Iron Maiden's Reviews
Piece Of Mind (Average Rating: 9.24 out of 10)
Classic But Not Perfect Like Powerslave (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
tonyhawk900
from LA
After Maiden released " Number Of The Beast " in 1982 to great success, they had to release a follow-up that would capture the intensity and ultimately be better. In fact the only things keeping this album from being perfect are the atrocious " Quest For Fire " and the annoying " Die With Your Boots On " They would reach perfection on 1984's masterpiece Powerslave. I'm a harsh grader and I try to give a great idea of what the song is like. Anyway here's my grades. Song Grades 1. Where Eagles Dare-Maiden's best opening track and best combat song. This song has a classic guitar solo. Definitely in the top 5 maiden tunes. It's got the same format as The Duellists of Powerslave, intro-vocals-long instrumental-bridge-ending vocals. The guitar solo actually feels like a plane flying through the mountains like this song is describing.
Final Grade-A 2. Revelations-If it weren't for " Hallowed Be Thy Name " this would be Maiden's greatest achievement. It comes really close to beating out Metallica's " Creeping Death " as the best song about Ancient Egypt. On their next album they would make an excellent sequel to this song in the name of " Powerslave " Everything about this song is perfect. You just got to hear it.
Final Grade-A+ 3. Flight Of Icarus-It may sound a little cheesy, but this song has a good guitar solo and is enjoyable and I like the part where he says " his eyes are ablaze see the madman in his gaze " This was their first single released from this album.
Final Grade-B+ 4. Die With Your Boots On-Here comes the first misstep in the CD. This song may be catchy the first couple of times you hear it, but by the fifth time you'll be skipping it. It may be a live favorite, but the chorus is annoying. I like the guitars in this song though.
Final Grade-C+ 5. The Trooper-This is perhaps the song Maiden is most known for. It's a great combat song, but not as good as " Where Eagles Dare " This song perhaps was the inspiration for Metallica to do the classic " For Whom The Bell Tolls " one year later.
Final Grade-A- 6. Still Life-I think this is one of Maiden's most underrated songs. This song kind of serves as the unofficial title track because of the lyric " nightmares, give me piece of mind " Really haunting song about nightmares.
Final Grade-A- 7. Quest For Fire-competes for worst Dickenson-era song with " Invaders " , " Deja-Vu " and the especially putrid " Assasin " off " No Prayer For The Dying " It's one thing to have a song that's slightly cheesy like " Flight Of Icarus " but that song's still powerful and memorable. The cheese-meter is going off the scale on this song. The lyrics stink and the vocals stink. This song is 3 minutes and 42 seconds of unintentional comedy. The only thing that's keeping me from giving this song an F is that It's sometimes a guilty pleasure to listen to.
Final Grade-D- 8. Sun And Steel-Good song about an ancient samurai. This song however doesn't fit the theme of this album. I put on my copy of " Powerslave " after the two swordfighting songs. The guitar intro is especially good and so is the 1st verse.
Final Grade-B+ 9. To Tame A Land-the epic of this album. Harris the bassist even says that its the best song he's ever written. I disagree because " Hallowed Be Thy Name ", " Revelations ", " Rime Of The Ancient Mariner ", and some other songs are better. This is still one of Maiden's best epics and one of their top 10 songs. It's based on the book " Dune " but they couldn't call it that for legal reason's.
Final Grade-A I think this album served as Metallica's influence for " Ride The Lightning " You can clearly hear the influence. In fact this album could have been better than " Powerslave " if it wasn't for " Quest For Fire " and " Die With Your Boots On " Still 7 out 9 isn't bad. In my book that's a classic.
Buy this album on Amazon at $16.98
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