Iron Maiden "The First Ten Years VI: Two Minutes to Midnight/Aces High (EP)"

"2 Minutes to Midnight" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, featured on their fifth studio album, Powerslave (1984). It was released as the band's tenth single, and first from the album on 6 August 1984 and rose to number 11 in the UK Singles Chart and number 25 on Billboard Top Album Tracks. It was the band's first single to exceed five minutes in length, remaining the band's longest single until the release of "Infinite Dreams" five years later.

A protest song about nuclear war, "2 Minutes to Midnight" was written by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson.


The song title references the Doomsday Clock, the symbolic clock used by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which represents a countdown to potential global catastrophe. In September 1953 the clock reached two minutes to midnight, the closest it ever got to midnight, when the United States and Soviet Union tested H-bombs within nine months of one another. According to Dickinson, the song critically addresses "the romance of war" in general rather than the Cold War in particular.

The first B-side is a cover of British progressive rock band Beckett's "Rainbow's Gold", which was featured on their self-titled album released in 1974. The song was written by Terry Slesser and Kenny Mountain, respectively the band's vocalist and guitarist. On the original release, it is titled "A Rainbow's Gold".

According to Nicko McBrain, commenting on the single in "Listen With Nicko Part VI" (as part of The First Ten Years series), the members of Iron Maiden were friends with members of Beckett.


The band's manager, Rod Smallwood, commented this version: "This was originally done by a band called Beckett who the band liked a lot. Adrian used to do a cover of another of their songs 'Rainclouds' in his band 'Evil Ways'. Beckett were from Newcastle and had a great singer called Terry Wilson Slesser (incidentally I was Beckett's agent prior to meeting Maiden)."

Another B-side, entitled "Mission from 'Arry", is a recording of an argument between bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain, which took place after a show in Allentown, Pennsylvania, during the band's World Piece Tour. During the concert, Harris' bass gear broke down, so he asked the nearest roadie to tell McBrain to extend the solo. The crew member was unable to communicate the message effectively, which unfortunately distracted McBrain and had a negative impact on his solo, causing him to yell at the roadie afterwards. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson states that he found the ensuing argument so amusing that he decided to record it with a concealed tape recorder.

"Aces High" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, written by the band's bassist Steve Harris. It is Iron Maiden's eleventh single release and the second from their fifth studio album, Powerslave (1984).


The first B-side is a cover of Nektar's "King of Twilight", from their 1972 album A Tab in the Ocean. Their cover is actually a medley of the songs "Crying in the Dark" and "King of Twilight", the last two songs on the album. The Japanese 12" was mixed with the B-side covers from "The Trooper" & "2 Minutes To Midnight" singles.

The song's lyrics are written from the viewpoint of a British RAF pilot fighting against the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1940), the first military engagement to be fought entirely with aircraft.


"Aces High" is one of Iron Maiden's most popular songs, and has been covered numerous times. It is featured in the video game Madden NFL 10, the MTV show Nitro Circus, and Steve Peat's segment in the mountain bike film New World Disorder III. Colin McKay used the song on his part of the skate video Plan B Questionable. It can also be found in the soundtrack of the game Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now.

"Aces High" is frequently used as the opening song for Iron Maiden concerts. As seen in concert videos such as Live After Death and Iron Maiden: Flight 666, it is usually preceded by Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech with the sound of planes in the background. Churchill's speech was also included at the beginning of the song's music video.


In a 2014 interview with Q magazine, Gerard Way said that "the live version of 'Aces High' off the Live After Death album was the song that first made [him] interested in performing live."


Part 6 of the The First Ten Years EP re-issues. 
Includes a numbered voucher which (after collecting the other 9 of the series) could be sent by mail to receive a special limited edition illustrated box.

Tracks 1-3 taken from the single "2 Minutes to Midnight".
Tracks 4-6 taken from the single "Aces High".

The Nektar cover is actually two songs combined: "Crying in the Dark" and "King of Twilight".

Recording information:


Track 6 recorded live on December 18th, 1983 in Dortmund, Germany.

Nuclear Assault " Alive Again"

Alive Again is a live album by Nuclear Assault released in 2003.

