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Sunday classics: Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number Of The Beast’ turns 40

Relive the angst, fury and power of the iconic album

English heavy metal band Iron Maiden will mark the 40th anniversary of their third album, The Number Of The Beast, with a commemorative cassette release this March.

 

This seminal recording, first released in 1982 and was the first Iron Maiden album to feature Bruce Dickinson as the vocalist. The album had broken many records, but to this day, it’s known best for Dickinson’s long, guttural wail in the title track, which is one of the most defining screams on record, in heavy metal’s history.

Producer Martin Birch who had worked with the band for the alum had once shared, “I’d drive Dickinson crazy. I think he ended up throwing chairs around the studio and screaming and yelling and went home with a blinding headache threatening me he was never ever going to sing again. But I think now when he listens to it he realizes, ‘Yeah, he was right.'”