Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

This is probably my favourite Iron Maiden track at the moment. This is nice and early one (their first album, 1980) when they had a bit more punk influence in their sound. I think this is one of Iron Maiden's fastest tracks, and features some of their best energetic playing. I've only got the 1998 remaster, but I'm happy to talk about the production regardless.

Bruce or Paul? 
There's an ongoing discussion between Iron Maiden fans about vocalists in this band. This singer is Paul Di'anno. The man who replaced him (Bruce Dickinson) has a strong operatic voice that certainly suits all Iron Maiden after Killers. But to anyone who would argue, Bruce has nothing on Di'anno for this era of the band.

Intro: 
That single guitar and even when the second joins in just sounds a bit flimsy. That moment of guitar pick noise at the very start would be something I can imagine being removed in a 1998 remaster of the track. Otherwise though, it sounds great to me once the drums and bass fill in that massive gap.

The bass solo 2:07: 
Just a quick note here, the lead out of the solo sounds like it's had an over dub or a massive volume boost. It just sounded a bit too forceful to be natural. You don't get to hear bass solos like this too often. I think Steve Harris (bass), although not credited as producer on this track has a lot of influence for things like this. In an interview I watched with the band they speak of everything they do in the studio being "Steve-ised".

Guitar squeals in chorus: 
I found it fairly interesting listening to the last chorus how the guitar squeals act as much like sound effects as anything else. They're inserted periodically, each slightly different but acting as a 'imagery' more than melody. I would characterise the long bends as some kind of object 'flying' across the music.