Track listing

1. "Rise from the Ashes"
2. "Brainwashed"
3. "F#"
4. "New Song"
5. "Critical Mass"
6. "Sin"
7. "Betrayal"
8. "Radiation Sickness"
9. "Game Over"
10. "Butt Fuck"
11. "Trail of Tears"
12. "Hang the Pope"

Enhanced element contains:

1. Interview
2. Brainwashed (live)

Recording information:

Recorded live at Jarrod's Live Rock Showcase, Attleboro, MA 5/11/02.

Additional tracks recorded at Mayhem Productions, Manchester NH 7/19/02.

Mastered at M-Works, Cambridge MA 12/04/02.

Nuclear Assault "Something Wicked"

Something Wicked is the fifth studio album by American thrash metal band Nuclear Assault, released on February 23, 1993 by I.R.S. Records. This is the first and only album not to feature founding members Dan Lilker and Anthony Bramante, as they departed in 1992 before the recording process began. The record is considered a slight departure from the band's early hardcore/speed metal roots, by incorporating a slower sound. The title track was released as a music video.

The title track appears in the 1993 horror film Warlock: The Armageddon

Track listing

1. "Something Wicked" - 4:42
2. "Another Violent End" - 5:10
3. "Behind Glass Walls" - 4:09
4. "Chaos" - 3:57
5. "The Forge" - 5:14
6. "No Time" - 5:19
7. "To Serve Man" - 2:27
8. "Madness Descends" - 4:31
9. "Poetic Justice" - 2:48
10. "Art" - 0:09
11. "The Other End" - 0:39

Music videos:

-Something Wicked

Recording information:

- Recorded and mixed: August 3 - September 7, 1992, IRS Studios, Los Angeles, California.

- Mastered at Sterling Sound Inc., New York City, October 22, 1992.

- Produced by Nuclear Assault.

Nuclear Assault "Live at the Hammersmith Odeon (1998 Century Media Reissue)"

Live at the Hammersmith Odeon is a live album by Thrash metal band Nuclear Assault, released in 1992. This is the straight audio copy of Nuclear Assault's video Handle With Care, but some tracks were excluded from the compact disc version.

Track listing

1. "Intro / New Song"
2. "Critical Mass"
3. "Game Over"
4. "Nightmares"
5. "Butt Fuck"
6. "Survive"
7. "Torture Tactics"
8. "Trail of Tears"
9. "Mother's Day"
10. "My America"
11. "Hang the Pope"
12. "Lesbians"
13. "Funky Noise"
14. "Good Times Bad Times"

There were three more bands on this bill: Dark Angel, Candlemass, and D.A.M. Segments of their shows were filmed too and released as the "Three Way Thrash" video.

Recording information:

Recorded on 10.04.1989 at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Nuclear Assault "Handle With Care"

Handle with Care is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Nuclear Assault released in 1989. This is the band's most successful and best-selling album to date, peaking at number 126 on the Billboard 200, making it their highest position so far. "Critical Mass" was released as a single to promote the album.

Reviews for Handle with Care have been mostly positive. Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia awards the album four-and-a-half stars out of five and describes it as "a record which stands the test of time as one of the East Coast's best offerings to the thrash metal genre." Rivadavia also praises Handle with Care a "perfect introduction, and pretty much all one will ever need from Nuclear Assault", while he describes "Critical Mass," "F# (Wake Up)," and "When Freedom Dies" as "outstanding thrashers."

Handle with Care entered the Billboard 200 album charts in February 1990, three months after its release. The album peaked at number 126 and remained on the chart for 24 weeks.

Handle with Care was ranked at number four on Loudwire's top ten list of "Thrash Albums NOT Released by the Big 4".

The sentence "The svastika is calling you", which is heard at the very end of the song "Torture Tactics", is taken from the movie The Blues Brothers. This sentence is yelled on the megaphone by the head of the Illinois Nazi Party (played by Henry Gibson) during the scene of the bridge. "Torture Tactics" being a very caricatured political song towards Nazis, this sentence is suited, since The Blues Brothers is a caricatured movie too.

Track listing

1. "New Song" John Connelly Connelly 2:58
2. "Critical Mass" Connelly Dan Lilker 3:19
3. "Inherited Hell" Connelly Connelly 3:30
4. "Surgery" Connelly Lilker, Glenn Evans 2:44
5. "Emergency" Connelly Evans 3:20
6. "Funky Noise" Connelly Connelly 0:50
7. "F♮ (Wake Up)" Connelly Connelly 2:58
8. "When Freedom Dies" Connelly Lilker 2:34
9. "Search & Seizure" Evans Evans 4:11
10. "Torture Tactics" Connelly Connelly 2:22
11. "Mothers' Day" Lilker, Evans Lilker, Evans 0:32
12. "Trail of Tears" Connelly Connelly 5:44

Trivia:

- The album peaked at #126 on the Billboard 200.

