 Iron Maiden Iron Maiden was one of my all-time favorite bands throughout grade school and high school, so I had no shame about being excited for this two-disc set, which finally attempts to document the rise and fall of one of British heavy metal's true pioneers. The tracklist traces the Maiden timeline in reverse order, which is okay, because we get the bad stuff out of the way first. The gradual progression from back to front is almost like having an opening band built into the disc, so you can be all buzzed and excited by the time it hits the great stuff. The first handful of songs showcase their lame, Metallica-derived direction with lead singer Blaze Bayley. Iron Maiden were a thoroughly original band in their day, and it's a shame to see them ape other people's material now. Next up comes the material from the tail end of singer Bruce Dickinson's era, which was mostly spent on Columbia, and proved to be one of the label's notable mistakes, as Maiden was already past their creative prime. Bruce noticed it, and bolted. Janick Gers was an inadequate replacement for Adrian Smith on second guitar. The chemistry was just off, reminiscent of the St. Louis Cardinals toward the end of Whitey Herzog's tenure as manager. Gers's efforts in Maiden are frankly not as melodic as Adrian Smith's. However, they still are quite bearable, and in fact, the songs selected are probably the best work in an era that first alienated me as a diehard Iron Maiden fan. Time has been good to these songs, especially "Bring Your Daughter to The Slaughter" and "Holy Smoke". Then you get to the meat of the disc, from the true classic lineup of Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, and Nicko McBrain), and their amazing body of work. Beginning with "The Clairvoyant," 13 songs hammer all the way through to "Run to the Hills" (with old drummer Clive Burr), delivering a distillation of musicianship, melody, and bravado unequalled in hard rock. "Can I Play With Madness" arrives with an a cappella opening that sends Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" back to the locker room to check its jock strap. True to form, like any "Best of" collection, there is a single deliberately excluded from the track listing. "Flight of Icarus," the huge battle cry from the Piece of Mind release, is sadly absent, despite the enormous quantity of MTV airplay it received when it came out. It's a big mistake, clearly intended to ensure sales of the original albums don't drop off too much now that a retrospective is on the market. The songs we DO get here do not disappoint, however. The last six songs date back to original frontman Paul Di'Anno, and are nice to round out the band's musical biography, but are mere inklings of what was to come. Iron Maiden are an interesting paradox in the world of heavy metal, because they are able to combine clever structure with talented performances and great harmony. Most, if not all major heavy metal acts are usually lacking one or more of those elements, yet Maiden at their best can effortlessly manipulate them to weave tapestries of pure muscle, tempered with finesse. Not everything on here is enjoyable, and some of it is pretty rough going. But as an overview of their career, Best of the Beast is excellent, because it serves as a true testament to the failures and successes a band can encounter as its lineups and focuses shift over many many years. It's a CD to high-five your buddies and burp proudly to. This is an ugly band thriving on testosterone for strength, and in its way, it's fuckin' great.
Review by PAL |