__NOTOC__ "The Evil That Men Do" is a song by the English heavy metal band

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

. It is the band's seventeenth single and the second from their seventh studio album, ''

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son ''Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'' is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released on 11 April 1988 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records and in the United States by Capitol Records. Like '' The Number of the ...

'' (1988). The single debuted at number six in the UK charts and quickly rose to number five. The single's B-sides are re-recordings of "Prowler" and "Charlotte the Harlot" which appear as tracks number one and seven/eight respectively on the band's debut album ''

''. The title of the song is taken from Marcus Antonius's speech while addressing the crowd of

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

after

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

's murder (Act 3, scene 2, "The Forum") in

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

'': "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." Bruce Dickinson may sometimes repeat this before playing the song, but with the order of the clauses reversed (as he did in ''

Rock in Rio ''Rock in Rio'' is a recurring music festival originating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid and Las Vegas. Nine incarnations of the festival have been held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991, ...

''). The poetic lyrics of the song are not related. The guitar solo in "The Evil That Men Do" is played by

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

while the guitar solo in "Prowler '88" is played by Dave Murray. In "Charlotte the Harlot '88", the first guitar solo is played by Dave Murray followed by

. The music video was filmed at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, during the ''

Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour was a world tour conducted by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden in 1988, in support of their seventh studio album, ''Seventh Son of a Seventh Son''. It was their last tour to feature the World Piece Tour-era ...

'' in 1988.

Track listing

;7" Single ;12" Single

Covers

* An all-star cover of the song can be found on the tribute album '' Numbers from the Beast'' which features

Fozzy Fozzy is an American heavy metal band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999 by lead singer Chris Jericho/Irvine, lead guitarist Rich Ward and drummer Frank Fontsere, who are the longest-serving members of the band and have appeared on all ba ...

frontman and AEW wrestler

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jerich ...

on vocals, Paul Gilbert and Bob Kulick on guitar, Mike Inez on bass, and Brent Fitz on drums. It follows the basic layout of the song, but varies in terms of guitar solos and vocal harmonics. * Symphonic metal band

After Forever After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences. The band relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death growls. In February 2009, it was announced that After Forever had disbanded. Singer Floor Jans ...

covered the song on their '' Exordium'' EP. * A cover by the Finnish heavy metal band, Conquest, featuring Marko Hietala from Nightwish fame on co-vocals can be found on the tribute album '' Slave to the Power: The Iron Maiden Tribute'' * The all-female tribute band

The Iron Maidens The Iron Maidens are an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 2001 as an all-female tribute act to English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The band currently consists of drummer Linda McDonald, bassist Wanda Ortiz, lead vocalist ...

covered the song on their 2008 EP '' The Root of All Evil''. * Swedish black metal band Naglfar covered the song on the Regain Records reissue of their album '' Vittra''. * Finnish progressive metal band Warmen have a song on their debut album " Unknown Soldier" called "The Evil That Warmen Do", assumingly taken from the Iron Maiden song of a similar name. * Hellsongs also covered this song on their "Pieces of Heaven, a Glimpse of Hell" album. * Iron Maiden acoustic tributeband

Maiden uniteD Maiden uniteD is an acoustic project. Musicians from different bands join together to play an all-acoustic tribute to English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The songs are played with new arrangements. About In 2006, Joey Bruers was asked to perfor ...

made an acoustic cover in 2012 on their album "Across the Seventh Sea" featuring

Apocalyptica Apocalyptica is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Helsinki, formed in 1993. The band is composed of classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso, and jazz drummer Mikko Sirén. Originally a classical- ...

cellist

Perttu Kivilaakso Perttu Päivö Kullervo Kivilaakso is a cello player for Finnish band Apocalyptica. Like fellow band members Eicca Toppinen and Paavo Lötjönen, he attended Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He plays a German 19th century cello; he started play ...

. * Band Крылья (Wings) from Ukraine covered that song with translated title and lyrics on their EP "Крылья". They version was named "То зло, что мы творим". * A cover by German power metal band

Powerwolf Powerwolf, often stylized as POWERWOLF, is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim. The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as "Attila Dorn", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as "Matthew Greywolf", bassist/ ...

is available in the Deluxe Edition of their 2015 album '' Blessed & Possessed''. * English horror punk band Creeper recorded a piano-centric cover of the song as part of an all-star Iron Maiden tribute album, Maiden Heaven Volume 2, for

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

magazine released in June 2016.

Versions

Personnel

Production credits are adapted from the 7 inch vinyl, 12 inch vinyl, and picture disc covers. ;Iron Maiden * Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals * Dave Murray –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

– lead guitar * Steve Harris –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, synthesizer *

Nicko McBrain Michael Henry "Nicko" McBrain (born 5 June 1952) is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden since 1982. Having played in small pub bands since 1966 from the age of 14, McBrain paid his bills after grad ...

– drums ;Production *

Martin Birch Martin Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, W ...

– producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

, mixing *

Derek Riggs Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958) is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band Iron Maiden's mascot, " Eddie". Career Born in Portsmouth, England, Riggs is a self-taught artist, both in his traditional painting and in hi ...

– cover illustration *

Ross Halfin Ross William Halfin (born 11 August 1957) is a British rock and roll photographer. Since the late 1970s he has worked for some of the biggest acts in rock and heavy metal, including Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Who, Kiss, Metallica, ...

–

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

Chart performance

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evil That Men Do, The Iron Maiden songs 1988 singles Songs written by Adrian Smith Songs written by Steve Harris (musician) Songs written by Bruce Dickinson 1988 songs EMI Records singles