you to new worlds and different times with each song. This is an adventurer's album; the musical tool of the armchair voyager, and it has a staying power due to this that many albums couldn't even dream of possessing.

If you haven't heard this one, you're missing out on a classic piece of metal history, so go out and get it right now, be you damned otherwise. Up the irons!

‘Piece Of Mind’ isn’t quite as good as its predecessor ‘Number Of The Beast’. On this one, the band takes a more melodic and yet more mature direction. This release is where Iron Maiden true sound actually begun. The album isn’t quite as consistent as the previous one, it has some slightly underwhelming songs for Maiden’s style which is what actually prevents it from getting a higher rating. Still, this is undoubtedly a damned good album. The variety on the album is outstanding, there are proggy numbers, (‘Revelations’, ‘Flight Of The Icarus’, ‘To Tame A Land’), speed metal (‘Where Eagles Dare’ and to a lesser extent ‘The Trooper’) and shorter, more melodic numbers (‘Still Life’, ‘Die With Your Boots On’, ‘Quest For Fire’, ‘Sun And Steel’).

Bruce delivers some of his best performances on some of the songs here – just check out his outstanding performances on ‘Revelations’ or ‘Where Eagles Dare’ or ‘Flight Of Icarus’. This I guess, is because the band as it progresses is getting more and more adaptive to Dickinson’s more operatic style. Dave and Adrian provide more melodic riffing this time around. The soloing here is totally ace – the solos on ‘Die With Your Boots On’, ‘Flight Of The Icarus’, ‘Revelations’ and ‘The Trooper’ rank among Maiden’s best. Steve does a great job on bass, his bass is the driving force for ‘To Tame A Land’ where he provides mesmerizing, trace-like pseudo-Egyptian bass which proves to be the backbone of the song. Nicko does a good job here although he isn’t quite as prolific as Clive.

‘Where Eagles Dare’ starts off with a burst of pure speed metal. Its based on Alistair Maclean’s excellent novel of the same title. ‘Revelations’ is a half-ballad with excellent, murky Sabbath-style riffing and stands only next to ‘Infinite Dreams’ in the list of Maiden’s best ballads. Also to be noted here is the awesome solo. ‘Flight Of The Icarus’ is regarded as a Maiden classic and rightfully so. It’s slower with an excellent vocal performance by Bruce (Dio’s influence on Bruce is clearly visible on this one) and excellent soloing by Adrian and Dave. ‘Die With Your Boots On’ is a melodic, hard-rockish number (the title’s origin isn’t clear at all). It’s one of Maiden’s catchiest and has a heck of a solo and chorus. ‘The Trooper’ is another short, speedy number. Although some of its char has certainly been lost by overplay, this one still does rule. ‘Still Life’ is a rather haunting song, Bruce keeps up with the tense atmosphere. It’s good but not quite up to Maiden’s standards, a rather underwhelming number for Maiden. ‘Quest For Fire’ and ‘Sun And Steel’ aren’t amazing either, although they’re in no way bad – they’re both very catchy with excellent choruses. Of course, all this is made up for by the last track – ‘To Tame A Land’. Based on the frankly amazing (pun intended) Dune, this one qualifies as one of Maiden’s best ever. The mesmerizing bass along with the murky Sabbath riffing is the driving force of the song. The song reflects the desert atmosphere of Arrakis (for those who haven’t read Dune, read it fools!) and pays tribute to the legendary book quite well. The song feels builds up a trance-like atmosphere excellently and finishes in a truly hypnotic fashion.

The maturity of the band is clearly seen in this release and it is recommended for Maiden fans and true metal fans alike. Although some might find the ‘lack of heaviness’ here a turn-off factor, it does make up with its more epic, mature songwriting and deserves its place of recognition in the metal universe.

This is Maiden's follow up to their highly successful break out album "Number of the Beast", and the second album with vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Much like the previous release, there is a good deal of structure to the songs here, in a more basic form than the music found on the 2 albums before Dickinson. And just as on the previous release, we have an issue of an amount of sameness among the tracks that keeps it from being completely amazing.

One of the problems on this album is that we have way too much mid-tempo rocking, and not enough really fast stuff. "The Trooper" takes the cake for the fastest song on here, with one of the most well known main guitar riffs associated with the band, an amazing performance on vocals, and some excellent lead guitar work. "Where Eagles Dare" is quasi-fast, and introduces us to the less jazzy drumming style of drummer Nicko McBrain, as this is the first album he is with the band on. The guitar riff is simple and to the point, easily remembered after one listen. "Die with your boots on" is a strong track with some amazing guitar work, and a highly memorable chorus.

