During the NWOBHM many many bands came up and contributed with demos, singles and individually produced albums. By the mid 1980s the movement of glam metal ended the NWOBHM and only a few bands managed to come out of it. One of the bands that had its roots in the NWOBHM, outlasted it and is still one of the most popular heavy metal bands today is Iron Maiden. The band has released 17 studio albums and numerous singles between 1980 and 2021.
Iron Maiden was formed in 1975 in Leyton by Steve Harris (bass and main song writer of the band). Steve Harris is still a member of the band today. Guitarist Dave Murray has been part of the band since 1978 and is one of the oldest members together with Steve Harris. Current drummer Nicko McBrain has been with the band since 1982. Since the return of Guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999 (previous band member 1980 - 90) the band is playing with three guitarists (Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Dave Murray), which is pretty fun to watch on stage.
Iron Maiden released their debut album Iron Maiden in 1980. This first album and also their second album Killers featured lead singer Paul Di'Anno. He left the band in 1981 and the third Iron Maiden album The Number Of The Beast features the legendary voice of Bruce Dickinson for the first time. Bruce Dickinson had been the lead singer of fellow NWOBHM-band Samson before and has now been lead vocalist of Iron Maiden from 1981 - 1993 and again from 1999 - today. During the short absence of Dickinson from 1993 - 99 Iron Maiden released two studio albums with vocalist Blaze Bayley. The X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998) were the least successful albums of the band until today.
Up until today Iron Maiden released 17 studio albums, 13 live albums, 47 singles and 20 video albums. When starting my research into the band it took me quite a while to read through the band history as it is really extensive. I've also watched The History of Iron Maiden Part 1 - 3 and the Iron Maiden Flight 666 Documentary on YouTube to brush up my general knowledge of the band. It was fun to watch the Early Days documentary - just for the clothes worn by the band alone.
And of course I listened to a lot of songs. Iron Maiden has been playing on my headphones for the last 14 days and I quite enjoyed it. For someone still very new to metal they are a safe start to the genre. The songs are fun to listen to, they have catchy riffs and melodies and I've had more than one song stuck in my head for quite some time. Fear of the Dark being of them of course.
There are some aspects of Iron Maiden that I find especially remarkable:
The first is their use and love of their mascot Eddie. In the beginning the band used a small papier-mâché mask in the backdrop that would spit blood at some point during the show. The mask became bigger with time and had other features like releasing smoke and flashing eyes. "The Head" sounding like "Ed" became a popular feature of their live performances.
When they chose their first album cover designed by Derek Riggs in 1980 they transfered the name of the mask onto the figure shown on the cover. Eddie the Head became Eddie. And Eddie has been shown on each and every album and single cover since then. He is also prominent on merchandise and an integral part of Iron Maiden live shows where he appeared as gigantic walking figures, inflatables and huge moveable figures in the backdrop. Eddie changed his appearance with each album and always related to the theme of the album or the tour respectively. Eddie also has his own computer game (Ed Hunter), is namegiver to the Ed Force One (the planes that Iron Maiden used on their world tours) and won the "Icon Award" in 2008 at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. So it is safe to say that Eddie is an integral part of the band and Iron Maiden made very good use of him. He is a recurring feature that fans love as much as the music.
Secondly, Iron Maiden is famous for their live shows. They are a band that was never widely featured on radio and television and nevertheless they sold over 100 million albums worldwide and have a huge and loyal fan base. And this is due to their relentless touring activities and bombastic live shows where they use huge backdrops, theatrical elements, giant props and pyrotechnics. Up till today the band has played over 2000 concerts in 59 countries. Needless to say that it is quite cool that singer Bruce Dickinson has been flying the Ed Force One himself on tour. Not many metal singers that can do that I reckon.
I've had great fun getting to know Iron Maiden and I will definitely continue listening to them. I haven't heard all albums yet, just the early albums (Iron Maiden, Killers, The Number of the Beast, Powerslave, Fear of the Dark), Brave New World (2000) and then their current album Senjutsu (2021). Senjutsu is vastly different from the sound of the early albums. But it grows on you after listening to it two or three times. It is a lot slower and more melodic, more mature just like the musicians themselves by now.
I definitely like Iron Maiden and there a number of songs that I've put on my playlist. Will continue listening, that is for sure.