KILLERS

The second album...

Iron Maiden has this amazing debut album (s/t) full of energetic heavy rock with progressive and rockn'roll influences. During the tours of the debut album most of the songs for follow-up Killers had already been finished. The recording of the album is slightly better, but the vocals sounded better on the debut IMHO. The guitars, drums and bass sound great on this record and I sometimes regret they didn't make more albums with this sound.

Killers is a great follow-up for the debut, as Iron Maiden continues the path of the debut, it never repeats itself. The song-writing expanded a bit and Iron Maiden shows some growth on the technical aspect of the music as well.

The instrumental Ides of March shows the true guitar skills of the hard rock scene. Wrathchild became a podium favorite with it's flamboyant style and lyricsm whilst the extremely energetic and inventive Murders in Rue Margue is one of the best tracks of this period. The bass part in the beginning is truly a blessing. Another Life yet another very inventive heavy rock track and I begin to wonder how the band ever managed to get inspiration for such fine rock tracks! Genghis Khan is the second instrumental track with both technical and emotionally moving moments. The title track is an atmospheric hard rocker with nice lyrics with a twist in the end. The flamboyant vocals of Di-Anno and the unusual guitar part in the main riff make this a real gem. The next three songs are less energetic, but they seem to compensate with the beautiful song-writing. The sound becomes a bit more abstract, but I love the exploration-spirit of the band.

Conclusion. Yet another great Iron Maiden classic. I say: spice up your live with a little Paul Di'Anno era Iron Maiden! Soon after this, with the departure of the Paul the music would change quite a bit and the rock'n roll and highly inventive punk influences of Iron Maiden were gone. Four stars for this one. There aren't any better records in the scene in 1981.

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