Killers-Iron Maiden

Ok right, so today Ima right a review of an album from one of my favorite bands. Before starting I would like to thank my awesome Uncle and regular reader Shawn, who was a major influence on my musical tastes and starting to play guitar. (He has a lot of guitars). Anyway this album is pretty unique in that it features two instrumental tracks, a pretty unique thing. Both of them are pretty good and were basically designed to show off the new guitarist on this album Adrian Smith (who is like a god). This is also the last D'Ianno album which is both a good and bad thing. It is good because Bruce Dickinson is significantly better and has an amazing voice but it is sad because D'Ianno was one of the defining voices of early metal whereas Dickinson is much more '80's', not that this is a bad thing but it is a change.

Overall the music on this album is pretty good. It features a couple really good songs like Murders in the Rue Morgue (which is also cool cause it takes place where I live). What's interesting though is that while it is not packed with classics like for example The Number of The Beast album it holds its own and as a whole rocks. It does show off the guitar playing of Adrian, which is very technically skilled and filled with some awesome riffs and solos. I especially like Genghis Kahn which comes out sounding great. (Its one of the other instrumental tracks FYI). The drums are typically Maiden drums, amazing and loud when they need to be and quiet or backgroundish when they need to be. Really a hats off to Nicko McBrain (best name ever). Steve Harris again has his amazing bass parts which make the music sound really full and nice. It sounds particularly good in “Another Life”.

The lyrics are pretty good. They have the same general angry aggressive Iron Maiden feel. D'Iannos voice is still amazing on this track. There are darker themes which are usually kind of disturbing. Murders in the Rue Morgue is about well.. murder, Killers is about a man who killed someone and then his remorse. Really its just overall dark and filled with despair and sadness almost. There are some really cool sing-a-longish bits but not quite to the level of Dickinson's Maiden which brought us the likes of Children of the Damned. This album really just comes through nicely and sounds really good. You can feel the energy coming through and it is really cool. When you hear this album you will feel the energy coming through in a way that I have only really noticed before with Zeppelin.

So yeah, all in all this is a pretty good album. It starts to get the better later Maiden tone and shows progression from the first Maiden album. The issue is that it lacks classics here. It feels really cool and comes out really well and sounds spectacular so I love it but it just has no true classics. The album is not weak, it's quiet strong but the only true classic here is Killers and to a degree Murders in the Rue Morgue. It does not give me the same explosive joy and bliss of some later albums and the awesomeness contained in the classics there. This album still is amazing. You should listen to it.. right now.

OVERALL 9/10

Killers