Sorry for the delay on this. I was a bit busy the past week.
Track 7: "Killers"
Ah, yes. Time for the title track.
Instruments: This song opens with a bass riff, with the guitar staying low key through the intro, building up slowly into the song proper. It takes about a minute for the intro to finish, but it isn't a boring intro, due to carefully building up at just the right speed. The meat of the song is a fairly standard guitar line, but the guitar solos are both pretty cool, and the main lick is extremely catchy.
Vocals: Paul Di'Anno turns in quite possibly his most metal performance, up there with the debut album's "Iron Maiden". His range is fairly strong, but his rough voice is what really serves him well. It is clean enough to understand what he is saying, but still sounds like he is almost snarling with every line. Add in some quite impressive metal screams, and you have a performance that is to be applauded.
Lyrics: This song is...well, basically, it's the thoughts of a madman, driven to kill by the voices in his head, and loving every minute of it. Not exactly a happy tune, but a great fit lyrically for the vocals.
This is, to me, not only the strongest song on the album so far, but one of the strongest Iron Maiden songs I've reviewed so far, only rivaled by Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera". The instruments are chaotic without being overly confusing, matching the insane yet ordered thoughts shown through the lyrics, which are in turn expertly delivered by Paul Di'Anno in an incredible performance. This song is absolutely fantastic, and manages to keep interest even at a relatively long 5 minutes. Well worth a listen.
Track 8: "Twilight Zone"
This song is like the debut's "Sanctuary", as it was not on the original release, but was included on the North American release and the 1998 remastered release.
Instruments: The instruments have a much cleaner sound to them than most other Iron Maiden songs. In fact, it almost sounds like glam metal rather than the British heavy metal Iron Maiden normally relies on. If that sounds familiar, it's because the instrumental tone is extremely similar to "Purgatory".
Vocals: Strangely, despite the instruments being cleaner than normal, it can be quite hard to understand Paul Di'Anno, as he seems to mumble almost half of the lines. Part of the problem is that they pack a lot of lyrics into a short time (the song's only 2 and a half minutes long), and Paul Di'Anno can't quite pull off the speed necessary to sound clear.
Lyrics: The lyrics can be described as an Iron Maiden love song. Essentially, the narrator is a dead lover, contacting his girlfriend from beyond the grave. Well, rather, he wants to contact her, but he can only observe her, while she can't see him, because his spirit is trapped in the Twilight Zone.
I did not really care for this song. The lyrics are not bad, but it's hard to understand them and get the full impact of the song, because Paul Di'Anno is forced to sing too many words in too short of a time, and stumbles on the clarity of those words, while the instruments sound almost uninspired. Overall, some decent lyrics undone by poor production choices.
Track 9: "Prodigal Son"
This is the longest track on the album, clocking in at just over 6 minutes long.
Instruments: The music is...extremely surprising for Iron Maiden. The song opens with an undistorted guitar line, backed by Clive Burr's drums. After some time, guitar distortion creeps in, but even then, the tone of the song is much more gentle than is standard for Iron Maiden. It almost sounds like Dream Theater's slower songs. It works quite well, although it has a totally different energy compared to the standard Iron Maiden song.
Vocals: Paul Di'Anno tries to embrace the gentle side of his vocals with this song. The issue there is that his voice doesn't really have a gentle side to it. He has the emotion pretty solidly put into his voice, but the grit in his voice somewhat detracts from that emotion.
Lyrics: The lyrics to this song are a man begging a woman he knows, Lamia, to help him. The problem is, he's been messing with dark forces and magic, and now the devil has a hold of his soul, and he wants her help to get the devil out of him.
This track was...a lot different from what Iron Maiden normally does, but quite successful all the same. The instruments demonstrate the sadder side to the lyrics quite well, and Paul Di'Anno, despite the grit in his voice, shows the desperation of the lyrics just as well. This is a song that is not exactly happy, but not unpleasant, either. Overall, quite a solid song.
Track: 10: "Purgatory"
Instruments: Once again, this is somewhat of a different style of instruments for Iron Maiden. It isn't a total departure for Maiden, but the instruments would fit in quite well with power metal. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. In this case, the instruments are still slow enough to avoid the trap many power metal bands fall in, confusing speed with complexity.
