There’s no such thing as an album that’s a perfect 10 – but there those that are one notch below. The 9’s is an occasional series which explores some of those records.
Released: 1982
About
For a while it was impossible to tell if the daftly monikered New Wave of British Heavy Metal would just remain an underground phenomenon, one forever cursed to remain in the sticky carpeted backrooms of South London pubs. Having jettisoned the self aggrandizing Paul Di’Anno, in his operatic sounding replacement Bruce Dickinson came the final piece of the Iron Maiden jigsaw. The Number of The Beast‘s success brought recognition and credibility for the movement, in the process laying the foundations for the band’s 20th century domination of a rejuvenated devil’s noise.
Why a 9?
If timing is everything – by its release the first generation of punk had burned to a cinder and twee synth poppers bossed the charts – then equally this grandiose spit in the face of taste and decency ushered in a new kind of rebellion. Underneath the pretensions however was a groundbreaking record which matched speed and aggression with transcendent writing and controlled power. It was the full-throated war cry of Dickinson’s voice however which made these songs living things; if metal had always relied on a suspension of belief, here was the new ringmaster of our collective dreams and escapist mythologizing.
Why Is Is Important?
A pain in the backside to even type, the NWOBHM was a scene which punched massively above it’s weight in terms of downstream influence when balanced against it’s mediocre commercial impact – with the exception of one band (Ok, and Def Leppard, but we don’t talk about them). Ultimately The Number of The Beast worked so well because it was simply too big to fail, and despite some initial misgivings everyone who understood that knew things would never be the same. The various tenatacles of metal’s family tree might have subsequently grown to look as they do now had it never existed, but if you believe that, I have an airliner to sell you.
You Should Listen To
Run to The Hills, The Number of the Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Children of the Damned
The Voice Of Unreason 