Warthur Iron Maiden further refined the style of Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind with Powerslave, which included both breakout hits such as Aces High or 2 Minutes to Midnight and progressive metal epics such as the title track and, in particular, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. One of the band's most high-energy albums, the band maintain a furious pace from the opening bars of Aces High and don't let up for the full running time of the set, sustaining their momentum where most other bands would have slacked off here and there. Simply put, not a single song on this album is filler; each one is a classic part of the Iron Maiden repertoire.

adg211288 Powerslave is the fifth studio album from UK heavy metal act Iron Maiden. It is the second of the four album run that is considered to be by the band’s classic line-up of Dickinson, Harris, Murray, Smith and McBrain that began with Piece of Mind (1983) and came to an end with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988), though it arguably started up again as ‘classic line-up +1’ with Brave New World (2000). The album was released in 1984 and now many years later it is widely regarded to be among the group’s finest releases.

And it is very rightly so in my opinion. Given that Iron Maiden is one of those bands that has, for the most part, been very consistent with their releases (Virtual XI being the only major blip) it stands to reason that there will be a few albums that are done to absolute perfection among their number, and Powerslave is the first of three of those. Following on from the slightly disappointing Piece of Mind, Powerslave is the sound of an Iron Maiden with a renewed vigour. The music is noticeably heavier than on the previous album and the band had never sounded quite this powerful up until this point, even on the exceptional The Number of the Beast. The release is classic Iron Maiden in every sense of the term, and done at its very best on all fronts whether it be the writing, musicianship or production. Everything is just perfect.

That’s because Powerslave is an album that literally has everything that an Iron Maiden release should have. You have your metal anthems that make up the ‘single material’ of the album with the opening Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight, both of which number among the best known tracks by the band, with 2 Minutes to Midnight being a live staple, being played on almost every tour following the release of the album. Then you also have the closing epic, Rime of the Ancient Mariner. To date this still stands as the band’s longest song and is a re-telling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem. It’s really at the opposite end of the spectrum to the first two songs, and this is what makes the album so great. Maiden has a sound typical to them, but they can turn that sound into songs with their own identity, and because of that it doesn’t get stale in any way.

Then you also get all the stuff that falls in between those two extremes, which includes several Maiden tracks that I’m surprised to say just don’t seem to get mentioned as much as others despite Powerslave’s overall high regard. Flash of the Blade, Back in the Village and The Duellists are all of a quality with the rest of the album, but none are names you see mentioned as often as Aces High or 2 Minutes to Midnight. The title track is one of the album’s best though, and fortunately it sees almost as much regard as the singles and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The album also includes a rare Maiden instrumental in Losfer Words (Big 'Orra).

Powerslave is one of Maiden’s three perfect records as far as I’m concerned, but if any if that three is the best of the best then it has really got to be this one. A textbook example of a band at the top of their game, this is definitely one Iron Maiden album that everyone needs to own. Absolutely essential. Full marks without hesitation.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 10.0/10)

Stooge Call it blasphemy, but I’m not nearly as passionate about the music of Iron Maiden as I was when I was a teenager. However, tracking the Maiden career for at least a decade by now, it has given me some time to put their legacy (as I view it) into perspective. I still tend to rank and re-rank their discography in my head many times, so coming up with a favorite Maiden album is a difficult task for me. I will say that Powerslave is one of those favorites, and gives a very accurate and strong showing of what the Bruce Dickinson era of the band is all about.

Powerslave is filled with rich guitar harmonies as fine as any Maiden release, and is balanced well with their more hard rock riffing style. The mix on the re-mastered version that I own really gives the album a full sound.

Two of the band’s strongest singles appear on Powerslave. I remember “Aces High” being one of those songs I wanted to hear over and over again when I first bought the album. “Two Minutes To Midnight” contains one of my favorite solo sections in any Maiden song period, and the song’s overall structure is quite appealing.

