[Editor's note: Over the holiday season, SonicNet is looking back at 1999's top stories, chosen by our editors and writers. This story originally ran on Monday, July 19.]

NEW YORK — Demonic songs filled the air and their undead mascot, Eddie — frequently seen on album covers —

occupied the stage as a reunited Iron Maiden launched their first U.S. tour in a decade

Friday night.

The 23-year-old British heavy-metal band's classic '80s lineup — which included

singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith and produced such albums as 1982's

The Number of the Beast — is back.

But there were noticeable differences between the group's most recent U.S. tour and

now, such as slamdancing fans. If a metal maven had tried flailing away in front of the

stage at a Maiden show in the '80s, the culprit surely would have wound up with a

mouthful of studs. But a moshpit formed during many of the songs the band performed on

the first of two nights at a sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom here.

That seemed to prove what many Maiden fans have been saying for years: Iron Maiden

have been a major influence on thrash metal and the current crop of hardcore-metal

bands — although few of them have picked up Maiden's penchant for writing songs

about such subjects as the ancient Macedonian king Alexander the Great or the Samuel

Taylor Coleridge poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

The show's audience also proved that there are women who still wear fishnet stockings

and men who wear skintight jeans. But the days of having to dodge M-80 explosives at

Maiden shows is, apparently, a thing of the past.

Openers Clutch did an admirable job of churning out a set of Black Sabbath-like sludge,

but by the end of their set, restless fans were chanting "Maiden! Maiden!"

After Clutch's gear was broken down, the crowd's anticipation grew as Maiden's

long-awaited return drew closer.

The house lights dimmed, the chants grew louder and a movie screen was lowered from

the lighting truss. An early Iron Maiden instrumental, "Transylvania," played over the PA

system as scenes from the sextet's new video game, "Ed Hunter," were shown on the

screen.

Then a speech by the late Winston Churchill, England's World War II-era prime minister,

served as an intro for the show's opener, the rapid-fire "Aces High," from

Powerslave (1984).

The band played several tracks from Iron Maiden's late-'70s and early-'80s incarnation,

when Paul Di'anno, who eventually was replaced by Dickinson, was still the lead singer.

Among those songs were the epic "Phantom of the Opera," "Wrathchild" and the title

track from Killers (1981). But the majority of the set came from the Dickinson

band's prime, 1982-88.

Although Iron Maiden are using this brief string of dates (including some shows they

played in Canada first) as a warm-up for recording sessions, the setlist consisted almost

entirely of bona fide classics. Even the stage set was a throwback to past tours —

the black-and-white checked floor reprised the Piece of Mind tour, while Egyptian

imagery recalled the theme of Powerslave.

Throughout the show, tapestries that filled the back of the stage were uncovered,

displaying classic Maiden images, including illustrator Derek Riggs' paintings for the

12-inch single "Trooper" and Powerslave.

A few bandmembers appeared to have found the heavy-metal fountain of youth: Bassist

Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray looked exactly as they had in the '80s, long hair

and all. But others haven't fared as well. Smith, for example, is losing his hair.

Iron Maiden first came to prominence as part of the early-'80s new wave of British metal,

along with Motörhead, Def Leppard, Judas Priest and Saxon. On the strength of

such hit albums as The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind (1983) and

Powerslave; non-stop touring; and imaginative T-shirts and album covers sporting

pictures of their undead mascot, Eddie, Maiden became one of the decade's most

successful metal bands. The classic lineup was Dickinson, Smith, Murray, Harris and

drummer Nicko McBrain.

Smith left in 1990 to pursue a solo career, and Dickinson followed in '93, expressing

publicly that he felt the band had run its course. While Maiden soldiered on, with

replacements Janick Gers on guitar and Blaze Bayley on vocals, the group was unable

to retain its audience with such albums as X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI

(1998).

Bayley was booted from the band late last year, and with Smith and Dickinson already

collaborating and touring together in Dickinson's solo band, the timing was perfect for a

full-on Maiden reunion. With Gers remaining onboard, Iron Maiden are one of the few

metal bands to feature three guitarists — though because of a muddy sound mix

Friday it was hard to pick out what each was playing.

The set included "The Trooper" (RealAudio excerpt), "2 Minutes to

Midnight" (RealAudio excerpt), "Wasted

Years," "The Evil That Men Do," "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Powerslave," for

which Dickinson donned a feather mask. But several Maiden staples, including "Can I

Play With Madness?" (RealAudio excerpt), "Running Free" and

"Flight of Icarus," were left out, while some post-Dickinson material made the cut. "The

Clansman" and "Man on the Edge," both originally sung by Bayley in the '90s, were

among the more surprising selections.

During another recent number, "Futureal," someone playing the role of Eddie appeared

on stilts. Gers attempted to mock-decapitate him with his Fender Stratocaster.

Dickinson remains a premier metal frontman. His voice sounded perfect as he ran and

jumped around, often climbing atop ramps on the stage's second level.

"Every time Bruce Dickinson leapt, my heart skipped a beat," said fan Matthew Mathias,

32, of Valley Stream, N.Y.

The main part of the set ended with a high-octane rendition of the 1980 song "Iron

Maiden." Eddie appeared yet again, but this time as a giant lurking behind McBrain.

After a break the band returned to thunderous applause, and it followed through with a

turbo-charged, knockout punch of an encore, starting with the demonic title track from

The Number of the Beast. That was followed by "Hallowed Be Thy Name," then

Maiden closed the show with perhaps their best-known song, the anthemic "Run to the

Hills" (RealAudio excerpt).

"This was by far the loudest concert I have ever seen," James Fleischmann, 26, said.

"The real Iron Maiden has returned!"