Heavy Metal Army

This is a review of short, EP issue of Maiden Japan - the rating is a reflection of quantity rather than quality.

The all-time IRON MAIDEN's favourite band is DEEP PURPLE, as guys confessed once. They learned a lot about dynamics, tempo and arranging by them, but they also learned what happens when band goes too far.

Of course, it was unavoidable to include at least some reference about DEEP PURPLE somewhere in band's long career, and they mad a brilliant pun in the title. Made in Japan, geddit?

Needless to say, this live EP is hardly comparable to legendary Purple's live record, but that was not the intention anyway. We have here five very good live tracks ("Running Free" and "Remember Tomorrow" from the debut and "Wrathchild", "Killers" and "Innocent Exile" from the second album). All the songs are, as I said, very good, but they are nothing special in Maiden's catalogue - or your personal collection - whether you are IRON MAIDEN fan or not. In my opinion, it deserves two and a half stars, but I won't round them to three - this live document is above average, but not excellent, and it's way too brief. The reason for the publishing of this brief record was, I think, insisting of Japanese fans to see 1981's performances from Nagoya and Tokyo. The band was reluctant to do so, but Maiden Japan EP (aka "Heavy Metal Army") was released at last.

All the performances are of high quality, and Paul is singing much more furious than on studio albums. "Wrathchild" is much more energetic (it sounds somewhat monotonous and recited on studio version, at least to my ears) and "Innocent Exile" is also worth mentioning. When I heard Paul's "eee-yo-wee-yo-yo-yo" chanting I had a strange feeling that I've heard it somewhere before, and indeed, you can hear the same thing in THE POLICE's "Walking On The Moon". Hah! The mighty 1981!

Anyway, this live EP is the last document of Paul DiAnno's singing in the band, and after this one, the band will abandon their occasional punkish (?) attitude.

I'm just regretting a missed opportunity to see the so-called "Venezuela version" of this EP, where Eddie is holding Paul's head on the front cover (the same will be done with Bruce's head on their farewell concert before Blaze took place). Awesome.

It would not be very fair to say that this live document of Iron Maiden's catalogue is the weak one; all the tracks are proving that Maidens are outstanding technicians, however, there is something that annoys me quite a bit, although I can not define what exactly. Maybe stupid Janick Gers' improvisations of his guitar solos, which unavoidably led every fan to think: Adrian Smith, come back! we miss you! Maybe it is omnipresence of keyboard tapestry played by Michael Kenney, Steve Harris' bass technician. Don't get me wrong, I love keyboards, but in Iron Maiden's case, they just do not seem to fit in the picture since the "Somewhere In Time" era. They are doing the job creating an atmosphere, but not making their music more interesting, to be very honest.

Maybe the selection of the songs from their catalogue. Oh, I forgot the mention that "A Real Live Dead One" consist of "A Real Dead One" with older tracks and "And Real Live One" with newer tracks. But you got the picture already, I guess. Anyway, the selection of songs is far from perfect. I know there is different opinions as many as different tastes, but personally I think that "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter" is musical banality, and "Heaven Can Wait" contains surprisingly merry melody that is not fitting the lyrics.

The performances of the "Can I play With Madness" and "Wasting Love" stand out from the crowd a little bit (it's nice to hear the intro in French!)

I won't even mention the "Dead One"; not bad, but every fan will rather pick "Live After Death".

Overall, neither here nor there. Recommended for Maiden fans, a nice (but not the nicest) starter for Maiden-newcomer, but definitely not a masterpiece.

Am I really first to review the Black album? Oh well. Now, the title of the review:

The album that killed the 80's.

...not entirely correct. But I'll explain it later.

'Metallica' was my first encounter with metal ('proper' metal, not the glam one) at the age of 15. Apart from the personal value, this album holds a special place in history of rock 'n' roll - it launched METALLICA on radio and opened doors for plethora of different, uncompromisable, heavy artists in the 90's. It's a second album (NIRVANA's 'Nevermind' being the first) that marked the end of an era, era of cheesy synthpop, and brought (loud!) guitars back in business. Of course, there's a palette of bands ranging from IRON MAIDEN to DIRE STRAITS that preserved the sound of rock music in the 80's - but I think you can understand my point.

'Metallica' - first off, I don't know why the album is self-titled, as it is the band's first one - , commonly known as 'The Black Album' because of its black cover, with only a name whispered almost in identical shade, (black on black!) deserves a special place in history almost as THE BEATLES' colour-counterpart.

It's also a breaking point of the band's songwriting career; you might say they took a long slope down the hill, however, it's evident they became more pop-oriented (and radio friendly) after (and with this one).

Bear in mind, it's not a sell-out, and band slightly inclined towards more 'listenable' rock format, but the album did what it did - it changed the mindset of the audience. Plus, it's far from being pop, or even bad. It's energetic and it contains a variation of different ideas, varying from rock ballads to their trash roots; the traces of progressive metal are evident only slightly, and the tracks are considerably shorter (albeit not too short), tight, packed properly to be presented to the wide world.

Of weaker tracks, I would like to pin-point forgettable 'The God That Failed', under-developed 'Whenever I May Roam' and 'The Struggle Within'. Perhaps the 'Struggle' contains decent intro (yet another adaptation of Bernstein's 'America') under the bold, chugging riff, but it's laughable, and it's certainly not THE NICE. 'Roam' contains a decent melody (and a nice sitar intro) but it seems it goes without any significant changes until the fade-out.

'Nothing Else Matters' and 'Unforgiven' (which will experience two more reincarnations in the post-black period) are, needles to say, two easiest tunes from the album ,and both of theme were major hits, as well as a roadmark of the band's new musical approach. The songs so overplayed (and overperformed - do you know ANY amateur guitar that never tried to played that open strings intro??!?), I won't be saying anything more about them.

What is left (and that's more than half an hour of material) is good metal with thrashy overtones. The quick power chord changes, unexpected jumps in dynamics of 'Master Of Puppets' and 'Justice' are gone, what's left are mostly slow to mid-paced songs with tight riffing and catchy licks, all of that dense in execution. Two of them, well-known 'Enter Sandman' and 'Sad But True' both fit in this formula, 'Sad...' emphasizing it more, while 'Sandman' being really wicked in utilizing an innocent child's voice praying among the horror spleen - very BLACK SABBATH like in its 'evilness'. The rest of the rest is worth checking, while not being the sterling material, it's far from being weak. For a general audience, the album might be an acquired taste, for a metal fan is obligatory; any rock fan should check it out and decide it for him/herself.