Your favourite 5 Maiden album opening tracks.....

5 favourite Maiden album opening tracks, top three lines from each.

Walking through the city looking oh so pretty
I’ve just got to find my way
See the ladies flashing all their legs and lashes
It’s snowing outside but rumbling sound of engines roar in the night
The mission is near, the confident men are waiting to drop from the sky
The Blizzard goes on but still they must fly

Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Won’t you run? Live to fly, fly to live
Aces high

Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing you try to hide your deepest sins
Of all the things that you’ve done wrong and I know where you belong
Time is always on my side
For all the sins you will commit you'll beg forgiveness and none I'll give
A web of fear shall be your coat to clothe you in the night
A lucky escape for you young man but I see you damned in endless night
 
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If anyone ever needs lyrics about vice squad special forces paratroopers... :whogivesafuck:
 
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Aces High
Moonchild
Invaders
If Eternity Should Fail
Be Quick Or Be Dead

Honorable mention: Tailgunner
 
These aren't necessarily my favorite album openers song wise, but I think they're the best ways to open their respective albums.

5. Futureal (Virtual XI)
Unlike Sign of the Cross, which starts out slowly and gradually builds, Futureal is more like a gunshot opening of them saying, "Hey, we're back for round two!" It's a great way to begin their more upbeat follow up to The X Factor.

4. The Wicker Man (Brave New World)
You already know that BNW is my least favorite Maiden album, but wow, what an opening. Kind of like Futureal, it announced that the boys were back in business and was just a great way to begin the second Bruce era.

3. Where Eagles Dare (Piece of Mind)
Those drums are all you need to get hooked. If you didn't know that Nicko was a fucking god yet, then this is the song that proves it. Just an amazing opening.

2. Ides of March / Wratchild (Killers)
I'm putting these together because, like Sreaming for Vengeance's The Hellion / Electric Eye, it's a great double shot of instrumental / full on song. A short little electric piece begins, and then that bass jumps in and it's an opening you'll never forget.

1. Moonchild (Seventh Son of a Seventh Son)
I can't think of a better way to begin an album. I just can't. You got that acoustic part in the beginning, then the synth slowly builds, and then bam, one of the greatest concept albums ever has launched. Awesome.

Like I said, these aren't my favorite songs that happen to be openers (Aces High for one is missing), but these are the best ways to open their albums IMO.
 
First of all, yes I'm back.

Second of all, here's my list:

1. Caught Somewhere in Time

This song displays exactly why Iron Maiden captures the hearts and minds of so many people who listen to them. They have a way of choosing a theme, then composing music that transports you there. You really feel like you've time travelled to the future with this opening track. It does the most perfect job of setting the tone for the dramatic, layered, and futuristic sound of the album.

2. Moonchild

One extremely powerful song, this track is both musically and lyrically brilliant. It does a superb job laying the foundation for the rest of this concept album, depicting the Devil's intentions to get his hands on this special child upon learning of his birth. Bruce's delivery is stellar on this track, as is the band's performance. Yet another unprecedented masterpiece.

3. Aces High

Perfect opener for an album like the infamous Powerslave. This track is straight-forward, fast, and heavy, warming the appetite for an album's worth of strong, kick-ass rock songs.

4. The Ides of March

A great, dark, heavy instrumental, this track is the perfect interlude to the fearsome Wrathchild. The band shows their evolving sound right out of the gate with this track, making the statement that they are indeed a heavy metal band, and in no way punk rock. Killers was perhaps Maiden's darkest and heaviest '80s album, and this track lets you know that right from the first power chord.

5. Where Eagles Dare

This opening track foretells of Iron Maiden's increasingly progressive song structures. It has just the right amount of speed and melody to be a contender amongst Maiden's best songs. Bruce hits some sick high notes in this track, and the song sets the listener up for an album that contains many historic and mythological themes.
 
First of all, yes I'm back.

Second of all, here's my list:

1. Caught Somewhere in Time

This song displays exactly why Iron Maiden captures the hearts and minds of so many people who listen to them. They have a way of choosing a theme, then composing music that transports you there. You really feel like you've time travelled to the future with this opening track. It does the most perfect job of setting the tone for the dramatic, layered, and futuristic sound of the album.

2. Moonchild

One extremely powerful song, this track is both musically and lyrically brilliant. It does a superb job laying the foundation for the rest of this concept album, depicting the Devil's intentions to get his hands on this special child upon learning of his birth. Bruce's delivery is stellar on this track, as is the band's performance. Yet another unprecedented masterpiece.

