Iron Maiden — The Evil That Men Do (Single)

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

August 1, 1988 — Iron Maiden released their seventeenth single The Evil That Men Do. (Apple Music or Spotify)

It was their second single from their seventh studio album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

The single debuted at No. 6 in the UK charts and quickly rose to No. 5.

The single's B-sides are re-recordings of Prowler and Charlotte the Harlot which appear as tracks number one and seven/eight respectively on the band's debut album Iron Maiden.

The title of the song is taken from Marcus Antonius's speech while addressing the crowd of Romans after Caesar's murder (Act 3, scene 2, The Forum) in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. Bruce Dickinson may sometimes repeat this before playing the song, but with the order of the clauses reversed (as he did in Rock in Rio). The poetic lyrics of the song are not related.

The guitar solo in The Evil That Men Do is played by Adrian Smith while the guitar solo in Prowler '88 is played by Dave Murray. In Charlotte the Harlot '88, the first guitar solo is played by Dave Murray followed by Adrian Smith.

The music video was filmed at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, during the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 1988. (Watch video)

Noteworthy:

This song has been covered by many bands throughout the years. Below is detailed information of the many bands who have covered the track.

• An all-star cover of the song can be found on the tribute album Numbers from the Beast which features Fozzy frontman and AEW wrestler Chris Jericho on vocals, Paul Gilbert and Bob Kulick on guitar, Mike Inez on bass, and Brent Fitz on drums. It follows the basic layout of the song, but varies in terms of guitar solos and vocal harmonics.

• Symphonic metal band After Forever covered the song on their Exordium EP.

• A cover by the Finnish Heavy Metal band, Conquest, featuring Marco Hietala from Nightwish fame on co-vocals can be found on the tribute album Slave to the Power: The Iron Maiden Tribute.

• The all-female tribute band The Iron Maidens covered the song on their 2008 EP The Root of All Evil.

• Swedish Black Metal band Naglfar covered the song on the Regain Records reissue of their album Vittra.

• Finnish Progressive Metal band Warmen have a song on their debut album Unknown Soldier called The Evil That Warmen Do, assumingly taken from the Iron Maiden song of a similar name.

• Hellsongs also covered this song on their Pieces of Heaven, a Glimpse of Hell EP.

• Iron Maiden acoustic tribute band Maiden uniteD made an acoustic cover in 2012 on their album Across the Seventh Sea featuring Apocalyptica cellist Perttu Kivilaakso.

• Band Крылья (Wings) from Ukraine covered that song with translated title and lyrics on their EP Крылья. They version was named То зло, что мы творим.

• A cover by German Power Metal band Powerwolf is available in the Deluxe Edition of their 2015 album Blessed & Possessed.

• English Horror Punk band Creeper recorded a piano-centric cover of the song as part of an all-star Iron Maiden tribute album, Maiden Heaven Volume 2, for Kerrang! magazine released in June 2016.

Notice: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Iron Maiden — The Evil That Men Do (Single)

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