Following their successful tour in support of 1983's Piece Of Mind, Iron Maiden returned to Compass Point Studios, the location they recorded their previous album, to complete 1984's Powerslave. This is the album I initially talked about when playing through their debut. Mainly because of the 80's albums from the group, this one was the rarest, and most expensive to track down.
At this point, the band was churning out hit record after hit record, to the point that it was expected. Powerslave didn't disappoint. It charted across the world again and became another certified album. The tour which followed would be their largest to date, with the guys playing one hundred ninety-three shows across thirteen countries. One such show was the Rock In Rio festival, where they followed Queen onstage. That however, would just be the tip of the iceberg of the event, which also featured such notable acts over the ten-day event as Whitesnake, James Taylor, George Benson, The Go-Go's, AC/DC, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Yes, and The B-52's, to name just a very few.
Side note: Even McDonalds got in on the event, obtaining a Guiness World Record for selling 58,000 hamburgers that day. This was usurped in 2011 by Bob's, who sold 79,000 at the event. The sad part about this is that in 1985, an estimated 1.4 million people attended the festival. Whereas in 2011, it's estimated only 700,000 did. So, between a smaller crowd, they ate more burgers, and we wonder why everyone is so unhealthy.
Iron Maiden would be credited as the first Western band to bring a full production live show behind the Iron Curtain. This would be documented in the band's third official live video, aptly titled, Behind The Iron Curtain, released in October 1984. It would also become a milestone unto itself, being the first documentary released by a Western band touring Eastern Bloc. MTV would also license the rights, and air the show on their channel that year.
2 Minutes To Midnight was the first to grab my attention, but was quickly overshadowed by the amazing instrument, Losfer Words (Big 'Orra). Let's just take Bruce Dickinson out of the mix and focus on this style of music. I'd be down.
Things tapered off drastically and didn't pick up until the album title track. Looking at the cover of the album, things started to click in my mind. The riff which the song revolves around has almost an Egyptian ethos to it. The album would then close with Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, a decent, but definitely long song, at almost fourteen minutes.
Despite the gap between the songs that I liked from it, as a whole, it's not a bad album. Once again, Dickinson serves as the weakest link in the chain. Though I am, admittedly, getting a bit used to his voice at this point.
All the touring would prove to be grueling on the members, and upon its completion, they demanded six months off. They were granted four, and only after Dickinson threatened to quit. This resulted in the cancellation of a proposed tour to support their 1985 live album, Live After Death, which would also be another critical and commercial success for them.
When they finally returned to the studio to produce 1986's Somewhere In Time, the boys would change up their musical styling a bit. We'll dive into all of that tomorrow.
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