Warthur Piece of Mind is a just a shade less impressive than its predecessor, The Number of the Beast, for two reasons. The first is that it's more of the same - rather than representing a sudden and impressive development of the band's sound, as the earlier album did, the album simply showcases the band continuing to make the most of Bruce's impressive vocal abilities and developing their prog-influenced song structures. The other reason is that whilst there's plenty of great songs here, there isn't a standout hit quite on the level of the title track from Number of the Beast.

But these are mild quibbles at best; the fact is, with tracks like To Tame A Land, Where Eagles Dare, Flight of Icarus and Die With Your Boots On, this is another key Maiden album which proved that their new musical direction was not exhausted yet.

adg211288 Piece of Mind is the first of a string of albums which features what is widely considered to be the classic Iron Maiden lineup, that of Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Nikco McBrain, something that would last up until Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, but would later get back together with the addition of Janick Gers for Brave New World.

Piece of Mind isn’t such a fast album in general as its predecessor, The Number of the Beast, neither is it as good, but it’s still a pretty solid addition to anyone’s Iron Maiden collection. It actually contains what I feel to be a mix of Iron Maiden classics and some of their most devilishly underrated songs. And then there’s a couple that are sort of in between.

Where Eagles Dare is the opening track and by Maiden standards it’s an unusual choice. Most Maiden albums start with a shorter song, often single material, but at over six minutes it’s a more drawn out mid-paced affair. A decent song but middle of the road when put against the albums true gems.

Let’s turn our attention to those songs widely considered Maiden classics by many fans. These are, in order of appearance, Revelations, Flight of Icarus and The Trooper, the latter two of which were the albums singles. Personally I’ve always felt that Revelations was a bit overrated. It’s a bit like Where Eagles Dare in that it’s pretty mid-paced, six minutes job. Personally I would have put these two later in the album and put one of the faster tracks like The Trooper or Die With Your Boots On first. The two singles though are top notch classic Maiden, especially The Trooper with its instantly recognisable main riff and dual lead melody.

But personally I think this albums true gems are songs which don’t tend to get so much attention. Songs of particular note being the last three, Quest for Fire, Sun and Steel and especially the album closer, To Tame a Land. There’s just something special about these songs for me, whether it’s Bruce sounding particular great and what I consider to be a great chorus in Quest for Fire or again with that classic Maiden gallop in Sun and Steel. They save the best for last though. To Tame a Land is Piece of Mind’s epic. Based on Dune by Frank Herbert the song is pretty much split into two parts, a vocal section which constitutes the song part of it and an instrumental section which lasts until the track’s end seven and a half minutes later.

A solid album overall, but feels at times like a power loss when put up against the albums that come either side of it, namely The Number of the Beast and Powerslave. If it wasn’t for the presence of To Tame a Land I’d rate this one as a 3.5 stars. But I’m going to bring that up to 4 just for that little gem alone.

Time Signature Where Maiden dare...

Genre: heavy metal

Another classic by Iron Maiden, "Piece of Mind" is the first Maiden album to feature influential drummer Nicko McBrain and full of classics like "The Trooper", "The Flight of Icarus", "Where Eagles Dare", "Revelations" and, to some extent, "Die With Your Boots On".

The album opens with the technical but captivating "Where Eagles Dare" which is followed by the Dickinson-penned ballad "Revelations" which is an all time fan favorite, and one of my favorites from this album. This is followed by the heavier "Flight of Icarus" and the rocker "Die With Your Boots On". "The Trooper" is one of Maiden's most popular tracks ever, and it is catchy as hell - and, notably, there is no chorus!

In ye olden days, in the time of vinyl, the first five tracks of this album constituted side A, and it is worth noting that "Piece of Mind" is an album whose first side contained nothing but hits. Consequently, perhaps, side B contains all obscure tracks. These tracks may be obscure, but I actually think that side B on the whose is better than side A. "Still Life" is a midtempo and slightly melancholic and dark song while "Quest for Fire" is a heavy 3/8 song based on the film and book of the same title. This song contains some nice medieval sounding twin guitars. "Sun and Steel" is a galloping metal track, also containing intricate twin guitars, while "To Tame a Land" is a proggy epic track based on the novel "Dune", containing several musical twists and turns. This track was later covered by Dream Theater.

I would recommend this album to everyone, as I think it belongs in any metal collection.

J-Man Fly as High as the Sky!

