Band of the Week: Iron Maiden

"Your time will come!"
A little disclaimer for those of you who don’t share my passion for power metal, and may be getting tired of hearing about: The featured artist won’t always fall into that genre – there simply aren’t enough good bands playing this most mind-blowing style of hard rock to cover 52 weeks of the year. If only there were…

That said, with last week’s release of “A Matter of Life and Death,” their first album in three years – and first to ever debut in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 (at No. 9) – it only seems right to pay homage to the founding fathers of power metal, the one and only Iron Maiden.

While I’ll admit (with some shame) to not yet purchasing that critically acclaimed record – been preoccupied with changing companies and jobs for the last couple weeks, which, really, is no excuse – it nonetheless occupies the coveted top spot on my oft-derided “CDs to Buy” list.

“Ah,” you say, “but this is just another tongue-in-cheek tribute to a silly, silly band, aimed at drawing a couple cheap laughs. I may have been tricked into believing you worshipped the Warrior Kings of Polish Power Metal, Sorcerer, but I won’t be so quick to believe you again.”

Fools! All kneel before Edward the Great.


Just look at that beautiful artwork, which could proudly hang in the world’s great galleries beside their Picassos and Renoirs. Clearly, Maiden isn’t kidding around, and I assure you, neither am I.

And that’s precisely why head shrieker Bruce Dickinson and company continue to reign supreme as the Gods of Power Metal, bravely weathering sidestepping ever-shifting trends throughout more than three decades in the trenches: This has never been a joke to Iron Maiden, and it never will be.

Unlike contemporary purveyors – say, The Darkness, whose career path has followed the meteoric rise and fall of many UK rockers’ before them – Maiden approaches their material with reverence and gravity. Whether meditating on the mythological Icarus’ vain attempts to fly ever-closer to the sun (“The Flight of Icarus), the bleakly sanitized future of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” or the tragic story of horror-musical cult classic “The Wicker Man,” Maiden never plays it for laughs.

The song structures are, suitably, as grandly epic as the lyrics, spreading multiple moods and tempos out over tracks that frequently clock in at 7 or 8 minutes, and sometimes considerably more. And always there is the “power” in Maiden’s metal, a punishing rhythm section driven frenzied bass runs, galloping drums and a soaring dual-guitar attack that demands the respectful sign of “devil horns” thrown with abandon.

For newcomers to Edward’s kingdom, 2000’s comeback album, “Brave New World,” is a great starting point for your journey into Maiden’s storied past. Or, if you’re afraid to dive in head first, just listen to classic single “Run to the Hills,” with its pairing of blistering guitar work with a poignant examination of how early Americans founded “the greatest country in the world” through treachery and genocide. Heavy stuff, in every sense of the word.

Long live the Maiden.