Maiden Japan Monroe NC

Maiden Japan

Iron Maiden

EMI / Capitol Records, 1981

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/01/2002

With all of the flurry that has surrounded the re-releases - andI mean all three sets of them - of Iron Maiden's discography on CD,one item has always escaped notice.

No, not The Soundhouse Tapes - though I understand that you will beable to get a CD of these songs by sending in proof-of-purchasesfrom the latest set of re-issues. (Memo to the band: How's aboutthose of us who shelled out big bucks to buy any of the previousreissues?)

Nope, I'm talking about Maiden Japan, the 1981 mini-album that seemed to serve as astop-gap while Iron Maiden changed lead singers. What turned out tobe the swansong of Paul Di'Anno, this five-song album captures aband who are growing tight as a unit, but whose material stillwasn't the strongest.

It's not totally the band's fault - after all, to release anytype of a live document with a mere two albums under your belt is adaunting task. And in terms of track selection, Iron Maiden dopretty well by including "Wrathchild" and "Running Free," the twotracks which could be called their biggest hits up to that point.And I do have to admit, including "Killers" was a good move, sinceit's such a solid version that it would definitely attractlisteners back to this cut on the Killers album, if not the whole disc.