After becoming heavy metal legends with their previous album The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden proved they were far from out of ideas with Piece of Mind. Released just a year after The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden had already changed significantly by this point. First of all, on this album Bruce Dickinson's creative influence begins to really shine through. He co-wrote many of the tracks on Piece of Mind, and even wrote one of the songs with no help from the other bandmates. He's a fantastic songwriter, and it's great to hear that he's leaving his mark on Iron Maiden's music. Secondly, this is the debut of now-legendary drummer Nicko McBrain. Clive Burr is a great drummer and I have an infinite respect for him, but Nicko McBrain is simply one of the best heavy metal drummers out there. He really is a key part of Iron Maiden, and a complete monster behind the drumkit as well.

The sound here is unmistakably Iron Maiden. Although there have been some changes in Iron Maiden since The Number of the Beast, their sound is generally the same. Of course, judging by the immense critical and commercial success of their previous masterwork, that's definitely not a problem. Piece of Mind shows Iron Maiden incorporating a few more prog influences into their sound, but that wouldn't happen completely until Powerslave.

Piece of Mind is a 9-track, 44:38 album. All of the songs here are pretty great except for maybe Still Life, which is decent. Die With Your Boots On and Sun and Steel are far from Iron Maiden's best, but they're still decent tracks. This is one of Iron Maiden's more inconsistent albums, but highlights like Where Eagles Dare, Revelations, The Trooper, and To Tame a Land make Piece of Mind an essential Maiden album.

Like most Iron Maiden albums, the musicianship is possibly the best part about the music. They are an exceptionally tight-playing group of virtuoso musicians, and Piece of Mind was when they really began showing this. On this album they acquired one of the best heavy metal drummers out there (Nicko McBrain), in addition to already having some of the best musicians in metal.

The production quality on Piece of Mind is great. I love the organic sound, yet dynamic enough to display Iron Maiden's powerful music. This isn't quite as good as Powerslave production-wise, but it's still definitely among the better heavy metal productions. By 1983 many bands were using "that terrible 80's sound", but Iron Maiden, thankfully, were never one of them.

Conclusion:

Piece of Mind is yet another great album by Iron Maiden, and even though it's not quite as good as The Number of the Beast, it deserves the 4 star rating just as much. It's really a shame that many people overlook this album since it's between two seminal albums (The Number of the Beast and Powerslave), because it really is just as good as those releases. Highly recommended to all NWoBHM fans.

Pekka And so is born the classic Iron Maiden line-up, as Clive Burr departs due to health problems and in comes the since ever-present madman Nicko McBrain. The new guy gets a proper introduction as he gets to start the album with a furious flurry of drum fills before the first track kicks in, showcasing an even more metallic sounding band.

Maiden had exploded with The Number of the Beast especially in the United States, and soon of course faced the trouble of trying to follow up an international hit album. The result doesn't completely live up to the standards set by its predecessor, but the band was still young, enthusiastic and overflowing with great riffs and melodies. The track started by the drum intro is Where Eagles Dare, and it's a great way to open the album with its heavy riffing, soaring vocals and machine gun drum breaks. The following track Revelations was a mystery to me for a couple of years until I heard it at a 2003 Bruce Dickinson solo concert and was blown away by its versatility, atmosphere and brilliant melodies. Since then it's been one of my favourite Iron Maiden tracks.

The Trooper is obviously the most well known of the album's tracks, and as much as I think it's overplayed, slaughtered and whatnot, it's always a great pleasure to listen to, especially live with some new three guitar harmonies. Still Life is a forgotten gem that I'd love to hear live one day, but no chance of that happening I'm afraid. (A funny thing is that when I was six years old and in my daycare place, just having my first contacts with Metallica and Alice Cooper, one of the tapes there had this funny mumbling part recorded in two speeds of the turntable. We used to laugh a lot when listening to it, and some ten years later I realized that it was the intro to Still Life.) The fifth and final highlight of the album is the epic closer To Tame a Land, originally intended to be titled Dune after its source of inspiration. The track suffers a tad from the same problem that plagues the later album closer Alexander the Great, too many words in one line to form a flowing melody, but nevertheless it's a great piece of epic Maiden from the days when seven minutes was epic instead of average length.

The remaining four tracks (with the possible exception of the lyrics in Quest for Fire...) are very strong by any standards except the ones Maiden were setting themselves in the early 80s. A great metal album, but still quite far from their highest peaks.

