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Powerslave is the fifth studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 3 September 1984 through EMI Records in Europe, and on 14 September 1984, through its sister label Capitol Records, in the US. It was re-released by Sanctuary and Columbia Records in the US in 2002.
The songs "2 Minutes to Midnight" and "Aces High" were released as singles. Its cover artwork is notable for its Ancient Egypt theme. That theme, taken from the title track, was carried over to the album's supporting tour, the World Slavery Tour. This began in Warsaw, Poland, on 9 August 1984; it is widely regarded as being the band's longest and most arduous tour to date, and led to the live album Live After Death.
The release contains a musical re-telling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the lyrics of which include some lines from the poem. At 13 minutes and 45 seconds in length, this was Iron Maiden's longest song for over 30 years until it was surpassed by the 18-minute "Empire of the Clouds" from the 2015 album The Book of Souls.
Powerslave is notable as the band's first album to feature the same personnel as their previous studio release. This lineup would remain intact for two further studio releases. It is also their last album to date to feature an instrumental piece, and the only one until Senjutsu (2021) in which longtime member and guitarist Dave Murray does not have a songwriting credit.
Once finished, the band undertook another short break while the album was mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York, before reconvening in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to rehearse for the World Slavery Tour. The tour began in Poland in August 1984 and ended in California in July 1985. The stage set echoed the album cover, including monumental pedestals several stories high, atop which the musicians appeared at times during the show. The set amply filled even the gigantic proscenium of Radio City Music Hall. The tour was the first time a heavy metal band had taken a full set behind the Iron Curtain, visiting Poland and Hungary, a landmark achievement at the time. It continued into South America – the first time the band had toured there – where they played to an estimated audience of 350,000 at the inaugural Rock in Rio as special guests of the band Queen. The Live After Death album and video, recorded over four nights at Long Beach Arena in LA and Hammersmith Odeon in London, were also released; these respectively peaked at No. 2 and No. 1 in the UK charts.
In total, the tour was eleven months long and touched 28 countries. Powerslave debuted at No. 2 in the UK Albums Chart, as a result of their record company EMI's third Now That's What I Call Music! pop compilation. Eventually, Iron Maiden's fifth studio album achieved No. 12 in US.
The leading single "2 Minutes to Midnight", written by vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith, was inspired by the Doomsday Clock ticking at, precisely, two minutes to midnight following the increasing tensions caused by the Cold War, and specifically by Ronald Reagan's anti-Soviet speech "Evil Empire"; according to Smith, it took him and Dickinson about twenty minutes to write the song. Steve Harris wrote the other single (and album opener) "Aces High" inspired by the Battle of Britain and possibly by the 1976 British war film of the same name. In the official video as well as in all live performances, the song was introduced by Winston Churchill's 1940 speech "We shall fight on the beaches".
"Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)" was Iron Maiden's fourth instrumental track and the first they released after "Genghis Khan" (from Killers, 1981); it also was their first instrumental track released since both Bruce Dickinson and Nicko McBrain joined the band. As it happened with "Transylvania", the band originally intended to write lyrics for it, but could not find any fitting theme; after having listened to the music, they agreed upon leaving it as it was, and gave it its title as a pun.
Dickinson's "Flash of the Blade" was inspired by his passion for fencing, while the closing track of Side A, "The Duellists", was inspired to Harris by the 1977 British historical drama The Duellists. "Back in the Village", written by Smith and Dickinson, is a sequel to the 1982 song "The Prisoner" and is based on the British science fiction TV series The Prisoner. The album title track, "Powerslave", is narrated from the point of view of an Egyptian pharaoh wondering why he has to die, he who was considered a god by his people, and was written by Dickinson as a partial allegory of his life as a rock star. The track was chosen as the album's title track and provided the theme for both the cover artwork and the stage decorations.
The album's closer and longest track, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", is an abridgment of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem of the same name. Bassist and songwriter Steve Harris recalled how, under time pressure, the piece was written in a relatively short space of time. Drawing heavily from Coleridge's 1815–16 gloss to his own poem, the song directly quotes two passages, the former including the famous lines: "Water, water everywhere – nor any drop to drink". At over thirteen minutes long, the track contains several distinct sections with differing moods and would become a fan favourite. During the 2008–09 Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, guitarist Dave Murray, Dickinson and Harris cited the song as their favourite to play live.
In 2024, Iron Maiden celebrated the album's 40th anniversary with a limited edition Zoetrope vinyl.
| +Chart performance for Powerslave ! scope="col" | Chart (1984–1985) ! scope="col" | Peak position |
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