Piece of Mind [Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Iron Maiden | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 26, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B000063DFQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (253 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave & Post-Punk > New Wave
  • #28 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > British Metal

Editorial Reviews

Enhanced CD-Rom version of the original. Includes full-length videos, band biographies, photo galleries, and internet links, all encased in a slip-sleeve. - 1998

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic Maiden = essential., March 17, 2004

By 

Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piece of Mind (Audio CD)

Given how musical tastes change over the years, it's not uncommon for people to find that the music of their youth isn't quite so appealing anymore. Yet for me, even as I become absorbed by avant-garde, Rock-in-Opposition, 20th/21st century classical, modern jazz, and other wild n' crazy stuff, Iron Maiden remains very endearing. And it's not just nostalgia (distorting the past to fit the sensibilities of the present). Iron Maiden is just a great, great band, and _Piece of Mind_ remains my favorite album in their considerable catalogue (followed by _Seventh Son..._).

Although it will probably pain a lot of hardcore Maiden lovers to hear me say it, but I think Iron Maiden's music has always had a certain metal-pop quality to it. I do NOT mean that Iron Maiden should in any way be associated with pathetic pantywaists like Poison or Warrant (such bands justify the repeal of the First Amendment). But in addition to insatiable metal energy and carnivorous, immortal metal riffs & solos, Maiden has always placed an immense emphasis on vocals, hooks, melodies, and tight songs. Yeah, they're cheesy, but Maiden is comfortable with their intrinsic metal cheesiness, so it works for them rather than against them. (A worse crime than cheesiness is to be completely oblivious to your cheesiness -- for an empirical illustration of this theory, I refer you to the legions of horrible European power metal bands like Stratovarius and Helloween.)

_Piece of Mind_ is an amazing album with not a single weak track. Of course, some songs are still better than others, and those are veritably deserving metal classics. There's "Where Eagles Dare", with its choppy, spitfire riffing; "The Trooper" with its unforgettable, evocative metal gallop and lyrics; and "Flight of Icarus", with its classic chorus and anthemic reach. "Revelations" is an epic that surrounds lyrical moments of beautiful imagery with memorable metal riffing. There is also "Still Life", one of the most tragically underrated Iron Maiden songs, with a mysterious opening that kicks into one of the most infectious and catchy songs in their catalogue. Apparently a lot of people think "Sun and Steel" and "Quest for Fire" are crap or at best inconvenient filler, I really like those songs ("Sun and Steel" especially!). The final epic, "To Tame a Land", suggests the direction the band would take with _Seventh Son_, carefully building until its monumental, epic guitar harmony at the end -- it remains one of the highpoints of their formidable songwriting genius.

It's a classic, and it doesn't really need me saying so. But another positive review never hurt anyone.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Metal Album Of All Time?, February 17, 2007

By 

The Great Rocky Hill (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piece of Mind (Audio CD)

The first time I heard this record,I was about thirteen. It had already been out for about four years,and in that time its acclaim had grown to the point where it was already widely regarded as a classic. Once I heard the brief drum solo that opens lead track Where Eagles Dare, it was easy to hear why. There was something so fierce about Piece Of Mind. Perhaps it was the production of Martin Birch, or the primal screams and powerful wails of Bruce Dickinson. Maybe it was nine-round axe duel between Adrian Smith and Dave Murray or the masterful rhythm section of Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain at work. I think it was all of those, but most importantly, it was the songwriting that made this album the highlight of metal's most creatively stellar year,1983.

Listen to the aural acrobatics of the aforementioned Where Eagles Dare which features one of the best examples of daring riffery and acrobatic melody the metal genre has to offer. Even the album's weakest track, Quest For Fire, thrusts, dodges, lunges, and parries with proud cunning. Every composition on Piece Of Mind broke ground, and the album as a whole could not have been written by any other band. Piece of Mind is one of those records that always seemed to be not unlike an anthology of self-contained, yet vaguely related stories. When reading the acknowledgements, it comes as no surprise that the band thanks Alistair MacLean and Frank Herbert for the inspiration that their novels brought to their work. My young mind was engrossed in the richly British escapism of the lyrics and still is to this day. Where Eagles Dare sent us on a mission to infiltrate a castle in the Austrian Alps. The intricate dirge Revelations told a tale of Biblical intrigue. Flight Of Icarus brought the myth of one who tempts fate with man-made wings to a whole new generation. Die With Your Boots On gave us warnings from Nostradamus. The Trooper, with its rousing, galloping twin-lead riff, put us right onto a battlefield during the Crimean war. Still Life told us a ghost story. Quest For Fire took us back to a prehistoric time that never actually was. Sun And Steel took us into the mind of Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, and finale To Tame A Land thrust us far beyond our universe to Frank Herbert's desert planet Arrakis. Never before or since has a album taken me to so many fantastic realms in such a short period of time. This, combined with everything else I have written, is what makes Piece Of Mind the definitive Iron Maiden experience. All in all it remains a swashbuckling thriller of sound and fury that has withstood the onslaught of Father Time long enough to become my favorite album ever.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind-ripping classic Maiden, July 27, 2000

By 

"irnmdn67" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piece of Mind (Audio CD)

In the spring of 1983 I heard a song on the radio that introduced me to a world of dueling guitars, screeching vocals and pounding rythymns. The song was "Flight of Icarus" and the album from which it came quickly became one of my all-time favorites. THIS IS CLASSIC IRON MAIDEN. The album immediately grabs onto you with the crunching "Where Eagles Dare", from there Maiden concert staples such as "Die With Your Boots On" and "The Trooper" explode one after another. The closing number "To Tame a Land" has one of the best outro's of any Maiden song. Maiden's sound on this album took a major step forward with the inclusion of ex-Trust drummer Nicko McBrain, after originally drummer Clive Burr left after 1982's Number of the Beast tour. The production is hot and the songs are alive with aggression and fire. This album set the table for Maiden's metal dominance of the 80's that has been recaptured again with the recent release of "Brave New World" Any Maiden fan would be remiss without a copy of this classic album.