10THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST IRON MAIDEN

(1982)

Some critics and industry bods genuinely thought metal was over by the early 80s, and guitars were outdated. The Numberofthebeast definitively proved it was only just getting started. The giants of the 70s were one-guitar bands, but in Maiden, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray’s Thin Lizzy-inspired harmonies made it compulsory for metallers to have two guitarists. Their tone, powered by Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups into Marshalls boosted with overdrive pedals, was the metal recipe for most of the decade. Murray and Smith’s fluid soloing kept one foot in the blues but nodded to Ritchie Blackmore, upping the tempo for the new decade.