The Classic Metal Album Review:
Title: Powerslave
Artist: Iron Maiden
Label: EMI
Release Date: 1984

Rating: 5 Skulls
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    • Kefka X's Review:
    Iron F'-in Maiden. Yeah that's right. I think after a classic metal act reaches a legendary status after 20+ years, the word F'-in should be added to their band name. Watch how flawlessly it works. Judas F'-in Priest. Black F'-in Sabbath. Acc-F-'in-ept. See? Flawless. Hence... Iron F'-in Maiden.

    So onto the golden age of metal! The 80's. Enjoying incredible success and continuously upping the ante with two mind-blowing albums back-to-back, Dickinson, Harris and company find themselves in a tight position to release an album just as good, flawless, and memorable. And so, 1984 marked the rise of Powerslave, an epic whose faint Egyptian theme is only one of many topics covered by a band who refused to fall victim to the curse of sexual overtones that plagued the heavy metal market in the 80's.

    But never mind the airplanes, the blitzkriegs, the sword duels, and cursed ships and the pharaohs. What's really important is that Powerslave is arguably the peak of the band's songwriting, style, and presentation. While it shies in comparison to fan favorites Number of the Beast and Peace of Mind (and let's throw in Killers for the big Iron Maiden cultists), it's definitive Iron Maiden. Instant classics crawled out of the catacombs with the recognizable "Aces High" and "2 Minutes to Midnight," and back-to-back epics were established with the title cut and the looming 12-minute pyramid, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which tends to snooze and lose rather ran sail and nail.

    In Martin Popoff's heavy metal bible, The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time, Powerslave is ranked as the 13th greatest metal album ever, and is third on the IFN list only to Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind. Powerslave adds an extra piece of land onto the plateau of their creative genius, which extended on a straight line with Somewhere in Time and would slowly decline within the foreshadowing of the interminability of Seventh Son.
    5 out of 5

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