Iron Maiden: classic, thinking man's metal

A friend of mine, himself a big music fan, told me a couple months ago that he rarely talks to someone our age who won't admit that they liked Iron Maiden as a teenager. \nAt first I had my doubts, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized he just might be on to something. In my junior high and high school, Iron Maiden was everywhere.\nIn the mid to late-1980s, a good chunk of the white teenage male population listened to Maiden religiously -- and I was certainly in that group. It was a rite of passage, something we had to do to become men. We wore ratty Iron Maiden shirts; some kids even had jean jackets with big Maiden patches on the back.\nBut, sadly, as most of us grew older, we grew out of Iron Maiden. We eventually felt that metal was too immature, too noisy, too juvenile for us to listen to. We went to college and were soon introduced to Nevermind, and Maiden faded into the dark recesses of our minds and memories.\nThankfully, however, some of us realize the error of our ways and have returned to the bangers from Britain. We understand that Iron Maiden is a crucial part of our past and, therefore, a crucial part of who we are. We also remember that Maiden was an awesome band.\nIron Maiden hit its peak beginning in 1982 with The Number of the Beast and running through 1986's Somewhere In Time. In between it released Piece of Mind (1983), Powerslave (1984) and Live After Death (1985), a live album that summed up their careers to that point.\nAt first my parents were not too thrilled with my Maiden fandom. I spent several months trying to convince my mother that, despite the Number's title, the band members were not Satan worshippers. (In hindsight, I was a relatively trouble-free teenager. At least I never took the car and drove it through an apple orchard. But ask my brother about that.)\nBut once my parents eased up and acquiesced, I dove headfirst into Maiden. I quickly learned that the band was special for four reasons, the first being lead singer Bruce Dickinson's voice -- and lung capacity. At times Dickinson (who, by the way, used to be an Olympic-class fencer) sounded uncannily like an air-raid siren. His shrieks and wails went on and on and on and on (trust me, that's a good thing).\nThe second unique feature of the band was its dual lead-guitar sound. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith were able to match each other note for note, and sometimes they did just that, producing powerful riffs and solos in complete unison. Up to that point, no band had really attempted such an approach; usually metal songs used one lead guitar and one rhythm guitar.\nThen, of course, there was Steve Harris, who was one of the first metalheads to use the bass virtually as a lead instrument. While Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler and others were talented bassists, it was Harris who really proved that bass could stand on its own and add something more than just the plodding rhythm of a song (at least as far as heavy metal is concerned; John Entwistle was doing incredible stuff with the Who long before metal even came into being).\nFinally, there was Maiden's willingness to go beyond simple, heavy riffs and thudding guitars. Thanks largely to the abilities of Murray, Smith, Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain (yes, that's his name), Maiden was a thinking man's metal. In many ways, the band represented a fusion between bands like Sabbath or Judas Priest and prog-rockers like Yes or King Crimson.\nThe results frequently were epic, 10-minute songs based on literary works, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem) and "To Tame a Land" (taken from Frank Herbert's Dune books).\nBut Maiden was also capable of shorter songs that worked well as MTV singles. War horses like "Run to the Hills," "The Trooper," "Die With Your Boots On," "Aces High," "2 Minutes to Midnight" and "Wasted Years" were head-banging classics to make your ears bleed.\nIron Maiden has been active for more than 20 years at this point, although Dickinson left the group for a while in the '90s and other band members came and went. However, the classic line-up is back together, plus a third guitarist (three guitars? OK, if you say so).\nMy recommendation: Pick up Piece of Mind or Powerslave. Those two albums represent the best metal has to offer. And if your mother bugs you, just turn the volume up.