Ranking 80s Maiden albums having Bruce on vocals

Siddharth

Siddharth

Long Distance Trooper
As the title says... My ranking would be:

5. Piece Of Mind - A great album but the band appears a bit confused on what to make of their previous album's huge success. The Trooper is the definite highlight and among my personal favourites as well. Where Eagles Dare has great musicianship (specially the mid breakdown part), Bruce's vocals on Flight Of The Icarus is awesome and the chorus on Sun And Steel is just soaring. To Tame A Land has an engaging intro and is overall epic.

4. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - Great concept, great musicianship. The synth parts add a great dynamic in the songs and its really cohesive overall.

3. The Number Of The Beast - To be honest, a weird collection of songs but the best songs on the record happen to be among the band's very best and my favourites as well! Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Number Of The Beast, The Prisoner just top notch! Bruce has a fine balance between grit and

2. Powerslave - Rock solid record. Each song is high energy, not to mention all the members are at the top of their game. My favourites - Aces High, Flash Of The Blade, Powerslave 2 Minutes To Midnight.

1. Somewhere In Time - My favourite album by my favourite band! I've said it before, I will say it again, the guitar tone in the album feels like a warm blanket in a chilly winter. Full fledged epic songs, The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Alexander The Great to the anthemic Wasted Years!
 
1.SIT (no fillers)
2.SSOASS (same, but with one weaker song)
3.Powerslave (some of the material and music are timeless)
4.POM (very solid, but some are not my favorites)
5.TNOTB (only because of two songs... even only one)

The last 3 could swap places.
 
1. Piece of Mind
2. 7th Son
3. Powerslave
4. Beast
5. SiT

All of these are crackin albums. SiT has always been my least favourite of these 5. It's quite a distinctive album, the songs, the guitar tone and it doesn't always gel with me. That said, there are some all time glorious moments on here, like the instrumental section towards the end of the opener, the solo and overall vibe of Stranger, Alexander. Tip top.

It feels harsh havin Beast near the bottom. It probably suffers from Hills and Beast being overplayed and more on the 'happy' side of things and Hallowed being quite a bit weaker than it's live counterpart, in my opinion (the slow bit is too fast and the fast bit is too slow on the album). I honestly love Invaders, despite the manky chorus. Prime NWOBHM. And Gangland is also class, to these ears. Ferocious.

I could easily swap POM and 7th Son as my favourite Maiden album overall, depends on my mood.
 
I don't know anymore

It used to be Beast, then Powerslave. Then both. These days I am most likely to listen to Seventh Son. Also Somewhere in Time started to grow on me in the time leading up to Future Past. It's not the favourite, and the weakest of the lot. In any case this five album stretch is the best by any band ever.

1. The Number of the Beast
2. Powerslave
3. Seventh Son
4. Piece of Mind
5. Somewhere in Time
 
1. Powerslave - just sheer energy and drive. Engines roaring, the Maiden machine galloping and cruising. Flawless production, with guitars and drums dominating the whole sound. The riffing is upfront and straight to the point.

2. Piece of Mind - I really like this kind of production too. The album sequencing feels a bit odd and uneven, but still - this is Iron Maiden already fully formed and firing on all cylinders.

3. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - although many fans consider this a masterpiece, for me this is where things start to drift into a kind of twilight. Hard to explain. I can already hear hints of No Prayer for the Dying in places… Still, “Moonchild,” “Infinite Dreams,” “The Evil That Men Do,” “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” and “Only the Good Die Young” are all great.

4. Somewhere in Time - this album and Seventh Son mark, for me, a big shift in their songwriting approach. The production is stellar and suits the music, but overall I really miss the riff-driven, guitar-forward style. I’m no music expert, so I can’t fully articulate it, but compared to Powerslave, the guitars feel less upfront - or at least played differently. That strong sense of dominant riffing just isn’t there in the same way.

5. The Number of the Beast - packed with absolute classics, but I do feel the production sounds a bit dated and slightly underdeveloped.
 
Siddharth said:
As the title says... My ranking would be:

5. Piece Of Mind - A great album but the band appears a bit confused on what to make of their previous album's huge success. The Trooper is the definite highlight and among my personal favourites as well. Where Eagles Dare has great musicianship (specially the mid breakdown part), Bruce's vocals on Flight Of The Icarus is awesome and the chorus on Sun And Steel is just soaring. To Tame A Land has an engaging intro and is overall epic.

4. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - Great concept, great musicianship. The synth parts add a great dynamic in the songs and its really cohesive overall.

