Essentially Vinyl: Iron Maiden Powerslave

At a loss for something to write about, I slipped an album (Yep. vinyl stickler me) onto the turntable. I hadn't listened to Iron Maiden's Powerslave for some time,and this seemed a good choice.

Heavy Metal isn't usually my type of music but I love several albums from Iron Maiden. Though to be honest I do listen to the genre from time to time, though some of it can be overblown and quite frankly ridiculous. Mind you, Maiden often do ridiculous but they do it with real style and they are one of those bands that transcend genre and almost become a genre of their own.

I discovered this album many years ago at a friends house - he was a full time metal head, or headbager as we used to call them. The track Rime of the Ancient Mariner was playing - the middle section of that song really struck me at the time. All of a sudden the guitars die, the driving rock riff seems to have been strangled and all we are left with is the eerie sound of a ship adrift on the ocean. Over that, with only the creaking timbers for percussion, comes Bruce Dickenson (least I assume it's Bruce) quoting the most famous lines from Colerdge's poem -

Day after day, night after night ,we stuck nor breath nor motion. As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink.Water, water everywhere and not any drop to drink.

It's a gloriously effective moment - spooky in its intensity and the quiet section (as I call it) lasts for maybe four minutes before the driving rock guitars come in to finish off the song. It's a true work of art and transcends genre. It's more than a rock song - it is a genuine artistic triumph - moody, atmospheric and rocking. Maiden have done some incredible epic songs along these lines - When the Wind Blows, Empire of the Clouds are just two others that spring to mind, but Rhyme was for me the first time the band really pulled off epic like this.

It's a true work of genius, a masterwork, a novel in the rock format. And it sounds as good today as it always did, because there is no sell by date with true art.


The rest of the album is equally good (there's not a bad track on here) and each track is almost a novel in its depth, since Maiden's style of songwriting is very much narrative driven, like a story set to music. From the rollicking rock of Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight, to the Egyptian saga of the title track the album doesn't put a foot wrong. In fact the track Powerslave is probably my second favourite cut on the platter. I like a few other Maiden albums but this one, to me, stands out and will always be an essential record for me.