rate all 17 Maiden albums best to worst

The only BoS song I honestly enjoy nowadays is the title track. Death or Glory is fun, Eternity is ok and TRATB is a good song, but bloated imo.
 
1 Seventh Son
2 Somewhere in time
3 Dance of Death
4 Brave New World
5 Powerslave
6 Piece of Mind
7 A Matter of Life and Death
8 Number of the Beast
9 The X Factor
10 No Prayer
11 Iron Maiden
12 Killers

13 Virtual XI (the songs on it I like I LOVE more than anything below it so it's not going bottom)

14 Fear of The Dark
15 Senjutsu
16 Book of Souls
17 Final Frontier
 
MindRuler said:
The Book Of Souls

None, I´ll repeat: none come close to the best tracks on Senjutsu.
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TBoS is my second favourite Maiden track, Hell on Earth just cracks my Top 10.

I think the first halves of both albums are pretty equally consistent, and you can make a really strong "Side A" out of their best tracks:

If Eternity Should Fail
Stratego
The Writing on the Wall
The Red and the Black
Days of Future Past
The Book of Souls

When it comes to the second half though, Senjutsu crushes TBoS for me. The latter gets very inconsistent, though I'd give it a nod for being a little more unique.
 
There’s a decent album if you combine the best of BOS and Senjutsu.

If Eternity Should Fail
Death or Glory
The Book of Souls
The Writing on the Wall
Empire of the Clouds
Hell on Earth

Those are all that spring to mind, but I haven’t listened to Souls for years, might be another decent one in there.
 
1. Somewhere in Time
2. Iron Maiden/Killers (too close)
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of Mind
5. The Number of the Beast
6. Fear of the Dark
7. No Prayer for the Dying
8. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
9. Brave New World
10. The X Factor
11. The Book of Souls
12. Senjutsu
13. A Matter of Life and Death
14. Virtual XI
15. The Final Frontier
16. Dance of Death
 
BludBrutha said:
There’s a decent album if you combine the best of BOS and Senjutsu.

If Eternity Should Fail
Death or Glory
The Book of Souls
The Writing on the Wall
Empire of the Clouds
Hell on Earth

Those are all that spring to mind, but I haven’t listened to Souls for years, might be another decent one in there.
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Without The Pankrement ?
 
IMO one could make two massive records out of them. The first steps have been referred to a zillion times and I couldn't agree more:

a) stop making F**ING one note guitar lines mimicking the vocal melody.
b) stop repeating some sections ad aeternum.
c) if you want to recycle melodies, don't make it absurdly obvious, cram it at the beginning or make them the main part of the song.
d) if you want to add keyboards use a decent bank... previous albums feature them a lot and don't sound crappy as these two.

Now... When it comes to the songs themselves, there's nothing on both albums I consider to be an absolute stinker. That being said there are songs that IMO leave a lot to be desired or come to me as kind of boring/ uninspired. Others sound a bit out of place. As far as I'm concerned, here's how both albums could work just fine (all absent songs could be added up as B sides or at a bonus disc):

The Book Of Souls:
  1. If Eternity Should Fail
  2. Speed Of Light
  3. The Red And The Black (cut the bass intro, less repetition in some sections balanced with another go on the chorus)
  4. When The River Runs Deep
  5. The Great Unknown
  6. Death Or Glory
  7. The Book Of Souls
  8. Empire Of The Clouds

Senjutsu:
  1. Senjutsu
  2. Stratego
  3. The Writing On The Wall
  4. Lost In A Lost World
  5. Days Of Future Past
  6. The Time Machine (without all the calm intro part)
  7. The Parchment (without the calm intro part)
  8. Hell On Earth (less repetition in some sections balanced with another go on the chorus)
This is my vision on how both albums would work way, way better (I even left out some songs I really like - Tears Of A Clown and Death Of The Celts).

That being said, both albums are absolutely enjoyable as they are, and IMO both even feature some excellent passages. One may argue it's not in the same doses and as refined as in some previous works, yet IMO they're both more than respectable efforts per se, even without taking into account how deep in the band's career they were made and the musicians' advanced age.
 
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