By Andrew Bansal
1984 was quite the year for heavy music, and those that weren’t fortunate enough to exist back then can only imagine what it must have been like. It began aptly with the release of Van Halen’s ‘1984’, and Judas Priest’s ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ arrived just three days later, and was soon followed by Bon Jovi’s self-titled debut, Anthrax’ ‘Fistful Of Metal’, Yngwie Malmsteen’s ‘Rising Force’, Scorpions’ ‘Love At First Sting’, Black Flag’s ‘My War’, Ratt’s ‘Out Of The Cellar’, Trouble’s ‘Psalm 9’, Saxon’s ‘Crusader’, Twisted Sister’s ‘Stay Hungry’, Dio’s ‘The Last In Line’ and Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’. But the album that emphatically blew this overwhelming competition out of the water and triumphantly stood out and above the pack not only in the year of 1984 but for the next three decades until present day when it’s still cranked at blissfully high volumes by metalheads all over the world was the one with the insanely detailed Egyptian-themed cover, Iron Maiden’s ‘Powerslave’, released September 3rd.
Everything that needs to be said about the album has been said in countless reviews over the past 30 years, but the fact that we’re still not only discussing it fondly but listening to it with the same zeal as anyone would have when it was first released is in itself testament to the timelessness of the record, a quality very, very few albums genuinely boast of. From the delightful fist-raising opening twin guitar harmony of ‘Aces High’ to the winding down of the epic ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’, Powerslave exudes exemplary musicianship presented through a now seemingly defunct style of crystal-clear production under the masterful ears of Martin Birch. Powerslave is the equivalent of the gold standard in heavy music, and always will be.
Besides the music, the brilliance of Derek Riggs’s artwork in the Powerslave cover is second to none, and may quite possibly never be matched. Not even the highest resolution versions of it can ever do justice to the amount of detail and symbolism in its imagery, and it makes Powerslave the kind of album one is compelled to purchase based on nothing but the cover alone, something that cannot honestly be said about any of the aforementioned great albums that musically stood the test of time.
The influence of the eight godlike tracks that comprise Powerslave on the generations of metalheads that followed is largely evident and absolutely undeniable. For many, myself included, the first ever listen of the album was a life-changing experience, so much so that it makes one wish for the existence of time traveling devices for the sole purpose of being able to go somewhere back in time to relive that moment over and over again.
On that note, I leave you with Powerslave in its entirety, and hope that just like myself, you would dedicate this glorious and historic day by listening to it on repeat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkJHjNUissk