Drop, Drop Dropping It Down, Oh So Slowly

My first legal vinyl heavy metal album was, naturally, by Iron Maiden. It was a somewhat incongruous Christmas present to me, and so instead of contemplating the somewhat improbable Virgin Birth I was instead confronted by the murdering monster on the front cover. The flipside was something of a culture shock too. Steve Harris, standing on the drum riser, besides that same monster spewing smoke onto the rest of the band performing in front of a forest of hands; Iron Maiden concerts looked like fun places to be…

Of course I was a good four years out of date here what with Paul Di’Anno on vocals and Clive (how ostentatiously un-metal for a first name) Burr, on drums. This was a very different beast to the band I’d recently seen in the Aces High video and heard on my home-taped albums, but it was simply some more Maiden as far as I was concerned. I plugged my headphones into the living room stereo and stared at both sides of the cover for added atmosphere while listening to the album over and over again.

Killers has lost its power over the years, sadly, although some songs remain special. Opener, The Ides Of March stands out, after so many Thrash Metal bands went on to insist upon writing instrumental tracks to showcase their virtuosity, alongside Wrathchild, Murders In The Rue Morgue and the title track. Drifter was a favourite of mine at the time, as was Innocent Exile, but Killers became an album I reached for less and less as time went on and my collection grew. Songs like Another Life are weak and repetitive, and the lyrical content is so vapid in general that the pointless instrumental Genghis Khan doesn’t seem out of place on this album where frantic rifferama and melodic guitar duels are left to provide much of the character.

It was my first heavy metal album though, and for that alone I remember it fondly. Unfortunately, disaster was to befall; one day in 1986 I dropped the record onto a hard floor and a good bite-sized chunk broke away, meaning the first two tracks on each side were unplayable. I would place the needle upon the nearest playable groove to the damage and then start the record player, so as not to miss a beat, never really appreciating the irony of Killers being such a flawed record in the first place…