Iron Maiden are still the best metal band ever

I used to call myself a heavy metal fan. I still proudly call myself an Iron Maiden fan.

This was confirmed tonight when I acquired and listened to Tribute to the Beast vol. 2: A Tribute to Iron Maiden. (I haven't listened to vol. 1 yet, perhaps it's a little better.) To my former self's shame, I had only heard of one of the groups on the album who recorded Maiden cover sons, Anthrax. (And not the cool Anthrax of the 80s, but the lame, proto-Linkin Park hip-hoppy, too much bass Anthrax of the 90s) All of the groups on the album have 2 things in common, though. They can neither sing nor play as well as the group they're paying tribute to.

The mixing is way too distorted on most of them, half the groups have retarded-sounding death metal growlers instead of singers, and the guitar playing is sloppy and secondary to most of the groups' need to have really pounding bass and drum lines. If this is what heavy metal has turned into then I know I'm not missing much. The lead guitar tracks also lack the very clean, almost keyboard-sounding quality of Dave Murray's precise solos.

Now, to be fair, not a single other band were ever able to sing songs about slaying dragons with high-pitched singers without looking ridiculous (Dio, etc.), so Maiden stand alone in being able to pull it off. Well, I'd add Megadeth to that category too, if Dave Mustaine wasn't such a cock-monger, but they could still play the shit out of their instruments.

Maiden also had wicked stage presence, and you could suspend your disbelief that you're actually enjoying this theatrical nonsense with a cyborg skeleton thing shooting lasers at the singer, chasing him around the stage. As faggy and stupid as it would be when other bands tried it, Eddie was just too cool for any of us to say otherwise.

OK, there is one interesting track on this album, it's an acoustic version of the song “Strange World” by a group called Mago de Oz. It does the opposite of all the other covers on the album, it brings out what a great song it is by letting the notes ring out clearly, and giving you a new, interesting angle on the song (as opposed to the other groups that sound like me playing the songs with too much distortion to hide my mistakes. shhh.)

My other favourite rock band is Queen, though, and come to think of it they have a lot in common with Iron Maiden as far as guitar sound (on their heavier stuff) and the way they were very theatrical on stage.

I think I'll go dig up my Maiden discs and my copies of Queen I and Queen II and have myself a night of good old fashioned high-school metal geekery.

PS. The Darkness suck monkey nads.