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Review: Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden
www.ironmaiden.com
Killers

Label: EMI
Year released: 1981
Duration: 41:23
Tracks: 11
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
4.5/5


Review online: September 6, 2014
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4.72/5 (94.48%) (58 Votes)
Review

Killers is the second full-length from the United Kingdom's Iron Maiden and the final studio album featuring original singer Paul Di'Anno. I spoke about him in my review of the band's debut, Iron Maiden, so I'm just going to press on and discuss the album.

Killers is another in a long line of classics from Maiden and features such well-known songs as "Wrathchild" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue." It also marks the debut of guitarist Adrian Smith who, along with Dave Murray, would help make the twin guitar attack a near-mandatory element for Heavy Metal bands to this day. They also pioneered a bubbly style of solo (known half-jokingly as the "toodle-oodle-oodle") that they perfected on songs like "The Ides of March" and "Another Life," giving Maiden another unique sound that, along with Steve Harris' galloping bass, makes their music almost instantly recognizable. Killers doesn't have anything as epic as "Phantom of the Opera" or iconic as "Charlotte the Harlot," both from Iron Maiden, but, overall, I give it the edge in songwriting. Other than the two instrumentals ("The Ides of March" and "Ghengis Khan"), neither of which is very engaging, the album is solid from start to finish. And what a finish. "Drifter," with its fantastic riff and catchy chorus, presaging songs like "Run to the Hills," is easily one of my top five favorite Maiden songs.

Killers is every bit as mandatory an Iron Maiden album as any of the Dickinson records and should be in every fans' collection.

Note: reviewed is the original Capitol Records U.S. version of Killers that features the song "Twilight Zone" rather than the EMI Records U.K. version that does not.

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