Folder 107
Japan
Japan, with obi. The same first pressing again. Nothing legible in either set of photographs separates this copy from folder 106.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
Run-out photographed, both sides. Both carry the EJ-2402001-TA / EJ-2402001-TB root followed by 1S and one or two further stamper characters. Those trailing characters are not resolved here either. The frame that catches the side-two deadwax beside the label shows what may be a 2 and a 1 after the 1S, and that is not a good enough read to quote as a string. Since folder 106's trailing characters are equally unresolved, the run-out cannot be used to say whether these two copies came off the same stampers - which would be the one genuinely interesting thing it could tell us, and is recorded here as an open question rather than answered by guesswork.
Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout
As Discogs records them for release 1689409. Green: in my collection (3 of 4). Red: missing.
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 11 of them
Obi, front panel: EMS-91091 · ¥2,800 · ロック
IMG_1945
Obi: アイアン・メイデン and パワースレイヴ
IMG_1945
Obi, white box: 初回のみポスター付!!
IMG_1945
Obi, foot: STEREO · ⊡ ZR28-1218 · boxed EMI
IMG_1945
Label, side one: EMS-91091 over (EJ-2402001-TA), 33⅓ R.P.M. Stereo, boxed EMI, THIS SIDE / OTHER SIDE tracklists
IMG_1953
Label rim: MFD. BY TOSHIBA EMI LTD. IN JAPAN UNDER LICENSE FROM CAPITOL RECORDS, INC.
IMG_1953
Label, side two: SIDE TWO / EMS-91091 / (EJ-2402001-TB)
IMG_1956, IMG_1959
Label, both sides: no 見本 (非売品) overprint and no 9/21 release date
IMG_1953, IMG_1956
Run-out, side B, etched: EJ-2402001-TB … 1S (trailing characters unresolved)
IMG_1962, IMG_1963
Insert, colour band photograph, printed along the edge: ●EMS-91091 ⊡ ZR28-1218
IMG_1967
Inserts: the Japanese four-page booklet and the eye/lyrics sheet
IMG_1968, IMG_1969, IMG_1970
The photographs
IMG_1944.jpg1 of 27READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Obi strip - present, with the white campaign box, as on folder 106.
- Outer sleeve - single, standard artwork.
- Inserts - the four-page booklet with colour outer pages, and the eye/lyrics sheet.
- Labels - the international sand design, side one text and side two the eye image. Clean, with no promotional marking.
- Vinyl - black.
What distinguishes this pressing
- Nothing distinguishes this copy from folder 106. That is the finding, not a gap in it: both carry the poster-box obi, both carry clean labels, both carry the
EJ-2402001matrix root, and the shelf simply holds two copies of the same Toshiba EMI first pressing. - The one thing that could separate them is the run-out stamper number, and it is unresolved on both - see the run-out note above.
- More of the packaging is photographed here than in folder 106 (twenty-seven frames against twenty-one), including three shots of the colour band photograph and two of the Japanese booklet. That is a difference in the record of the copy, not in the copy.
Eight tracks, two sides, and the recording credits
Side A
- A1Aces High
- A22 Minutes To Midnight
- A3Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
- A4Flash Of The Blade
- A5The Duellists
Side B
- B1Back In The Village
- B2Powerslave
- B3Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Bruce Dickinson - vocals · Dave Murray - lead and rhythm guitar · Adrian Smith - lead and rhythm guitar · Steve Harris - bass · Nicko McBrain - drums.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Martin Birch, assisted by Bruce Buchhalter and Frank Gibson. Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau; mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York. Sleeve illustration by Derek Riggs; sleeve and design concept by Derek Riggs, Iron Maiden and Rod Smallwood. Photography by Moshe Brakha. Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
Personnel and studio credits are sourced from Discogs release 1846534, the UK original, and apply to the recording rather than to this pressing. The producer, publisher and copyright lines are independently corroborated by this copy's own label, quoted above.
Condition, from the photographs
A photograph cannot grade a record - this is a description of what is visible, not a grade.
- Sleeve: general handling wear with some edge and corner softening; no splits or seam separation visible in these shots.
- Vinyl: light surface marks and handling sheen catch the light. No visible deep scratches, warping or edge damage in these photographs. The labels are clean and unmarked.
Nothing on this page comes from playing the record. No Goldmine grade is claimed for it, or any other. I have no record of where this copy came from.
What is settled, and what is not
Confirmed, on exactly the same two marks as folder 106 and read independently from this copy's own photographs rather than carried across:
How the other candidates were ruled out
| Candidate | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 1689409 - initial first pressing | Matches. Discogs: “Comes with an obi with a vertical white box in the lower left hand side with text 初回のみポスター付！！”. The box is present and every character of 初回のみポスター付!! is legible in it. Its labels carry no promotional marking, and these do not either. |
| 10765463 - Regular Edition | Ruled out by the obi. Discogs: “NO poster (only included in first issue with slightly different obi)”, and “Different from [r1689409] because it came with obi without the lower left hand vertical white box indicating ‘with poster’”. This obi has that box. |
| 10240413 - Promo | Ruled out by the labels. Discogs records that its labels carry “見本(非売品）… as well as the release date 9/21 printed on them”. Both labels here are clean: no overprint, no date. |
Standing caveat: this method cannot exclude a pressing absent from Discogs. The version list is incomplete by construction, so a single surviving candidate is a best match, not a proof of uniqueness.
What is genuinely open here is the relationship between the two copies. Discogs records two run-out variants for release 1689409 (EJ-2402001 - TA bare, and EJ-2402001 - TA 1S 8 4-9), so two copies of it can legitimately differ in the deadwax. A raking-light photograph of the last two centimetres of each copy's run-out, both sides, square on, would settle whether these two came off one pair of stampers or two - and would be the only new fact left to get from either of them.
And, as with folder 106, the poster. The obi announces one; no frame in these twenty-seven shows a folded poster, and none rules one out.