William_the_Bloody

Hey I had to endure him putting a lesser Scorpions album before Highway to Hell, so its only fair that you get to suffer to.

Unknown Soldier

I doubt you two clowns have ever listened to a Scorpions album.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

Actually I have, several, which is why I'm routing for Love at First Sting

The Batlord

As have I. I have Love at First Sting on cassette as a matter of fact (I never would have payed money for it if I hadn't found it at a thrift store).

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Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
It had been two years since the band’s previous album Blackout in 1982 and in that time the Scorpions had become one of the biggest metal draws in the world, most notably in the USA where they regularly sold out venues. The band had achieved this worldwide status largely on the back of constant touring and of course through no shortage of musical talent, and therefore it was only fitting that Love at First Sting would be their biggest seller to date. The album would ultimately reach no.6 on the US Billboard album chart and go double-platinum by the end of 1984, before finally going triple-platinum several years later, making the album one of the big commercial metal sellers of its time. The album produced two hit singles in “Rock You Like a Hurricane” “Still Loving You” and to a lesser extent with “Big City Nights” all compositions on the album were by Klaus Meine lyrics and Rudolf Schenker music. This album was amongst the first batch of metal albums that I ever bought back in the mid 1980s and I remember buying this album along with albums from Def Leppard and Van Halen, and despite liking all three albums, this was the one that I adored largely because of its powerhouse tracks, mixed in with balladry and all tied together delightfully by that melancholic nasal style of Klaus Meine. I of course adored its album cover, an area where the band had always excelled with their seriously risqué/controversial covers over the years, in fact the previous album cover for Blackout had appeared quite normal by the band’s standards. The album cover for Love at First Sting which despite not being controversial, was certainly in your face as it were, with an attractive woman partially naked having a man wearing those swanky cowboy boots putting a tattoo on her thigh, this was extremely very forward thinking as this album cover comes from a time long before it was fashionable for women to have tattoos and the black and white approach is very slick as well. The album also came with what I call the ‘just in case album cover’ which was an alternate clean cover that featured the band dressed up in god knows how much £ or $ worth of leather and this finally appeared on the reverse of the album sleeve. Now any readers of this journal, will know that I not only think of the Scorpions as one of the finest bands to grace metal in the period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but they also happen to be one of my favourites largely because they were able to tow that centric metal line without ever sounding generic, I guess being German and having a German feel to their sound helped in this respect as well and overall Love at First Sting ranks for me as their second best album after Lovedrive (see 1979 review) The album starts with that breathtaking spiralling shredding intro of “Bad Boys Running Wild” and then the muscle of the song hits and this track is a metal thoroughbred through and through and Klaus Meine’s tasty sounding vocals propel the song along on this definitive track. Next up is the seminal “Rock You Like a Hurricane” which needs little introduction and that ‘hushed’ vocal approach by Klaus Meine combined with the meat of the band is the stuff of legend, and by now the band have the best lyrics of this year’s list. “I’m Leaving You” is a breezy and blustery delight and the half-ballad half-powerhouse “Coming Home” shows that the band were very much at the top of their game and its two halves meld together perfectly. Side closer “The Same Thrill” is that typical speedy and tenacious album track from the time, that was often common on centric metal and AOR releases. “Big City Nights” turns the power back on and this is a slow burner that swaggers around like it owns the place. The melodic "As Soon as the Good Times Roll" is actually one of my favourite songs on the album and again like with most of the songs here I just love how Klaus Meine sings those lyrics. Marching drums lead us into the almost melancholic "Crossfire" a song that threatens to explode into something louder but the band do a great job by keeping the song on a leash. Final track is the band's second big hit from the album "Still Loving You" one of the best power-ballads from the time and again known by most listeners. Musically this album is a delight, the band don’t bring too much new to the table here and instead were contented to refine and polish up what they had brought to the table before. As over the years and in the post-Uli Jon Roth period from 1978 onwards, the band had long since established their core sound and even back then the typical Scorpions’ sound on Love at First Sting resonates on most of those albums. The Scorpions at this time were very much in the superheavyweight metal league and the band were still shrewd enough to know on Love at First Sting, just the type of album that was needed to ensure their lofty position. After this the band profited on their huge commercial success with the live double World Wide Live album in 1985, which came at a time when live albums despite being a highlight from the 1970s, still showed that they could go multi-platinum in the 1980s as well.

