A Little Rusty

After thirty years and over seventy million albums sold, you’d think that Iron Maiden needs no introduction.

Manager Rod Smallwood evidently doesn’t share this particular opinion, and instead seeks to provide fans with the opportunity to buy songs they already know back-to-front and upside down.

Given the band made such a big noise about how it wasn’t nostalgia fuelling the fires of their six-man formation in 1999, and that it never would be, it seems somewhat contradictory that they’re plundering past glories now for the third time (following tours in support of Ed Hunter and The Early Years DVD).

This year they’re treading the boards to coincide with the release of the Live After Death DVD, while another best-of will soon be on the market, their fourth in twelve years (fifth, if you count The Essential Iron Maiden import; sixth, if you count the fact that Edward The Great was released twice). This one focuses on Maiden’s eighties, a decade in which they became one of the biggest bands on the planet.

As an album in and of itself, Somewhere Back In Time is rather pointless, as even the most casual fan will already possess the bulk of what’s here. Plus, if the idea is to shed light on the dustier bits of Maiden’s earlier canon, there seems little logic in repackaging the likes of The Number Of The Beast and Can I Play With Madness for the umpteenth time. One would like to see a little love thrown in the direction of Remember Tomorrow, Moonchild, or Prodigal Son, all stellar Maiden tracks that are in danger of being totally forgotten.

It’s also noticeable that Paul Di’Anno has been all but written out of this era of Maiden history: Phantom Of The Opera, Wrathchild and Iron Maiden are all represented by inferior Dickinson-fronted live versions.

However, the collection at least makes more sense in its downloadable guise.