Funky Noise sometimes has a subtitle in a pair of parantheses reading "Funky Noise (Real Instrumental!)".

Reissued by Century Media Records in March 2011 with the same bonus tracks as the 2008 reissue.

Recording information:

Recorded at Music Grinder, Los Angeles, CA.

Nuclear Assault "Game Over/The Plague (1987 Reissue)"

Game Over is the debut album by thrash metal band Nuclear Assault, released in 1986.

In 2005, Game Over was ranked number 287 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.

The Plague is the second extended play by the American heavy metal band Nuclear Assault. The six-track EP was originally released as a 12-inch vinyl record through Combat Records in 1987, and later combined with the band's full-length debut, 1986's Game Over, into one CD by Relativity Records.

The EP, which is a "collection of old and new material," was recorded from December 1986 to January 1987 at the Music Grinder studios in Los Angeles, California with producer Randy Burns. The Plague was originally to be titled "Cross of Iron" and to have had a cross as the sleeve artwork. However, the band's label Combat Records cited possible objections that may have come from religious organizations.

According to Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic, The Plague is probably best known for the controversial song "Butt Fuck" (later retitled "You Figure It Out"), which managed to introduce Nuclear Assault's dark sense of humor with an "ode" to Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil's notorious car crash.

The accident occurred on December 8, 1984, when Vince Neil driving while intoxicated hit another car, killing his passenger, drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley of Hanoi Rocks, and permanently injuring the passengers in the car he hit. Neil, who ironically left the accident unscathed, was found guilty of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, but he avoided prison by performing community services and paying a substantial cash settlement to his surviving victims.

In an interview with Voices from the Dark Side webzine, the Nuclear Assault's bassist Dan Lilker was asked why the song "Butt Fuck" is dedicated to Vince Neil, and Lilker stated:

The whole concept of that song was that it was fucked up that he [Vince Neil] could get away with driving drunk and killing the guy in the car with him [Razzle]. He didn't do any jail time like you or I would. Just because he was famous, all he had to do was some community service and do some public service announcements about drunk driving. He literally got away with murder. We thought he should've gone to prison and got anally raped like most young men do when they're put in United States prisons. We made the whole thing funny, but we meant it.

Tracklist:

1. Live, Suffer, Die 01:07   
2. Sin 03:25   
3. Cold Steel 02:41  
4. Betrayal 03:01  
5. Radiation Sickness 02:49   
6. Hang the Pope 00:46   
7. After the Holocaust 03:44
8. Mr. Softee Theme 00:23
9. Stranded in Hell 03:39  
10. Nuclear War 03:46   
11. My America 00:29   
12. Vengeance 02:51   
13. Brain Death 07:14
14. Game Over 02:38  
15. Nightmares 03:57  
16. Butt F**K 02:56  
17. Justice 04:19  
18. The Plague 04:55   
19. Cross of Iron 03:41  

Time:    58:21  

 

- Comes with inner lyric/montage sleeve. 

- First pressing issued on camouflage center labels while subsequent pressings issued on green center labels. 

- The song "Vengeance" is misspelled "Vengence" on the back cover. 

- The song "Mr. Softee Theme" isn't listed on the back cover, but is on the center label. 

- First pressings have no barcode. 

"Mr. Softee Theme" was exclusive on the LP and CD versions, while some cassette versions featured both the "Mr. Softee Theme" and "Lesbians". The cassette was the only version to feature "Lesbians".

The song "Sin" was originally written while Dan Lilker was in Anthrax.

Recording information:

- Recorded and mixed at Pyramid Sound, Ithaca, NY, May 1986.

- Mastered at Frankford Wayne Mastering Labs, NY. 

- Co-produced by Nuclear Assault.

- Tracks 1-13: Recorded and mixed at Pyramid Sound, Ithaca, NY, May 1986. Mastered at Frankford Wayne Mastering Labs, NY. Co-produced by Nuclear Assault.

- Tracks 14-19: Recorded and mixed at The Music Grinder, Los Angeles, CA, December 1986 to January 1987.