Customer Reviews
An awesome debut, before they got famous. - By: MrMetalheadO'Hagan, 14 Jul 2008 
This album is bloody awesome. This is the start of Iron Maiden the great & they only got better & better. Here we have the vocalist Paul Di'ianno who was before one of the greatest vocalist of all time Bruce Dickinson. Paul Dianno is a really good vocalist. My favourite songs are Sanctuary, Running Free, Remember Tommorow, Phantom Of The Opera(amazing), Strange World(which sounds so much like Rainbows Catch The Rainbow) & the classic title song Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden's first 2 albums are occansionaly overlooked because of iron maidens masterpiece The Number Of The Beast but they are damn good albums. This is a great for maiden fans, new maiden fans buy The Number Of The Beast. UP THE IRONS!!!!!
A good, if limited debut - By: D. J. H. Thorn, 02 Jun 2008 
I recall 'Iron Maiden' being one of a spate of releases by new heavy metal bands at the close of the 1970s. What most of them hadin common was a lack of the finesse & class of the previous generation of hard rockers. In truth, they had a different agenda. Rather than being blues-oriented, they tended to opt for a leaner, faster sound, leading to a genuinely separate heavy metal genre.
Iron Maiden's inspiration isn't exactly signposted with any subtlety: stock characters from horror fiction. The music tends to be very rough around the edges, but this works effectively on the first two tracks. The beginning of 'Sanctuary' could almost come from the punk era, while the drum opening to 'Running Free' recalls any number of glam rock hits. Perhaps surprisingly, two of the best tracks are the slow ones, 'Remember Tomorrow' & 'Strange World', on which the band are at their most controlled. Their closing signature song is also good. Their weakness is exposed on the longest track, 'Phantom Of The Opera'. It starts well enough, but they don't have the skills to carry off a long track with tempo changes. Anyone weaned on the likes of Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple will yawn at some of the passages here, while the instrumental 'Transylvania' is also dull. A fair start to the band's recorded output, then, but definitely not their best.
Iron Maiden 1 - By: Jrc Salter, 11 Feb 2008 
This is a decent album to start with and, although it doesn't feature the iconic Bruce Dickinson on vocals, Paul Di'Anno's voice is still very good.
There are no stand out tracks that I would constantly listen to, but that doesn't mean they're all bad.
The CDROM content is okay & a great way of giving you your money's worth of space on the disc. It includes two very grainy videos; you are able to change the size from small to about half the size of your screen but no full screen option is available, which is no big loss since it's very low quality even on the smallest setting. Also included is a detailed biography, a family tree explaining where all the band members come from, a list of tour dates, album art for all the remastered CDs, many pictures & samples of music from other albums.
Packaging is a standard CD case & comes with a booklet containing lyrics for all songs & loads of pictures & album art.
Allin all a decent buy to complete a collection, but not as good as some of their later stuff.
Highlights: `Running Free', `Phantom Of The Opera', `Charlotte The Harlot'.
Track Listings
1. Prowler 03:56 ***
2. Sanctuary 03:16 ***
3. Remember Tomorrow 05:28 ****
4. Running Free 03:17 ****
5. Phantom Of The Opera 07:07 ****
6. Transylvania 04:19 ****
7. Strange World 05:32 ****
8. Charlotte The Harlot 04:12 ****
9. Iron Maiden 03:36 ***
Total Time: 40:43 ***½
Classic of the Genre - By: Mr. I. Jackson, 09 Sep 2007 Being a massive Punk fan at the time of this release was almost unacceptable even though Punk had run its course & there were loads of musical genres happening by 1980, there was post Punk like Joy Division, new sounds like early U2, there was the Mod revival, 2 Tone, New Romantics & even a Rockabilly movement led by the the Stray Cats. It was a very exciting timein Music. Then a bunch of young Rockers named Iron maiden turn up looking like something from 10 years previous but with a kind of Punk edge. Anyone who says maiden had no Punk influence is probably right but they certainly absorbed the attitude & clothing to a degree, tight jeans, Paul DiAnno's short hair studded wrist bands etc & Steve Harris's foot on the moniter stance as pioneered by many punk acts. The music though is very diifferent & it really left an impression on me, & it was & still is the only Metal CD i own, Maiden made a big mistake losing DiAnno & no matter what anyone says Bruce Dickinson could never match the sheer passion that Paul DiAnno had. This is why so many journalists at the time labelled Maiden "Punky", as no other bands had a singer like Di'Anno. Let's not forget the superb duelling guitars of Murray & Stratton, there is certainly no Punk inflence here, more so, a steal from the likes of Thin Lizzy but certainly some very original ideasin Strange World & Maybe Tomorrow my two favourite tracks here, that could almost fit into The Skids/U2 mould. Iron Maiden never had the cool look & swagger of the Clash or the awesome guitar sound of the Sex Pistols, which is maybe why Steve Harris hated what he called the weak production, saying the guitars weren't heavy enough, but they certainly had the skill & musicianship completely lost on most modern so called rock bands. Iron Maiden is a trumph for it's total fingers up to everything else that was around & showed the band were cool enough to acknowledge the current music trends without sacrificing their roots & beliefs. Whatever your musical tastes, Iron Maiden's debut has something for everyone & this surely is their defining moment.
Good start, but better was to follow - By: Mark Simpson, 09 Aug 2007 Paul DiAnno's vocals are not great & it is questionable whether Maiden would have enjoyed such sustained success had he stayed on board, but many of the other elements which have captivated crowds over the decades are alreadyin place - the harmonies of the twin lead guitars, the galloping drums, the Steve Harris basslines underpinning it all - not to mention some of the live favourites which still sound great today. Prowler, Remember Tomorrow, Running Free, Phantom of the Opera & Running Free, although betterin the hands of Bruce Dickinson, are still clearly excellent tracks from this recording. The addition of Sanctuary to this release is just a bonus. If you're buying your first Maiden album, there are better out there, but you will definitely want to add this to your collection at some point.
