HISTORY OF IRON MAIDEN: HEAVY METAL MEGASTAR V (1982 - 1989)

 1982–1989: Heavy Metal Megastar

The group's seventh studio album was released in April 1988. It was titled Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and was a conceptual work based on the motifs of the novel "The Seventh Son" by Orson Scott Card. This album reflected Steve Harris' fascination with progressive bands from the 1970s. What was new, polarizing fans' opinions, was the subdued, more delicate sound of guitars and the use of keyboard instruments to emphasize the atmosphere of some recordings.
The album includes today's classic songs, such as the opening track, based on Aleister Crowley's novel - "Moonchild", the predatory title track "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", released on the single "The Evil That Men Do", a moody ballad, crowned with the spectacular coda "Infinite Dreams", the ominous "Only the Good Die Young" and the hit singles "Can I Play with Madness" and "The Clairvoyant".

 

The album, recorded at "Musicland Studios" in Munich, turned out to be the band's greatest commercial success to date. As the next longplay after The Number of the Beast, it debuted at number 1 on the British album charts, reached the Top 5 album charts in most countries, and in the United States took 12th position on the Billboard 200. Unfortunately, unlike the previous album, it did not sell that well in the USA, reaching 1.2 million copies and giving the group their sixth platinum album in a row. However, Steve Harris felt disappointed with this result, admitting that (...) I was not so much worried about lower sales, because we finally achieved a platinum album, but it seemed to me that [Americans - note. author] they simply don't understand it. The singles promoting the album were the greatest success of the group's career so far, both in England (Top 3 and Top 5 charts) and in many other countries around the world. Journalists were unanimous as to its value, the band's latest studio offering was considered the greatest artistic achievement already in the year of its premiere, and Iron Maiden was perceived as a "British musical institution".

The tour promoting the album, titled "7th Tour of a 7th Tour", once again proved that the band deserved the title of "the greatest metal band in the world". This time Iron Maiden played only 103 concerts, which were again seen by approximately 2.8 million people in North America and Europe. The musicians performed on a huge, specially constructed stage, resembling a cascading glacier, surrounded by several icebergs, above which hung a huge structure of lights, made of almost 1,600 light bulbs. Those present could see two incarnations of Eddie, who once emerged from behind a rotating model of a glacier - as a prophet known from the LP insert, and at the culmination of the performance, Eddie taken directly from the album cover towered over the stage, presenting his descendant to the gathered audience, all to the accompaniment of light and strobe effects and cannonades of pyrotechnics. Although the performance was impressive in its scale, many music critics accused the group of crossing all boundaries of stage kitsch, known from the mocking quasi-documentary film "The Spinal Tap".

60 concerts in North America were again held in large arenas (for the first time in the LA Forum arena) and in twenty-thousand-seat amphitheatres, while Guns N' Roses, who were just gaining international fame, appeared as a support band. In Europe, Iron Maiden played, among others: a series of concerts in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, as the star of the Monsters of Rock 1988 traveling festival, during which attendance ranged from 20,000 to over 100,000 people. The British musicians were preceded by such greats as Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax, Guns N' Roses, Trust and Helloween. It is estimated that 750,000 people saw the fourteen festival performances. viewers. "Monsters of Rock", organized on the grounds of the Koning Willem II Stadium in Tilburg, the Netherlands, attracted approximately 50,000 people, which was a record in the region for the performance of artists representing heavy rock.

The highlight of the tour was Iron Maiden's performance as the star of Monsters of Rock at Donington Park on August 20, 1988. They played to the largest audience in the history of the event, estimated at at least 107,000 people. The group used the most powerful sound equipment in the world at that time, generating over half a million of rated power per channel and a sound intensity of 125 dB. Sixteen trucks were needed to transport it. This fact was entered into the "Guinness Book of Records" in 1990.

The success of the event was overshadowed by an accident when two teenage participants died in the crowd, and one of the seriously injured, Gary Dobson, was awakened from a two-month coma by the music of Iron Maiden. The tour lasted until December 1988 and also included a number of concerts in closed venues and another tour of Great Britain, during which over a dozen concerts (including six in London) of the group were seen by over 120,000 people. Iron Maiden performed two sold-out shows at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, which were fully recorded for the release of another VHS and live album summarizing the tour. The full audiovisual version of this recording was published a quarter of a century later. At the end of 1988, a new publishing contract was signed with the American branch of Sony, Epic Records - resigning from further representation of their interests in the United States by Capitol Records. Epic represented the band for another five years, until they signed another contract with the independent label Castle Music Communications (CMC) in 1994, guaranteeing the possibility of nationwide distribution of records through an agreement with BMG Records.The year 1989 marked a break in the group's artistic and concert activities. 

 

Only in November, the single "Infinite Dreams" was released, ranking 6th in the British charts, promoting the next concert VHS of Maiden England. The film portrayed the band during two sold-out concerts at the NEC Arena Birmingham and topped bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic. In Great Britain, the publishing  reached a circulation of 75,000 copies within a few months, earning the group a triple platinum certification. In 1989, Iron Maiden musicians took part in the "Rock Aid Armenia" project (also known as Live Aid Armenia) - a humanitarian project of the British music industry. 

The aim of the project was to raise funds to help people affected by the earthquake in Armenia in 1988. The project was promoted by a single with a new version of the standard "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple, whose recording, apart from some of Deep Purple's musicians, included performers known from their solo careers and from other bands, including: Bryan Adams, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Geoff Downes and Chris Squire (Yes), Keith Emerson, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Brian May and Roger Taylor (Queen), Paul Rodgers.

The song was included in 1990 on an album titled The Earthquake Album and on The Earthquake Video. Four versions of the song (including one from 2010) were released on the album Smoke on the Water: Metropolis Sessions in 2010. The record became the first British charity album to be certified gold.
Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain also took part in recording a special version of the Led Zeppelin standard "Rock 'n Roll" . In addition to the single and the album, a set of music videos of the individual bands participating in the project and a documentary film about the tragic events of 1988 were also prepared.
A continuation of the initiative from 1989 was the WhoCares project, which involved: Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Ian Gillian, Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), Jason Newsted (ex- Metallica) and Mikko "Linde" Lindstrom (HIM).

In mid-1990, the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son sold approximately 4 million copies, and the circulation of the bestseller The Number of the Beast was estimated at close to 6 million records sold.
The band closed the 1980s with at least 25 million albums sold (28 mln including Maiden Japan EP), including 10 million in the USA, and over 5 million video discs were sold only in North America, which resulted in six gold and platinum certificates.
These achievements sealed the group's status as the most important representative of the heavy metal genre at that time.