Not many hard rock and heavy metal bands in the eighties enjoyed the commercial success while not deviating an inch from what they wanted to do the way that Iron Maiden did. All of the albums they made in that decade are considered heavy metal classics, but the complexity was never away from their music. And while the band would become more adventurous with varying degrees of success later on, ‘Piece Of Mind’ was the first album on which Maiden really dove head-first into longer songs with more complex structures. It’s not their most consistent album, but one of my favorites nonetheless.

Every Iron Maiden album from the eighties has a perennial classic that is still frequently played live and in this case, that would be ‘The Trooper’. And rightfully so, because its characteristic harmonized guitar theme, goosebumps-inducing solo section and Bruce Dickinson’s stellar vocal performance make it an incredible track. The thing is that the deeper cuts on ‘Piece Of Mind’ are at least every bit as good, although the album does take a bit of a dip after ‘Still Life’. Alternating longer, quasi-progressive tracks with shorter, catchier tracks also extends the attention span here, even though the former are easily my favorites.

‘Where Eagles Dare’ is a serious rival to ‘Moonchild’ as my favorite opening track Iron Maiden ever did. New drummer Nicko McBrain is introduced by means of a fantastic drum roll, after which an amalgamation of – for the time – crushingly heavy riffs and what might just be Dickinson’s best recorded performance to date makes this a top 10 Iron Maiden song for me. Compositionally, I really like how the song doesn’t have any guitar solo, but opens up to have a completely different atmosphere during the section where normally the guitar solos would be. Steve Harris’ songwriting triumph.

Dickinson contributed his first solo composition on ‘Piece Of Mind’ and surprisingly for a song written by a lead singer, ‘Revelations’ is one of the most proggy songs on the album. The song features some great start-stop riffing and some well-placed tempo changes, as well as a handful of incredible melodies. ‘Flight Of Icarus’, which he co-wrote with guitarist Adrian Smith, is a more accessible track and though I think the chorus is repeated a bit too often, the song is an excellent exercise in dynamics with a fantastic finale. ‘Still Life’ was always one of the hidden gems in Maiden’s discography to me. Its atmospheric nature may not be for everyone, but it’s still an excellent, multi-faceted Iron Maiden track.

As stated before, ‘Piece Of Mind’ is not perfect. ‘Quest For Fire’ and ‘Sun And Steel’ reek of filler, though the latter has its moments, and ‘To Tame A Land’ spots a few really cool bass riffs, especially in how the bass carries many of the melodies, but falls short of Maiden’s other closing epics. Harris really crammed too many words into too little room. Overall though, ‘Piece Of Mind’ is an incredible piece of eighties heavy metal with a perfect production. The guitars have just the right amount of crunch and the drums sound far more natural than on many modern metal records.

Recommended tracks: ‘Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Revelations’, ‘The Trooper’