Now that the British legend of heavy metal, IRON MAIDEN, has finally been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I reckon it calls for a celebration of their most iconic songs – as interpreted by other artists. Let’s face it, even though it is not too hard to find a handful of cover renditions of some IRON MAIDEN classics, the band has remained largely untouched. Yeah, Nuclear Blast issued a couple of tribute albums back in the day, but as far as I can remember, those covers had been released originally as B-sides and other obscurities, for which reason not all of them slapped very hard, to be honest. Still, these legends have not been covered by other artists, not even other metal bands, just as often as, say, DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, or JUDAS PRIEST, even though the band surely belongs to the same upper echelons of metal as these legends. Sure, Bruce Dickinson‘s vocal prowess is something that may scare off the uninitiated, but the vocalists in these other metal institutions are of no lesser caliber, so the reason must be something else entirely. For this blog post, I chose to go with cover renditions that have a little bit more on offer than the garden-variety “Put on some spandex and go through the motions” approach. So here goes…
- Silent Skies: The Trooper
On their haunting 2023 album “Dormant,” the collaboration project named SILENT SKIES, of pianist Vikram Shankar and EVERGREY vocalist Tom Englund, turned this IRON MAIDEN classic into an atmospheric piano ballad. The trademark gallop of the original is replaced here with an entirely different aesthetic, bordering on melancholic and cinematic ambient. At face value, it may sound just like your clichéd folktronica approach to a cover song – in that particular genre, this seems to be the go-to approach to a cover song: strip it down to the basics and play in a slower tempo. However, the execution here is so sublime that you won’t mind. Then again, Shankar is a genuine sound wizard when it comes to tugging at your heartstrings through music. His approach is quite minimalist – he doesn’t play a lot of notes, just the right ones.
- Metaklapa: Brave New World
METAKLAPA is a Croatian a cappella band whose modus operandi is to interpret metal songs without any instruments and turn them into somewhat Gregorian chant-like versions. Their rendition of “Brave New World” was released on their IRON MAIDEN tribute album entitled “The Choir of the Beast” in 2022. The whole album is a straight-up cavalcade of greatness, and this one ranks among the absolute best moments. The choice of song is not the most obvious pick from IRON MAIDEN’s discography; I don’t think that I have heard this song covered ever before. What makes this whole thing even more outstanding is the vocal arrangement: these dudes have put some serious effort into their interpretation. Writing vocal harmonies for a 6-piece a cappella act is not exactly a walk in the park, but this bunch sure knows what they’re doing.
- Steve’n’Seagulls: Run to the Hills
I reckon IRON MAIDEN fans are well aware of this one already. This crazy bluegrass act hit the jackpot with the help of YouTube in 2014. I think it was their cover of IRON MAIDEN‘s old banger “The Trooper,” which caused a worldwide fuss and became a viral hit almost overnight, but since that song is already covered on this list, let’s go with this one instead. This version is no less of a banger! Both cover versions can be found on the band’s debut “Farm Machine,” released in 2015, along with other mind-melting bluegrass versions of old metal and hard-rock hits. What could possibly go wrong with the concept of playing IRON MAIDEN songs with banjo and accordion? Nothing, my friends. Absolutely nothing.
4. Ghost: Phantom of the Opera
Given the angle I chose for this list, this song is a little bit of a borderline case: the arrangement and instrumentation are quite faithful to the original, but the overly polished, modern production paired with GHOST‘s signature sonic fingerprint that resonates with the thick air of ABBA makes this version slap pretty hard. Plus, I reckon it’s the first time GHOST has had a go with a song that’s basically prog. Oddly enough, when this song first came out on that covers EP a few years ago, I didn’t even like it at all. On repeated spins, it has grown on me, though. Who woulda thought NWOBHM and ABBA go together so well?!