Hints of their admiration for 70’s progressive rock shine through, from the album cover and imagery adopted by the band, through to the song structure that is most evident on the lengthy “Rime of The Ancient Mariner”. I occasionally think this song might run on too long a bit, but am hard pressed to find an appropriate edit. The occultist-themed title track also blends a bit of prog rock with some slighty unconventional (for Maiden) sounds in the guitar and backing vocal department. It’s probably the song off Powerslave that features little (if any) of their clichés.

“Back In The Village” may be one of less-talked of songs here, and its energy and riffing make this one stand out. The instrumental “Losfer Words (The Big Orra)” is fairly straightforward and easy to swallow, highly melodic and memorable with enough instrumental prowess to keep the listener attentive.

There are also a few other songs in the middle of the album that don’t grab my interest as much as the rest (“Flash of the Blade” and “The Duellists”). That may be, but they really don’t hinder my enjoyment of the album. Perhaps a ballad-type track in place of one of these (probably “The Duellists”) would have eliminated this slight lag in the middle.

This is definitely one of Maiden’s finer releases in their lengthy career, and would easily point someone this way if they were looking for a place to start in their catalog.

Stephen With big praises everywhere, "Powerslave" seemed so untouchable, sitting comfortably on the top mind of almost every Maiden fans all over the earth, but to me, most of the time, this album is judged solely based on the first two tracks and the epic closer. "Aces High" needs no introduction, the air raid siren, soaring vocal, and the thunderous harmonic guitars are just mind-boggling, one of their perfect offering, simply flawless. "2 Minutes 2 Midnight" is catchy as hell, you hear this track once, and it will haunt you for years, to re-sing that melody every morning you awake is very easy.

And let's jump to the closing track, "Rime of The Ancient Mariner", an attempt to revive Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem, is the first over-10 minutes Maiden track ever made, a progressive side of the band with big riffs and wonderful uptempo part, despite of the cheesy spoken section, is totally lovable.

But to be honest, looking at the rest five tracks, I can only sense the slight appeal at the title track and "Back In The Village". "Losfer Words" is a very decent instrumental track which largely forgettable. "Flash of The Blade" and "The Duellists" has some cracking moment but I found it hard to appreciate and mesmerize the songs, and both of them came down to another very decent heavy metal tracks. With only 8 tracks presented and almost half of them are fillers, I don't see a reason to join the 5-stars wagon, but "Powerslave" remains an important catalogue to have, especially for those three tracks alone. Dickinson's voice is at his peak, even though still no sign of slowing down after 20 years, it's a thrilling experience to see how easy he reach those high notes back and forth. A good release!

Time Signature Aces high...

Genre: heavy metal

This is yet another metal mammoth released by Iron Maiden in their golden streak of the 1980s, and one, which I think, maintains a high level of solidness all the way through.

I really do not think that there are any weak moments on this album, and even the more obscure tracks like the instrumental "Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)" and "Back in the Village" and the very underestimated "The Duellists" and "Flash of the Blade" are just as engaging and headbanging-inducing is the power opener "Aces High", the steady rocker "2 Minutes to Midnight", the dark and gallopping "Powerslave", and the epic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

This album simply contains everything that Maiden do so well: guitar harmonies, melody, aggression, gallopping, catchy vocals, air raid siren singing etc.

This is a heavy metal classic that everyone should own.

Pekka This could have been a huge, a massive, a humongous, a monstrous metal triumph, but somewhere during the sessions the creative juices started to thin a bit. Powerslave is perhaps the most uneven Iron Maiden album ever, with four of the eight tracks being unbeatable, brilliant classics of heavy metal and the four middle tracks being less stunning to different degrees.

After falling in love with Brave New World in 2000, Powerslave was my first touch with classic Maiden, but as I was in such a hurry to get all the Maiden out there as fast as possible, my first memories are very hazy. What I do remember is that from the beginning I've frowned upon the slump the album drives into midway through. Or so it seems. After the stunning opening pair of Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight we get four tracks that have been erased from the books of metal, but along the years I've come to the conclusion, that most of them would be great tracks on any other Maiden album, but preceded by the two mentioned and followed by the perhaps even more stunning closing pair of Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner, they are very badly overshadowed.