"Flight of Icarus" is a heavier track with yet another catchy chorus, and a very intense final scream courtesy the air-raid siren (Dickinson). "Revelations" is an attempt at a more epic song, and although the vocal delivery is top notch and the lyrics are highly thought provoking, the music gets a bit boring and repetitive after the first 3 minutes, this one definately should have been shortened a little. "Still Life" is our first example of what would later become a standard quiet intro to an epic track, with a broken power chord line in the bass and rhythm guitar, lead by a gloomy sounding melodic solo. This song is a high point of interest as it is the blue print by which other amazing epics like Seventh Son's "Infinite Dreams", Somewhere in Time's "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", and "Fear of the Dark". The lyrics are quite dark, describing a man who looses his mind and drowns himself and his woman in a pool.

Unfortunately, we have two utter throw away tracks on this album. "Quest for Fire" has some of the dumbest lyrics I've heard, completely destroying the song, despite the music being pretty hard hitting. It's really sad to because it started off with a decent intro riff. "Sun and Steel" is musically boring, and again suffers in the lyrical department. It gallops a bit, Bruce sings about a samurai killing his enemies, and that's pretty much it. (snore) Both of these songs are short so the damage is minimal, and with the invention of the CD, we can skip to better music with the touch of a button.

The highlight of this album is "To Tame a Land", which Steve Harris regards as one of his finest compositions ever. It starts off with a highly atmospheric texture, complete with a beautiful theme in the lead guitar, which has a very distant sound to it. What follows is a very dark and heavy set of riffs and a rough sounding vocal performance, all of which stay fresh and exciting through the entire seven minute plus duration. This song was originally meant to be titled "Dune", but the title was changed as they couldn't secure permission from the writer of the story due to contraversy that arose due to some of the lyrics on the previous album. Although the title never materialized, it still remains a great lyrical and musical hommage to the classic Sci-Fi novel.

In conclusion, this album would have been the greatest if they had ditched the 7th and 8th song and replaced them with one other song similar in structure to "The Trooper" or something else that would have been fast enough to give it a run for it's money. It comes highly recommended, but I can't bring myself to say it's their greatest when it contains two of their worst songs ever. But everything else on here is quality material.

Piece Of Mind is one of my favorite Maiden releases to be sure. I never quite understood what the big deal about Number Of The Beast was; yeah, it was good, but inferior on many grounds compared to their other work. But this is a Piece Of Mind review, not a Number Of The Beast review.

It took awhile, but once the riffs and melodies sunk in on “Where Eagles Dare”, it made me realize how brilliant the song was from a song-writing standpoint. The bass and guitar work on this track is just amazing, some of the best melodic work Maiden has done; it is also quite drawn out and open ended for an opening track- an interesting choice. In a way, the rest of this CD was much like “Where Eagles Dare” for me, in the sense that it took awhile for everything to sink in. Once I found myself fully exposed to Piece Of Mind, the number of catchy hooks, melodic riffs, memorable song structures, and great vocals really hit home. I will disagree with the other reviews here and state that I liked every song, including “Quest For Fire”. Yes, “Quest For Fire” has lame lyrics, but I really like the chorus and despite the straight forward-ness of the arrangement, obviously being too easy for Iron Maiden, I enjoyed the track. I actually think that the weakest track on here is “Die With Your Boots On”. It is not bad, but for some reason I just found some sections in the song to be annoying, despite other sections containing terrific melodies.

Dickinson really starts to come into his own with his performance on Piece Of Mind. He hits some great notes and really carries songs like my personal favorite, “Flight Of Icarus”- his vocals make that song! The same could be said for “The Trooper” and “Sun And Steel”, which much like “Quest For Fire” is a little too easy, but still good to listen to. I don’t mind the more simple songs on here because the CD has plenty of cleverly arranged and progressive tracks such as “Revelations” and “To Tame A Land”. Everything else comes to together from an instrumental stand point including a lot of quality solos and of course those Maiden melodies and galloping riffs.

I don’t really have any major complaints with Piece Of Mind; there are a lot of classics on here along with quality musicianship throughout, and some worthy of note lyrics (“Quest For Fire” being the exception). I’m only taking off points because, as someone pointed out, a lot of the songs lack the certain “punch” and “oomph” that later CD’s would possess, especially when compared to Powerslave.

