POWERSLAVE

The success and recognition garnered by "Piece of Mind" could have been the ultimate aspiration for any band of the effervescent eighties heavy metal, but not for Iron Maiden, who were not satisfied with the enormous popularity generated by their fourth album. Far from pigeonholing themselves in the short structures of machine- gun guitars and demanding vocal registers typical of the exalted genre, the Englishmen challenge themselves by incorporating new epic elements that enrich the musical and aesthetic proposal of their next work, "Powerslave" (1984), starting with the iconic cover where a pharaonic and omnipresent Egyptian Eddie dominates the setting and which would lead one to suppose a concept album (but which is not...).

"Powerslave" flows with enormous energy and an unusual forcefulness, between the most aggressive "Maiden" sonorities, like the powerful and direct "Aces High" and "Two Minutes to Midnight", obligatory pieces in the live performances of the band, the suffocating urgency of "Flash of the Blade"' and the rawness of the early years in "Back in the Village", combined with the more elaborate metal of the instrumental "Losfer Words (Big "Orra)" and "The Duellists", a piece inspired by a knightly fight in the Napoleonic era that was made into a film by Ridley Scott in 1977.

However, the album's highlight clearly shines towards its final stretch, with the primal progressive metal emanating from the robust and mythic "Powerslave" (the solos and guitar duel between Dave Murray and Adrian Smith are formidable), and the stellar progressive exploration of the immeasurable "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a vigorous sea epic inspired by the 1798 poem of the same name by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and masterfully sustained by Steve Harris' piercing bass, especially in the gloomy middle section accompanied by the plaintive creak of a ghostly ship, and topped off by the blast of the galloping guitars of the Murray/Smith duo supporting Bruce Dickinson's excellent vocal performance, in an unbeatable close.

"Powerslave" elevated Iron Maiden to worldwide megastar status, leading to the mammoth "World Slavery Tour" between August 1984 and July 1985, with almost two hundred shows in Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Oceania, and over 3.5 million people in attendance.

Excellent.

4/4.5 stars