Losfer Words (Big 'Orra) is perhaps Maiden's finest instrumental track (with which our local Finnish speed metal legends Stone used to start off their rehearsals) and Flash of the Blade is actually quite a killer tune in its own right with some extremely high pitched Bruce Dickinson vocal harmonies, but still after all these years The Duellists remains quite unmemorable, despite its long instrumental section, as is the case with Back in the Village, except for its rather annoying chorus.

Half an album of larger-than-life masterpieces and another half very much varying in quality - the line-up was there, the playing was brilliant but Maiden missed their first true bulls eye by a hair. Better luck next time.

AtomicCrimsonRush "Hear the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Stay here and listen to the nightmare of the sea!"

"Powerslave" is the first great progressive metal Iron Maiden album, after they had released a few albums leading to this new direction in their music. IM were always threatening to release an album like this once they broke away from the confining short songs and 4/4 traditional rock signatures. There was always experimentation with time sigs but this was all taken to the extreme level with the brilliant 13 and a half minute onslaught of 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner'; my all time favourite IM track.

I could spend this entire review talking about this track alone, and when I heard this on the metal radio show, when this was first released, the announcer stated that this track alone was worth getting "Powerslave"; I concur with this. It is simply brilliant metal and I have played this so many times I have somehow managed to memorise every lyric and even the lead breaks. There are some incredible lead breaks here by the duel guitars of Murray and Smith. The complexity of the music cannot be taken for granted, there are time sig shifts throughout and mood swings at every verse. The song begins with a galloping riff with small diversions and then it launches into a fast tempo speed lick. "The ship sails on through the fog and ice.... Water water everywhere and all the boards did shrink..." The lyrics are based on Coleridge's poem of the same name and it this song is a very faithful interpretation; the university lecturer played this track when I was studying poetry would you believe. I had given the lyrics and song to the lecturer on her request. It eventually cleared the room of all the ladies but I sat there and enjoyed it.

The song basically goes into each aspect of the poem, where the Mariner sees an albatross, kills it and thus the curse of death plagues the ship killing his crew. "The Mariner kills the bird of good omen..." and the siren like banshees of "Death and She Life in death they throw their dice for the crew", and they want the Mariner to succumb to their deathly charms. Eventually the pace slows and it grinds to a halt with a bassy passage with atmospheric effects, such as a witch's cackle and the creaking of the doomed ship. A narrative voice speaks Coleridge's epic poem that Dickinson had previously been screaming out with utter conviction. It reminds me now of Van der Graaf Generator's lyrics by Hammill on 'Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' that is also about a doomed ship and drowning. "They dropped down one by one," the narrator speaks and then the pace quickens again. The theme of dying and being stalked by death itself is powerful. When the bass begins and a new chugging riff enters, Dickinson's vocals penetrate with power, "The curse it lives on in their eyes, the Mariner he wished he died along with the sea creatures but they lived on so did he, then by the light of the moon he prays for their beauty not doom, with heart he blesses them God's creatures all of them too, then the spell starts to break, the albatross falls from his neck..." After the curse is lifted, a lengthy brilliant lead break with fret melting dexterity pummels the senses. It returns back to the intro riff with variations, I love the lyrics, "that we should love all things that God made" as it shows the Mariner has learnt his lesson from killing the albatross and now has converted to admiring creation rather than destroying it. The poem is also my favourite poem due to this song, and I wrote a very solid essay about it; thank you Iron Maiden for that High Distinction! Overall this track is quintessential to Maiden and is always the highlight for me when it appears on live concert DVDS.

