Iron Maiden & the New Wave of British Heavy Metal

Back in the late-70s, British punks rose up in defiance to the status quo, in response to the milktoast corporate rock that the labels were cranking out by the truckload. For a while, it seemed like everybody had a mohawk haircut and a copy of the Sex Pistols' album.

Little did we know at the time that there would be a second front in this war against musical complacency...I'm talking 'bout the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal," gang, a movement spearheaded by bands like Judas Priest and the almighty Iron Maiden. Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say, but the NWOBHM has survived the test of time to be recognized as a special, downright magical time for fans of hard rockin' music.

A new DVD from our friends at Music Video Distributors takes a good, hard look at the NWOBHM. Iron Maiden And The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is a two-hour retrospective on this historic movement, the documentary focusing on Focusing on Maiden and other pivotal bands of the time, such as Saxon, Samson, Praying Mantis, Diamond Head, Tygers Of Pan Tang and many more. The DVD includes rare video footage of NWOBHM bands as well as rare photographs and other uber-cool memorabilia that would fit on disc.

The DVD also includes exclusive interviews major players on the NWOBHM scene, including Iron Maiden's Paul DiAnno and Dennis Stratton; Diamond Head's Brian Tatler; Tygers Of Pan Tang's Rob Weir; Samson's legendary drummer Thundersticks; Tino and Chris Troy from Praying Mantis; the current line-up of Girlschool and others. There's also commentary from music journalists like Malcolm Dome (Kerrang, Classic Rock), Jerry Ewing (Metal Hammer) and Geoff Barton (staff writer at Sounds during the New Wave), among others.

Iron Maiden And The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is scheduled for release on June 10, 2008.