A Definite Classic

The Number of the Beast is definitely a classic. Every song on this album is worth listening to. It is arguably Maiden's best work.



1. Invaders: A very strong song, a great way to start the album. My only complaint is that the chorus is a tad bit annoying at times.

Grade: A-

2. Children of the Damned: A power ballad, and a good one at that. It is slow, but has a beautiful sound to it. The chorus does a great job of contrasting with the rest of the song. Grade: A

3. The Prisoner: Another incredibly strong song. It has one of the best solos that Maiden has ever done. You can listen to the solo alone over and over again.

Grade: A+

4. 22 Acacia Avenue: If it were another album, this song could've been the best song. But this is The Number of the Beast, and there are too many classic songs on this album for it to be best. A very fast and catchy song.

Grade:A+

5. The Number of the Beast: Tied with 2 other songs for best track on the album. This song is classic.

Grade: A+

6. Run to the Hills: One of the songs tied for best song on the album. Fast paced, has a great chorus and solo.

Grade:A+

7. Gangland: This song is not liked by many fans. I don't know why. It's a great song.

Grade: A-

8. Total Eclipse: My least favorite track on the album, but doesn't mean it's a bad song. It has a very annoying chorus, but the rest of the song makes up for it.

Grade: B+

9. Hallowed Be Thy Name: An epic. A song that details the last hours of an imprionsed man. Has lots of great riffs, and is just an incredible song. POssibly the best song on the album.

Grade:A+



The Number of the Beast is a incredibly solid and consistent album. Go out and buy it.

Grade:A

An exellent release from one of the best classic metal bands

Iron Maiden is easily one of the most popular Heavy Metal bands of all time. Iron Maiden has been one of my favourites for a long time and "The Number of The Beast" album is one of their best in my opinion. The entire album is great, but the songs I like best are: "Children of The Damned", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "Prisoner", "Run To The Hills", and "Total Eclipse". Overall a great piece of music to add to your collection.

Best Heavy Metal Album Of All Time

Iron Maiden needed to come up with something special for this, their third album. All of the material they came up with prior to getting a recording contract was used on their first two albums (their 1980 self-titled debut and 1981's KILLERS). From a songwriting standpoint, they had to start from scratch for this album. Also, this was the first album they did with then-new singer Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson sounded nothing like his predecessor, Paul Di'Anno. The band was taking a big chance at a critical point in their career. On top of all this, Maiden didn't release THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST in time for the English tour. So British fans heard the new material live before they even had a chance to buy the album. What was the end result of all this? THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST went straight to the #1 spot on the British album charts when it was released. This was Maiden's first gold album in America(at least 500,000 copies sold). From a songwriting standpoint, only Maiden's self-titled debut may be better. As a singer, Bruce Dickinson is leaps and bounds ahead of Paul Di'Anno.



The album opens strongly with "Invaders", a hard-driving song about the Viking invasion of England. This would be a great song to open a show with, but for some reason Maiden has rarely played it live. "Children Of The Damned" is a song about the movie of the same name. The song has melodic verses and harsh choruses. Hmmmmm....I wonder of Kurt Cobain was influenced by this song. "The Prisoner" is based on the 1960's TV series. It opens with a soundclip from the show. The song kicks in with Clive Burr's swing-time drum intro, and then the rest of the band comes in. It absolutely kicks ass. I'm surprised advertisers haven't picked up on it for use in TV commercials. There's some great guitar work in "The Prisoner", and it also has a surprisingly catchy chorus. "22 Acacia Avenue" was actually a song that guitarist Adrian Smith came up with several years before he joined the band. He re-worked it a bit with bassist Steve Harris (i.e. they added lots of time changes), and the song became a staple in the bands live set for two or three tours. Lyrically, the song is about a prostitute. Smith's co-guitarist, Dave Murray, has a very bluesy solo in the song. The next song is the album's title track, "The Number Of The Beast". This is the song that got the band into so much trouble with religious protesters here in America. The song opens with a spoken-word reading from the Book of Revelations. If you sit down and read the lyrics to the entire song (from start to finish), you should realize that the song is about someone having a nightmare. Fundamentalist Christians chose not to see it that way. When Maiden took the BEAST ON THE ROAD tour to America, there were protesters at the venues. Iron Maiden are NOT devil worshippers. They write songs about a wide variety of subjects, as you may have noticed in my review so far. Some of the songs from their other albums are actually quite reverant. Still, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Anyway, the song just kicks ass from start to finish. Clive Burr's drumming is amazing and Dave Murray's guitar solo is totally wild. "Run To The Hills" is probably the band's most famous song. Clive Burr's drum-intro has to be one the most recognizable pieces in the history of metal music. The lyrics deal with the mistreatment of Native Americans by white settlers, which is a strange thing for a British band to write about. The main guitar riff is killer and the chorus is absolutely huge. Next we come to the much-maligned "Gangland". Most people think this song is the album's one weak spot, but I disagree. True, you'll probably never hear someone yell out "Play Gangland!!!" at a Maiden concert, but the song is also not the abortion everyone makes it out to be. If you want to hear an abortion, check out "Quest For Fire" from PIECE OF MIND. The song has another killer drum-intro by Clive Burr. In fact, Clive co-wrote the song with Adrian Smith. The song is fast and furious. When THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST was originally released in 1982, the song "Total Eclipse" was not on it. This song was the B-side for the "Run To The Hills" single. It was added when re-mastered versions of the band's albums were released in the 1990's. It's a pretty good song that deals with the destruction of mankind by "Mother Nature". The live version of "Total Eclipse" from the band's 1982 show at Hammersmith Odeon in London is better. Finally we come to the album's closer "Hallowed Be Thy Name". This is a classic Maiden song. Its' somber intro contains tolling bells, a melodic yet chilling guitar line, and Bruce Dickinson singing in the first person about someone who is about to be executed. The whole band then kicks in and song starts rocking very hard. The song has several time changes. There is also a guitar harmony section following the solos. Lyrically, the deals with what goes through a person's mind before they are executed. This is an all-around powerful song.



