Who is Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden is a NWOBHM (new wave of British heavy metal) band. Formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, they are one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre, selling over 80 million albums worldwide. Iron Maiden has so far released fourteen studio albums, four "best of" compilations, eight live albums and four limited boxed-sets.

Iron Maiden's work has inspired other sub-genres of heavy metal, including power metal and speed metal, and is generally thought of as an influence to any "metal" music containing dual-guitar harmonization. One example of their far reaching influence is that many bands from virtually every rock and metal sub-genre list Iron Maiden as one of their influences.

Many of the band's songs are based on history, folklore, movies and books, such as "Aces High", "Brave New World", "The Trooper", "The Clansman", "The Wicker Man", "The Prisoner", "Where Eagles Dare", "Out of the Silent Planet", "To Tame a Land" (based on Frank Herbert's Dune) and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - in which words from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem are incorporated into the song. (read more)