PIECE OF MIND

It was hailed as an absolute classic when it was released and only surpassed by Powerslave the year after as the best heavy metal album ever. But that was then. Now is now and I am listening to it with the benefit of twenty-five years of further developments in the music industry.

The twenty-five years has not been nice to this album. The rather naff cover is not representative for the music. The sound quality is not good either. I would say that Piece Of Mind is the album that sounds least good of all the older Iron Maiden albums. Time has left the album in a vacuum no re-master can get it out of. The main reason is the songs on this album. Most of them are mid-tempo, pretty heavy and half-baked epic. The vocals does not sit well in my speakers too. This is a badly produced album, stucked in a time-warp.

With relevance to PA, Piece Of Mind is also one of Iron Maiden's most progressive albums ever. It was a total break with the rest of the heavy metal scene at that time. Songs like Where Eagles Dare, Revelations and To Tame A Land is unashamed symphonic prog, with some heavy metal thrown in. So that's heavy metal then.... The rest of the album is also full of prog rock. Unfortunate, the best known song of this album is a straigth heavy metal song. Yes, The Trooper. Although the roots can be found in THIN LIZZY, this is heavy metal at it's.... ehh, finest. There are also some pop like tunes here. Punk, it is called these days. Perhaps poppy punk. That poppy punk area is that big white spot on my musical globe. I have no idea what I am rambling about now.... OK, what I want to say is that this is a very varied album only let down by the bad sound. Iron Maiden got the sound spot on at the preceding Number Of The Beast album and the following album Powerslave. Piece Of Mind is therefore a great shame. All the best tunes from this album is done so much better on the live album Live After Death.

I like this album a lot. But the sound makes it not easy listening. 3.5 stars from me.

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