The only negative thing I can say about this album is that it is the last one with Clive Burr. He left the band for personal reasons at the end of the BEAST ON THE ROAD tour in December of '82. He was the best drummer the band ever had. Clive was immediately replaced with Nicko McBrain. Nicko is a pretty good drummer, but he lacks Clive's power. Maiden lost a step - particularly as a live band - when Clive left.



THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST opened so many doors for Maiden. When they toured America in 1983 to support their PIECE OF MIND album, they headlined from coast to coast for the first time. Throughout the 1980s, they were one of the biggest musical acts in the world. And they did all this with little or no support from MTV, radio, and the mainstream rock press. Their success enabled so many other hard rock and heavy metal bands to become famous as well. That's why THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST is the best heavy metal album of all time. I also believe that Iron Maiden belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Crazy good

This cd is completely full of classics. There is no way Piece of Mind is better then this with fillers like Quest for Fire. I actually like this cd more than Black Sabbaths' Paranoid and by a long shot more than Metallica's Master of Puppets. Bruce's vocals are the best and so are Burr's drums (he was ranked 3rd in the world at the time) whom I think is a better drummist than Mc Brain. This and Powerslave are about tied in my book only because it seems this cd dosnt have the memorable solos that Powerslave does. Here are my reviews for the songs.

Invaders- its sounds really good until you get to the refrain which almost ruins the song with the chesesy riff. Also the lyrics are weak. I like the heavy sound though. - B

Children of the Damned- one of the best..I like its slow start up to the clashing refrain..Bruce's vocals are unbelievable..a masterpiece- A+

The Prisoner- the intro is interesting and memorable and so is the rest of the song which is quite different from their other songs. The chorus is very good but perhaps it goes on too long?- A

22 Acacia Avenue- an awesome tale of a tramp..I still think there's a screw up at the 50 sec. mark though.- A+

The Number of the Beast- another classic and the guitars in the middle are amazing- A+

Run to the Hills- the riff in the beginning is great and so is the chorus however the song will tire with repeated listens.- A-

Gangland- whats everyones problem with this song? Not bad by any means but not the best either- B

Total Eclipse- the suprise of the album this song is crazy..one of the best on the album and the end is surely the best- A

Hallowed be thy Name- the climax of Bruce's vocals. The finisher and their biggest masterpiece.- A+

There is no way any metal fan should not own this album. Why the band never got as popular as Metallica is an enigma to me. Buy it now even if its hard to find.

Maiden's most important album

When Iron Maiden released "The number of the beast" it was their third album. The previous two ("Iron Maiden" and "Killers") had a more punkish approach which in a way had to do with the singer Paul Dianno. Since Dianno got fired and Maiden were able to recruit Bruce Dickinson from Samson, the musical approach moved more towards heavy metal. "The number of the beast" is indeed a classic album, and it was a major success which enabled the guys to get off the pub circuit into the major league. With hindsight this record may not be Iron Maiden's best album but maybe it's their most important. The songs are overall good, with "Hallowed be thy name" and "Run to the hills" as absolute highlights. Other memorable songs are the opener "Invaders" followed by "Children of the damned" and "The prisoner". Back in 1982 when "The number of the beast" was released, Maiden had a hunger that got lost somewhere down the road ("No prayer for the dying" and "Fear of the dark" does certainly not make me happy). Even `tho Maiden have kept their characteristic sound/approach throughout the years, it became boring around 1990, but their latest effort "Brave new world" (2000) is the best in years, and show us that Maiden had a little fuel left in the tank after all.

The Grail of Maiden albums

Iron Maiden are a great band. Part of the original British invasion, these guys broke out with then new singer Bruce Dickenson, who's nickname bacame 'The air-raid siren'. With good reason, Bruce has gone down in metal history as one of metal's greatest and most accomplished vocalists. His style is easily identified and cannot be imitated.

Maiden classics abound on this album and half the songs are still played at their live shows to this day. 'Run to the Hills', 'Hallowed be Thy Name' and the infamous title track with the ominous Bible quotation to start it off have all become Maiden staples to worldwide fans. 'The Prisoner' was always a personal favorite of mine.

On this newly remastered album, a new song has been added, 'Total Eclipse' previously only released in England as a B side. First time I heard this song was years ago on Iron Maiden's home video '12 Years Wasted', an excellent history of the band including live clips and interviews, but that is another review.