Song Highlights: Where Eagles Dare, Flight Of Icarus, Revelations, The Trooper, and Sun And Steel

With the release of 1982’s “The Number of the Beast”, Iron Maiden got a big breakthrough in the world of metal, and the future of the band seemed bright. It was a little setback, then, that drummer Clive Burr decided he didn’t want to continue as a part of Iron Maiden anymore. Due to “musical differences” he called it quits. This was very sad, especially since Burr was one of the greatest drummers at the time. Steve Harris & Co. didn’t give up, of course. Members of Maiden had come and gone for years, so they quickly looked around for a new drummer. They found Nicko McBrain. With drumming skills much better than his name, he would prove to be a staying member of Iron Maiden.

1983 saw the release of “Piece of Mind”, Maiden’s fourth studio album. An album that is a little more laidback than its prequel, it proved to be Maiden’s biggest seller yet. It all kicks off with a short drum intro from McBrain, probably to prove that he’s as great as Burr (Personally, I don’t think he can beat Burr, but he’s still good), before the guitar-riff begins. ‘Where Eagles Dare’ is playing, and it’s great. A mid-paced song based on the movie of the very same name (with Clint Eastwood and all), and featuring a rather lengthy instrumental mid-section , where you can hear gunfire. The main guitar-riff is godly, both in the verse/chorus, and its offspring in the instrumental sections. As usual for Maiden, the chorus is very memorable, and all in all it’s almost the best song on the record. Track two, ‘Revelations’, has got to be the best song on the album. The opening riffs are great, the song itself is great, and the ending is perfect. It’s a ballad, though occasionally fast-paced. The intro verse is a passage taken from the Bible, probably from Revelations. The whole song is very melodic, and the verses/chorus are wonderful. Dickinson wrote the song himself, and proves beyond a doubt how good a songwriter he really is. For further proof, look up on his two latest solo studio albums. ‘Flight of Icarus’ is the third song, and it too is superb. It was the first single off the album, and is based on the legend of Icarus. A kind of slow-paced song, but it still packs a punch, and of course a melodic hook or two. It’s really a song not easily comparable to other Maiden songs, and it stands out as a really memorable track. Dickinson shines on this with his excellent vocal delivery, and the end guitar-solo is kickass.

Number four is ‘Die With Your Boots On’. This is a faster song, though compared to “Number…”, it’s not really fast at all. It’s very cool, and the chorus is a real singalong one. And don’t forget the excellent guitar solo! Really cool stuff. The song that the majority of people will say is the best song on display here, is ‘The Trooper’. And it IS great. From the twin-guitar attack at the beginning, to the in-your-face verse and the galloping rhythm, it’s a real treat. I think the two solos in this one is two of Maiden’s greatest ever. So what do we have so far? Five GREAT songs, almost perfect every one of them. It’s too good to be true, right? Of course it is. Otherwise I would’ve rated it as high, if not higher than ‘Number…’. Track number six, ‘Still Life’, is sort of the title track. It begins calm, with a nice accoustic/lead guitar intro. A problem is that I found Dickinson’s vocals here not quite as good as he usually is. When he tries to sing nice and calm, he doesn’t quite succeed (he would in later years, though, especially on “Brave New World”). Overall, a good song, but nothing special, really. It just doesn’t have that “punch” that most Maiden songs have.

Then we have ‘Quest For Fire’. Hardly a killer song, it features a very simple rhythm pattern, and stupid lyrics. It’s really cheesy, and I wish it would’ve been left off of the album. It’s just another ‘Gangland’. Good news, then, that the b-side ‘Sun And Steel’ is better. It’s featured on the remastered version of “Piece of Mind” as track number eight, and it’s a good rocker, with a catchy chorus, and an interesting verse. Not really much else to say about it. This album’s epic track is the last; ‘To Tame a Land’. Lyrically, it’s based on ‘Dune’, and it would’ve been named after it too, if it weren’t for the jackass author of said novel that didn’t want a band like Iron Maiden to represent his sacred work. Anyway, the song has a bit of an Egyptian vibe, no doubt because of the lyrical content (y’know, dunes and all that). The structure of the song changes several times as it goes on, and all the instruments gets it their way. The numerous solos/twin guitars, the bass, the drums; it all comes together in this song to make an outstanding epic. Dickinson is actually shoved into the backseat. But what he does here is great still, even if it’s an instrument’s song. It was actually Harris’ favorite song for years.

Ok. So what we have is another great album from the best band in the world. I rate it lower than “Number…” because of the weaker second half, and the slight laidback feel of the album. This would be turned around with “Powerslave”, luckily. Still, nine out of ten ain’t bad, is it…