History
This was the band's only album produced by Will Malone, who Iron Maiden have since claimed lacked interest in the project and effectively left them to produce most of the album themselves, which, according to bassist Steve Harris, was completed in just 13 days. Prior to the recording with Malone, the band made two attempts in December 1979 with two different producers while still a four-piece. Guy Edwards, the first, was dismissed as the band were unhappy with the "muddy" quality in his production, while Andy Scott was sacked after insisting that Harris use a plectrum rather than his fingers. After these efforts, the band decided not to sack Malone as Steve Harris describes that they could "bypass him and to the engineer." The group criticised the quality of the production, although many fans still prefer the raw sound to the songs. Although Allmusic states that this style was "clearly drawing from elements of punk rock," Harris later stated that the band despised everything about punk.
This was also the only studio album with guitarist Dennis Stratton, who, having been brought in as a last-minute placement, was sacked due to "musical differences" after the band's European tour in support of Kiss. Suspicions were first raised during Iron Maiden's recording, when Stratton added Wishbone Ash-esque harmony guitars and backing vocals reminiscent of Queen to "Phantom of the Opera", which the rest of the band immediately disapproved of and had removed. Although Stratton states that he was not "trying to push the band in a new direction," Harris comments that it "really pointed up the difference between Den and us," after which he began to notice that "Dennis was so much more into playing stuff like "Strange World" than he was "Iron Maiden" or "Prowler", because it was more slow, melodic... when he was soloing on one of the heavier songs, it wasn't with quite the same passion."
The 1998 re-release differs from the original with the addition of a re-recording of the song "Sanctuary" found on the original U.S. version of Iron Maiden and the UK "Sanctuary" single. The original version appeared on the Metal for Muthas compilation. The re-release also features a different cover; a digital recreation by original artist Derek Riggs, with a portion of the original artwork instead being used on the disc itself.
The band undertook the Iron Maiden Tour in support of the album, during which they played their first ever concerts in mainland Europe, where they were surprised to discover how successful Iron Maiden had been outside the UK, with Steve Harris commenting, "The prestige of doing so well in the UK had turned into a sort of word-of-mouth thing, and we'd turn up in placed like Leiden, in Holland, places we'd never even heard of, and they'd have these massive banners waiting for us with "Iron Maiden Go Over The Top" written on them and all this. It was unreal."
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