In planning my Table Ready x Background Noise crossover that would feature the band’s mascot Eddie in miniature form, as well as the albums in which he was designed for, I ran into a bit of a hiccup. One of the band’s most important albums, if not THE most important album in their entire history, would not be featured. This was very unacceptable to me. So I decided to add this standalone Background Noise entry as an addendum to the crossover series.
It’s Number is Six Hundred and Sixty Six
Iron Maiden’s 1982 album Number of the Beast is an absolute powerhouse. Seriously. From top to bottom there are no throw-away or skippable songs in my opinion. Which was a shot-in-the-arm, as Killers had some throwaways. Again, as I said in the previous entry, that is only my opinion.
But seriously, Number of the Beast, if you look at the track listing for this album, more than half of the songs could be(and generally are) found on a Best-of album at some point. Which is almost insane. Due to this, I had a tough time picking songs to feature in this post, because there are so many hits that I could go on about.
I mean, just look at this tracklist:
Side 1 | |||
---|---|---|---|
1 | Invaders | Harris | 3:20 |
2 | Children of the Damned | Harris | 4:34 |
3 | The Prisoner | Smith, Harris | 5:34 |
4 | 22 Acacia Avenue | Harris, Smith | 6:34 |
Side 2 | |||
---|---|---|---|
5 | The Number of the Beast | Harris | 4:25 |
6 | Run to the Hills | Harris | 3:50 |
7 | Gangland | Smith, Burr | 3:46 |
8 | Hallowed Be Thy Name | Harris | 7:08 |
Number of the Beast was the band’s first album with current front-man Bruce Dickinson, and he made his presence felt immediately. It was also the last album with drummer Clive Burr. Upon release, the album was met with outrage from religious groups who staged protests and destroyed copies of the record. Which I find hilarious. You always see these kind of protests, and they always destroy the merchandise. Merchandise that they most likely purchased. So the band is still getting revenue from sales, and PR. Thanks?
Children of the Damned is one of my all time favorite Maiden songs. It just hits differently for me. The song starts off seemingly like a ballad, which can be a bit off-putting, but then comes the slow and steady crescendo supported by heavy guitar riffs that takes off at 2:19 with the drums and bass. I love the solo section. Then 3:41 it hits its apex with Bruce’s vocals over rolling drums and guitars.
This is a seriously underrated song in their catalog in my opinion.
The title track for Number of the Beast is as legendary a song as ‘Iron Maiden’ is. Opening with spoken word, it jumps right in with that memorable first guitar riff and Bruce setting the table. The song builds for about a minute before the drums really hit, Bruce wails, and then it’s off to the races. Steve Harris’ bass-lines in this song are outstanding. Sometimes I swear he must have cybernetic fingers.
Iron Maiden has created some of the most amazing songs to experience live. I say ‘experience’ because you are not just listening to and watching the band. You are feeling the music. You are singing along with the music. You vocalize the guitar parts with the thousands and thousands of other fans. It is an experience that you do not get from modern metal bands. At least not regularly.
Now, were there to be a list of songs that need to be ‘experienced‘ live made, said list would be very long. But I am confident that Hallowed Be Thy Name would be so incredibly high up. Probably tied for first with Fear of the Dark. The last show that my wife and I attended, they played this song and Fear of the Dark* in succession. It was a one-two punch like no other.
Hallowed Be Thy Name is a perfect example of the band’s ability to take a step back and get a bit mysterious. And that mysterious sound is carried throughout the song by the guitars.
*we definitely will discuss Fear of the Dark later, as there is a model for that song.
The Eddie Project Connection
While this album was not featured in the miniatures that I am writing about in my crossover series, this version of Eddie more or less did see 2 appearances. Killer Eddie(Killers) and Undead Eddie(Live After Death). His design is the same in this version as it is in those other two instances. Though I would postulate that this may be his penultimate form.
If you look closely at the album artwork, you can see that Eddie is controlling the Devil like a marionette. However if you look even closer, you will see that the Devil is seemingly controlling Eddie like a marionette as well. This depiction implies that Eddie has such a power that he can even control the lord of the underworld, even tricking the Devil into thinking he still has any power over Eddie at all. Such power would surely be too powerful for use in a game like Zombicide, right? We may never know.
Also, I didn’t notice the Devil controlling Eddie like a puppet until I was well into my 30’s. Decades of listening to this album, totally didn’t notice. The Iron Maiden album covers are full of things like this.
Anyway, I think a model of this version of Eddie would be badass. It totally could have been the size of the Wicker Man or Fear of the Dark mini’s(which again will be featured later). Spoiler, the Wicker Man is three times the size of the average model in this series.
Eddie will return!
Up next: Asylum Eddie/The Trooper and Piece of Mind
Robert
All of these are true except for one:
Robert is: a Hobbyist, a Music Lover, an RPG Gamer, a Mustard Lover, Chaotic Neutral, a Japanese Speaker, a Veteran, an Otaku, a Table Tennis Player, an Anime Fan, an Aviation Professional, a New York Rangers Fan, a Chaos Lover With Loyalist Tendencies.