Various Artists
Numbers Of The Beast: An All Star Tribute To Iron Maiden
Restless Records
Maybe it's ironic, or maybe just a weird twist of fate, but you couldn't pick a better time to have an Iron Maiden tribute album come out. With the whole Sharon Osbourne egging thing fresh in every Maiden fans' mind, as well as Ms. Osbourne's apparent willingness to continually bash frontman Bruce Dickinson, it seems like the modern day Yoko is more than content to help this little project sell a couple of copies.
Being completely honest, tribute albums almost always suck. From time to time, they have a few songs that are worthwhile which raise it out of the “suck” category. And every once in awhile, you get a truly solid tribute album that does justice to the music that they are trying to tributize. This is one of those times. Made up of musicians who clearly have appreciated the work of Iron Maiden over the last 30 years, the overwhelming majority of the music on Numbers Of The Beast: An All Star Tribute To Iron Maiden hits the mark.
There are a number of winners that make Numbers Of The Beast really rock. Topping the list of the great songs on this compilation is the “Flight Of Icarus”. Performed by Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Beyond Fear), Doug Aldrich (Dio), Jimmy Bain (Dio) and Simon Wright (Dio, AC/DC), this song keeps the spirit of the original while coming off even heavier in the vocals and the rhythm. Right next to this one on the “awesome metal” scale is the spirited version of “The Trooper” by Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. This guy just oozes metal, and his backing band of Phil Campbell, Rocky George, Chuck Wright and Chris Slade do justice to it as well. Without question, the most musical talent on a song goes to “Aces High”. Featuring virtuosos on guitar (Nuno Bettencourt – Extreme), bass (Billy Sheehan – Mr. Big), drums (Vinnie Appice – pick a band...he's been in it) and vocals (Jeff Scott Soto – Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Soul Sirkus), this song by far bests all the others as far as performance is concerned. Ex-Rainbow and Malmsteen vocalist Joe Lynn Turner turns in a smokin' rendition of the classic “Two Minutes To Midnight”. Overall, the majority of these tunes are solid.
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
I tend to enjoy tribute albums, and this looks like one I should track down!
2 - Guppusmaximus
I heard the track with Lemmy(Motorhead) and I am sorry but it sux schlong!! I guess I will have to give the rest a shot because of my fellow Maiden fans here at BC but if it was just on that song alone I would've dismissed it completely...
3 - ryan
Iron Fucking Maiden.
4 - Julian
Jeff Scott Soto is amazing.
All the songs are amazing. Not much of a fan of Lemmy's tune, but all in all, great record!
5 - Sykotic_X
If you're still unsure after reading the review, four streaming songs and a full performer and track list can be found at rykodisc-media.com
6 - wasted opportunity
I have it, George Lynch or Bob Kulick (whoever plays the riff) can't get the main riff to Wasted years right. My fav maiden song gets butchered, dissapointing
7 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Yea... after hearing some more of this CD, I would say that there are much better tributes floating around. I'm not much for Wasted Cash!