Killers

Killers is the second album on which Steve Harris’s running bass, the guitars of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, and Paul Di’Anno’s rough singing mesh strongly. The songs are short and sharp, holding both street roughness and tense drama. Welcoming producer Martin Birch, its sonic outline is clearer than the debut’s. From the bite of “Wrathchild,” following the opening instrumental “The Ides of March,” and the deft development of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” to the unease of the title track “Killers,” it vividly conveys early Iron Maiden’s momentum, while the speed of “Purgatory” and the drama of “Genghis Khan” show the band’s variety. It is also the last studio album to feature Paul Di’Anno. Its greatest appeal is a rawer, more urgent energy, unlike the grand scale of later years. Keeping a punkish roughness, the playing precision and song construction steadily rise. Capping the fullness of the Di’Anno era and preparing for the next leap, it is an important early Iron Maiden record.