The Iron Maiden album with an Ancient Egypt-themed cover that includes “Aces High” is Powerslave.
Released in 1984, Powerslave was Iron Maiden’s fifth studio album and one of the defining records of the band’s classic era. Its monumental cover depicts the band’s mascot, Eddie, as a pharaoh-like figure surrounded by Egyptian architecture, hieroglyphs and statues. The imagery comes chiefly from the title track, which imagines a pharaoh confronting mortality and the loss of divine power.
“Aces High” opens the album and was written by bassist and principal songwriter Steve Harris. Its lyrics focus on a Royal Air Force pilot during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. The song became one of Iron Maiden’s best-known concert openers, often preceded live by Winston Churchill’s 1940 speech “We shall fight on the beaches.”
Powerslave’s historical and literary scope extends beyond Egypt and aviation: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the closing track, adapts Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem. The album also launched the elaborate World Slavery Tour, whose stage design continued the Egyptian theme.