The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden

The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden's third album, came out in March 1982, on Harvest and Capitol in the US and on EMI at home in Britain, and it's the moment the band went from contenders to conquerors. It was the first Maiden record with Bruce Dickinson singing and the last with Clive Burr on drums, and Martin Birch produced it with a knack for making everything sound huge and hungry.

Dickinson changes the whole weather of the band: he wails like an air-raid siren and hits notes that seem to rattle the rafters. Steve Harris drives it with that galloping bass, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith trade twin-guitar leads like duelists, and Burr pounds away like his life depends on it. "Run to the Hills" charges like a cavalry raid, the title track is a spooky, gleeful rush of fire and brimstone, "The Prisoner" bristles and races, and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is an epic, dread-soaked march that builds and builds.

It was their first album to top the UK chart and their first to crack the US top 40, and "Run to the Hills" gave them their first UK top-ten single. The record left such a mark that "The Beast" became the band's nickname, turning up on later releases like Best of the Beast and Visions of the Beast.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.