I already posted here, and looking at my post, some things have changed, especially regarding AMOLAD and Dance Of Death. I wanted to sum up a 1-14 list, from my favourite to my least favourite, but i can't, since sometimes i enjoy one album more, on the other times less. But i could do a blurry scale...
Somewhere In Time - grand champion, weltmeister, ruler of the world, supreme Soviet if you wish, by a longshot.
Seventh Son - strong runner up, number two.
A Matter Of Life And Death, Powerslave and Piece Of Mind may change between places 3, 4, and 5, depending on the mood.
Brave New World and Dance Of Death shift between sixth and seventh place.
Iron Maiden, The Number Of The Beast and No Prayer For The Dying can all be eight, ninth or tenth.
Fear Of The Dark, Killers and Virtual XI - dancing around 11, 12, and 13.
The X Factor comes last.
I love everything with classic line-up in it, be it with or without Janick. Still, quality, musicianship and energy of material from '83-'88 won't happen anytime soon for any band of any genre, and didn't happen before either. It's not "golden years" for no reason. I'm a great fan of progressive, synth-backed, '80s influenced sound of SIT and SSOASS. In that age, they were at apex of their musicianship, everyone except Bruce who sometimes failed to deliver satisfactory live performance. However, AMOLAD seriously jeopardises the positions of Powerslave and Piece Of Mind. AMOLAD repesents the eight year evolution of sound and music direction that Maiden took when Adrian and Bruce returned. The music is complex, lyrics intriguing, virtually no fillers. It's probably the main reason why it's sometimes ahead of Powerslave on my list...ROTAM, Powerslave, Aces High, and 2 Minutes To Midnight are better songs than best AMOLAD songs (for me, that would be Lord Of Light, Different World, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns and Benjamin Breeg). But, the other songs off Powerslave are a lot weaker than rest of AMOLAD material. Piece Of Mind has two clean-sheet fillers, one extremely overplayed song, the rest is superb.
Next would come BNW and DOD. Brave New World was a beginning of 21st century Maiden. It has a lot of quality material, production is excellent (especially drums!), but it hasn't developed the new Maiden scheme like two most recent albums. DOD is quite developed in that way, but it also features a filler or two, suffers from production that i don't like and really bad mastering, however the solo sections are great, and so are melodies.
My previous "review" of Iron Maiden stands. No Prayer also, but i forgot to say that i really, really like some moments of this album, therefore it has a place in my top ten and probably never drops to tenth place. TNOTB has changed in my ears a lot. Looking at song by song, i would place HBTN and The Prisoner as superb songs, with Hallowed Be Thy Name deserving special place because i think it totally changed the world of hard rock. It's indeed an unofficial Maiden anthem, at least for real fans. It has been voted around net or magazine reviews as the best metal song ever, and the dual guitar solo section has been mentioned in the same vein. Avenue and Children Of The Damned would come as great, Total Eclipse as good. Rest - mediocre at best.
Fear Of The Dark stands, as does VXI, but Killers, same as TNOTB. I dig only a few songs out of this one. Prodigial Son, Killers, Twilight Zone, Purgatory. Even Wrathchild doesn't sound as good as the current line-up delivers it, not by any chance. Rest doesn't just fit into my ultimate Maiden playlist.
TXF stands also. What i would like to say, that my least favourite, 14th ranking Maiden record is better than 98.5% of the rest of music from rest of bands i heard, and i heard a lot.
And, i'll just quote one guy from wikipedia comments, named "Kluner.net";
I think on the matter of best Maiden song ever, you will at best have a hung jury, and at worst a full out bloody massacre
And he's right.
