IRON MAIDEN

..And so the journey begins, this epic quest to review every one of this classic bands albums (yup im also talking about the Blaze Bailey years), sooo...on with the review. Released in 1980, the self titled debut is a great start for the band for a very simple reason..the quality of the material they had, its soo super catchy and fantastic from the rockers (PROWLER,SANCTUARY, RUNNING FREE, IRON MAIDEN) then we have the brill instrumental TRANSYLVANIA the quality of that alone is enough to prove haters of the band wrong, we also have the soft often dreamy sounding REMEMBER TOMORROW and STRANGE WORLD, and of course not forgetting the epic of this album PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Everything about this album is...well its almost perfect - not quite 100% perfect, but as close to perfect as a band as young as they were could be, and whats my gripe? well its very small but still bothers me quite a bit...its the subject matter of these songs there....well there not really Iron Maiden, as its not till Number Of The Beast that there lyrics improve...musically though, you really cant go wrong with this album;

Prowler - 9/10 Sanctuary - 8/10 Remember Tomorrow - 9/10 Running Free - 8/10 Phantom Of The Opera - 10/10 Transylvania - 10/10 Strange World - 9/10 Charlotte The Harlot - 9/10 Iron Maiden - 9/10

MY CONCLUSION? apart from that one wee lyrical 'gripe' as such, theres nothing wrong with this album...at all..a fantastic debut