evil warriors

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from east London. The band were formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, who was formerly a member of Gypsy's Kiss and Smiler. Iron Maiden are one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre, having sold more than 70 million albums world-wide. The band won the Ivor Novello award for international achievement in 2002.^[1]

The band have written many songs based on folklore, movies and books, such as "The Wickerman", "The Prisoner", "Where Eagles Dare", "To Tame a Land" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem). Iron Maiden have headlined several major events in its career, notably Rock in Rio, Ozzfest alongside Black Sabbath, Donington's famous "Monsters of Rock", "Download" Festivals and the "Reading and Leeds Festivals."

Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, is a perennial fixture in the band's horror-influenced album cover art, as well as in live shows. Eddie was drawn by Derek Riggs until 1992, but has had various incarnations by numerous artists, the most notable being Melvyn Grant. Eddie is also featured in a first-person shooter video game and best-of album – Ed Hunter – as well as numerous books, graphic comics and band-related merchandise.

The road from formation to the present started on Christmas Day 1975, shortly after bassist Steve Harris had formed his own band after his bandmates in the group Smiler had rejected many of his original songs. Harris attributes the band name to a movie adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, which he saw around that time, and so the group was christened after the medieval torture device.^[2]

Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray remain the longest surviving members of Iron Maiden. The band had twelve different line-ups in the 1970s, paying their dues on the mostly punk club circuit in London's rough East End in the slums of manor park in a pub called the Ruskin Arms, while struggling to form a stable lineup of band members. Although Iron Maiden were a metal band influenced by Thin Lizzy, Queen, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, UFO, Yes, Wishbone Ash and Apocalypse, its earlier music had undoubted punk overtones. Lacking "enough energy or charisma onstage",^[3] original vocalist Paul Day became replaced by the outlandish Dennis Wilcock, a huge KISS fan who utilized fire, make-up and fake blood during live performances. Wilcock's friend, Murray, was invited to join, to the frustration of guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance.^[4] This fuelled Harris to temporarily split the band in the Winter of 1976,^[4] though the group reformed soon after with Murray as sole axeman.

Maiden recruited another guitarist in 1977, Bob Sawyer, who caused a rift between Murray and Wilcock, prompting Harris to sack both Murray and Sawyer.^[5] A disastrous gig at the Bridgehouse in November 1977, with a makeshift line-up including Tony Moore on keyboards, Terry Wrapram on guitar, and drummer Barry Purkis (later rechristened 'Thunderstick') resulted in Harris sacking the entire band.^[6] Dave Murray was reinstated and Doug Sampson was drafted in as drummer.

Star Studios in Bow, London played host to three rehearsals a week throughout the Summer and Autumn of 1978.^[7] A chance meeting at the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone evolved into a successful audition for punky vocalist Paul Di'Anno. Steve Harris reflected; There's sort of a quality in Paul's voice, a raspiness in his voice, or whatever you want to call it, that just gave it this great edge.^[8]"

Iron Maiden had been playing for three years, but had never recorded any of their music. On New Year's Eve of 1978, the band recorded one of the most famous demos in hard rock history,^[9] The Soundhouse Tapes. Featuring only three songs, and a four-piece (all subsequent recordings featured a five-piece until 1999 when the band became a six-piece) the band sold all five thousand copies within weeks.^[10] One track found upon the demo, "Prowler", went to number one on Neal Kay's Heavy Metal Soundhouse charts in Sounds magazine.^[11] Their first appearance on an album was on the compilation Metal for Muthas (released on 15 February 1980) with two early versions of "Sanctuary" and "Wrathchild".

For most of 1977 and all of 1978, Murray was the sole six-stringer in the band. This changed with the arrival of Paul Cairns in 1979. Shortly before going into the studio, Cairns left the band and several other guitarists played alongside Murray until the band finally settled on Dennis Stratton. Initially, the band wanted to hire Dave Murray's childhood friend Adrian Smith, but Smith was busy singing and playing guitar for his own band, Urchin.^[12] Drummer Doug Sampson was also replaced by Clive Burr (who was brought into the band by Stratton), and in December 1979, the band landed a major record deal by signing an EMI contract at the label's old building in London's Manchester Square.^[13]

 Initial success

The eponymous 1980 release, Iron Maiden, made number 4 on the UK charts in its first week of release,^[14] and the group became one of the leading proponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.^[15] The band went on to open for KISS on their 1980 Unmasked tour, as well as opening select dates for the legendary Judas Priest. After the KISS tour, Dennis Stratton was fired from the band as a result of creative and personal differences.^[16] The timing was right for the arrival of guitarist Adrian Smith.

