Iron Maiden's Reviews
Powerslave (Average Rating: 9.32 out of 10)
Not their very best, but still excellent (Rated this album with 8 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Chris Burton
from TONBRIDGE, KENT England
I personally prefer Number Of The Beast, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and the incredibaly underated Somewhere In Time to this album. However, this is never the less a Maiden classic.Aces High is one of Maiden's classic songs which features on most compilations. And for very good reasons! Its a teeth-kicking opener to say the least and the lead guitars by Murray and Smith are very good. 2 Minutes To Midnight is another Maiden classic. More mid-paced, this contains some very strange lyrics (We'll oil the jaws of our war machine and feed it to our babies... mmm...). Losfer Words is an instrumental. Not so hard-hitting, and the likes of Transylvania and Ghengis Khan are better instumentals, but it's still quite good. Flash Of The Blade and The Duelists are not so good, and although they are reasonable songs, they don't really compare to the rest of the album. However, a hidden gem awaits at track 6! Why is this the only release with Back In The Village on it? That is one excellent song and one of Maidens best, yet they fail to put it on any live records or compilations, even though it is far better than anything on No Prayer For The Dying. From here, things start to get even better. Powerslave is a mini epic and contains a slow beautiful solo from Dave Murray before Adrian Smith smashes in another amazing full throttle solo. Dave then fights back again and altogether, this is one of Maiden's most classic moments in my opinion. The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is one wierd song! At 13+ minutes, it contains a very quiet atmospheric bit which is eerie to say the least, before crashing in with an almost emotional moment where Bruce Dickinson sounds like his balls have squeezed into a vice! The experimentation with atmosphere here shows a real sense of musical maturity. This contains some real classic moments which make it well worth paying for, but I would not call this a classic album in a wider sense because Flash Of The Blade and The Duelists feel like fillers. They only have to come up with 8 songs altogether, making it even less excusable for them. That said, the songs that are good are very good and any Maiden fan should own it. Recommended, but get one of the above albums first.
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