WAGNER & HEAVY METAL
  • Home
    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
    • Classical picks
  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact

Iron  Maiden

2/15/2017

0 Comments

 
Updated 23 October 2024
Picture
To work oneself back through the catalogue of a favorite composer or band and find out that their early work already was full of substance and on moments eclipsed the music that would save their names for posterity. It happened with Richard Wagner (I like his first two operas, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, both more than Rienzi, his most famous pre-Fliegende Holländer opera) and it happened with Iron Maiden. Their debut album is a fresh heap of metal in a punk coat and I prefer it over a lot of their later output. Singer Paul Di'Anno sounds more pop and punk than metal. We're still a few years away from the band that would grow into a football stadium rock act. Compared to the Bruce Dickinson-years Maiden sounds on their debut album like a band that still has to make up their mind on a lot of things but the signature sound (with Steve Harris' galloping bass and the brazing guitar appergios) is already there. 

Paul Di'Anno possessed a charisma that was undeniable. With an unwavering refusal to let his hair grow, he performed with the brash defiance of a punk, infusing that genre's energy into the sometimes overly technical world of heavy metal. His snarling, piercing voice catapulted Iron Maiden to the heights of the charts, especially following the release of Killers in 1981, an album that became a landmark in what would come to be known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Yet, as so often happens in the tempestuous lives of those on the cusp of greatness, Di'Anno's fortunes began to unravel. Steve Harris, the band's founder and bassist, deemed Di'Anno too unreliable for their impending breakthrough, largely due to his rampant cocaine use. And so, in 1981, he was dismissed, replaced by Bruce Dickinson, whose tenure would indeed elevate Iron Maiden to the status of one of the greatest bands in the world.

Di'Anno pursued a solo career thereafter, performing tirelessly for many years, even as illness confined him to a wheelchair in his later days. But throughout, he would always return to the repertoire he had been privileged to perform with Iron Maiden, the very work that had made him a cult hero.

His personal life, however, was far less heroic. In 1990, Di'Anno was convicted of domestic violence after threatening a girlfriend with a knife while under the influence of cocaine—a crime for which he would later confess to feeling lifelong shame.

Shortly after his death, his former band honored him with a gracious tribute, acknowledging his pivotal role in their early success: “His pioneering work as our frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will always be remembered with affection—not only by us but by fans around the world.”

Remember Tomorrow is a song of superb schizophrenia. A song that carries its teenage resentment with a mature attitude and will be forever linked with its singer. 

- Wouter de Moor
0 Comments

    Archives

    May 2025
    November 2024
    September 2024
    April 2021
    May 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    July 2016
    August 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

    BANDS & ARTISTS

    All
    Abscendent
    Andrew O'Neill
    Apophanous
    Arka'n Asrafokor
    Burzum
    Dave Lombardo
    Dave Van Detta
    Death
    Devin Townsend
    Diabology
    Dreamborn
    Elfsgedroch
    Fantomas
    Gates In The Morning
    Grip Inc.
    HEMI
    Hex Morbidity
    Imperial Triumphant
    Iron Maiden
    Lelahell
    Lou Reed & Metallica: Lulu
    Mayhem
    Metalmancer
    Mike Patton
    Milk White Throat
    Nile
    Opeth
    Pandemmy
    Paraskenia
    Salem Trails
    Sam Russell
    Soulfly
    Strapping Young Lad
    Sunn O)))
    The Devils
    Wode

Picture
Wagner-HeavyMetal.com
  • Home
    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
    • Classical picks
  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact