It is mind-blowing to think that Iron Maiden has been hurling heavy metal music into the universe for 50 some-odd years. With epic songs about movies, mythology, and wars, Iron Maiden has chiseled its way into the stone tablets of rock history. Chronicling Iron Maiden’s trip from London pubs in the 1970s to worldwide arena tours is Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible, a massive tome by celebrated music journalist Martin Popoff. To put it mildly, this book is insane in the best possible way. For Iron Maiden fans, it is an essential read.
Comprehensive to the point of being obsessive, Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible chronologically covers the recording of every Iron Maiden album, including the live ones. Side projects, including lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson’s solo albums, are also discussed. If you have a favorite Iron Maiden album, Popoff has written about it.
For example, I love Iron Maiden’s Powerslave. Since its release in 1984, Powerslave has been an album I return to again and again. Popoff tells the reader everything they could possibly want to know about Powerslave and more. Artist Derek Riggs talks about the creation of the Egyptian-themed cover. Guitarist Adrian Smith describes being hung over in the studio, but nailing the solo in “Powerslave” in one take in front of a tequila-drinking Robert Palmer. Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider provides a story about being Iron Maiden’s support act on the World Slavery Tour. Popoff combines snippets from previously published interviews with his own to create a madly entertaining view of Powerslave, a pattern followed throughout the entire book.
If it weren’t for Popoff’s buoyant and conversational style, Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible would be an absolute slog. But Popoff makes every era of Iron Maiden interesting, connecting all the dots and creating entertaining through-lines that keep the reader intrigued and ravenous for the next little anecdote. Even through the much-maligned years with Blaze Bayley as the lead vocalist, Popoff keeps the story light and fast paced.
Well over 600 pages long and stuffed with 400 photos, Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible is not a quick read. Readers may be better served by consuming it in chunks or, as I did, starting with the chapter about their favorite Iron Maiden album and working outward from there. However, the best thing Popoff brings to the Iron Maiden tale is context.
This isn’t just a book about Iron Maiden. Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible is about the joys, terrors, and excesses of rock and roll. It’s a portrait of how the 1970s and 1980s New Wave of British Heavy Metal rousted punk music and became a monolithic movement that still has influence today. Some bands almost made it and some never had a chance. Rock and roll is hungry. The audience is fickle.
Yet some bands, like Iron Maiden, persevere. Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible celebrates the musicians and the music without pulling any punches. Insightful, grand in scope, and utterly entertaining, Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible is perfect for fans of not just Iron Maiden, but for anyone who loves rock music.
From Schiffer Publishing, you can buy Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible wherever fine books are sold.