AtomicCrimsonRush The followup to the "Number of the Beast" is a lacklustre effort with some shining moments, but a whole bunch of forgettable tracks that nobody cares about anymore. However this album does have the excellent 'Flight of Icarus' that is perhaps one of the all time great metal tracks of the 80s. The film clip was wonderful eye candy and you can never forget that awesome chorus, or the riff that drives it.

Back in the 80s I remember seeing many IM posters of songs from this album primarily 'The Trooper' with Eddie looking very paramilitary. Also 'Where Eagles Dare' and 'Die With Your Boots' had the same anti-war thematic content; a theme that IM would continue on subsequent albums including the more recent "A Matter of Life and Death".

'Revelations' has the same themes as 'Number of the Beast' that began with a reading from Revelation in the Bible.

'To Tame a Land' is a lengthy track with memorable riffs and a brilliant lead break from Smith and Murray with Harris's bass driving it along. The track was covered recently by Dream Theater and sounds as relevant today as in the early 80s. Overall this album has some great moments and deserves 3 stars at least.

bonnek Piece of Mind continues some of the commercial metal tendencies of the preceding Number of The Beast but this time Maiden was blessed by a thundering blast of inspiration, energy and ambition.

The opening Where Eagles Dare is one of the best tracks they’ve ever written and displays a stunning musical growth and maturity. This is their first song that goes beyond competent hard-rock and explores the proggy aspects of earlier masters like Rainbow and Judas Priest. Everything Maiden does here had been done before them but they pull it off well enough. Also Revelations is a very powerful and accomplished piece. Plenty of references to Rush here, the quote from Anthem at minute 4 being the most obvious.

The following three tracks, Flight of The Icarus, Die With Your Boots On and The Trooper are catchy and commercial but have that typical Maiden style with those galloping rhythms. With Still Life, Maiden launches into 3 other songs that are less appealing, featuring their trademark riffing and predictable anthemic choruses that lack the inspiration of the previous batch of songs. The album ends in great style with the superb To Tame A Land.

Piece of mind is not entirely consistent but the 2 opening tracks and the album closer balance out the weaker material in the second half.

Windhawk Iron Maiden is a heavy metal band hailing from England, that has become a household name for anyone with a slight interest in hard rock and heavy metal during the 27 years they have released music so far. Piece of Mind was their fourth studio album, released back in 1983.

Many fans, especially their older fans, think this album is the high point of the bands career. Which is understandable, for many reasons. Piece of Mind was the first studio release with what by most is seen as the classic Iron Maiden line-up; Dickinson-Murray-Smith-Harris-McBrain. On this album they take a final goodbye to the more obvious musical influences from the past; and for the most part have a very strong personal identity stamped to the music made.

And although the band seek out some calmer and mellow moods on this album, the music is clearly heavy metal from start to finish. Examples of the progressive leanings they would explore further on later releases can be found; especially on second track "Revelations"; but most of all this is a heavy metal album high on melody, a good balance between riffs, riff pattens and drawn out guitar chords to form melodies; some really nice harmonic and melodic guitar soloing, and at times beautiful and imaginative underscoring of the melody line from Steve Harris on the bass guitar. With excellent rhythms courtesy of Nicko on the drums, and mostly good vocals from Dickinson.

The songs are a mixed affair on this release though. The band seems to have decided what direction to follow at this time, but still seem to be exploring how to best utilize their musicianship in this style. Some really cheesy choruses are to be found here too; that probably sounded much better in 1983 than they do in 2007. There's quite a few goodies on this release though; and for many "The Trooper" is the absolute highlight on this release; a track combining the best parts of the sound Iron Maiden pursued before 1983 with some of the best parts the band would pursue after 1983.

Valarius After the hugely successful album 'The Number of the Beast', the Metal world waited with baited breath to see how Iron Maiden would follow it up. Whilst many would consider this one of the bands finest releases, I consider this more of a transitional record.

Despite the arrival of vocalist Bruce Dickinson, I felt that their previous album was just another by-the- book release, with a tried-and-tested formula that had been used on their first two albums. However, this album starts very positively with the epic 'Where Eagles Dare', that shows a band that has matured and grown more confident. And whilst the group is making more use of harmonies and more bombastic vocal lines, overall I feel that the songs still lack that ‘X Factor’.

