What Is It Sounds In This House So Eerily?

Session 4 - 10/1/2015

This session had been planned for a long time. I had big plans as I had been sent two very special ales and had also purchased the LP version of Best of the Beast.

Terry and I had been discussing how to deal with all the “newer” albums. We had been listening to the albums up to Blaze for a long time with the occasional foray into the X Factor. We decided that we would start the sessions with studio albums from 1998 onwards. This will allow us to split up the albums we don’t know as well instead of lumping them all into a later session.

Because this was to be such an important session I had invited two guests who are craft beer fans.

We aimed to kick off at 2 P.M. Terry arrived first and Dale our first guest arrived shortly afterwards. Gary showed up about ten minutes later.

I was very disorganised. I hadn’t even sorted out a CD player which was needed to start the session. A while back I had replaced my BluRay player with a PS4 assuming it would also play CDs. I was wrong. I also have a few retro game consoles hooked up, luckily two are original PlayStations which play CDs. After a fair amount of mucking around trying to plug in the power to one of these PlayStations, I worked out how it was set up for audio and video.

This brought us onto Blaze Bayley’s final album.

Virtual XI

Released 23/03/98

We started this and poured out some Stone & Wood - Pacific Ale.

We were two songs into the album and a sip into the beer. While talking about how to run the rest of the tasting beer-wise, I realised Dale and I had spoken about organising more tasting glasses but hadn’t come to any arrangement. This prompted Gary and I to jump in the car and do a quick supermarket run. At this point Terry accused me of trying to avoid Virtual XI. I asked him to stop the CD so I could listen to the album in full. We got back to my place in about ten minutes with tasting glasses organised. I found the CD still playing and questioned Terry about this, we then restarted from when I had left.

The Beer is a fantastic summer ale. A good flavour and perfect for the heat. I handed out an Iron Maiden Heroclix pack to everyone and we opened them. This time both Dale and Gray got Powerslave, Terry got Phantom of the Opera and I got Live After Death.

The album has some great playing, riffs and good moments. My criticism would be they could have cut some of the songs down in time and repeated vocal phrases less.

Best Of The Beast - Vinyl 4 - Side A

This was chosen to allow set up for the main event.

Some great songs off the first album and Sanctuary single. Listening to these it gave me time to sort out the next beers.

The Soundhouse Tapes were originally released on the 10/11/1979. A friend who has now moved to England put me onto this ale. But he wasn’t cruel. When he came across eight very old bottles he sent me two. Thanks again for posting these to me!

The ale in question was Thomas Hardy’s Ale. These two bottles had been bottled on the 01/09/1979.

We had opened the bottles and poured them out during Side A. Anticipation was high. Were the bottles still okay after 35 years and a trip from England to New Zealand? Terry started to film me at this point. I carefully opened the first bottle. There was no hiss. No sign of carbonation. No sign of a carbon dioxide layer. Then the smell hit everyone. Me first, an amazingly rich, warm smell with some marmite-y goodness. I then knew it was still good. I had decanted this into one glass and while Dale was carefully splitting this between four glasses, I moved onto the second bottle. Again no sign of carbonation. Again an amazing smell. I poured this out to four glasses and flipped the record to Side B.

Best Of The Beast - Vinyl Four - Side B

The only time The Soundhouse Tapes has been officially re-released and the first time this version of Strange World has been released was on the Best Of The Beast and the Virus singles that went with it. The only place all four tracks are on a single release is Vinyl Four - Side B in the 4 x LP box set of Best Of The Beast.

With The Soundhouse Track playing we celebrated two great things to be released in 1979.

I was born in 1978 and Terry in 1980. This ale was slightly younger than me and a little older than Terry. Everything Iron Maiden has released so far was done while this ale had been ageing in the bottles.

The nose of the ale had not been a lie. The taste delivered this and more. The two ales had sightly different tastes. The first was richer the second slightly dryer in the finish. We savoured these while enjoying the music.

I like these first versions of the songs. You can hear the energy and promise of what is to come. It also shows you how they were progressing when you compare them to the Iron Maiden release.

I don’t know how to describe this moment more. I had been planning it for around a year and it turned out fantastic.

BBC Archives - Disc 1 - Tracks 1 - 4

BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show, 14 November 1979

We started to play this while sorting out the glasses and beer for the next part of the tasting.

