Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Kerrang! | favourable |
| Sputnikmusic | (4.5/5) |
Piece of Mind was released on 28 May 1983, peaking at No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart. It was preceded by the single "Flight of Icarus" on 28 April, and its supporting tour, the World Piece Tour, opened at Hull City Hall, on 2 May. Said tour would end on 18 December, following 139 concerts in total, with a televised performance at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund.
In North America, the album became the band's highest charting thus far, peaking at No. 14 in the Billboard 200. By July Piece of Mind was certified gold by the RIAA, rising up to platinum status in 1986. In 1995, the album achieved platinum status in the UK.
Reviews for Piece of Mind were mostly positive. In 1983, Kerrang! magazine published a poll of the greatest metal albums of all time, with Piece of Mind ranking No. 1, and with The Number of the Beast at No. 2. Since its release, the album has received consistent critical acclaim with Sputnikmusic stating that it's "easily an album that belongs in your collection", although they argue that "the likes of Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, and Brave New World would over take it", while Allmusic described it as "essential for anyone with even the most basic interest in heavy metal", although "the second half dips a bit from the first". In addition, it was ranked No. 21 on IGN's list of the top 25 metal albums in 2007.
Read more about this topic: Revelations (Iron Maiden Song)
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)