Of course the band would perfect this sound on their next album 'Powerslave', but with 'Piece of Mind' I just feel that a lot of the songs are trial-and-error. 'Where Eagles Dare' and 'Flight of Icarus' are awesome tracks, and 'To Tame a Land' has its moments, but personally I find the rest of the songs pretty dull and boring. And to be honest, I think 'The Trooper', arguably the most popular track on this album, to be madly overrated.

This is far from the best Iron Maiden has to offer, but if you're a fan of the band you'll buy it anyway because whether you like it or not it's still a key moment in Maiden history.

friso Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1984)

By now Iron Maiden had become one of the biggest metal-acts of the globe and expectations were high for the fourth release. Iron Maiden changed their style a bit by excluding the rock'n roll/punk of the Paul Di'Anno era. Also Nicko McBrain enters the band, giving Iron Maiden some new grounds to explore. The band originally named the album 'Dune', but they didn't get the rights to do so.

Where Eagles Dare is an interesting track with great drums of McBrain and atmospheric guitar parts. Still this track isn't as convincing as other Iron Maiden opening tracks. Revelations is however one of my favorite track ever. The track was written by Bruce Dickinson and has a very un-orthodox form. There are many instrumental and vocal parts and a lot of extrovert vocals by Dickinson. The clean-guitar with melodic bass-line part in the middle and ending of the song is memorable. Love this one! Flight of Icarus had been released as a single, but turns out to be a great Iron Maiden song. The guitar solo's on the end are great! Die With Your Boots On is great metal-track, but not as appealing as others. The Trooper needs little introduction: It's an Iron Maiden anthem with great instrumental parts (and a perfect two-part guitar solo in the middle!) and aggressive vocals by Bruce. Still Life is even better with it's nice atmospheric and fearsome vocals and melodics parts. Quest for Fire and Sun and Steel are two less inventive tracks and the reason some discard this album. The songs are fun, but just not as good as other songs. To Tame A Land is however one of the best Iron Maiden epics with perfect instrumental parts and inventive songwriting. The bass is very good on this song.

Conclusion. This album has some of Iron Maiden's best songs and some mediocre tracks. Still it is a very good album for fans but perhaps less interesting for others. I will give it four stars, but my personal opinion of the album is higher. Essential for fans, interesting for metal fans and perhaps a good addition for others. For those who embrace the digital era I recommend to listen to To Tame A Land, Revelations, Still Life and The Trooper.

metalmillennium Maiden's previous album The Number of the Beast was quite an excellent album, as Bruce Dickinson now has to follow up his debut masterpiece with a worthwhile successor. Drummer Nicko McBrain makes his debut here, and the chemistry between he and the rest of the band continues to hold strong today. This album is not mixed as nicely as most Maiden albums, but get the recent remasters if you're not fully satisfied. Hailing from the U.K., they were already a success in their native land by now. However, in the U.S., many people accused Maiden of being satanists--relating to the song "Number of the Beast." Maiden denied this allegation, fired back with this strong album, and guess what? They began racking up a huge U.S. fan base. "Where Eagles Dare" begins with a drum intro that really impressed Steve Harris after he got his spot as drummer. The machine-gun effects add to the intensity, as Dave and Adrian let loose their own arsonal of razor-sharp riffs. Nicko adds a nice variety of drum patterns that makes this one of his better performances. "Revelations" is another tremendous song, with a fantastic solo, and Bruce cleaning up the song with a strong sub-chorus. "Flight of Icarus" shows Harris' love for mythology and a mind for great lyrics. Check out Bruce hit the high notes, as he soars away with confidence and brilliance. "Die With Your Boots On" contains the swift, slashing riffs that Maiden are known for, as Bruce only adds to the power. "The Trooper" is one of Maiden's best and most well-known/recognized songs, and boy does it smoke. From the opening riff, you know this is going to be a bruiser. Just listen to Bruce wail away at the chorus. The riffs before and after the solo begins are brilliant, and not to be missed. Also, shouldn't bass work this good be illegal? "Still Life" and "To Tame a Land" are under-rated Maiden gems that add to an already excellent album that has become a classic.

Many consider this Maiden's best work to date, although it's debatable. But what this is, is a fine piece of work from a band that has held firmly in its Metal roots for nearly twenty-five+ years! The vocals are top-notch, the guitars crunch, the bass thumps, and this album just begs your ears to be heard. Certainly one of Maiden's best, and Metal's best to offer. A must in every fan's collection. Highly recommended.