3. The Number Of The Beast - To be honest, a weird collection of songs but the best songs on the record happen to be among the band's very best and my favourites as well! Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Number Of The Beast, The Prisoner just top notch! Bruce has a fine balance between grit and

2. Powerslave - Rock solid record. Each song is high energy, not to mention all the members are at the top of their game. My favourites - Aces High, Flash Of The Blade, Powerslave 2 Minutes To Midnight. geometry dash 3d

1. Somewhere In Time - My favourite album by my favourite band! I've said it before, I will say it again, the guitar tone in the album feels like a warm blanket in a chilly winter. Full fledged epic songs, The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Alexander The Great to the anthemic Wasted Years!
Click to expand...
Here is my ranking:
1. Number of the Beast
2. Peace of Mind
3. Powerslave
4. Somewhere in Time
5. Seventh Son
 
1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
2. Powerslave
3. Somewhere In Time
4. The Number Of The Beast
5. Piece Of Mind
 
1. Powerslave
2. Somewhere in time
3. The number of the beast
4. Seventh son of a seventh son
5. Piece of mind

Iron maiden is one of those bands where everyone will have a different top 5.
 
1. SIT (masterpiece, all killer no filler)
2. POM ( there is some filler, but it has Revelations and Still Life, 2 of my favs)
3. SSOASS (no filler, but the highs on PoM are higher imo)
4. Powerslave ( filler sandwitch and I'm not a fan of 2 mins)
5. TNOTB ( 2 hits that I'm not a fan of, but I love the other tracks on it)
 
1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son- Has been my favorite album of all time (not just Maiden) for nearly 30 years now and I don't really ever expect that to change. The entire album is ranges from great to incredible. On some days, The Evil That Men Do and Infinite Dreams are tied for my second favorite Maiden tunes. This album is perfect to me.

2. Piece of Mind - It's so good that two back to back lesser tunes (you know which ones) can't blemish how great the rest of this album is. I don't care how overplayed The Trooper is, I never ever fail to get excited to hear that intro. Where Eagles Dare and Revelations are tunes I'll never get tired of hearing as well.

3. Powerslave - I have come around to this album over time. It was never one of my favorites but the bookends are so good and even the middle tunes are great. Probably Maiden's most "metal" album for whatever that's worth. The real gem here is the title track which has always been one of my favorite Maiden songs.

4. The Number of the Beast - I almost feel this album gets underrated among the diehards (at least the online diehards). So many great songs and a few that I dig a lot (Invaders and Gangland) that aren't quite up to the level set by the rest. Hallowed Be Thy Name is my favorite Maiden song and even then I sometimes forget just how amazing it is.

5. Somewhere in Time - I love how this record sounds, looks and feels more than the songs themselves. And thanks to The Future Past tours, I don't know what to bitch about now that they finally played Alexander and revisited at least half this album live. Heaven Can Wait is the piss break tune for me.
 
1. Somewhere in time
2. Powerslave
3. Seventh son of a seventh son
4. The number of the beast
5. Piece of mind

The first two are perfect, Son is awesome but a little flat in the sound. Number have Gangland as a little weak song, and Piece of mind have Sun and steel and Quest for fire as weak songs
 
1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
The most consistent, strongest album they released until the reunion. Atmosphere for days.

2. Powerslave
The bookends are some of their absolute best material ever, but there's a reason it's called fillerslave.

3. Piece of Mind
Amazing start, amazing middle, falls off hard on the last 3 songs.

4. Somewhere in Time
Amazing start, mostly bad middle pair of songs, solid end.

5. The Number of the Beast
Absolutely mammoth, classic songs, but also 2 of the absolute worst songs in the whole discography.
 
1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
The only 80s album in my top 5. The melodies in the final minutes of the title track; the acoustic outro in The Prophecy; the synth intro in Moonchild; the verses and their violently beautiful imagery in OTGDY; the incredibly catchy lead guitars in TETMD; the are so many amazing moments on this album.

2. Somewhere In Time
While there are a couple tracks on there that don't do anything for me, the rest of the material is phenomenal and the overall vibes and atmosphere of the entire record are immaculate. It's definitely a product of its time, in the best way.

3. Piece Of Mind
Sun & Steel is one of my bottom 5 Maiden tracks of all time. TTAL does nothing for me either. The rest of the songs range from good to amazing. I'll always have a soft spot for QFF, despite its ridiculous verses and Bruce's howling, thanks to its glorious instrumental sections. Also, I might not be a big fan of Bruce's air raid siren era (I prefer his Skunkworks to TFF sound) the aggression heard in his voice on this album is impressive. Some of his finest moments are heard on this album.

4. Powerslave
Very uneven album. The title track is one of their greatest songs, but there's also quite a bit of stuff found on the album that could've been edited out. That said, this might be the best showcase for the guitar work. Stuff like the instrumental section in Flash Of The Blade is super fun to listen to.

5. The Number Of The Beast
Iconic album which gave us some of the most beloved songs of the genre. Overall still a bit too NWOBHM for my tastes with the happy-go-lucky choruses and all that. I prefer the darker vibes that started appearing more and more as their discography went on.
 
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