My first Heavy Metal experience

“Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” (1988) by Iron Maiden was released on this day 30 years ago. 2018 also marks the 30th anniversary of me listening to Metal and this was the first album I ever got. Here on a UK first print LP and my first personal Heavy Metal cassette I ever owned.

My story isn’t unique when I was 8 years in 1988 I made a new friend at school. Me and him were “usual kids” and played the 8-bit Nintendo, watched Schwarzenegger and horror movies. We also used to rummage through his 2 older brothers rooms for Heavy Metal records which we weren’t supposed to do (think it was because of the Rambo and stiletto knifes there something we also was very fascinated by) but the little bastards we were did this anyway. Remember listening to bands like Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Dio and others but the one band we liked by far the most was Iron Maiden. Some of the songs we used to listening to was Phantom Of The Opera; The Number Of The Beast; Run To The Hills; 2 Minuets To Midnight etc. Just looking at all of the Iron Maiden artwork amazed me. That year in 1988 my mother let me pick any cassette-tape I wanted one day when we where in the city. Took the one I thought had the coolest and most badass cover artwork and it was a great choice and played that tape nonstop.

Even still to this day whenever I hear the intro to Moonchild I get goosebumps. “Piece of Mind”; “The Number of the Beast” or “Powerslave” probably have more iconic songs and "Iron Maiden" and “Killers” with Paul Di'Anno are simply brilliant albums also. But if I only could listen to one Iron Maiden for the rest of my life I would choose “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” without a doubt it has a very special place in my cold Metal heart. I know this album was considered to be a bit controversial because the band use keyboards and it didn’t sell as well in North America because “it’s to European sounding”. But who the hell cares when an album is so brilliant as this one!