„Number of the beast“

(EMI, 1982)

I could tell you how important this record was in the development of heavy metal-music, how Iron Maiden influenced all the death-metallers and even Papa Roach ripped off the riff from "Last Resort" from them, how important this record is in the history of music as a whole, how this was my favorite album as a kid, but I won't. First, I can't. I am no heavy-metal-fan, I never listened to a lot of heavy-metal. Second, I am no music-historian and I don't ever want to be. And if I will ever be one, I find myself another genre. Thirdly, I never owned  the album itself until a few years ago, when, out of an unknown whim, I bought it on a flea market. A few weeks later on I also listened to it, and boom, I was hooked. Because this is good. This record rocks. A lot. It has to be the perfect eighties-heavy-metal-album. (Okay, so there is KISS as well...)

Then I remembered that my older brother had this album, though he never seemed to listen to it (he preferred Samantha Fox, Nena and Die Δrzte at that time), but I had a tape of it, I think. I am not sure. But when I listened to the record, it all came back to me again. And more. First off, there is the intro, that is unforgettable. It is not a sample, as is usual nowadays, it was specially recorded for this album. And it has so much deep meaning in it and yet remains to stay so shallow, you just have to respect that. Revolution of the straight man against the evil powers that be.The ruling class is actually a secret, evil conspiracy and there is a Number one, one person, who rules everything and that, of course, is wrong. And this must be the most famous quote from the bible (except maybe the one going "HE is my sheperd, he will guide me through the valley of darkness..." which you can hear in every other western-movie and of course the one by Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction) about how the Devil sends his beast and "let him who hath understanding reckon the number, for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty-six" and boom, the guitar sets in. I guess, you have heard all the conspiracy-theories about this number, regarding barcodes, the UNO, and whatnot. That is funny, believe me.

Now to the music. You might have been thinking, I mention this record here, under "best records of all time", as a gimmick or a stupid joke, but I never joke. This is a great, rocking album. Do you remember the genius Bullet La Volta, one of the hardest-rocking hardcore-bands there ever were? They stole every riff from Iron Maiden. And still, metal- and hardcore-bands all over the world live on that legacy. The singer of HIM once said, that when he was about 14 years old, he was in a band, and the only song they ever played was "run to the hills" from this here record. And it is a great song. The guitars are riffing and shredding in a furious groove, the drums pound their heart out, the bass holds a steady line to keep your heart beating and the singer... well, Bruce Dickinson wasn't called "Air Raid Siren" for naught. There are guitar-solos galore, but they are never just a matter of self-interest. They serve the song. I mean, certain genres of music demand solos. (Jazz and Blues do, Reggea and Techno don't, Hardcore and Punk ain't sure - as always - and Metal needs them.) You get the mystical, gregorian stuff from medieval times here as well, in the solos, long before they became so famous with the gothic crowds.

Of course, Iron Maiden were posers in the truest heavy-metal-sense, but back then, long hair and leggings were not a masked-up ludicrious cliche it became with soft-rockers like Poison or Moetly Crue. Iron Maiden tried to play the heaviest, most evil music they knew. A few years later you'd get Megadeth and Death and Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death and things changed very much. But 1982 it didn't get much harder than that. Keep in mind, a few years before that it was Led Zeppelin and the Blue Oyster Cult. Things do change, don't they. Nowadays we have Limp Bizkit and Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

The songs deal with the fears and nightmares of modern man: which is of course either the dark medieval times or the dark dead ends of urban live like prostitution or imprisonment. Either way, it is dark there. The record starts off with the great "Invaders" which is all about evil hordes of medieval Nordics invading, pillaging, looting, raping, marauding, plundering, fighting, overpowering, killing and so on. Great song that with a cool guitar hook in the refrain: "Invaders - daa dadaa dadaa da - fighting!" The next two songs deal with the evil in man, one in third person - "children of the damned" and one in first person addressing the lsitener - "The prisoner", which is a nice lyrical trick that adds closeness. "Now you see me / now you don't / break the walls / I'm coming out" to kill you, of course. The song "22 Acacia Avenue" shows pretty well that Iron Maiden were never the ideological thinkers. It deals with prostitution, and at first the whorehouse is described as a nice place for men to go and have fun, but then the song turns around and centers on the prostitute Charlotte (Iron Maiden are an english band after all) and the singer tells her how bad her life really is. Okay, nobody expected social criticism in here, but there you have it and it is as flat and shallow as expected. Gladly the second side gives you "The number of the beast" and "Run to the hills" - two classic rockers. The last two songs never stay in my mind. "Gangland" is rather straight forward and "hallowed be thy name" is nice because it sets forth the long tradition of singers imagining themselves to be in deathrow. That's nice.

This was only a short overview. There is actually a lot more in this record. I have bought the first to albums by Iron Maiden as well in the mean time, and even though musically I like them more, because they rock just as hard but they are a little rougher, this record wins out because of all the ideological/satanistic embellishments and  the oh-so-evil decorations. The atmosphere is better and, if you like rock (and if you have humour) you'll like this record.