Iron Maiden
Powerslave

THE REVIEW

When it comes to "metalheads," they are often thought of as delinquents, drug addicts, and boors who gather together, wield basses and guitars, and make noise. Completely wrong, and to prove it is one of the greatest heavy metal bands music has introduced us to, Iron Maiden, as the members, in private, are polite and honest men. Just think of the singer Bruce Dickinson, the leader of the band, someone who has done it all in his life: he graduated with honors in medieval history, was the European fencing champion, and is an airline pilot trained by British Airways. In short, the Irons are good people. I want to review one of their most important albums, "Powerslave," which fully reflects their personality made of anger, anger, and more great anger. Let's start with the cover: brilliant! All Iron Maiden covers feature great imagination, often represented by macabre characters, though this is not the case with "Powerslave." Eight pieces of great metal, with driving rhythms, distorted guitars, and scratchy voices, convincingly "off-key" in their approach.

The album opens with "Aces High," featuring an intriguing guitar similar to that of the great "Fear of the Dark." Then comes space for the chords, accompanying Dickinson's voice, angry as always. Around two minutes, a great solo, like all those in their songs. Their solos are what I adore most about Iron Maiden and what, in my opinion, characterizes them. In short, not everyone can perform solos like those in "Futureal," "No more Lies," and "Dance of Death," just to name a few. Another interesting track on this album is track number two, "2 Minutes to Midnight," which already promises a lot from the title (literally translated to Italian as "2 minutes to midnight"). A powerful guitar at the start, followed a few seconds later by drums and then Bruce's voice. The chorus is interesting, as it includes the title of the song. The usual extraordinary solo, typical of Iron Maiden, speed, and high notes. Other great songs are "Flash of the Blade" and especially track number seven "Powerslave," which not coincidentally gives the album its name and is characterized by horror movie atmospheres. At two and a half minutes, the song calms down and begins to be accompanied by electric guitar notes, Pink Floyd style or "Fade to Black" by Metallica. But soon after, the drums become more present, the rhythm speeds up, the rhythm guitar starts with chords, and above all, a huge, fantastic, indescribable solo, one of my favorites of Iron Maiden.

The last track is "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," practically endless, lasting more than thirteen minutes, really beautiful. It seems really hard to find a flaw in this album, perhaps only the fact that the rhythms remain the same and the structure is always the same, but after all, that is precisely what makes "Powerslave" a cohesive and complete album, a bit like "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. It is highly recommended for all heavy metal enthusiasts to have "Powerslave" by Iron Maiden in their CD collection.