OK, for the rest of the album there is enough here to make this a worthy purchase. 'Aces High' has a catchy chorus and very good guitar work, a classic track. 'Two Minutes To Midnight' was played on metal radio show just before the witching hour so I have heard it many times. It's great in concert and still a popular favourite with Iron fans. 'Powerslave' is a terrific song with killer riffs and a memorable chorus. The Egyptian themes here are of course due to IM's interest in the Egyptian Book of the Dread (shock horror) but the themes lead to the mighty stage set with the Sphinx and Pyramids, and Tutenkhamen mummified objects; it is all very "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for me, but a cool image in it's day, no doubt.

So overall here is an album with strong progressive elements, one killer epic to die for, and a lot of catchy shorter songs. It is definitely worth getting hold of, trust me on this. Along with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" and "Brave New World" this is an excellent metal feast of Iron Maiden.

topofsm On Powerslave, Iron Maiden dished out a huge heap of excellent classic metal. To many people, this album is one of the greatest albums of all time. Of course this is because of the top-notch metal found on the album, but it could also be because of a few progressive elements thrown in. Of course Maiden has always been about intricate melodic lines, interesting chords for their epic style, and throwing in technical musical flashes. However, the last two songs on this show Maiden't ability to have an interesting progressive side to their music.

Metalheads and classic rock fans are of course already far too familiar with the two opening tracks and singles, "Aces High" and "Two Minutes to Midnight". The former has an interesting non-standard song structure and a soaring chorus, starting of the album with an excellent show of Maiden's strong songwriting. The second track is also very strong, in a standard Maiden style and structure. Both are tracks that make an awesome case for excellent singles by an already great band.

The middle of the album may be more unfamiliar though. That being said, they are still good tracks and make the album still a worthwhile listen. The instrumental song "Losfer Words" is exciting, and "Back in the Village" is quick and possibly the most 'rocking' song on the whole album. "Flash of the Blade" and "The Duelists" are also good tracks and worth a listen, both written in standard Iron Maiden style.

The next song "Powerslave" is also interesting. Although it may seem rather straightforward in the first couple of verses, and it is. However, it leads into an instrumental break filled with haunting atmospherics and several interesting time changes, fully showing Maiden's progressive influence. The epic closer "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" follows in the same vein, but even more embellished. Once the energy and speed dies off after the first couple of high power metal, the listener is presented with an eerie atmosphere, accented by Steve Harris' intelligent use of the whole tone scale. A somber narration flows across the sea of ominous sounds, until everything builds up again. Bruce Dickinson's mile high voice bursts in, and an epic flowing climax shows up. Within the final two songs of Powerslave, any fan of progressive metal will hear where most of the ideas of the more melodic genres of power and prog metal came from. The compositions are simply that good.

In summation, Powerslave is of course an excellent album. As a metal album, it contains everything great classic metal should have, and more. While all of Maiden's early releases influenced metal, this is where they started branching out. You can see where prog metal took its cues, and where modern bands have been looking at in metal. All in all, this is a classic that should not be ignored.

Windhawk Powerslave is the fifth studio album by legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, and for many this release is seen as the peak of their career musically. With all members now having a minimum of one album and one tour under the belt, the band is very tight sounding. In addition they are more aware of what they want their music to sound like when recording in the studio, and main songwriter Steve Harris still has the ability to conjure up tracks containing slightly surprising creative elements.

Musically Iron Maiden now has developed a distinct style of their own. Small remnants of their early punk roots still remain, the heritage from 70's hard rock can still be heard in places; especially on a track like "2 Minutes to Midnight", but most times Iron Maiden now has a distinct, unique sound on this album. Fast paced riffing combined with slower, atmospheric riffs, harmonic riffs and extensive use of harmonic, melodic soloing are all trademarks of Iron Maidens sound here, as well as drums and bass at times played faster than the guitars; and the bass guitar being a central instrument in the soundscape of most songs. In addition to that, the song structures now begin showing influences from prog rock. The long epic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is the prime example of that, but also a track like "Losfer Words"; where the band plays around with repeating themes and slight touches of dissonance; is a good example of that influence. The musical style is still heavy metal though; as the influence from progressive rock shows more in structure than in style.

