THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

Attention: true story. At the time of release of this album, I was living on Riverside Drive and further down the street lived a complete metalhead whom I was fairly friendly with. He lived at number 664 and we used to call him "The Neighbour Of The Beast" and use to rile him with it. But In Canada, the street address numbers generally jump by 6 or 8 at a time so there was not 666, so the beast became a squirrel up his tree which was always offered some sacrifice, the axe offered and planted in the ground and candles were often seen burning in his honour. I think that not many squirrels had such loving care as Lucifer (as we had called him) did. Silly young progheads ;-) !!!!

Count me as one of those that was completely shattered when DiAnno got the boot, but one must recognize that his replacement was a fitting one. Maiden had one of the most impressive metal voices around. Dickinson "Air Raid Siren" is definitely the classic sound of Maiden and only the first hour fans can say otherwise. But let's face it, it is with this third album (and two hilarious B&W footage video-clips receiving constant MTV rotation) and Dickinson that Maiden acquired a whole new dimension (at least in terms of audience).

Actually I was not that big a fan of this album, as it was confirming the slick production of the previous Killers album. But the two hits, Run To The Hills and the title track were so often played, along with Children Of The Damned also receiving regular airplay, while the above-mentioned friends were always raving about Hallowed Be Thy Name (the only remotely prog track on this album, IMHO) and Acacia Avenue (another metalhead buddy was living on 22 Willow Street ;-), that shunning exposition to the album was hopeless.

Overall , I can only say that TNOTB only differs from Killers by the singer's voice, the rest not changing much. They were on the upswing, so there were absolutely no reasons to change anything. History will prove them right.