Ranking Maiden songs with less than 4 minutes (originals only).

karljant

Ancient Mariner
The title is self explanatory. Pick at least your top 10 if you're not kin into making the entire ranking. Here is the list:
  1. Invasion
  2. Burning Ambition
  3. Prowler
  4. Sanctuary
  5. Running Free
  6. Strange World
  7. Charlotte The Harlot
  8. Iron Maiden
  9. The Ides Of March
  10. Wrathchild
  11. Another Life
  12. Innocent Exile
  13. Ghengis Khan
  14. Purgatory
  15. Twilight Zone
  16. Invaders
  17. Run To The Hills
  18. Gangland
  19. Flight Of Icarus
  20. Quest For Fire
  21. Sun And Steel
  22. Sheriff Of Huddersfield
  23. Can I Play With Madness
  24. Holy Smoke
  25. Be Quick Or Be Dead
  26. From Here To Eternity
  27. Chains Of Misery
  28. The Apparition
  29. Judas Be My Guide
  30. Nodding Donkey Blues
  31. Justice Of The Peace
  32. I Live My Way
  33. Virus (Short Version)
  34. Futureal
  35. The Fallen Angel
  36. Wildest Dreams
  37. Rainmaker
 
Anyhow... sour grapes apart here's my list:
  1. Sanctuary - Energetic classic Maiden at its best. One of their best set closers ever.
  2. Can I play With Madness - Is it commercial? Yup. Is it a bit overplayed? Kinda. Is it great? Definitely.
  3. Be quick Or Be Dead - This hyper speed roller coaster is Maiden's most furious standout moment ever.
  4. Run To The Hills - Another all time classic and not even all the overplaying it suffers from can diminish its quality.
  5. Wrathchild - When you listen to a song a million times and you can still listen to it and like it it means that's something about it.
  6. Invaders - Despite the awful chorus the rest of Invaders is pure class.
  7. Genghis Kahn - My favorite Maiden instrumental displays everything the band is about in a short span of time.
  8. Prowler - Excellent 70's heavy rocker vintage Maiden. Deserves more live appearances
  9. Purgatory - If these songs were all written at the same time I would say this sounds like a cross between Be Quick and Sanctuary.
  10. Invasion - Same as Sanctuary with a little less finesse.
P.S : Honorable mentions to Futureal and Rainmaker.
 
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No particular order:

Rainmaker - a true gem with wonderful trademark (for Maiden) melodies and chorus.
Prowler - early classic! Essential Maiden song.
Sanctuary - always will be one of my favorite songs.
Wrathchild - top 10 song.
Futureal - perfect short rocker in a Maiden style.
Flight Of Icarus - one of the all time best songs from Maiden. Golden Chorus!
From Here To Eternity - the chorus is great and I like the more rock feel to the song.
Be Quick Or Be Dead - love the almost speed metal feel.
Running Free - these drums, that bass, that rhythm.... awesome!
Run To The Hills - classic!
 
1. Rainmaker - Although DOD is very spotty and has some serious fluff, it also houses both the pinnacle of Maiden's long song form (the title track) and the short one as well. This is what Maiden should be represented by on the radio - the bubbly, tasty intro riff giving a sense of urgence, the great flow... the chorus has a very repetitive (and kinda simplistic) melody, but it kinda works nonetheless (especially combined with that cool majestic "cracks" after-chorus)... Love it, love it, love it.

2. Judas Be My Guide - surprise, huh? Yeah, the most unjustly forgotten short track Maiden ever did. Davey's guitar is absolutely awesome here, the chorus is to die for, the lyrics are poetic and thought-through, yet not overdone (which can sometimes be a problem with metal bands in general) and it's just this torrent of energy, though atmospheric at its core that gives the FOTD album a somewhat needed jolt near the end among all those experiments. Shame it was never played live.

3. Purgatory - blazing guitarwork, absurdly catchy chorus, the almost chaotic sounding, yet systematic riff... Possibly the best song on the sophomore outing.

4. Be Quick Or Be Dead - almost thrash-like in nature, it's brutal and aggressive (though probably not the heaviest, at least subjectively I feel that BTATS takes that cake in that regard) and a perfect opener. One of the experiments gone absolutely right, it utilises Bruce's harsh vocals in a great way, it's very energetic and aggressive, yet it doesn't lose Maiden's knack for melody and memorability. Along with JBMG, The Fugitive, ATSS and the title track it's one of the tracks that push the FOTD album rather high on my personal list (probably not Top 5, but close).

