Iron Maiden
The Number Of The Beast

THE REVIEW

It's 1982 and Iron Maiden, one of the most important metal bands of all time, after the unknown reasons behind the departure of Paul Di'Anno, their former singer, release their third album, the most renowned; a truly unique, introspective album, appreciated and unanimously considered by audience and critics alike as the best work of the London quintet: the album in question is "The Number of the Beast." With its release, Iron Maiden definitively capture the general public, accumulating acclaim, success, and many undeserved awards. "The Number of the Beast" in fact merely considers and elevates the worst parts of the two previous albums "Killers" and "Iron Maiden" which still maintained a good level from a compositional standpoint, without any drop in style. Instead, "The Number of the Beast" alternates good tracks (few) with horrible ones that serve as so-called "filler tracks."

The album begins with "Invaders": it would have been impossible to imagine a worse start! The song tries (unsuccessfully) to evoke hypothetical invasions of monstrous beings, a horrendous, absolutely unlistenable, and senseless song, and it is not the only horrible thing on the album! But let's proceed in order. Next comes "Children of the Damned", and the situation, luckily for us, improves radically; a valid piece both from a melodic and technical standpoint; beautiful, truly beautiful. The only problem with this piece is that it does not fulfill in "The Number of the Beast" what a "Remember Tomorrow" or even better a "Phantom of the Opera" (even though melodically and harmonically they are two completely different pieces) fulfilled in "Iron Maiden." Indeed, in "Children of the Damned" there is little experimentation, little room for riffs and solos; a few more minutes of music, as Iron Maiden knows how to create, would not have bored, rather it would have "completed" a rare gem like this that could have become a true masterpiece.

Next is "The Prisoner," the album's second disappointment (although not as pathetic as "Invaders"), a grating, pointless song with ridiculous lyrics on which I don't want to dwell too much. In the fourth track, we find "22 Acacia Avenue," another "almost masterpiece" of the record. Especially engaging guitar intro, great lyrics, lots of energy and power and the job's done! A great piece which, however, lacks something to be considered a masterpiece. The fifth track, the title track, is a decent piece without infamy and without praise, a chronicle of a demonic dream Steve Harris (Iron Maiden's bassist) had. Even in this case, Iron Maiden does not exaggerate in originality, indeed, Satanism has always been in rock/metal iconography; was there really a need to reiterate everything once again by even dedicating an album to the already much-cited number 666? And then, let me say, Satanism really makes no sense! After this little digression, returning to the album, there follow three obscene and useless pieces, on the level of "Invaders": "Run to the Hills," "Gangland" and "Total Eclipse" and at this point, the album has truly hit rock bottom; and not even a masterpiece like "Hallowed Be Thy Name" can now raise its level. This is how it all concludes, with the masterpiece of masterpieces, one of the best tracks ever composed by Iron Maiden in their entire career, what can I say? Genius! Nothing else, it's pointless wasting other words to say what can be summarized in one. Genius! Oh right, the album, I almost forgot, in front of certain masterpieces, the rest is useless and tends to fade away... what can I say? An album in which more than half of the tracks do not reach a rating of 2 (and not two stars out of ten!) cannot be sufficing even if, as in this case, it contains three of the finest episodes ever encountered in the history of metal.