3. Aces High

Perfect opener for an album like the infamous Powerslave. This track is straight-forward, fast, and heavy, warming the appetite for an album's worth of strong, kick-ass rock songs.

4. The Ides of March

A great, dark, heavy instrumental, this track is the perfect interlude to the fearsome Wrathchild. The band shows their evolving sound right out of the gate with this track, making the statement that they are indeed a heavy metal band, and in no way punk rock. Killers was perhaps Maiden's darkest and heaviest '80s album, and this track lets you know that right from the first power chord.

5. Where Eagles Dare

This opening track foretells of Iron Maiden's increasingly progressive song structures. It has just the right amount of speed and melody to be a contender amongst Maiden's best songs. Bruce hits some sick high notes in this track, and the song sets the listener up for an album that contains many historic and mythological themes.
I'm going to go with this as well.
 
I would argue that Ides of March sets the listener up for a level of epicness that Killers does not live up to. It sets the stage for some grandiose songs that honestly never arrive on the rest of the album.
 
I would argue that Ides of March sets the listener up for a level of epicness that Killers does not live up to. It sets the stage for some grandiose songs that honestly never arrive on the rest of the album.
Man, Killers is one of my favorite albums. Great songs. Wrathchild, Killers, Innocent Exile, Twilight Zone. Come on! Heavy album. Probably their heaviest.
 
I don't like Killers, but that's not my point really. The songs are shorter on the whole, simplistic, rough-around-the-edges...something that Ides of March is not.

And I'd say that most Bruce material is heavier than either of the Paul albums.
 
Murders in the Rue Morgue, Purgatory...Incredible songs! I think you better rethink your not liking Killers.

What's wrong with short, simple songs? I like them better than overly-progressive songs. There's a balance. Much of Maiden's 80s material was perfect. Not too short or simple, yet not too long, complex, or progressive.

That's why I hope Maiden's next album is full of shorter, more straight forward rockers. They've been getting too progressive for me with 15-20 minute songs. Too much. We need some good ole rock/metal songs.
 
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I'm not really commenting on the quality, regardless of how I feel. It's cool if you like the album, I just don't think Ides of March is a fitting opener for such a direct collection of songs.
 
No particular order...

Moonchild
Wicker Man
Where Eagles Dare
If Eternity Should Fail
Caught Somewhere In Time
 
I would argue that Ides of March sets the listener up for a level of epicness that Killers does not live up to. It sets the stage for some grandiose songs that honestly never arrive on the rest of the album.

I love Killers, but it's a rare Maiden album that has no Steve Harris epic on it. I think Killers and No Prayer are unique in this regard. It's weird to hear a Maiden album that doesn't feature a Harris epic, usually at the end. There's something unMaideny about that.
 
First of all, yes I'm back.
Welcome back.

That's why I hope Maiden's next album is full of shorter, more straight forward rockers.
Yeah, that's true. 80s songs like Phantom of the Opera, To Tame a Land, Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Caught Somewhere in Time are nice, solid fast rockers, and Rainmaker, Different World, The Pilgrim, The Alchemist, Coming Home, Death or Glory, Tears of a Clown, and Speed of Light are overbloated, progressive epics that seem to take hours to develop.
 
All I'm trying to say is that the idea that Maiden put together an album of fast rockers is mostly false, and when they have attempted it deliberately (NPFTD, FotD, though those albums have more epic-like songs like FotD, No Prayer, Mother Russia, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, etc) they have ended up with albums that are lower on the scale of critical acclaim.
 
TBOS is really plentiful in short rockers. Speed Of Light, Tears, When the River Runs Deep, and Death or Glory shows some of their most tightened and concise songwriting in a very long time. Dunno what more you can ask for there.
 
Welcome back.


Yeah, that's true. 80s songs like Phantom of the Opera, To Tame a Land, Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Caught Somewhere in Time are nice, solid fast rockers, and Rainmaker, Different World, The Pilgrim, The Alchemist, Coming Home, Death or Glory, Tears of a Clown, and Speed of Light are overbloated, progressive epics that seem to take hours to develop.
Cherry picked. And most of the songs you mentioned are short, fast rockers. CSIT is definitely one. TTAL is barely not one. I would never consider POTO a progressive song. The only good example you have there is ROTAM.

When it gets down to it, you know exactly what I mean, and you know you know it.
 
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