“Powerslave” is Iron Maiden’s fifth album and came out in 1984, arguably the band’s best period. It’s one of those albums that captured all the elements that make Iron Maiden special: power, imagination and emotion, in about fifty minutes of pure heavy metal. The cover, with Eddie as an Egyptian Pharaoh, sets the tone from the start.
The album opens with one of the best opening tracks in their history, “Aces High”, which describes Britain’s defense against German bombers in World War II. The track is simple but very powerful: catchy riffs, a chorus to sing along to and a solo by Dave Murray and Adrian Smith.
Next comes “2 Minutes to Midnight”, the album’s second single, with references to the doomsday clock and the terror of the nuclear age, as well as comments about politicians who prefer war to helping their own country. “Losfer Words” is the last instrumental track they’ve written to date, while “Flash of the Blade” and “The Duelists” are about sword duels.
In the second half of the record are the big tracks: “Back in the Village” continues the story of “The Prisoner” from the previous album, while “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” closes the album with an epic, thirteen-minute track based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, considered one of the band’s greatest achievements.
“Powerslave” is considered one of Iron Maiden’s best albums, with an excellent 5 out of 5 rating from Sputnikmusic and the label “classic”. The “Somewhere in Time” that followed two years later moved in the same direction, while the roots of their sound are already visible from “Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast | Metal Territory“.
