I've always thought The Pink Fairies had the 'punk' attitude long before the movement started, as far back as 1972.

Metal certainly borrowed a lot from punk even though, strictly speaking, it pre-dates it by at least 5 years. Look at all of the big wave of speed/thrash metal bands that emerged in the early 80s - they definitely had a heap of punk influences in their style. Megadeth, Slayer... most definitely, and then you had all of the crossover bands like DRI, etc. which shared a lot of DNA with bands like Anthrax and Nuclear Assault.
 
I think with the first 2 Maiden records, Paul's vocals added a more punk edge, plus the overall aggression and rawness of the sound. You can hear it in stuff like Innocent Exile where it's has that classic Pistol's chromatic thing going on with some of the riffs. The albums are far from punk albums per se, but to deny there's an influence? Sorry, 'Arry and Bruce, as much as you may hate the idea, you can hear elements of it though those albums for sure.
 
Paul surely thinks there's a lot of punk in there. We've toured with him twice and he's gone on massive rants about how he's doing it "fookin' punk, mate." HAHA! Odd guy...!

I'm still sorry for pouring snakebite all over Murray's leather pants on the 80's, he took it well though..

Dickinson.. Won't hear a bad word about him. He's a very nice chap.

Well, I've made that album my album of the day in the gym today, and later in the studio. Personally, I really don't think it sounds like s**t. 

I mean compare that to Black Sabbath's Born Again or KISS' Hotter Than Hell - now, those really sounded awful. Distorted and muddy and all.
 
That first Maiden album is actually well recorded, though it doesn't have much personality and definitely could do with some more punch. It's tame. But it doesn't sound "bad". 
 
Now if I could only figure out why they felt the need to re-arrange tracks and throw Sanctuary right after Prowler on the remastered version...