Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1983)

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.