IRON MAIDEN - HALLOWED BE THY NAME

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

IRON MAIDEN

SONGWRITER: STEPHEN PERCY HARRIS

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

LABEL: EMI RECORDS

GENRE: HEAVY METAL

YEAR: 1982

"Hallowed Be Thy Name" is a song written by Steve Harris for the 1982 Iron Maiden album The Number of the Beast. It has been acclaimed as one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time.

The 1993 live single is taken from the 1993 album A Real Dead One. The song was recorded at Moscow's Olympic Arena on 4 June 1993 during the Real Live Tour. Recordings from the same tour and its predecessor, 1992's Fear of the Dark Tour, made up the single's B-sides. It is the band's last single to feature vocalist Bruce Dickinson until 2000's "The Wicker Man".

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. The band's discography has grown to thirty-eight albums, including sixteen studio albums, twelve live albums, four EPs, and seven compilations.

Pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal, Iron Maiden achieved initial success during the early 1980s. After several line-up changes, the band went on to release a series of UK and US platinum and gold albums, including 1982's The Number of the Beast, 1983's Piece of Mind, 1984's Powerslave, 1985's live release Live After Death, 1986's Somewhere in Time and 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Since the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, the band have undergone a resurgence in popularity, with their 2010 studio offering, The Final Frontier, peaking at No.1 in 28 countries and receiving widespread critical acclaim. Their sixteenth studio album, The Book of Souls, was released on 4 September 2015 to similar success.

I'm waiting in my cold cell, when the bell begins to chime

Reflecting on my past life and it doesn't have much time

'Cause at 5 o'clock they take me to the gallows pole

The sands of time for me are running low

When the priest comes to read me the last rites

I take a look through the bars at the last sights

Of a world that has gone very wrong for me

Can it be that there's some sort of error

Hard to stop the surmounting terror

Is it really the end, not some crazy dream?

Somebody please tell me that I'm dreaming

It's not so easy to stop from screaming

But words escape me when I try to speak

Tears flow but why am I crying

After all I'm not afraid of dying

Don't I believe that there never is an end

As the guards march me out to the courtyard

Somebody cries from a cell: God be with you

If there's a god then why has he let me go?

As I walk all my life drifts before me

Though the end is near I'm still not sorry

Catch my soul, it's willing to fly away

Mark my words please believe my soul lives on

Please don't worry now that I have gone

I've gone beyond to see the truth

When you know that your time is close at hand

Maybe then you'll begin to understand

Life down here is just a strange illusion

Hallowed be thy name.