Matéria publicada no portal  NOISEY2015
By Kim Kelly

Each day this week, Noisey is announcing and discussing one of the five artists we believe defined 2015. The first Artist of the Year is Iron Maiden Follow along here all week and in the weeks ahead for more end-of-year discussion.

“If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on / If you’re gonna try, well, stick around”

I love Iron Maiden. Most metalheads do, and so do music fans of every stripe who eschew subcultural labels, but still know a good riff when they hear one. To love Maiden, you don’t need to have long hair, or a tattered leather jacket, or an encyclopedic knowledge of NWOBHM; there’s no syllabus (though “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is worth a good read in and of itself), no guidebook that comes with your first copy of The Number of the Beast or special care instructions on your Eddie shirt. You don’t need an interest in the occult, or a working knowledge of British history, or even a good stereo system to “get” them. All you need is a pair of functioning ears. There’s no barrier to entry, because Iron Maiden is for everyone. Forty years after their inception, they’re still here, and still reigning, armed with a new album and, in the case of their cancer survivor vocalist Bruce Dickinson, a new lease on life. They’ll be remembered long after they finally choose to lay down their swords. That’s why Iron Maiden is the artist of the year.

For many legacy acts, change is frightening, sometimes even lethal. Cast a gimlet eye over any of an embarrassing number of late-career releases by hoary old rock’n’roll icons for ample proof of that; we’ve all heard “St. Anger,” to say nothing of Lulu, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, Metallica’s an easy target thanks to their very obvious (and very lucrative) transformation from hungry, lightning-shredding heshers into the monied elder statesman of radio rock, but they’re far from the only example of how age can soften heavy metal. As much as we all love bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Megadeth, and Slayer, you’d be a fool to argue that their recent output comes close to anything they released in the 80s (or earlier, in Sabbath’s case). Even the greatest rock’n’roll outlaws we have, Motörhead, have their best days well behind them (though, of course, no one would ever accuse Lemmy and the lads of going soft).