I don't view Sanctuary as part of their debut as it was not on my original Vinyl or CD . It was a single. Back when bands, artists did this regularly ... I remember fans always shouting for this live....even in the early Bruce years but for me its a Di'anno song and another good un'.
Strange World , wish Maiden had more tracks like this in the catalog and it was always a favorite for me right from the get go. Sanctuary , Sirens are cool.
Prowler (Harris) 3:56 OK, time for me to start trying to catch up. Prowler was definitely one of my favorites - lots of good energy there. Funny that when I listen to it now I am struck by how great the drums were, and that wasn't a focus for me before. I'm really an Adrian Smith fan, but despite that personal bias the guitars are very good here to me. It's a 9.0 out of 10.
I will elaborate very soon on my odd choice for fave songs on the first 2 Maiden albums, but Sanctuary and Twilight Zone are indeed my two faves from their first 2 studio releases.
Thanks to this thread I've been digging into all things 80's metal, and when I first read "Sirens" I thought of Savatage's excellent debut full-length!
"Sanctuary" is short, fast, to the point and at any given moment there's more stuff going on than can be easily digested — and that's what's great about this Maiden. The sound of chaos controlled and given forward thrust. It's that sound I fell for in the early days of the NWOBHM but alas, it wasn't long before everything became bigger, longer, more pompous, more "Satanic" and (even) more cartoonish.
“I’ve never killed a woman before, but I know how it feels” I love it on the first 12 years video, Derek Riggs discussing this line and about the artwork of Sanctuary. Great song especially live. Sorry Di’anno fans but Bruce took this song and ran with it.
Sanctuary Powerful riff. Maiden doesn't usually stay on one riff so long. I like how they add all the extra bits, the harmonies and extra chords and stuff, and it makes it sound like there's more going on than there really is. This is a great head-banger. I miss them writing 3 minute songs of pure power. I love the proggy stuff, but sometimes you just need a quick burst of metal without any BS. Lyrically, it's amusing to me that so many of these early Harris songs deal with someone (him?) being blamed for something he didn't do. Can anyone explain the first line of the song: "Out of the winter came a warhorse of steel"? It doesn't really fit with the rest of the lyrics unless the "warhorse" is a cop car or something. I also like the placement on the original US release, giving a nice 1-2-3 punch to end the album with Sanctuary>Charlotte>IM. Fun song and it's one of the rare "warhorses" that doesn't get old when they play it.
Sanctuary is a great little song, its perhaps a little simpler than other songs but its catchy, especially in a live performance. This is one of those that I don't mind whose singing it, Paul or Bruce. They both have their own way of doing it.
When Blaze is in his range, he is INCREDIBLE. Virus may be my all-time favorite Iron Maiden song. Angel And The Gambler is my all-time *least favorite Maiden song however. Have watched a few live clips of Bayley on his 2017 tour. He sounds phenomenal, no vocal strain whatsoever.
1982 - freshman in HS at all boys catholic school. My best friend went to a public school and told me about Iron Maiden. We went to a local record store and I purchased Number Of The Beast. AS we all know - that cover is and my 14 year old brain and eyes were like ! I spent days, weeks, months intensely scrutinizing the cover and looking at the little various demons and hellfire scene depicted. The music and lyrics were powerful and I could not get enough - I was sure I was going to hell just for looking and listening to this music . I next got the Killers album and did the same thing with that cover - looking at all the window scenes and background paraphernalia. Derek Riggs helped sell me Maiden as much as the music did! Riggs cryptic signature had me baffled - what the heck is that! Once I got to see the video for Number Of The Beast and saw the band - I was no longer intimidated by them and was eager to see them on the Piece Of Mind tour (Quiet Riot opened). Saw them on the Somewhere Back In Time hits and Seventh Son hits tours - great as always!
Yeah, this is one of the ones Bruce was great on. The first version I heard was a live version with Bruce on the B-Side of the live Running Free single from 1985. I love both Dianno and Bruce singing it. I used to treasure my 45 of the Dianno version. Before the First Ten Years reissue it was hard to find and non album in the UK. I loved the live B-Sides too, Drifter & I've Got The Fire. I remember the sound quality being pretty bad, or at least very quiet on the 7" single for that side. I didn't have an uncensored sleeve. I love the punky guitar riff.
Remember Tomorrow (Harris/Dianno) 5:27 I think this is Di'Anno's finest vocal performance. I also really like the melody and the way the song rises, falls and builds. I enjoy both solos, especially the last part of Murray's. Harris is playing just fantastically as well. One of the best songs Maiden ever did. 9.4 out of 10.
Running Free (Harris/Dianno) 3:17 I love the bass riff, it carries the song for me. I agree with @Musicman1998 like that way he says "okay" does feel like a sneer, and I always thought was cool. The only thing that brings the song down for me is that I always thought the scratchy riff was cool but done a little too long. Do like the drums fills in that part, though. Used to be one of my 5 fave Maiden songs, now it's 8.9 out of 10.
I think partially because it has a memorable yet easy to sing with melody, it is quite a GOOD choice for a single. But that's just what I think.
On this one I'll kind of stand somewhere in the middle. I would NOT call the covers total horse-something, but I DO think they lost some of the proper feel of Astronomy.
Ah the brevity of Sanctuary. It's a really catchy song with all of the Maiden-isms without the need to even think about overstaying its welcome. Always loved this one which I was introduced to through the Live After Death VHS and I still to this day don't have audio of that version. One thing I'm finding with this thread is that I'm looking closer at the albums in my iPod and paying attention to song lengths for the first time. They still had sub-4 minute songs after Paul left but I guess I think of the epic style of the reunion albums and assume that nothing was under 5 minutes past Killers. I like the reunion style Maiden has but a three minute punch in the mouth here and there can only keep things interesting. For years I thought the lyric of Sanctuary was "I know you'd 've gone insane in the Salazar". What/who is Salazar? I don't know, the mention of killing and guns had me assuming it was some South American country or crime syndicate. BTW, Sanctuary. Any chance the idea came from Logan's Run?
