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Album Details
- Artist: Iron Maiden
- Album: Piece Of Mind
- Label: Capitol
- Year of Release: 1983
- ME Rating: Indie Classic
- Reviewed by: patchen on 2007-09-23
Recommend"Hmm, Hmmm, what ho sed de t'ing wid de t'ree bonce. Don't meddle wid t'ings you don't understand."–gibberish/Iid Amin imitation right before the start of "Still Life"
For my birthday in 1984, I only wanted two things: Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind and Triumph’s Armed Forces, and I wanted them on cassette so I could listen to them in my first car, a 1976 Chevy Duster that I blew up a year later after driving 100 miles with no oil. I remember this because the Maiden has remained a favorite of mine, and Triumph has, well, had its name usurped by a dog puppet. I mention this bio bullshit because a good record is an event in someone’s life, like whatever happens to you tonight. Piece of Mind, no matter how my tastes have changed, remains an event that will never be forgotten.
Coming on the heels of Number of The Beast, their third release and the record that broke them in the States, "Piece of Mind" honed their sound while expanding it, especially lyrically. It also truly solidified vocalist (call his operatic but raw style "Dio, but with balls") Bruce Dickinson’s stamp on the band in the wake of Paul DiAnno’s departure. As ever, that sound was anchored by the melodic but hard lines of bassist Steve Harris. The interplay between guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith became less competitive and more integrated with each other. If there was ever a call and response solo to make you pull over to the side of the road in awe, it is their exchange on "Flight of Icarus" that will do it. It is simply one of the classic metal solos. Tracks like "The Trooper," " Die With Your Boots On" and "Where Eagles Dare" have stood the test of shitty radio and watered down pop-metal and remain classics of the genre.
Dickinson shared Harris’ fascination with myth and sci-fi, and the songs here drew for their lyrics from sources as varied as writers Frank Herbert ("To Tame a Land") and Alistair MacLean ("Where Eagles Dare"), poets like GK Chesterton (quoted in "Revelations," which also features ideas by that mystic perv Alistair Crowley) and movies ("Quest For Fire"). Literary allusions aside, the songs themselves are delivered heavy and majestic; Maiden were always one of the more musically adept metal bands, and here they may have reached their peak. Here Dickinson is throaty and dramatic, but not overly so; there is a passion here too that sets it apart from most metal releases, and has always helped separate Iron Maiden from the pack.
"Number of The Beast" may get all the love, and their subsequent release, "Powerslave" may have veered a bit too far with the mythological trappings, but "Piece of Mind" showcases a band at the peak of confidence and full of ideas that translate smart both lyrically and in heavily but melodic rocking. Today, Maiden still release the occasional record, and, like Status Quo, are considered relevant in the UK and a nostalgia act in the States (Ok, I’m being generous; Status Quo are not considered at all here). But no one can take away the lasting impact of "Piece of Mind," for the history of metal and for some dude in Rhode Island who took a chance on a record because the cover was cool, and got repaid with a kinda sorta career.
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on 2007-07-18 Bastard Said:
ah! the 1st maiden album i ever heard. i was 10 years old at a friends house. they had an indoor, heated pool. the next room over is where "the trooper" was playing. his cousin is a maiden fan to the core. his name is ted. he had the vinyl of this cranked up so loud my ears were hurting. i'm curious now what kind of system he had set up in there. anyway, he played this album....i had fallen in love with maiden from right there! the trooper was just awesome. this album was only 2 years old when i had heard it at that moment. i begged and pleaded to borrow it. ted said "not a chance. this is my baby." after i got home i asked my dad if we can go and buy me an album. we argued about it for an hour and he finally gave in. i was so happy i cried. i brought it home and just kept playing the whole album for days straight. mind you this was in the summertime and school was out. every time i've listend to it, i closed my eyes and had visualized everything that i heard. i slept listening to it too. man, those were some wicked dreams i had. i highly recomend this cd to everybody in the world who likes rock. enjoy. :) i know i did and still do.
Rating: 6/10
