The 13-minute-plus track brings Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic poem into the world of heavy metal.

Iron Maiden’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” remains one of the most ambitious long songs in heavy metal, 42 years after its release.

Running for more than 13 minutes, the epic track closes the band’s fifth studio album, Powerslave, and continues to stand out as a major piece of the group’s live history.

Written by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris, the song is based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It tells the dark story of a sailor who kills an albatross at sea and suffers a terrible curse as a result.

The track was released in 1984 as part of Powerslave, an album that also featured well-known Iron Maiden songs such as “Aces High,” “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “Powerslave.”

The album was released in Europe through EMI Records on Sept. 3, 1984, and in the United States through Capitol Records on Sept. 14 of the same year, according to records.

The song’s exact length is listed as 13 minutes and 45 seconds, while another account of the recording gives its running time as 13 minutes and 38 seconds. Either way, it was an unusually long song for a major heavy metal release at the time.

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was not simply a long track. Its structure moved through several different musical sections, shifting from heavy guitar-driven passages to quieter bass-led moments and spoken-word parts before building toward a large final section.

The lyrics retell the story from Coleridge’s poem, including the famous line, “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The original poem, first published in 1798, follows a mariner who kills an albatross for no clear reason while traveling at sea. The act brings a curse upon his ship, leaving him to watch his crew suffer and die.

The song’s story also gave Iron Maiden a chance to draw from literature in the same way the band had done with earlier songs. Harris had already found inspiration in subjects such as Frank Herbert’s Dune and Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.

In a 2008 interview with Metal Hammer, Harris said he could not remember exactly why he chose to write a song based on Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Bruce Dickinson, however, offered a possible explanation during a 1984 interview with French magazine Enfer.

“[The poem is] a warning to all that imposes the respect of God’s actions,” Dickinson said. “Steve says that if he hears again that we’re stuck with stories about Satan and other things, it’ll mean that people will never understand Iron Maiden.”

The comment came after Iron Maiden faced claims that the band was connected to Satanism following the success of 1982’s The Number of the Beast. The band repeatedly rejected those claims.

The song began taking shape during the early work on Powerslave. The band first spent time rehearsing in Jersey before recording the album at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas.

Harris said the song started with an idea in Jersey but really came together in the Bahamas. Unlike some of his bandmates, he often developed his songs largely on his own before bringing them to the rest of Iron Maiden, per Louder Sound.

The song’s unusual length did not stop it from becoming a fan favorite. Harris later recalled that the band did not even realize how long the finished track was while they were making it.

“The funny thing is, no one actually thought it was 13 minutes long at all,” he said. “We were all so into making it work, and we all enjoyed it so much that we thought it was only eight or nine minutes long, maximum. When our producer Martin Birch timed it at 13 minutes we were all like, ‘F—-n’ ’ell, 13 minutes?!’ And when we play it live, it never seems like 13 minutes at all.”

The song was never released as a single, but it became an important part of Iron Maiden’s live shows. The band performed it during the massive World Slavery Tour, which ran from 1984-85.

The tour itself became a major moment in Iron Maiden’s history. It began in Poland in August 1984 and eventually covered 28 countries over 11 months. The band also played to huge crowds in South America, including an appearance at the first Rock in Rio festival.

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” continued to return to the band’s setlists decades later. It was performed during the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour in the late 2000s and remained part of the band’s live legacy.

The song also showed how far Iron Maiden could push the boundaries of heavy metal without losing the energy that made the band successful.

DJ Taz's Take: Epic, pure and simple.

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