The film tells the story of the massive rise, very slight fall, and then further massive rise of Iron Maiden, whose colossal success was achieved without kowtowing to the smirking media gatekeepers of cool.
In 1984, Iron Maiden toured Poland, and the scenes that greeted them were like a hard-rock version of Beatlemania, showcasing their immense popularity.
Emerging from the rough-and-gritty streets of late-'70s London, Iron Maiden met the world with galloping rhythms, steel-forged riffs, and banner-raising vocals-and they never stopped. Their intricate multi-guitar melodies and unmatched vigor helped define heavy music, and the band remains a fixture of the genre. The Cry Baby Wah was integral to the momentous album Killers, escalating the tension and deepening the dark grittiness of tracks such as "Wrathchild," "Innocent Exile," and "Drifter."
There were laughs of surprise around me in screen three of the Everyman in Muswell Hill, north London, as 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple drew to its conclusion. Without giving too much away for those who haven't seen it, Ralph Fiennes dancing semi-naked among piles of human bones to Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast is not how you expect one of our greatest thespians to deport himself on screen.
