HEAVY METAL: Christian Figenschou
COLONEL Jonker of the occult squad better be worried — Iron Maiden, veteran heavy metal outfit and pet target of the satanist-hunting brigade, packed the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg to its capacity with black-clad, angst- ridden youth last Thursday night.
The British rockers, who have released 10 studio albums since their eponymous debut in 1980, played South Africa as their second stop on a world tour promoting the band’s new album, The X-Factor. For this leg of the X-Factour, Maiden did not bring out their full stage set; instead of the lavish, high-tech stage effects that have come to characterise Iron Maiden live, local fans had to make do with a rather subdued stage with a painted backdrop featuring the gruesome graphics of the latest incarnation of the band’s icon and alter ego, Eddie.
For those who aren’t Maiden-heads or satanist hunters, Eddie is a corpse. The band’s cadaverous sidekick has always illustrated Iron Maiden album covers and appeared in various forms during their live shows — he has ranged from an axe killer to a puppet of Satan but, on the X-Factor album, the zombie has decomposed to his ghoulish nadir.
The gory display resembles a futuristic version of the medieval torture instrument from which the band took its name — Eddie sits twisted and distorted, his body and face pierced by steel probes, his skull precision-scalped and his torso amputated at the hips. Iron Maiden will have some difficulty topping that on their next album. They can’t get much more gross. Can they?
The band’s death-obsessed visual image is carried through to the music, with matching lyrics and the fast, driving sound of two electric guitars, thrashing drums and bass guitar played like lead guitar by the band’s leader Steve Harris. Since their last album, Maiden have lost their original vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who has been replaced by Blaze Bayley, a poor imitation with a much less powerful and melodic voice.
Not that melody is big on the band’s list of priorities. Though all the musicians are technically proficient, Iron Maiden’s forte is extremely loud, fast and heavy electric rock and that’s exactly what they delivered to the long-haired crowd of 14-to-40-year-olds. To a non-fan, the songs played at the Standard Bank Arena all sounded the same, but that didn’t seem to bother the die-hard headbangers slam dancing in the mosh pit — their “dancing” became increasingly less inhibited and more violent as the set unfolded.
Iron Maiden may be perceived as a threat to society by some sections of our population but, for their many South African fans, the band’s live appearance in this country was a great success and long overdue.