{"id":489994,"date":"2026-03-22T23:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489994\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T23:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:02:12","slug":"killers-by-iron-maiden-the-story-behind-the-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489994\/","title":{"rendered":"Killers by Iron Maiden: the story behind the album"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a very particular type of Iron Maiden<\/a> fan, the first two albums are all they will ever need. Even today, social media throws up the occasional keyboard warrior claiming Maiden lost their edge on the day Paul Di\u2019Anno<\/a> left \u2013 or worse, that the recruitment of Bruce Dickinson<\/a> transformed Steve Harris<\/a> and company into something that was, gasp, too heavy metal.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying that something a little bit special departed with Di\u2019Anno, but the livewire singer is the first to admit that he would never have stayed the course within the confines of Iron Maiden.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t blame them for getting rid of me,\u201d the singer, who died in 2024, told Hammer in 2020. \u201cObviously, the band was Steve Harris\u2019s baby but I wish I\u2019d been able to contribute more [to the writing]. After a while, that got me down. In the end I couldn\u2019t give 100% to Iron Maiden anymore and that wasn\u2019t fair to the band, the fans or to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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His words only tell half of the story. Paul was an exciting yet wildly unpredictable frontman, prone to acts of gross daftness (such as famously boasting to headliners Judas Priest<\/a> that his band would blow them offstage during a vital support tour).<\/p>\n

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\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden in 1981: (from left) Steve Harris, Clive Burr, Paul DI\u2019Anno, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray (Image credit: Robert Ellis\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However, those first two albums remain world class, and it\u2019s no wonder that they are still so widely loved. And yes, Maiden did become a different group during Bruce\u2019s first reign. They had to. He was a dedicated professional, sworn not only upon climbing to the very top, but willing to make sacrifices to do so. Paul, however, was a different beast.<\/p>\n

Despite a less-than stellar production that Paul himself dismissed as \u201ccomplete dogshit\u201d, Iron Maiden had taken the band into the Top 5 of the UK album charts. With guitarist Dennis Stratton now replaced by a certain Adrian Smith for the next chapter, two immediate problems loomed: Firstly, how to build on their debut album\u2019s production and achieve the sounds that Steve Harris aspired to, and secondly, what to do about Paul?<\/p>\n

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\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Paul Di\u2019Anno 1981 (Image credit: Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When considering producers the first time around, Martin Birch had topped the band\u2019s shortlist but was busy cutting Heaven And Hell with the Ronnie James Dio-fronted Black Sabbath. A Rolls-Royce in his field, Birch had also made records with Maiden\u2019s heroes Deep Purple, Rainbow and Wishbone Ash.<\/p>\n

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The producer would later recall that when the band finally contacted him regarding the album that became Killers, they had told him: \u201cWe didn\u2019t think we were worthy of you. Because of what you\u2019ve done [in the past] and your reputation, we didn\u2019t think you would take us on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cThat was your first mistake, because I was very disappointed that you didn\u2019t ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lasting bond was sealed: as well as Killers, Birch would go on to handle every Iron Maiden album up to Fear Of The Dark. For Paul Di\u2019Anno, though, Killers would prove to be his Maiden swansong.<\/p>\n

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Iron Maiden – Wrathchild (Live At The Rainbow) – YouTube
\n\"Iron<\/p>\n

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\u201cSomething, somewhere had changed,\u201d Di\u2019Annon would write in his autobiography, The Beast, of the Killers era. \u201cThe music was becoming more polished and more commercial. We\u2019d lost something of our punk-type edge. To my mind, [it was] getting a bit too arty-farty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was implying that the first album was hype into the chart, but hype can\u2019t make it go silver. You can\u2019t hype 63,000 people to buy it.<\/p>\n

Steve Harris<\/p>\n

Maiden\u2019s direction would ultimately carry them to heavy metal immortality, but if there was a little uncertainly around the new material from the band\u2019s growing fanbase, it was that\u2026well\u2026 a lot of it wasn\u2019t actually all that new.<\/p>\n