Vocals: This song was a bit of a surprise here as well. Paul Di'Anno sounds a lot cleaner than normal here, other than the metal yell on the last note, but more importantly, manages to sing some more rapid parts clearly, unlike in "Twilight Zone".
Lyrics: This is not exactly surprising lyrically. The song's called "Purgatory". The lyrics are describing the thoughts and feelings of someone in Purgatory. It may be less of the religious Purgatory and more of a general "caught between two places" thing, but that's about all the room for interpretation in the lyrics.
This is a pretty solid song. It has more in common with Helloween than Maiden, but the music and vocals are done quite well, and the lyrics are clear enough while still leaving room for thought. A decent effort, even if it sounds like Iron Maiden doing a cover rather than their own song.
Track 11: "Drifter"
The final track on this album.
Instruments: This is much more in Iron Maiden's wheelhouse musically. The song starts with a guitar riff in the intro, before hitting the more standard guitar for the song. The guitar hook is surprisingly subdued-sounding, compared to the music surrounding it, and the first guitar solo matches the mood of the guitar hook, while the second guitar solo is more in line with the main riff. It's not bad or confusing, just a bit of a contrast.
Vocals: This is a standard performance for Paul Di'Anno. It's not great, lacking any real stand-out moments, but it's not bad, either. Just a little uninspired.
Lyrics: The narrator of this song is, big surprise, a drifter. He's with a girl he cares about, and is encouraging her to join him. At least, I think that's what he's doing. Most of the lyrics describe him as roaming around "singing [his] song", and asking her to "sing along". I think it's supposed to be a metaphor. Possibly. Maybe.
This is...not bad, but not a great album closer. The instruments are fine, the lyrics are fine, everything is fine. It's just...fine. Not great, not bad, just all right. Compared to the last album ending with "Iron Maiden", it's a letdown.
Well, that's Killers. Overall...not that great. There were some very strong songs on this album, but some quite weak ones as well. I give this album some more credit, for trying to do new things, however. It's debatable as to which is better between this and Iron Maiden, but for me, Iron Maiden was more consistent, with only one really disappointing song on that album, while this one had two that I was quite disappointed in ("Genghis Khan" and "Twilight Zone").
Next: Number of the Beast
Track 7: "Killers"
Ah, yes. Time for the title track.
Instruments: This song opens with a bass riff, with the guitar staying low key through the intro, building up slowly into the song proper. It takes about a minute for the intro to finish, but it isn't a boring intro, due to carefully building up at just the right speed. The meat of the song is a fairly standard guitar line, but the guitar solos are both pretty cool, and the main lick is extremely catchy.
Vocals: Paul Di'Anno turns in quite possibly his most metal performance, up there with the debut album's "Iron Maiden". His range is fairly strong, but his rough voice is what really serves him well. It is clean enough to understand what he is saying, but still sounds like he is almost snarling with every line. Add in some quite impressive metal screams, and you have a performance that is to be applauded.
Lyrics: This song is...well, basically, it's the thoughts of a madman, driven to kill by the voices in his head, and loving every minute of it. Not exactly a happy tune, but a great fit lyrically for the vocals.
This is, to me, not only the strongest song on the album so far, but one of the strongest Iron Maiden songs I've reviewed so far, only rivaled by Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera". The instruments are chaotic without being overly confusing, matching the insane yet ordered thoughts shown through the lyrics, which are in turn expertly delivered by Paul Di'Anno in an incredible performance. This song is absolutely fantastic, and manages to keep interest even at a relatively long 5 minutes. Well worth a listen.
Track 8: "Twilight Zone"
This song is like the debut's "Sanctuary", as it was not on the original release, but was included on the North American release and the 1998 remastered release.
Instruments: The instruments have a much cleaner sound to them than most other Iron Maiden songs. In fact, it almost sounds like glam metal rather than the British heavy metal Iron Maiden normally relies on. If that sounds familiar, it's because the instrumental tone is extremely similar to "Purgatory".
Vocals: Strangely, despite the instruments being cleaner than normal, it can be quite hard to understand Paul Di'Anno, as he seems to mumble almost half of the lines. Part of the problem is that they pack a lot of lyrics into a short time (the song's only 2 and a half minutes long), and Paul Di'Anno can't quite pull off the speed necessary to sound clear.