Smith brought a sharp, staccato sound to Iron Maiden. His tight, experimental style was the complete opposite of Murray's smooth, rapid take on blues. One of Iron Maiden's trademarks is the double "twin lead" harmonising guitar stylings of Murray and Smith, a style pioneered by Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy, and developed further by Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.^{[citation needed]}

In 1981, Maiden released their second album, titled Killers. This new album contained many tracks that had been penned prior to the release of the debut album, but were considered surplus. With songs already shaped on the road well in advance, only three new tracks were written for the album; "Prodigal Son", "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "Killers".^[17]

 The next level

Like many bands, Maiden consumed a large amount of alcohol in their early days.^[18] However, most members dabbled very little in other drugs, with Steve Harris never taking them at all.^[19] The exception was vocalist Paul Di'Anno, who demonstrated increasingly self-destructive behaviour, particularly through cocaine usage.^[20] His performances began to suffer, just as the band was beginning to achieve large-scale success in America. At the end of 1981 the band replaced Di'Anno with former Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Legendary DJ Tommy Vance had told Dickinson not to join the band – advice which was ignored. Dickinson's debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast, an album that claimed the band their first ever UK number 1 record^[21] and additionally became a Top Ten hit in many other countries.^[22] For the second time the band went on a world tour, visiting the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. The tour's US leg was marred (or perhaps promoted) by controversy stemming from an American right-wing political pressure group that claimed Iron Maiden was a Satanic group because of the album's title track, ^[22] ostensibly concerning a nightmare Steve Harris suffered.^[23] Iron Maiden members' attempts to deflect the criticism failed to dampen persistent accusations. A group of Christian activists destroyed the band's records (along with those of Ozzy Osbourne) by burning them in a large fire. However, these accusations of Satanism were largely based on misinterpretation of the song, or fear of the aggressive, energetic nature of the music. Iron Maiden's current drummer, Nicko McBrain, is a born-again Christian, and is happy to play the song, which he sees as a warning against Satanism.^[23]

On the same tour, producer Martin Birch was involved in a car accident with a group of church-goers. Coincidentally, the bill for the repair came to £666, a figure which Birch refused to pay, instead opting for a higher amount.^[24]

Actor Patrick McGoohan was accommodating when a request was made to allow the band to use a spoken intro from the cult TV series, The Prisoner, in which McGoohan was the lead actor, producer and series writer. McGoohan was a big name in 1982, and Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood was nervous about making the request. The conversation between McGoohan and Smallwood allegedly went:

McGoohan: "What did you say the name of the band was again?"

Smallwood: "Iron Maiden"

McGoohan: "A rock band, you say...do it!^[25]"

Cover from Powerslave album

Ozzfest incident

Steve Harris on stage after being pelted with eggs at Ozzfest August 20, 2005

A Matter of Life and Death

Main article: A Matter of Life and Death (album)

A Matter of Life and Death album cover

Iron Maiden's 14th studio album named A Matter of Life and Death was released worldwide on the 28 August 2006 (5 September for the US and 29th August for Canada). It was preceded by the "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" single on August 14. The album was once again produced by Kevin Shirley, and is the longest Iron Maiden album to date. The album is not a concept album, but six songs directly revolve around war and four around religion (some overlapping takes place) and these two themes shade every piece of the album; this is likely Maiden's most serious lyrical effort. The music is often described as a cross between Dance of Death, The X Factor, and Bruce Dickinson's late nineties solo material, and seven of the songs could qualify as epics by general metal standards.

Anticipating the release, the official website released two songs in streaming audio on August 10 and 11. The album topped the charts in ten countries, and entered the American charts in the Top 10 for the first time since album sales could be properly counted (i.e., 1991).

The album won the Classic Rock 2006 — Album of the Year Award, voted for by Classic Rock's fans.

During the A Matter of Life and Death tour, Bruce Dickinson hinted at additional performances in the near future, stating that there would be a 2007 tour including songs from the period following the band's first four studio albums.^{[citation needed]} At multiple dates towards the end of the tour Dickinson hinted that Iron Maiden may be playing at Donington in 2007. On December 22, a message was posted on their official website confirming that they would be playing at the Dubai Desert Rock Festival on March 9, 2007, which will be the first time the band have ever played there. ^[32] During the Copenhagen show on Thursday 28th December, Bruce Dickinson mentioned that Maiden would be "bringing back the 80's egyptian thing in 2008". This could be hinting the Early Days part 2 DVD and Tour