Great performances of the songs. It’s really nice to hear the different earlier versions of these songs. Especially how many were recorded Late 1978 to 1980

Which brought us onto …

Metal For Muthas - Tracks A1 and B3

Recorded November 1979 and released 1980

This is a different recording again of Sanctuary and Wrathchild done just for this compilation.

I wasn’t making organising the next part of the tasting easy as I was also changing CDs and LPs.

Live At The Ruskin

When we were finally set up for the next tasting we put on this show from the Early Years DVD.

Gary was very impressed with the energy Paul Di’Anno was putting in and conveying to the crowd and us watching the show.

This part of the tasting was more Thomas Hardy’s Ale. This time it was some ales from the 2000’s.

When Dale arrived he mentioned he had brought three interesting beers with him. One being Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2005. This was perfect as I had 2006, 2007 and 2008.

So with this four consecutive year line up carefully shared out we started a vertical tasting.

2005 and 2008 had visible carbonation and some head retention. 2006 and 2007 were more like the 1979 but still showed a layer of carbon dioxide when opened.

These were sweeter and sharper than the 1979. I would never have noticed this had we not have just tried the 1979.

The carbonation adding some interesting elements to the ales as well by changing the mouth feel.

The colours varied slightly with certain years being darker than others.

A real treat to try four years in a vertical tasting while watching a great live show of early Maiden.

Overall the main differences were slight and I don’t believe you could have picked them trying them individually. There was difference with the body, carbonation, sharpness and colour.

All were great. From the rich warm flavours and marmite-y goodness to the big mouth feel.

I really should have taken more notes at the time.

After the show and tasting finished Gary had to leave to help out at home.

We carried on with one more single…

Running Free

Released 08/02/1980

This is one of the 2014 7” represses. This seems to have a lot more bottom end in the pressing than the album version. I am very happy over all that they finally decided to re release the first eight albums on black vinyl. I will still be picking up any originals and First ten years versions when I see them.

We listened to this while trying another beer Dale had brought along. Emmerson’s - 2008 Old Cascade, A mistake where twice as much hops were added to Old 95 (A beer that has since been discontinued). This was only sold from the brewery but Dale had brought a dozen from Regional Wines and Spirits. This was his second to last bottle.

For a beer that had been aged for around seven years the hops were huge. A great malty body and just enough bitterness to balance everything out.

And again matching a great beer with great Iron Maiden I couldn’t see how things could be wrong.

We closed the session at 6:00 P.M.

The Tally Of The Day

Listened and Watched

Virtual XI
Best of the Beast - Vinyl 4 (Best of the Beast LP set)
BBC Archives - Disc 1 - Tracks 1 - 4 (Eddies Archive)
Metal for Muthas - Tracks A1 and B3
Live at the Ruskin (The Early Days DVD)
Running Free 7” (2014 Reissue)

Imbibed

Stone & Wood - Pacific Ale
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 1979 J 13793
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 1979 J 22991
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2005 P 39787
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2006 P 4367
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2007 Q 01728
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2008 T 14710
Emmerson’s - 2008 Old Cascade

Aftermath

We continued with the Old Cascade and closed out with Samson - Head On. We have been discussing and have decided to close out the sessions with material related to Iron Maiden. Bruce Dickinson was the singer on this Samson album released in 1980.

We moved on to another vertical tasting. The final beer Dale had brought was a 2010 Fullers Vintage Ale. Which worked out perfectly as unknown to him I had the 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Samson played out while setting this one up. I then put on Ozzy Osborne/Randy Rhoads - Tribute double LP. A fantastic album which shows just how much of a loss Randy Rhoads was.

This was an interesting tasting. 2013 and 2012 had more hops while 2011 had more malt character the 2010 was showing more of the marmite flavour.

They were a nice tasting but not as big, bold and subtle (if those three work together) as the Thomas Hardy’s Ale.

After Dale finished his Fullers he Left to catch the train and Terry and I finished up our Fullers tasting.

We wound down the rest of the evening with a 1966 Hammer Horror - Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Pizza and Rocky Knob - Hen Pecked Golden Ale. My partner had thought the name was funny and Untappd reviews seemed all good so I had picked it up.