Nicko McBrain named his favourite Iron Maiden album: “one big adventure”
Great Britain is the home of heavy metal. This tiny sceptred isle has produced many notable names in the genre, including Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Judas Priest. One of the other most essential acts in this field, who are credited with imbuing metal with a unique dose of frenetic punk energy, is Iron Maiden.
Although they’ve had various different chapters, and many members come and go, no one would doubt that the arrival of frontman Bruce Dickinson in 1981 opened the band to their most successful era. Replacing the outgoing Paul Di’Anno, the arrival of Dickinson coincided with the band refining their craft and upping the ante. His first album was 1982’s The Number of the Beast, and from that point on, the group would kick on and deliver many of their most lauded works.
The early 1980s was a time of great upheaval for Iron Maiden. The year after Dickinson’s arrival, drummer Nicko McBrain would enter the fold and has remained their rhythmic dynamo ever since. An exceptional sticksman who facilitated the band becoming more expansive, his style is distinctive and widely influential. Many subsequent heroes of the kit have credited it with helping them to establish their own style.
One of the first in metal to truly understand the inextricable link between the bass and drums and the potency it can hold when both are locked in, McBrain’s dedication to connecting with his four-string counterpart, Steve Harris, has produced a myriad of thunderous patterns.
As McBrain has been vital to much of Iron Maiden’s success for so long, he has often been asked to discuss the band’s work. He even once named his favourite album by them. Unsurprisingly, this is his first, 1983’s Piece of Mind, as it was an exciting time and a “big adventure”.
McBrain told Classic Rock: “It was my first record with Maiden, so it’s very special to me. The first time I ever saw them play live was in 1979, and I knew they had it. Clive (Burr) was such a great drummer. I certainly wasn’t out for his job, but I did think to myself, I could be in that band. And in the end, it was meant to be, I suppose.”
The drummer continued: “For me, making Piece Of Mind was one big adventure. We were recording in the Caribbean, and I’d never been there before. And, of course, we had all these epic tracks – ‘The Trooper’, ‘Revelation,’ ‘Flight Of Icarus,’ and best of all for me, ‘Where Eagles Dare.’ The intro in that track – that drum riff – is right up there with the likes of Phil Collins and Neil Peart. It’s still one of my favourite Maiden songs.”
Listen to Piece of Mind below.
