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Iron Maiden - Powerslave



9.2 | 2738 votes |
Release date: 3 September 1984
Style: New wave of British heavy metal

Owners:

3500 have it
125 want it
3 trade it


Disc I
01. Aces High
02. 2 Minutes To Midnight
03. Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
04. Flash Of The Blade
05. The Duellists
06. Back In The Village
07. Powerslave
08. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
+ Aces High [video] [1998 re-release bonus]
+ 2 Minutes To Midnight [video] [1998 re-release bonus]

Disc II [1995 reissue bonus disc]
01. Rainbow's Gold [Beckett cover]
02. Mission From 'Arry
03. King Of The Twilight [Nektar cover]
04. The Number Of The Beast [live]

Top 20 albums of 1984: 2
Top 200 albums of all time: 9
Featured in "Getting Into: Iron Maiden"

Additional info
Produced, engineering & mixing by Martin Birch.
Mastering by George Marino.
Cover art & photography by Derek Riggs, Moshe Brakha, Rod Smallwood & Ross Halfin.

When you look carefully on the hieroglyphics on the pyramids, you'll see "encoded" the words "Bollocks", "Indiana Jones was here" and "Wot, no Guinness?"

Guest review by
Deadly Sin
Rating:
10
This has to be one of Iron Maiden's best albums of all. It has everything from a fast and furious metal assault such as "Aces High", to an instrumental song such as "Losfer Words".

It all starts off with "Aces High", a song about WWII dogfights. A good heavy metal song with a good amount of guitar solo's and superb lyrics. It has a memorable tune that you keep rocking to in your head for hours. Next comes another classic song "2 Minutes to Midnight". Slower than the previous song, the guitars are very tight while the rhythm is powerbul as Dickinson sings away. The many guitar solos in this kick some metal ass. Next comes "Losfer Words" one of the four instrumental's that Iron Maiden has done. Not as great as the other's but definitely worth the time to listen to. The drums keep a constant sound with some nice guitar and bass in there also. The next song is a definite killer; "Flash of the Blade" starts off with a nice guitar solo then picks up into a nice beat. A great song about being a swordsman and it rocks to the very end. The next is "Duellists" a kind of cross bread between "Flash of the Blade" and "Powerslave" a bit, definitely worth listing to but not as great as the others. Another metal assault is "Back in the Village"; this song is good all around a nice blend of drums and guitar. "Powerslave", well what can I say, its killer, lyrics about an evil Egyptian god and great music to fallow it up, an instant classic. The last song on the list is "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", this song pounds with base, the drums flowing and the guitar sounds ever so killer.

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published 18.09.2003 | Comments (54)

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Comments: 49   Visited by: 2779 users
26.05.2014 - 14:32
Rating: 6
Dr. Strawberry

An overrated band. Always.
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26.07.2015 - 17:43
Rating: 8
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by Dr. Strawberry on 26.05.2014 at 14:32

An overrated band. Always.


maybe best Overrated band ever
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Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
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I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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24.06.2016 - 10:41
Rating: 9
majormalfunction

Intense opening with Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight and probably the best ending on a Maiden album with Powerslave and RIme of the Ancient Mariner. So far so good. It's the middle songs that don't live up to the hype. People seem to love Flash of the Blade, sure it got a cool intro, but the lyrics are lame written and both the verses and chorus is extremly annoying. The Duallist also suffer from a bad chorus. Losfers Words and Back In The Village are though both pretty rocking tracks, Back in the Village has a mean main riff. So all in all a very good album but no masterpiece.
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23.08.2016 - 00:39
Rating: 9
Azarath
Free as a.. Fish
Written by Guest on 21.08.2016 at 22:29

I think number of the beast is overrated and this album crushed it. fight me, those who disagree.

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24.08.2016 - 00:14
Rating: 9
Azarath
Free as a.. Fish
Written by Guest on 23.08.2016 at 03:30

yes


If you remove the 's' in 'https' it works.

Anyway, The Number of the Beast is the more consistent (and consistently great) album. Powerslave has an excellent one-two punch opening and closes with 20 amazing minutes, but that leaves four weaker songs. Of course, "weak" is a relative term when it comes to Maiden's '80s work, but "The Duellists" is filler (though with a great instumental section) and "Back in the Village" is quite possibly Maiden's worst song of that decade.
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24.08.2016 - 09:56
Rating: 9
Daniell
_爱情_
For me, nothing beats "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". I usually listen to Iron Maiden in my car. I often play this song from "Powerslave", and play it again from "Live After Death". That live version is even better than the studio version. The mere fact that I can listen to a 13-minute song twice in a row says a lot about how much I like it I guess. I've known this song for 30 years and still listen to it on a regular basis.
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24.08.2016 - 22:31
Rating: 9
Azarath
Free as a.. Fish
Written by Guest on 24.08.2016 at 02:08

anyways, you actually have made some great points, but Powerslave has a lot of Maiden songs that are personal and are personal favorites to me. The first 2 tracks and the title track just hit me so hard when i first heard them. It is not the same now, but Powerslave is MY Personal favorite.