The songs on "Powerslave" are mostly good. Title track "Powerslave" and the long epic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" dominates the album, but most of the other tracks here are of high quality as well.

Overall this results in a classic heavy metal album; and is a worthwhile addition to most music collections.

bassgeezer Powerslave is the perfect example of what the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was all about. You can also hear the foundation for thrash metal to follow. Powerslave has the same exhausting pace as Megadeth’s Rust in Peace of a few years later. Even with the epic that is the Rime of the Ancient Mariner lasting a good thirteen and a half minutes at the end of the album, it is still all over too quickly for me. Steve Harris’, Bruce Dickinson’s and Adrian Smith’s song-writing skills are superbly demonstrated here. Their musicianship is completed perfectly by Dave Murray and Nicko McBrain.

friso Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)

On the fifth studio album of Iron Maiden the band slightly recovers from the small loss of energy that Piece of Mind (1983) had suffered from. Powerslave is one of the heaviest albums of the band with a continues high pace and intensive instrumental parts in all songs. The album is a favorite for a lot of fans of the band.

The opener Aces High is an up-tempo track with spectacular high pitched vocals of Bruce Dickinson and a great instrumental guitar part. This song is very powerful and I used to like it very much, but the songs doesn't grow over time. Two Minutes to Midnight is stronger with some very inspiring melodic songwriting. The opening riff is quite conventional, but the bridge has a great dark feel and the couplet has a nice twist that keeps in interesting. The melodic soloing in the lower paced middle section is good. Losfer Words is an instrumental metal track. It's good, be I prefer the instrumentals of the first two albums. Somehow the melodies aren't as catchy as on other instrumental parts of Maiden.

Flash of the Blade is another up-tempo song with pull-off guitar themes all over the place that give it a sophisticated feel. A nice experiment. The Duellists is one of the stronger tracks of the album. It has many instrumental parts and I really like the vocal parts. It is a song with it's own atmosphere that is kind of relaxing. Back in the Village is like Flash of the Blade a song full of guitar frenzies and little good songwriting. I liked it very much at first, but I think it's a bit too much of to little.

Powerslave, the title-track, is strong Maiden epic with all elements the band has to offer. The song has an Egyptic feel as can be expected with an album cover like this. The many strong instrumental parts make this an important Maiden song. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the absolute highlight of the album. With it's 13 minutes it still is the longest Maiden track ever recorded. It has an amazing story, a great atmospheric middle section, more great instrumental parts and solo's and a good ending. Perhaps this is the proggiest of Maiden's epics.

Conclusion. Another good Iron Maiden album with some weak spots. I might not have always been very positive in my Maiden reviews, but it's important to know I prefer mediocre Maiden tracks to most other metal tracks of other bands. The standard of Iron Maiden was quite high and my expectations have risen over the time when I got into progressive music. This album is yet another good metal album with lot's of progressive moments and enough good songwriting to get four stars. After this Iron Maiden would again change directing with the synth-guitar driven Somewhere in Time.

Valarius It is said that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. However, this cover pretty much sums up the album... HUGE!

For most Maiden fans, their late 80's material is their best. And albums like ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ and ‘Somewhere in Time’ are highly regarded as top quality heavy metal. However the album that does it for me is this one... ‘Powerslave’.

Track by track we're bombarded by a band that has had time to bond and mature, and this is them playing at their best. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson has come into his own here, and the rest of the band are as tight as ever.

The album kicks off with a huge blast of energy from the anthem ‘Aces High’, and this energy maintains momentum throughout every track. With songs like ‘2 Minutes to Midnight’, ‘Back in the Village’, ‘Powerslave’ and the epic ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, this is Iron Maiden at their best.

Guitar harmonies never sounded better. The solos are spot on and Dickinson’s vocals really compliment the music well. I'm not the biggest fan of their first two albums, and ‘Number of the Beast’ always seemed a bit overrated for me, but this album is truly Maiden hitting their stride and really taking their title as one of Heavy Metal’s most beloved bands.

An essential addition to any Metal collection.