Iron Maiden - Live After Death (1985)

It's hard for me to single out an Iron Maiden's album. I didn't start listening to them from a specific album. Rather, my first Maiden's cassette was a pirated "The Very Best Of Iron Maiden" - from the era where all cassettes in Indonesia were 'illegal', in the sense that the record companies didn't pay the royalty to the artists. That was until Bob Geldof got pissed off, since the companies also sold the 'illegal' copies of Live Aid. The first 'real' Maiden's album that I listened to was "Seventh Son of the Seventh Son". But I never owned it - I only listened to it in my cousin's car one day.

Fortunately, there was "Live After Death", which includes most of my favorite Maiden's track. From Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight, The Trooper, Flight of Icarus, The Number of the Beast to Phantom of Opera. Although, having been released in 1985, it didn't include Wasted Years and Somewhere in Time.

 I have known Iron Maiden before started listening to heavymetal music. Well, at least I’ve heard about them. I knew them as longhaired rockers playing loud music. This was mixed with the ‘satanic’ myth (well most rock/metal bands have had some allegations of satanic link, no?).

After I knew more about them, I learned that yes, they are loud! But they play a kind of loudness that I like. No, they are not satanic. In fact their music was about war (the modern one like in Aces High, or a classic one like in The Trooper), native people (Run to the Hills), or Greek mythology (Flight of Icarus). They did refer to evil (The Evil that Men Do) or, well, satan (The Number of the Beast) – but not in the context of praising. (Drummer Nicko McBrain is in fact a born again Christian). And Ed, their mascot, is not a horror creature after all! He’s more an expression of Maiden’s sense of humor. Come on, you can seriously be scared of Ed.

My favorite tracks aside, this is a great Live album. Bruce Dickinson is indeed a great singer, both in studio and on stage. He controlled his voice, knew when to ‘manipulate’ his in-studio screaming and high notes (which was indeed difficult to replicate on stage) with more reasonable range.

Bruce Dickinson’s opera-type voice is one of Iron Maiden’s trademarks since the early 1980s. Some things in life are meant to be. And Bruce Dickinson was meant to be Iron Maiden’s singer.

But the band as big as Iron Maiden has not just one trademark. Steve Harris’ machine gun-like bass playing is another trademark. In fact it is their biggest trademark. I happened to see a videoclip of them – I forgot what song it was, Aces High I think. I saw how Harris picked his bass with all four fingers in a high speed. I said to myself, damn, he’s a beast!

Having Steve Harris as a bass player, who plays more like a rhythm guitarist, means that their two guitarists can have a freedom to explore. This is what I like from Iron Maiden. They have two guitarists with no exact lead-rhythm guitar division. They took turn playing lead guitar section, or in many cases they both played the lead. Later when they reverted to the three-guitar formation, they continue to maintain the harmony. Not many guitar players can survive sharing their ego with another guitar player, let alone with two other.

(There are many discussions in the Internet on who is the main guitarist of Iron Maiden. Many people gave equal vote to both Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. Even Janick Gers received a significant number of votes despite joining later).

That seems to give drummer Nicko McBrain lesser credit. That is not true as his contribution to Maiden’s music is no less substantial. Most Maiden’s songs are actually built around the rhythm sections developed by Harris and McBrain. Harris relied heavily on McBrain in writing songs. Adrian Smith once explained how Harris and McBrain often spend hours in the studio to work on the bass and drum sections, which will be the basis for their new songs.

Another thing that makes him the coolest band on earth: they fly their own 747 during tours, with the singer in the pilot seat. The call sign? Flight 666…