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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