30 Years Ago Today...

To get a bit back on track... I think the run of albums from Beast to SIT, before the band paused for thought, have utterly amazing peaks but also each have a bit of filler. They sound like a band that is on fire, but also being a little bit rushed. Powerslave could do without Losfer Words in my opinion, and Flash of the Blade, The Duellists and Back In The Village are all (very) good, but not up there with the greatness of the first two and last two tracks on the album.
 
putting my favorite SIT aside, Powerslave may be the greatest thing a metal band have ever created. I truly believe this. So much power and speed in the vocals, bass, riffs and drums. SIT only slightly beats it in my favorites but I think Powerslave in general is the best thing they have done that is pure, raw metal
 
They're both my two favourite Maiden albums, but I think the difference between them is that Powerslave has slightly more to offer. CSIT is the only masterpiece on SiT in my view, although Wasted Years and Sea Of Madness aren't too far off. I also think the worst from Powerslave (if you can even call it that), is better than perhaps the mid tier stuff on SiT. That gives the advantage to Powerslave, but I still love SiT too.
 
^ Caught Somewhere in Time is the ultimate maiden song for me and my favorite period. Powerslave has a lot of speed to offer and is pure metal and maybe Maiden's last "purist metal" album
 
That is true but there are a lot of progressive elements in BNW and even some acoustic stuff kind of like a second addition of Seventh Son
 
It's a tremendous album. People call a few of the songs fillers, but I think they're great too. My favorite will always be the number of the beast with piece of mind a very close 2nd, but this is right up there also. I believe I bought Live after death before I bought this album at the time. I'll always prefer the live versions of the 4 songs, but I guess with Maiden being the ultimate awesome live band it only makes sense.
 
That is true but there are a lot of progressive elements in BNW and even some acoustic stuff kind of like a second addition of Seventh Son

I'd argue that being "progressive" in the original sense of "pushing beyond established musical frontiers" has been part of metal from the start, and in fact is how metal got started. The conventions of "purist metal" were only established later. Metal bands which have retained a progressive spirit are more true to metal (IMO) than those which refuse to step outside any "purist" box. Thus, I assert that "progressive elements" make Maiden more metal, not less.

Maybe I'm blanking on something obvious here, but I don't recall any acoustic guitars anywhere on BNW. What do you mean by "acoustic stuff"?
 
I'd argue that being "progressive" in the original sense of "pushing beyond established musical frontiers" has been part of metal from the start, and in fact is how metal got started. The conventions of "purist metal" were only established later. Metal bands which have retained a progressive spirit are more true to metal (IMO) than those which refuse to step outside any "purist" box. Thus, I assert that "progressive elements" make Maiden more metal, not less.
This is why I can't get into a lot of metal that tries to emulate old bands, such as a lot of the Sabbath rip offs that have stated to pop up lately. Part of what makes Iron Maiden awesome is that they were so progressive right from the start. Bands trying to sound like Maiden kinda miss the point and aren't every exciting. I much prefer groups like Opeth, Metallica, or even the power metal bands like Helloween or Gamma Ray. Bands that take a Maiden influence but do something different with it. That's what it's all about.
 
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Iced Earth gets the perfect balance between the thrash metal style of Metallica and the progressive elements of Maiden.
 
I could agree with that, though they stopped being progressive around the time of SWTWC imo.
 
Powerslave is one of my favorite Maiden records of all time with Piece of mind and The number of the beast. I love this period but that doesn't mean I do not enjoy the other records, it's just that when I put these records on, I fell just as I'm coming home after a long travel. Powerslave sounds strong, the concept is strong, the artwork is strong, the singles are strong and the shows were strong as well (as far as I can see from the videos). The pinnacle of Iron maiden as far is I'm concerned. Shoot that focke !
 
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