The Number Of The Beast  by Iron Maiden

The third album in the series by Iron Maiden remains a legendary album as it was their first album to reach No.1 in their homeland and the first to secure a decent position in the U.S.A. (No.33). It is also the first album for Bruce Dickinson and the last for drummer Clive Burr.

The album starts with its cover, which was originally intended to be the cover for the single 'Purgatory', but was deemed too good to be used for a mere single. It sparked many discussions (especially in the U.S.A.) and gave a significant boost to the album. The cover, the album title, and the title song gave them a reputation of being Satanists, which was untrue, but nevertheless advantageous, as since then it has sold over 2,500,000 copies worldwide.

The Number Of The Beast is often found in lists of the best heavy metal albums of all time. Steve Harris is behind all the song compositions, with some help from Andrian Smith and Clive Burr. The production was done by Martin Birch.