Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Maiden uniteD
Label: Self-released
Release: 2010
Running time: 45:10
Rating: 4/5
Iron Maiden. Ahhh… What hasn’t already been said or written about them? Let’s start like this instead. Between all the releases of every imaginable kind, a live document of the same tour following almost pushily after every tour, a whole galaxy of (unnecessary) »best of« compilations in recent years, and all the studio albums on top of that, is there even a goal left unticked? And yet Iron Maiden have never put out the kind of record that’s pretty common and that rock and metal bands generally take on at some point in their careers. Iron Maiden, you see, have never released an »unplugged« album.
Well, it happened. Just without Iron Maiden, and in the Netherlands. In 2006, at the request of the Dutch Iron Maiden fan club, Joey Bruers, a member of the Iron Maiden tribute band Up the Irons, played a handful of live acoustic reworkings of Iron Maiden classics with his band, and you know what? The illustrious boss of Iron Maiden himself, bassist Steve Harris, was at that show, and he was moved and thrilled by the performance. Bruers evidently got the green light from metal guru Harris to pursue further ideas along those lines.
And so Maiden UniteD were born, a kind of cabaret-style, »unplugged« version of Iron Maiden made up mostly of Dutch musicians: besides bassist Bruers, there’s guitarist Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation), keyboardist Marco Kuypers and drummer Mike Coolen. That still left the vocalist’s spot. For that job they called up Damian Wilson, the frontman of the excellent British progressive metallers Threshold, who has also left his mark on plenty of work by fellow Dutchman Arjen Anthony Lucassen in his projects Ayreon and Star One.
And the result? Endlessly entertaining. Maiden UniteD have played through and rearranged the entire Iron Maiden album “Piece Of Mind”, originally released in 1983. Picture The Trooper as a ballad, positively bursting with dark, melancholic brooding and running over six minutes, or Wilson’s opening verse in Flight Of Icarus delivered as a proper narrative. Then there’s a completely different melody line in the pre-chorus of Die With Your Boots On, or the a cappella vocals in Revelations. The cherry on top of the cream cake is the seductive vocal duet between Wilson and Anekke Van Giersbergen in the fantastic closer To Tame A Land. Madness, and the surprises keep coming, with sharp, inventive arrangement twists at every step of the album. In this fully acoustic way, the crew has definitely brought the pastoral and the traditional Celtic melos right up close. In the distortion-heavy original, those elements are pushed mostly into the background. At the same time, in the instrumental passages Maiden UniteD open up plenty of room for potential improvisation that could even lead to jazz experiments. But the band didn’t allow itself that. It kept the form of the arrangements with a touch of neo-classicism. If I hint that you have to know certain Iron Maiden lyrics practically by heart just to catch which Iron Maiden original is being played, then that alone is solid proof that the reworked arrangements of the whole »Piece Of Mind« album are really a brand-new musical story. The embrace of classical piano and guitar lines, in places doubled in thirds (although this time they never jut out in your face the way they do with Iron Maiden), guides the main motifs and shapes the memorable Iron Maiden ornaments that float above them and can’t be missing from the adapted versions either. But the guitar and piano don’t follow the originals’ mold at all costs; they adapt tastefully to the acoustic spirit of this album. The musicians of Maiden UniteD are, after all, all too aware of every advantage acoustic music offers! That’s why they often deliberately pick lines whose melodies are tailored to reach the optimum of expressive, atmospheric exposure in an acoustic sound environment!
Damian Wilson is remarkably flexible and adaptable in his vocal approach. His subtle, sensual side sparkles and shines in particular detail, since there’s plenty of room for that approach when you’re completely enveloped by the organic sound of the musical accompaniment. The man deftly rides the waves between expansions of power, which his melodically clean voice can proven deliver. It conquers the highest registers without any trouble, and in the next moment he soars into a completely different feeling, tailoring the vocal with sophisticated sensuality and lifting the dynamics and the spot-on tonal color of the songs just as you’d want. In short, the man sings in the glow of his own approach! He doesn’t imitate Dickinson for a moment, and his approach is first and foremost similar to what we know from the records of Threshold and the projects Ayreon and Star One.
»Mind the Acoustic Pieces« is an exceptionally entertaining record that at the same time successfully keeps the touch of drama theater and doom that’s typical of the unique metal approach of the venerable Iron Maiden. But that isn’t even important, given everything that can be drawn out of the originals. And the Maiden UniteD crew are masters at it. No more, no less. The special touches in the arrangement seasoning ignite above all in To Tame A Land, Die With Your Boots On, Revetations, Flight Of Icarus and The Trooper, if I have to pick the highlights of the release.
This release throws the doors wide open for Maiden UniteD to tackle a follow-up to this record in the future. The options are countless. They could rework another Maiden album in full, or mix Maiden originals from several different albums. The album »Mind the Acoustic Pieces« is an excellent soundtrack for any hour of the day. Any mood. At the same time, it delights with the refinement and great flexibility of Maiden UniteD’s general sensibility, in their unique approach to restructuring the Maiden originals. Let yourself be surprised and seduced.
Line-up
Damian Wilson – vocals
Ruud Jolie – guitar
Joey Bruers – bass guitar
Marco Kuypers – piano
Mike Coolen – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Anneke van Giersbergen – vocals on tracks 8 and 9
Production
Maiden UniteD
Track list
01. Where Eagles Dare
02. The Trooper
03. Quest For Fire
04. Still Life
05. Revelations
06. Die With Your Boots On
07. Flight Of Icarus
08. Sun And Steel
09. To Tame A Land
