Killers

Artist: Iron Maiden
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 696998604728
EAN: 0696998604728
ASIN: B000063CP2

Release Date: 2002-03-26

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Tracks:

Ides of March
Wrathchild
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Another Life
Genghis Khan
Innocent Exile
Killers
Prodigal Son
Purgatory
Twilight Zone
Drifter

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The Number of the Beast
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Customer Reviews:

Maiden's underrated sophomore effort.......2005-08-12

Killers (1981.) Iron Maiden's second album.

INTRODUCTION:
In 1979, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal took England by storm. Hundreds of hard-rocking bands emerged overnight, and every one of them was excellent. Unfortunately, very few of these bands found success in their music, and an even smaller number of them found success outside their native United Kingdom. Iron Maiden is a rare example of one of the genre's bands that achieved worldwide success. Through the course of the mid and late seventies, Iron Maiden had a number of line-up changes. They had recorded a demo collection and several tracks for compilations. Finally, come 1980 and the band released their first album, an excellent fusion of punk and metal. They followed it up in 1981, with their second album, Killers - the first one of their albums to feature the legendary Adrian Smith on guitar! Read on for my review of this album.

OVERVIEW/REVIEW:
Once again, this album is VERY DIFFERENT from anything that the band recorded with Dickinson at the helm, but at the same time, it is a very good album. This is the first album on which Maiden began to take an "epic" approach to their music, and since Di'Anno (not Dickinson) is singing, this comes off as one of the band's most different-sounding albums. Ides Of March, an instrumental, kicks off the album. It's a short track that isn't all that great, but it does the "opener" job very well. It immediately fades into the classic Wrathchild. It's a hard and heavy song the way only Maiden could record one back in their Di'Anno days. I'm really not surprised that many of the band's fans call this one of the best songs from the Di'Anno days. Next up we have my personal favorite cut on the album, Murders In The Rue Morgue. The song is based on the Edgar Allan Poe tale of the same name. It's a fast-paced rocker with a slight melodic touch to it - making for one of the best songs the band ever recorded with Di'Anno. Purgatory, found near the end of the album, is another track that follows these same basic stylings, and benefits greatly from using them. Track four is the rocker Another Life. The lyrics in this track are a bit redundant, but I still feel it's a good song. And of course, this album has Genghis Khan, the band's finest instrumental ever recorded (in my opinion.) This song is EVERYTHING a metal instrumental should be - and more! Innocent Exile and the title track are pretty basic punk/metal rockers that are nothing revolutionary, but they are solid nonetheless. The band even shells out an acoustic ballad on this album! Prodigal Son is the name of this track, and while very different from what you're used to hearing Maiden (even Di'Anno-era Maiden) play, it's a very good ballad. The band closes out the album with Drifter. Adrian Smith and Dave Murray play some of their finest riffs in this closing tune, and Di'Anno sings excellently. In the end, Killers is a "killer" album!

EDITION NOTES:
THE TEXT IN THIS PARAGRAPH REFERS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE 2002 STANDARD REMASTERED SERIES OF THE BAND'S ALBUMS. As a die-hard Maiden fan, I AM SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED WITH THESE REISSUES. Sure, the sound quality is improved over the original CD issues and there is some cool enhanced CD footage (all the remasters before the X Factor have this), but this reissue is lacking the most important thing a remaster needs - BONUS TRACKS. We get one bonus cut (Twilight Zone), but that just isn't enough. The total play time is about forty-five minutes, and you can fit eighty minutes on a CD. There were a plethora of rare tracks from this era that have never before been issued by the band (except for in the restrictively expensive box set. These rarities include demos, compilation tracks, B-Sides, interviews, BBC session tracks, and others.) Another problem is the alterations of the covers of some albums. The band's debut album has had two alterations - Eddie's eyes now glow, and the band's name has been removed from the top of the album cover. Likewise, the No Prayer For The Dying album cover completely removes the grave robber that Eddie was strangling! And don't get me started on the slipcases. Sure, they look cool, but it's a pain to take them off and put them back on every time you listen to the album. To put it simply, if you already own earlier issues of these albums on CD, it's really not necessary to get the new remasters. If possible, get the early nineties import reissues with the bonus discs of material.

OVERALL:
Killers is a very different Maiden album, but it's also a very good one. I don't recommend it if you're new to Maiden (if you're new to the band, start with Number Of The Beast and stick with the Dickinson albums), but if you're a Maiden veteran and you want to see how the band sounded early on, the debut and Killers are highly recommended.

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