Klaus Meine- Vocals
Matthias Jabs- Guitar
Rudolf Schenker- Rhythm
Francis Buchholz- Bass
Hermann Rarebell- Drums

Production- Dieter Dierks

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

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Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Powerslave is quite simply one of the quintessential albums in the history of heavy metal and it’s the album where the band continued to cement themselves into the annals of metal history. Powerslave and their two previous albums The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind, had made the band the most vital in metaldom, along with all those Black Sabbath releases of the early 1970s. In fact it would be interesting to line-up the first five Black Sabbath releases against the first five Iron Maiden releases in a showdown, anyway that’s an idea for another time! As for the album, the first thing that strikes you as being different with Powerslave is its album cover, which now sees the band depart from the more traditional fantasy horror artwork that was the norm for the band and instead they have now gone in for an Ancient Egyptian theme this time around. This Egyptian style is only really evident though on the title track “Powerslave” after the band had already previously displayed their exotic musical desires on Piece of Mind’s “To Tame a Land”. The line-up would be the same as on Piece of Mind and for me this was musically the best line-up that the band ever had (not that of the band were chopping and changing like some bands do) The album was recorded in a period when the band were undertaking some of the longest touring of their careers and being one of the very biggest metal bands on the planet, the sets for the ‘World Slavery Tour’ were lavish to say the least. The band would constantly tour over the next couple of years which would finally result in their first live album the double Live After Death in 1986. On Piece of Mind every member of the band minus Nicko McBain had contributed to the songwriting, the band go one less here as Dave Murray doesn’t get onto the writing credits either, leaving the credits for Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Steve Harris. Once again the songs on the album are destined for fans of dungeons & dragons style metal, with the added bonus of swashbuckling style themes. Powerslave opens the barrage with its two singles “Aces High” and “2 Minutes to Midnight” the first an almost speed metal track about WWII pilots and the second a beefier affair and a more apocalyptic track. At 6 mins though it’s long for a single and once again a lyric sheet is strongly recommended here as it is for the rest of the album. Third track "Losfer for Words (Big ‘Orra)” is an instrumental and surprise surprise it was written by a guitarist. The album then delivers up two glory sounding anthems in “Flash of the Blade” with its amazing riff and the song was used on Dario Argento’s Phenomena in 1985. “The Duellists” is the longer and slower paced of the two tracks and finishes the album side. Side two opens with “Back to the Village” which is kind of a sequel to “The Prisoner” and this leads into the album’s most grandiose two tracks and the reason why this album is here. Firstly we have the title track “Powerslave” the Egyptian themed track on the album and it’s combination of mysticism, eeriness, galloping riff and its repetitive vibe make it one of the band’s most addictive songs. Final track is "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" probably the most ambitious track ever put out by the band, who had already hinted at their proggy ambitions on the previous Piece of Mind album with tracks like "Revelations" and "To Tame a Land" but neither of those tracks quite reach the prog epicness of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which is double their length and feels like a call back to the grandiose style of 1970s prog. As I stated on the Piece of Mind review the thing I find quite unique about Iron Maiden at this time, is their ability to go complex both musically and lyrically, but at the same time still keeping everything in a controlled musical sphere and making sure that everything actually has meaning to its actions, as they were very much masters at cutting the fat from the bone in their musical arrangements, and this ability is perfectly summed up on Powerslave as well. Powerslave is regarded as the closing trilogy of the band’s most highly regarded albums with Bruce Dickinson and in my mind it’s the best of the three. So it could be concluded that The Number of the Beast is their landmark release, Piece of Mind their most evolutionary release, then Powerslave could be seen as their most accomplished, as on this album is where all the signature elements of the band just seamlessly all fall into place. Strangley enough it’s an album that is actually regarded as the fan’s favourite rather than the favourite of the critics, I guess the album’s ability to slowly grow on you rather than just hit you may have a lot to do with conclusion, especially since a number of the songs here do seem quite long. Powerslave can easily serve as a blueprint for any power metal and progressive metal band out there, making it one of the most influential albums ever recorded and it just happens to be one of the best as well.

Bruce Dickinson- Vocals
Dave Murray- Guitar
Adrian Smith- Guitar
Steve Harris- Bass
Nicko McBain- Drums

Production- Martin Birch

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Back when I was 13 or 14, I was just getting into Maiden, and I walked into a store to get Number of the Beast, but as this was around the turn of the millennium, any non-Metallica metal could be almost impossible to track down, and so the only thing I could find was Powerslave. So I "settled" for it.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Although I'm a fan of Somewhere In Time I don't think Iron Maiden were ever the same after Powerslave. It's like they lost their edge.

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EPOCH6

Just realized that all the dudes on the Powerslave album cover are walking right into Eddie's junk.

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