No More Lies

About the song

«No More Lies» is the third track on «Dance of Death», the thirteenth studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was written by the bassist and founder of the group, Steve Harris, and at seven minutes and twenty-one seconds it is one of the long songs that give the album its weight. «Dance of Death» was the second record made after the singer Bruce Dickinson and the guitarist Adrian Smith returned to the band in 1999, which left Iron Maiden with three guitarists at once: Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers. Nicko McBrain played the drums, as he had done since the early eighties.

The album was recorded in January and February 2003 at Sarm West Studios in London, with Kevin Shirley as producer and Steve Harris as co-producer. It was an analogue recording, a choice that suited a band that likes to play together in the room rather than build songs piece by piece. It came out on EMI on 8 September 2003 in most of the world, a few days earlier in Japan and a day later in North America. «Dance of Death» is also the only Iron Maiden album on which every member of the band has a songwriting credit: McBrain wrote his first song for the group, «New Frontier», and the record closes with «Journeyman», the first fully acoustic track in their catalogue.

Inside that album «No More Lies» follows a pattern that Harris has used many times. It starts quietly and slowly, almost like a ballad, with Dickinson singing over a sparse accompaniment, and then the full band comes in and the song gathers speed. Its most recognisable feature is the chorus, which is simply the title repeated again and again, so that a whole arena can shout it back. Between the verses there is room for long instrumental passages in which the three guitars trade melodies, one of the reasons the band gave the song such a prominent place in its concerts.

The lyric is sung by someone who knows that his time is running out. He faces the end without fear and without regret, wonders whether he will come back one day in some other shape, and refuses to spend the time he has left wishing it away. In the second part the scene changes: a group of people sit around his table, eating, drinking wine and boasting, unaware that their own time is almost over too. Many listeners have heard in that image an echo of the Last Supper, although the song never names it and Harris has left the words to speak for themselves. The chorus, a promise that there will be no more deception, works as a kind of final vow.