THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

I am not a huge maiden fan. In fact, I didn't cared much about them untill around mid 2008, when a local record store chain, due to finantial problems, had to close its doors. In the months before they did so, they effortfully tried to sell whatever there was left in the stores, even selling CDs fro less than half the price, and I did whatever I could to grab as many albums as I could in such neat deals.

At that time, I acquired most of Iron Maiden's discography without knowing much about them, but as I listened to their albums I slowly understood their fame, and Number of the Beast is a pivotal part of getting such importance in the heavy metal world.

The first album with the then new singer Bruce Dickinson proved to be a reboot for the band, becuse they significantly changed their sound, that now was much more well worked, developed and composed and had a marked epic feeling to it, which was significantly caused by Bruce's operatic voice allied with a more elaborate guitar work.

At this point, however, the band still retained much of their visceral sound from their two earlier albums, influenced by punk rock to some extent, what puts Number of the Beast as a transition album for the band, but transformed it in one of the main albums of the New Wave of Brittish Heavy Metal because of that uncommon mix of epic metal music and visceral, simple and straight to the point rock. That caused the album to be one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time to the point that the way the song are organized in Number became one of the blueprints of metal albums.

Although many consider Iron Maiden's albums from the latter part of the 80's to be their best, I personally think that this is actually their best album. The music by itself is very good: it is very concise, precise, it isn't overdone, something that the band recurringly did on following albums, resulting in things such as Bruce trying to go beyond his singing range or screaming instead of delivering a clear note or having messy guitar solos. Also, their transition phase, between their straightforward and epic style is able to deliver everything it is supposed to with perfection, something the other band's albums failed, in a way or another, making the whole experience much more enjoyable. It is also important to point out that the production here is very well done: all instruments sound evenly, everybody gets his bit of space and nobody shines more than he rightfully should.

Grade and Final Thought

I seriously cannot find a flaw in Number of the Beast. Add to that the fact that it is one of the most influential and important albums in the heavy metal history. The only logical result here is to give the perfect grade.

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