iron maiden

I've been saying all week that Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast," now turning 30 years old , is a pinnacle achievement in the history of heavy metal and in the pantheon of the world's greatest, most memorable albums. It is a dynamic experience, rife with differing styles, musical ideas and divergent themes. Over the course of the week, I've enlisted other writers from the ranks here at Bloody Good Horror, as well as the world at large. For the final act of this week-long way ward play, I intended to reach out to the farthest corners of the heavy metal universe and have as many people feed back to me what their experience of Iron Maiden's cardinal effort are and were. What quickly became apparent in talking with friends, coworkers and contacts is that "The Number of the Beast" is an experience so tied into personal memory that people remember where they were and what they were doing when they first heard it.

"The Number of the Beast" is not an album, it's an experience. Not just for the music it contains, but for what it means to the heavy metal genre's past, present and future. The textbook example of heavy metal's evolution from a rough-around-the-edges marginal grouping of musicians to a hard-charging, mother-scaring, school-administrator-nervous-sweating phenomenon, "The Number of the Beast" not only changed the face of heavy metal, but helped change what was possible for it.