Shane’s Music Challenge: IRON MAIDEN – 1981 – Killers

Shane | 21 March 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Music Challenge: IRON MAIDEN – 1981 – Killers
8/10

Killers, Maiden’s second album and the final one to feature Paul Dianno on vocals, is usually considered inferior to their debut, the punkier and rawer self titled affair of the previous year – and it is. Production wise, they didn’t quite capture the sheer vigour of the band quite as well, despite the legendary Martin Birch sitting in the cockpit.

Having said that, it’s a (pun intended, sorry!) killer of a record from the instrumental opener The Ides Of March (which showed a hint of the proggier direction they would later charge down), the classics Wrathchild and Murders In The Rue Morgue, the explosive title track and the mighty closing track Drifter.

My copy comes from EMI’s 1995 re-release series, which tacked a bonus disc of b-sides onto each album. In this case, we have Twilight Zone – b-side of the Wrathchild single, Women In Uniform – their single-only cover of Skyhook’s classic track, Invasion and Phantom Of The Opera live, both from the Women In Uniform 12” single.

Women In Uniform isn’t a bad version of the song, though it’s a bit straightforward and misses the nuances and ambiguity of Shirley Strachan’s original vocals, and Invader is a great tune, very typical of Maiden’s penchant for including some wicked material on the b-sides of their singles (thus encouraging fans like me to buy every single as well as the albums – and I still have a lot of their vinyl 7” and 12” releases from these days! Clever marketing, take note folks). Twilight Zone is a bit more basic, and the live version of Phantom rocks like a motherfucker, as to be expected.

Their trajectory was firmly aimed way up high at this point, and not even Dianno’s aggressive unreliability and imminent sacking could slow them down… but that’s another story.