Lyrics: The lyrics can be described as an Iron Maiden love song. Essentially, the narrator is a dead lover, contacting his girlfriend from beyond the grave. Well, rather, he wants to contact her, but he can only observe her, while she can't see him, because his spirit is trapped in the Twilight Zone.
I did not really care for this song. The lyrics are not bad, but it's hard to understand them and get the full impact of the song, because Paul Di'Anno is forced to sing too many words in too short of a time, and stumbles on the clarity of those words, while the instruments sound almost uninspired. Overall, some decent lyrics undone by poor production choices.
Track 9: "Prodigal Son"
This is the longest track on the album, clocking in at just over 6 minutes long.
Instruments: The music is...extremely surprising for Iron Maiden. The song opens with an undistorted guitar line, backed by Clive Burr's drums. After some time, guitar distortion creeps in, but even then, the tone of the song is much more gentle than is standard for Iron Maiden. It almost sounds like Dream Theater's slower songs. It works quite well, although it has a totally different energy compared to the standard Iron Maiden song.
Vocals: Paul Di'Anno tries to embrace the gentle side of his vocals with this song. The issue there is that his voice doesn't really have a gentle side to it. He has the emotion pretty solidly put into his voice, but the grit in his voice somewhat detracts from that emotion.
Lyrics: The lyrics to this song are a man begging a woman he knows, Lamia, to help him. The problem is, he's been messing with dark forces and magic, and now the devil has a hold of his soul, and he wants her help to get the devil out of him.
This track was...a lot different from what Iron Maiden normally does, but quite successful all the same. The instruments demonstrate the sadder side to the lyrics quite well, and Paul Di'Anno, despite the grit in his voice, shows the desperation of the lyrics just as well. This is a song that is not exactly happy, but not unpleasant, either. Overall, quite a solid song.
Track: 10: "Purgatory"
Instruments: Once again, this is somewhat of a different style of instruments for Iron Maiden. It isn't a total departure for Maiden, but the instruments would fit in quite well with power metal. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. In this case, the instruments are still slow enough to avoid the trap many power metal bands fall in, confusing speed with complexity.
Vocals: This song was a bit of a surprise here as well. Paul Di'Anno sounds a lot cleaner than normal here, other than the metal yell on the last note, but more importantly, manages to sing some more rapid parts clearly, unlike in "Twilight Zone".
Lyrics: This is not exactly surprising lyrically. The song's called "Purgatory". The lyrics are describing the thoughts and feelings of someone in Purgatory. It may be less of the religious Purgatory and more of a general "caught between two places" thing, but that's about all the room for interpretation in the lyrics.
This is a pretty solid song. It has more in common with Helloween than Maiden, but the music and vocals are done quite well, and the lyrics are clear enough while still leaving room for thought. A decent effort, even if it sounds like Iron Maiden doing a cover rather than their own song.
Track 11: "Drifter"
The final track on this album.
Instruments: This is much more in Iron Maiden's wheelhouse musically. The song starts with a guitar riff in the intro, before hitting the more standard guitar for the song. The guitar hook is surprisingly subdued-sounding, compared to the music surrounding it, and the first guitar solo matches the mood of the guitar hook, while the second guitar solo is more in line with the main riff. It's not bad or confusing, just a bit of a contrast.
Vocals: This is a standard performance for Paul Di'Anno. It's not great, lacking any real stand-out moments, but it's not bad, either. Just a little uninspired.
Lyrics: The narrator of this song is, big surprise, a drifter. He's with a girl he cares about, and is encouraging her to join him. At least, I think that's what he's doing. Most of the lyrics describe him as roaming around "singing [his] song", and asking her to "sing along". I think it's supposed to be a metaphor. Possibly. Maybe.
This is...not bad, but not a great album closer. The instruments are fine, the lyrics are fine, everything is fine. It's just...fine. Not great, not bad, just all right. Compared to the last album ending with "Iron Maiden", it's a letdown.
Well, that's Killers. Overall...not that great. There were some very strong songs on this album, but some quite weak ones as well. I give this album some more credit, for trying to do new things, however. It's debatable as to which is better between this and Iron Maiden, but for me, Iron Maiden was more consistent, with only one really disappointing song on that album, while this one had two that I was quite disappointed in ("Genghis Khan" and "Twilight Zone").
Next: Number of the Beast
