Killers

Old is Gold

Buen LP, proyecta buen audio, y de buen material

The second and last of the dianno era. Even tho this album is basically made up of b-sides from the from the first album its still awesome. These got to be some of the strongest “b-sides” iv ever heard.

Ok there will always be arguments about Paul Di'Anno vs Bruce Dickinson vs Blaze Bayley vs Bruce Dickinson again [well perhaps not Blaze Bayley] but the popular vote is always going to be for Dickinson with Di'Anno's input best forgotten [Maiden went as far as cynically and disingenuously omitting Di'Anno's studio recordings from their "Somewhere Back In Time" compilation in favour of Dickinson's live recordings]. And as for Blaze Bayley, who? Like Di'Anno his work was omitted from the "From Fear To Eternity" compilation in favour of Dickinson live recordings. But I'm not a die-hard Maiden fan, I'm not even really a metal fan, but I do like a bit of NWOBHM especially when it takes a walk on the punkier side and that's why I haven't forgotten Di'Anno and the two albums he made with Iron Maiden work better for me than many of the later albums (with the exception of "Number of the Beast ") when prog'y excesses became the norm and not the exception. "Killers" opens with the first of two instrumentals, the short atmospheric "The Ides of March" presumably a musical interpretation of a bad day at the forum for Julius Caesar before crashing into the storming heads-down metal of "Wrathchild". Third track, the wonderful Edgar Allan Poe inspired "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is my favourite, it's cleverer, it has a punky edge and brings a smile to my face with the magnificent Franglais couplet "Murders in the Rue Morgue, Someone call the gendarmes, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Vite before the killers go free". "Another Life" is pure NWOBHM with its basic let's go, crash, bang, screaming guitar solo, repeat formula while fifth track "Genghis Khan" is the second instrumental, clocking in at three minutes it's more developed perhaps than opener "The Ides of March" and gives the Maidens a chance to really show-off their twin guitar attack from Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, while Steve Harris gives a masterclass in bass alongside Clive Burr's drum work-out, it's so good that perhaps Maiden should have/should still think about releasing an instrumental album [that would save any arguments over who's the best vocalists]. The original side one closed-out with the hard-rocking "Innocent Exile" giving Paul Di'Anno this time a chance to shine with his visceral vocals. Where the first side was raw the second gives hints of the more proggy direction that their late work would take.; While the powerful opener title track "Killers" rocks it leans towards progginess, the slower complex ballad "Prodigal Son" that follows jumps right-in and plants both feet firmly in the prog-camp, and at over six minutes it's the longest track here; it's good but frankly it's a bit out of place in this company and should have been saved for later! The speed picks-up again with the hard rocking "Purgatory" but where the tracks on the first side were raw this is varnished presumably for its release as a single. The short penultimate track "Twilight Zone", a Harris/Murray co-write, is sadly unexciting and lacking the sharp edge of the band's NWOBHM sound it's a throwback to the early seventies drum driven heavy rock which may explain why it was omitted from the original UK release but has been included on my 1998 remastered CD edition. Closer "Drifter" is better, less driven than most of the earlier tracks it too leans towards the proggy side but there's some great work from the guitarists. And that's it. In many ways it's very similar to the eponymous debut album with its mix of clever instrumentals, punky NWOBHM, prog leanings, and seventies drum-driven heavy rock, and on both there's one wonderful-but-so-out-of-place song, here its "Prodigal Son" last time it was "Strange World". This time the twin guitar attack works better and Harris's bass is superb throughout, so then it's perhaps sacrilegious for me to suggest that I prefer the rawer five star eponymous debut album, it's a close thing but the first album just edges "Killers" for me, and that's why this is a four and a half star album that I've rounded up to five for Amazon. Their best though was yet to come.

Ti tcho qué bon moment j'ai passé