- Eläkeläiset: Katkaistu Humppa
This Finnish tongue-in-cheek version of “The Number of the Beast” should not be taken too seriously. In Finland – and also Germany, I believe – ELÄKELÄISET has become an institution of sorts. It’s an institution of questionable humor, a monolith of bad taste, if you like. It seems that any song they put through their humppa-machine turns into a nugget of gold – or maybe we Finns just have a weird sense of humor.
- Ryan Adams: Wasted Years
And speaking of Midas-like golden touch, Ryan Adams is one of those rare singer-songwriters who can make a cover rendition sound even more haunting than the original. I’m referring first and foremost to his version of the OASIS classic from the 1990s, of course. That famous cover rendition of “Wonderwall” impressed Noel Gallagher himself back in the day so much that, the legend has it, even OASIS played the song live, resorting to Adams‘ arrangement. The same phenomenon occurs with his version of this IRON MAIDEN classic from the 1986 album, “Somewhere in Time.” This stripped-down arrangement layers the lyrics with a novel, utterly poignant edge. This is a live version, too!
- Mystic Circle: Afraid to Shoot Strangers
Here, not only is the choice of a song a little less ordinary, but also the execution of the whole thing is from another plane of reality altogether. I mean, there weren’t so many of us who had it in their bingo cards that this particular IRON MAIDEN song would work so bloody well as a fiery black-metal banger. This cover rendition is from the band’s 2025 endeavor “Kriegsgötter MMXXV,” and it features the ethereal vocals of Sarah Jezebel Deva of CRADLE OF FILTH fame. Here’s a prime example of a band owning the song even when it’s a borrowed one. In my opinion, this version slaps harder than SABATON‘s take on the matter. In fact, it slaps harder than the original, too.
- Guignol & Mischief Brew: Hallowed Be Thy Name
So, how about a klezmerized version of this cherished IRON MAIDEN classic from the mid-1980s? Well, why the hell not if the execution is this brilliant! I spotted this version on one of those gazillion listings of splendid IRON MAIDEN covers that the Internet is flooded with. Usually, these types of lists offer very little by way of novelty, but here’s a real gem from 2009! I believe GUIGNOL‘s style is some sort of radical offshoot from the Balkan jazz genre, and MISCHIEF BREW is probably best described as some wild bunch of folk punks. Either one could not be much further from the stylistic tenets of the NWOBHM movement, to which IRON MAIDEN has adhered more or less throughout their career. There is something perversely delicious in this somewhat sacrilegious version. With a tad more rock-oriented instrumentation, this arrangement could make even MR. BUNGLE blush.
- Gabriel Guardian: The Trooper
Oops! I had this song covered already, but… This one I chose to include on this list merely because of the guy’s ambidextrous prowess, not to mention the comedic relief (check out the guy with the scythe in the background). When the video came online some 10 years ago, the world went bonkers. This dude nails the song, playing guitar and synth at the same time! Yeah, this is merely a sideshow attraction in this music circus, but it’s highly entertaining to watch, y’know, like watching those 4-year-old Asian whiz kids ripping out with their instruments like seasoned pros.
- Synthwave Station: Wasting Love
In this day and age, I think you can find thirteen AI-generated “IRON MAIDEN goes synthwave” covers to a dozen, but there’s still something far more appealing when humans do it. This banging rendition at least feels as though having been crafted by someone who’s made of flesh and blood. If not, kudos to the computer nerd who trained the algorithms, because most of these commercial AI models really suck at incorporating the so-called “human touch” into their output. On a side note, some of those AI-generated dub-reggae versions of IRON MAIDEN classics did make me chuckle when I first heard them – there IS something endearingly obnoxious in the mixture of NWOBHM and King Tubby even with the generic AI-slop frosting, to be honest… Here, the choice of song is once again something less ordinary, and the lush synthwave arrangement mixing nostalgic 8-bit charm with retrofuturistic shades of neon is pretty cool, actually.
That’s it, folks. Here’s my two cents on this topic, and if you know some cool IRON MAIDEN covers that fit the description here, feel free to drop a comment!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
