CoronaVinyl Day 4 (Re-Press): Killers by Iron Maiden

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Well, my kids' school closure was just extended until April 21, so presumably I'll be working from home until at least then, which means CoronaVinyl is sure to make it though all 30 days' worth of categories, even if I don't do one every day.  Today's category is "re-press."  I take that to mean a vinyl re-pressing of an album that was originally released on vinyl.  So, for instance, many albums were not put out on vinyl in the '90s and '00s, so if they have subsequently been released on vinyl, I don't consider that a "re-press."  

I have a decent amount of re-presses, although I may save some of them for later categories.  A few years ago, I bought re-presses of the first two Iron Maiden albums on 180-gram vinyl.  For you non audiophiles, that just means the record is thicker and heavier.

I'm choosing 1981's Killers because it's my favorite Iron Maiden album.  Iron Maiden are heavy metal royalty and what I consider the flag bearers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.  They speed up Thin Lizzy's twin lead guitar attack and combined it with ridiculous bass lines, dark imagery often drawn from literature or historical events, and often quasi-operatic musical backdrops. Musically, I would put Iron Maiden up there with any band ever, period.

The band released two albums with their first lead singer, Paul Di'Anno, who was replaced by the wailing Bruce Dickinson in late 1981 because Di'Anno was allegedly delving into self-destructive behavior (and because his voice was thought to be too punkish).  Dickinson then helped take the band into the stratosphere.  Similar to the Roth/Hagar debate among Van Halen fans, there's a debate among Maiden fans about whether the Di'Anno era or the Dickinson era (the latter of which has continued for the last 39 years).  I love them both.

Killers was the band's second album and last with Di'Anno.  It's a dark and fantastic New Wave of British Heavy Metal classic.  The band first toured America off the strength of this album, and it is a great metal album with wicked guitars, turbo bass and drum lines, and some excellent imagery delving into the supernatural, the macabre, and, dare I say it, murder. Enjoy.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Murders in the Rue Morgue"
This is my favorite Iron Maiden song. It starts with a slow, eerie, almost classical intro that sets the stage for the song's subject matter, before the rest of the instruments come in as accompaniment for the remainder of the intro, which doesn't have much to do with the rest of the song.  When the intro finishes, the song kicks into high gear, where it remains for the rest of the song.  Loosely based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem (I would just call it a Poe-m), the lyrics are a first-person narrative by a guy who finds two dead women on a street in Paris, and is accused of their murder, so he tries to escape to Italy.  Di'Anno spews out the lyrics at breakneck speed, while the rest of the band tries to keep up.  Were it not for the musical ability of the band and the literary theme, this could almost be considered a punk song.  It's fast, catchy, and interesting.  About two-thirds of the way through the song, guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith share a nice twin lead guitar solo, before the last verse reveals that the narrator knows he's killed before.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Drifter"
For Side 2, it was a toss-up between the title track and "Drifter," but I gave the slight edge to "Drifter."  As with many of their songs, the band makes use of tempo changes masterfully in this one. It's got great, catchy verses, an awesome guitar solo starting at about the 3:03 mark, and frenetic drumming throughout.  Also, presumably, it's the only Iron Maiden song with the word "cuddle" in it, though I have always assumed the song is about a drifter who kidnaps and murders women, so that just makes the use of "cuddle" creepier.