Metal Mayhem: Metal Mayhem's Top 100 Bands of All-Time, 1: Iron Maiden

1. Iron Maiden

We have made it to the number 1 spot on Metal Mayhem's Top 100 Metal Bands of All-Time. While I am certain that there are many arguments that could be made for other bands to occupy this spot, here is my argument for why I chose Iron Maiden as not only the greatest metal band, but the most influential.

I have been listening to metal most of my life, but more recently, I have been listening to metal like crazy. I have listened to just about every sub-genre of metal of bands of varying styles. The one constant was that the metal that most bands play seem to resemble the metal played by bands from the New Wave of British Metal which Iron Maiden was the greatest band. Bands that played during the New Wave of British Metal were incredibly important because this was the first case of metal bands eliminating any pretension of playing blues-based hard rock like earlier "metal" bands played (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple). As the prominent band of this era, Iron Maiden not only wanted to play heavy, like Black Sabbath, but they wanted to play fast.

This style of metal inspired every metal band that came after them. Bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, HammerFall, and Pantera were all heavily influenced by Iron Maiden more so than Black Sabbath. To take this one step further, established bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath were both influenced by the success of Maiden. For example, Black Sabbath fired Ozzy Osbourne in 1979. When they were seeking a replacement for Ozzy, they chose Ronnie James Dio which completely altered the sound of Black Sabbath. This alteration took Sabbath from a hard-bluesy style metal into a band in the mold of Iron Maiden . . . and Sabbath put out some of their best tunes as a result of this change. Additionally, Judas Priest released British Steel after the success of many bands of the New Wave of British Metal, and, in fact, became one of the flag bearers of the movement.

Some would say that Black Sabbath was the greatest metal band, but my argument against Sabbath is simple. After Ronnie James Dio left the band, Black Sabbath were a terrible band. That is all. That is why I placed them at number 2.

Back to Maiden.

Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal band that formed in 1975 by bassist, and primary songwriter Steve Harris. In 1978, the band established the lineup of singer Paul Di'Anno, bassist Steve Harris, guitarist Dave Murray, and drummer Doug Sampson. In 1979, the band hired Adrian Smith to become the second guitarist in order to create a richer sound. In 1980, Iron Maiden released their self-titled first release featuring classic tracks "Running Free," "Iron Maiden," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Transylvania." The album debuted at #4 on the UK's charts. In 1981, Killers was Iron Maiden's second release. This led to Maiden's first tour of the United States supporting Judas Priest.

However, the band fired lead singer Paul Di'Anno due to drug problems and inner conflict between the singer and the rest of the band. Additionally, Steve Harris sought a singer with greater vocal range than Di'Anno. The band hired Samson's Bruce Dickinson in September 1981.

In 1982, Iron Maiden released their classic album The Number of the Beast which contained the classic tracks: "The Number of the Beast," "Run to the Hills," and "Hallowed Be Thy Name." The album sold extremely well despite American evangelists claiming that the band was Satan worshipers reducing radio play in the states. The band also hired drummer Nicko McBrain.

In 1983, the band released another classic album with Piece of Mind featuring "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus" which received some radio play in the states. In 1984, the band released the great album Powerslave featuring "Powerslave," "Aces High," "2 Minutes to Midnight," and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

With the 1986 release of Somewhere in Time, this marked the beginning of the experimental phase of Maiden's career. This release marked the first time that guitarist Adrian Smith became a prominent songwriter for the band. This release featured one of my favorite songs, "Wasted Years." The next album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son marked the band's triumphant first attempt at a concept album. It is often marked as one of the greatest metal concept albums of all-time.

In 1989, Adrian Smith left the band and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson's guitarist Janick Gers. The band released No Prayer for the Dying in 1990 featuring their only #1 song on the UK chart, "Bring Your Daughter . . . to the Slaughter." In 1992, the band released Fear of the Dark which was a pretty underrated album by all accounts.

In 1993, Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in order to focus on his solo career and was replaced by Wolfsbane's Blaze Bayley. I never quite understood the Bayley hiring due to his lack of vocal range . . . especially considering that they had already wrote an album for Dickinson, The X Factor. The two albums, The X Factor and Virtual XI, during the Blaze Bayley era were the lowest charting of their career despite the albums not being all that bad.

In 1999, Iron Maiden brought back both Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, thus making the band a three guitar unit for the first time. In 2000, Iron Maiden released one of their best albums of their career with Brave New World which featured "The Wicker Man," "Blood Brothers," and "The Mercenary." During their Brave New World Tour, they played for 250,000 fans at the Rock in Rio festival which turned into their great live album Rock in Rio.

The next two releases, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death, were both solid albums. However, their 2010 album The Final Frontier marked the band's first and only Grammy win for the song "El Dorado."

Hopefully, we will have new Iron Maiden music in the near future!

Here are some great Maiden tunes!

"Phantom of the Opera."