Iron Maiden is a Heavy Metal band created by Steve Harris in 1975. Presently the members are : Bruce Dickinson (the singer) Steve Harris (the Bassist) Nicko McBrain(the drummer) and Janick Gers,Dave Murray and Adrian Smith (the 3 guitarist)

1979 to 1981

 Before 1981 the members of the group changed a lot (except Steve Harris and Dave Murray)  The group created the album : Iron Maiden and Killers

1981 to 1994

 In 1981 the singer is replaced by Bruce Dickinson and the group gains inter national success (also due to the publicity made by the «satanist» album cover of their new album “The Number of the Beast”)

 The success of the group is accentuated by the album Powerslave and songs like : “2 Minutes to Midnight,” “Rime of the ancient mariner,” “Flash of the Blade,” “Back in the Village” and “Aces High”

 Just before Dickenson left the group, Iron Maiden made the album Fear of the Dark which contains famous songs like “Afraid to Shoot” “Stranger” and “Fear of the Dark”  But the group was threatened by the development of grunge with groups like Nirvana and a new generation of metal bands with groups like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax.

 When Bruce dickinson left the group in 1994 the group began to fail.

1999 to ...Eternity

 In 1999 the group announced the comeback of Bruce Dickinson  The group recovered its success with the album Brave New World and the last album:The Final Frontier (in 2010) which was classified as number one album in Germany, Denmark, France, Finland, United Kingdom...(22 land in total)

Who is this living-dead on the album

 The mascot of the group is Eddy (also known under the name « Ed the hunter »). It is present on all of the album covers (except on a few vinyl and on the first Demo of the group) and was created by Derrek Riggs  It was first represented wearing a big white mask

Inspiration and reference

 The group was inspired by a lot of different things like :  Books:

Brave New World

the same-name song) by Haldous Huxley (in The novel: “Murder in Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe (same-name song)...

Inspiration and reference

 But also by the Bible (and more particulary the apocalypse) In Lord of light which refers to Lucifer The number of the beast (which is 666 and begins with a quote of the apocalypse)  And in Films and TV-series : With Doctor Who (in Caught Somewere in Time)  In mythology with The flight of Icarus

 And in History : The death of Caesar in Ides of march The Mayflower in The Pilgrim And a lot more references in the lyrics  There are also references on the album cover (which are generally very funny) like the graffiti «Indiana Jones was here 1941» in the album Powerslave The cover with the largest number of references is Caught Somewhere in Time

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Why I’ve chosen to present this group

I want to talk about Iron maiden because it's my favourite heavy metal group with Motorhead and Black Sabbath  Bruce Dickinson is my favourite singer with Lemmy from motorhead,Matt Barlow from Iced Earth and Ozzy Osbourne from Black Sabbath  They have made some of my favorite songs :Aces High,2 minutes to midnight, Killers, Running Silent Running Deep, Can I play with madness, the wicked man, Fear of the dark...(and I can name thousands of Iron Maiden songs I love)