Yeah, I get it. I feel the same way about Seventh Son of a Seventh Son as you do about Powerslave. At the end of the day, when discussing Maiden's albums of the '80s it's important to remember one thing: they're all great.
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19.10.2016 - 14:01
Rating: 9
Joppe
Steelemeister
It's the best from the first five albums. While it sounds a lot like PoM, IMO song writing is better here. Highlights: Aces High, Duellist, Powerslave and some parts of Mariner.
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11.08.2018 - 19:16
3rdWorld
China was a neat
Indeed tracks 5 and 6 are weak in comparison to the opening and closers. I still think Number of the beast is their best and felt the sound here was a bit cheerful and ecstatic when the aforesaid album had enough darkness for a heavy metal record.
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10.04.2021 - 19:00
Rating: 7
Dark Horizons

Starts and ends well, but the 4 songs in the middle are nothing really interesting... The 2 following albums are waaaay better!
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We are just a moment in time
A blink of an eye
A dream for the blind
Visions from a dying brain
I hope you don't understand
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26.06.2021 - 20:13
Rating: 9
WizardSlayer99

Maiden shows how talented they are in progressive territory.
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23.09.2021 - 07:24
Rating: 7
CobiWan1993
Secundum Filium
I've just been revisiting the whole Maiden discography and I think this album is one of their most overrated. I think the bookends are the strongest parts overall and the middle section drags quite a bit. Aces High is fantastic along with the title track and Rime of the Ancient Mariner of course, though I always thought 2 Minutes to Midnight was severely overhyped and while it's not a bad song, it just sounded a bit run-of-the-mill for me. Tracks 3-6 range from good (Flash of the Blade) to generic (Losfer Words, The Duelists) to bad (Back in the Village). The chorus for Back in the Village is rather atrocious in my opinion and I consider it to be the weakest song they've ever put out in the classic 80s era. If it wasn't for Aces High, Powerslave and RotAM, this album would probably be ranked lower in my mind.
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Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe (Lao Tzu).
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29.09.2021 - 12:54
Rating: 9
F3ynman2000
Nocturnal Bro
Written by CobiWan1993 on 23.09.2021 at 07:24

I've just been revisiting the whole Maiden discography and I think this album is one of their most overrated. I think the bookends are the strongest parts overall and the middle section drags quite a bit. Aces High is fantastic along with the title track and Rime of the Ancient Mariner of course, though I always thought 2 Minutes to Midnight was severely overhyped and while it's not a bad song, it just sounded a bit run-of-the-mill for me. Tracks 3-6 range from good (Flash of the Blade) to generic (Losfer Words, The Duelists) to bad (Back in the Village). The chorus for Back in the Village is rather atrocious in my opinion and I consider it to be the weakest song they've ever put out in the classic 80s era. If it wasn't for Aces High, Powerslave and RotAM, this album would probably be ranked lower in my mind.

While the highlights are definitely the first two and last two songs, I wouldn't call The Duellists generic! It has one of the greatest guitar solos of all time - Sooo melodic!
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22.04.2022 - 22:49
Rating: 9
Vinther1991

Definitely up their with the greatest work of the band. It might actually be their best record. Some people say that the middle four tracks aren't good. They are! Just not as strong as the first two and last two. Still the middle four tracks may be better than any of the songs on Somewhere in Time (which isn't necessarily saying much though). Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are all among Iron Maiden's best songs.
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22.04.2022 - 23:31
Rating: 9
Redel

Written by Vinther1991 on 22.04.2022 at 22:49

Still the middle four tracks may be better than any of the songs on Somewhere in Time

Well that is of course not true, since the middle four tracks include Back in the Village. The other three tracks are really great, yeah, though also not better than the classic tracks from SIT, if you ask me.
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23.04.2022 - 00:32
Rating: 9
Vinther1991

Written by Redel on 22.04.2022 at 23:31

Well that is of course not true, since the middle four tracks include Back in the Village. The other three tracks are really great, yeah, though also not better than the classic tracks from SIT, if you ask me.

Back in the Village is great, it is a riff-fest!! I think the two weakest songs are Losfer Words and Flash of the Blade. I will give you Wasted Years is probably stronger than those.
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23.04.2022 - 08:22
Rating: 9
Redel

Written by Vinther1991 on 23.04.2022 at 00:32

Back in the Village is great, it is a riff-fest!! I think the two weakest songs are Losfer Words and Flash of the Blade. I will give you Wasted Years is probably stronger than those.

Interesting view, to everyone their own I guess.
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26.07.2022 - 10:54
Rating: 10
dingobattler

Will be most people's best or second best album. Easier and quicker to talk about the weakness- back in the village. Nothing new or creative about the song, just a normal metal song. Powerslave is not that interesting either That's it.

The good - The 2 outstanding songs here are pretty much signature and will make it into everyone's top 5 list for IM. Rime of the ancient mariner is an epic conclusion to an epic album, includes everything, fast playing, ballards, slow parts. Very interesting song. Duelists and flash of the blade are very solid Iron Maiden, not outstanding, but still good listening. Losfer Words is a good run into flash of the blade, and their first instrumental.

You can see them really trying to push the boundaries with this album, do something different and creative. The only point where they fail is where they try to play it safe.
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21.09.2022 - 12:12
Rating: 10
nonZero

The second best Maiden album after SSOASS IMO. It was my favourite for a long time, but the latter has grown on me more over the years.

9.5/10 leaning towards a 10 for me - the first and last 2 tracks are the strongest ('Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' is a favourite of mine). 'Back In The Village' is probably the weakest song.
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