Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1983) Reviews

After 1982's 'The Number of the Beast' cemented Iron Maiden's prominence in the metal world, the band were quickly back in the studio to build upon their momentum with 'Piece of Mind', an album that many fans hold in high regard, but one that I merely consider the final step in the transitional period that would see Iron Maiden truly reach their prime years.

Continuing Iron Maiden's run of what many consider their "golden era" of albums (the inclusion of new drummer Nicko McBrain would cement what would be viewed as the classic lineup), 'Piece of Mind' is revered by fans as one of the bands finest releases. Though, much like its predecessor, I feel there's too much filler material for me to share that opinion.

As with previous outings, there are a few instantly recognizable classics, such as 'Where Eagles Dare', 'Flight of Icarus', 'To Tame a Land', and one of the groups most memorable hits 'The Trooper' (which I often find to be fairly overrated, to be honest), but other than these songs, I feel the rest are fairly bland and uninspiring. Not that they're terrible, but tracks like 'Quest for Fire' and 'Sun and Steel' just don't really do anything for me.

The verdict has long been out that this is a classic Maiden album however, and in fairness, if you're a fan of the band then it's got enough "classic" material and status going for it that it warrants being in your collection, but overall I just find this to be the final album before the band really hit their stride and go through a string of excellent releases.

It's decent enough, but from here on out is where things really start to get good.

I've let it be known before that I preferred the rawness that Paul Di'Anno brought to Maiden's sound over the more polished vocal histrionics of Bruce Dickinson, because I just prefer that almost punky, aggressive style. There's no denying, though, that the switch from Di'Anno to Dickinson made Maiden far more palatable to the music press and, consequently, far more popular amongst the young fans who were getting turned onto metal (in England anyway) at this time. Number of the Beast was a decent record with a couple of excellent tracks that was symptomatic of a band forging a new direction and still finding their feet, but despite this it sold massively and catapulted Maiden to the top of the metal tree. The follow up may, therefore, have been problematic, but Steve Harris and co. ironed-out (sorry!) the uneveness of NotB and turned in my favourite post Di'Anno Maiden album, Piece of Mind. Some real classics here, Revelations, Die With Your Boots On and the awesome gallop of the Charge of the Light Brigade-themed The Trooper are all firm favourites. In fact, the first six tracks are one of the best sequences of songs I've heard on a heavy metal album. Even the three final, supposedly lesser, tracks with their fantastical 1,000,000 Years BC-style lyrics are very good songs. With this and the subsequent Powerslave, for me, Maiden hit the high water mark of the Bruce era and sadly were never this good again.

Following the hit and miss nature of their third full length, Maiden stepped up their game on album number four.  Possibly Dickinson knew the band better and the band knew him better or the stars aligned during the songwriting process this time around and the duds (almost) didn’t surface this time around.  Or maybe it was the arrival of Nicko on drums that caused the gear change.

There’s lots here to surmise that this was a band starting to mature some.  The musicality and general fire of the lead work seems so much more obvious and refined on ‘Piece Of Mind’.  There’s a sense of cohesion and a feel for flair now and again that really doesn’t seem as prevalent on previous outings.  Structure wise the album is much more consistent, arguably not dipping until the final third of the release but never quite suffering the grot of the tracks that get the sharp end of my tongue on my review of ‘Number of the Beast’.

I can’t quite decide whether or not I get on with ‘Quest for Fire’ and ‘Sun and Steel’?  Both are much more basic in terms of the songwriting in comparison to the rest of the album but they do still hold some appeal that keeps my finger of the skip button although they lack any of the dynamic of ‘Flight of Icarus’ or ‘The Trooper’ for example.

As I have gotten older the less spoken of tracks such as ‘Revelations’ and the sometimes maligned ‘Still Life’ have gained more traction in my listens to the album and so as a result ‘Piece Of Mind’ is an album that still feels like it is giving me things some 36 years after it was released.