5. Futureal - I definitely liked Blaze more in his "brooding" pose on TXF and I think that VXI is at times awkward attempt to mold him into your standard Maiden paradigm and Futureal should be the epitome of that... yet it somehow isn't. Hectic, feeling almost absurdly short and Blaze's voice here has this weird, hypnotic quality which he lacked on... Man on the Edge, for example. The chorus and the guitars are very well written.

6. Wrathchild - I actually do think it's one of the better songs from the Maiden early days, it's very catchy, has a tasty base, pleasantly aggressive chorus... so although it became a meme (and yeah, it doesn't deserve to be ever-present in the live setlist), I'm gonna give it its due.

7. Twilight Zone - by some mistake it didn't end up on the original Killers album (although it was better than half of the stuff there) and has been for the longest time one of my favourite unjustly overlooked tracks. Very melodic, almost haunting in places, very atypical of early (or, in fact, any Maiden), always loved this one.

8. The Fallen Angel - unlike The Mercenary (which the band seems to have an inexplicable preference for) which was played live all throughout the tour, this one was only played a handful of times and I can't understand why. As for the short songs on BNW (or, heck, the reunion albums in general bar certain exceptions), it is the most melodic, the most lively and consciously Maiden-like, prancing about with gusto, remaining in your head for the rest of the day. A hidden gem of the Cloud album.

9. Flight of Icarus - I was in the minority in that I never particularly liked the track (dunno, always felt kinda "constipated"), but I admit that I warmed up to it over time. Still not one of my favourites, but a very solid track nonetheless.

10. Run to the Hills - more a "honorable mention" of sorts, or what the song could have been, were it not so ridiculously overplayed. The intro->verse->chorus sequence is cool and the song is definitely going somewhere, but the chorus itself is kinda too straightforward and over time I've developed this allergy of sorts to it. Still thousand times better than Number of the Beast, though.
 
01 - Judas Be My Guide
One of my favorite songs from Fear Of The Dark. The title comes from the Bruce solo song "Son Of A Gun"
Beautiful intro and great solo's.
02 - The Fallen Angel
Underrated track from Brave New World. I love the riffs in the chorus. The guitar solo section is one of my favorite of the whole reunion era.
03 - Rainmaker
I'm not a Dance Of Death fan but this is certainly one of the highlights (for me) of that album. Great vocal melodies in the pre-chorus.
Again a very strong guitar solo section.
04 - Purgatory
Maiden's fastest song? I think so. But juicy melodies and Paul in a good shape.
05 - Prowler
Gotta love that mid-part going faster and faster!:wub:
06 - Can I Play With Madness

The weakest track from SSOASS but still very enyoable.
07 - Flight Of Icarus
Classic!
08 - Sun And Steel
1:51 - 2:14:rocker:
09 - Quest For Fire

Yes, this should have been better as an instrumental. Never liked the vocal lines. But instrumentally very VERY strong.
10 - Futureal
Sympathy song to put Blaze in this Top 10.
 
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1. Rainmaker - Although DOD is very spotty and has some serious fluff, it also houses both the pinnacle of Maiden's long song form (the title track) and the short one as well. This is what Maiden should be represented by on the radio - the bubbly, tasty intro riff giving a sense of urgence, the great flow... the chorus has a very repetitive (and kinda simplistic) melody, but it kinda works nonetheless (especially combined with that cool majestic "cracks" after-chorus)... Love it, love it, love it.

2. Judas Be My Guide - surprise, huh? Yeah, the most unjustly forgotten short track Maiden ever did. Davey's guitar is absolutely awesome here, the chorus is to die for, the lyrics are poetic and thought-through, yet not overdone (which can sometimes be a problem with metal bands in general) and it's just this torrent of energy, though atmospheric at its core that gives the FOTD album a somewhat needed jolt near the end among all those experiments. Shame it was never played live.

3. Purgatory - blazing guitarwork, absurdly catchy chorus, the almost chaotic sounding, yet systematic riff... Possibly the best song on the sophomore outing.
:okok:
 
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