Many of the songs that ended up on the final version of Killers had already been performed onstage for some time \u2013 in fact, two of Killers\u2019 songs, Innocent Exile and beloved hit Wrathchild, were getting played in Maiden sets in the mid-70s. Plus, Wrathchild had actually already been officially released previously, on EMI\u2019s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sampler, Metal For Muthas, in 1980, though it was unquestionably an inferior version.<\/p>\n

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\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden\u2019s Paul Di\u2019Anno and Steve Harris onstage in the US in 1981 (Image credit: Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Even Drifter, during which the singer would go all-out to get the crowd singing along, had been another staple of their shows for several years and was a firm fan-favourite by the time it was committed to tape. Put simply, for many pre-existing Maiden fans, Killers simply didn\u2019t feel like a new album. Luckily, Martin Birch\u2019s production gave the songs a whole different lease of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cProduction-wise, Killers was like chalk and cheese compared to the first album,\u201d Steve Harris noted in the official Iron Maiden book, Run To The Hills. He also acknowledged the lack of brand new material on the album, but argued it was nonsensical to deny such good songs a proper release: \u201cThe first album was like a \u2018best-of\u2019 from our live set, songs which went back years. [For Killers], we still had a lot of really good, strong songs, like Wrathchild, and we didn\u2019t want to lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also some controversy with the press. Sounds, a major music magazine who were credited with the power to make or break careers, had got firmly behind Maiden\u2019s debut, calling it: \u201cHeavy metal for the 1980s, its blinding speed and rampant ferocity making heavy rock of the 60s and 70s sound slothful and funeral dirgey by comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t blame them for getting rid of me. In the end I couldn\u2019t give 100% to Iron Maiden anymore and that wasn\u2019t fair to the band.<\/p>\n

Paul Di\u2019Anno<\/p>\n

The review was a big seal of approval from a major player in the music industry, and helped stoked the fire of the rising NWOBHM. Killers, however, was received rather differently, as reviewer Robbi Millar \u2013 who had reportedly dated Di\u2019Anno \u2013 gave it a less than warm response.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaiden have never really cut it on vinyl,\u201d she noted. \u201cHold on a minute, haven\u2019t we rather overrated this lot?\u201d she added, before posing the controversial question of whether the debut \u201cmight have crashed into the charts at the Number Four position with a little help?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maiden were unimpressed with the review, aggrieved at the response to what they said was \u201can early cut\u201d of the record with an unfinished production. All five members of the band gathered for an interview with Sounds soon after, conducted by a slightly more sympathetic writer in Garry Bushell (even if he admitted he actually preferred the first record himself).<\/p>\n

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\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden pick up silver discs in Japan in 1980 (Image credit: Koh Hasebe\/Shinko Music\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n

While Paul Di\u2019Anno was in particularly boisterous mood (\u201cI\u2019ve got the right asshole with Robbi Millar!\u201d he exclaimed), Steve Harris was a little more diplomatic. \u201cI thought she was being constructive [about the choice of songs], but the claims of hyping were so out of order,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was implying that the first album was [artificially assisted] into the chart, but hype can\u2019t make it go silver. You can\u2019t hype 63,000 people to buy it. It\u2019s also gone gold in Japan, was it hyped there too?<\/p>\n

While Killers would debut on the UK charts at a relatively disappointing No.12, it would still propel the band forwards and set the foundations for the all-conquering run their 80s output would pick up from there. More than 40 years later, it remains rightly regardless as a classic.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, Di\u2019Anno just wasn\u2019t destined to last the course. His drink and drug intake worsened and, in September 1981, the singer was dismissed \u201con a totally amicable basis\u201d following a trek of more than 120 gigs in 15 counties, \u201cdifferent attitudes towards the music and touring\u201d being the official company line.<\/p>\n

We all know what happened next. Following a secret audition, Bruce Dickinson of NWOBHM rivals Samson won the job of fronting the band, and the following year Maiden released a third album, this time comprised of all-new material. It was called The Number Of The Beast, and it would change heavy metal forever. Still, whether you\u2019re a very particular kind of Maiden fan or not, one thing is certain: Killers marked the end of an era, and Iron Maiden would, quite simply, never be the same again.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 347 (March 2021)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a very particular type of Iron Maiden fan, the first two albums are all they will ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-489994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}