IRON MAIDEN ALBUM RANKING: TOP THREE REVEALED

[Siddharth]

Not really surprised by TFF's ranking in the list (at maximum, it can be #9 in my own list) but I've got a couple of hot takes:

El Dorado has one of the best Maiden choruses.

The guitar solo in the Title-track (both Adrian and Dave's) is one of their best.

The Talisman (a modern classic), The Alchemist and even Coming Home are good songs.

 

[Kalata]

Not really surprised by TFF's ranking in the list

Yeah, mostly because of the band's overall strong discography.

The guitar solo in the Title-track (both Adrian and Dave's) is one of their best.

The Talisman (a modern classic), The Alchemist and even Coming Home are good songs.

I agree.

El Dorado has one of the best Maiden choruses.

Maiden rarely go wrong with the choruses. As Janick said, all you need is a good, melodic and memorable chorus; then you can build the rest around it. I think every part of the song is solid - chorus, pre-chorus (that melodic riff under it!), verses, riffs and solos. They can't write a bad song since 2000 even if they wanted to.

 

[Mosh]

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10: DANCE OF DEATH
11: THE FINAL FRONTIER
12: IRON MAIDEN
13: THE X FACTOR
14: KILLERS
15: FEAR OF THE DARK
16: VIRTUAL XI
17: NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING

Highest Score: 14 (@DJMayes @Vaenyr )

Lowest score: 1 (@DJ James )

No surprise here, but I would definitely consider this an overperformance for Dance of Death. IMO there are four Iron Maiden albums that can be considered weak: Fear of the Dark, No Prayer For the Dying, Virtual XI, and Dance of Death. All four of these albums have a higher proportion of fillers and songs that I consider among the weakest in their catalog (in the case of this album, Gates of Tomorrow, Age of Innocence, Wildest Dreams). There are a few things that separate it from the other "bottom three" for me. One is that obviously it is not from the 90s, instead it is from a lineup and era that is generally very highly regarded among the fans. Another is that when this album is good, it contains some of the best work the band has ever done. In other words, the quality spread on this album is wider than perhaps any other. Finally, this album needed to happen for the band to be successful in the reunion era. Somewhere along the way, there was a choice to keep things fresh instead of always going back to the well of tried and proven ideas. That decision IMO made it possible for this lineup to last over two decades.

Ultimately I think the album is best summed up by its cover. There is a lot of ugliness there and it has the qualities of something that isn't quite finished. The production is really poor (the worst of the reunion era, easily) and most of the ideas are prototypes. But just like there is a cool Eddie lurking behind the muck of the CGI monstrosity, there are seeds of great ideas to come.

So I find myself a little surprised at how high this album got. I think a lot of it has to do with Dance of Death being grouped in with a beloved period for the band. As for placing higher than The Final Frontier? Probably has a lot to do with songs like Dance of Death and Paschendale being modern day classics for the band. Much like I wonder if the Di'Anno albums will perform well again after there is some distance from the reunion era, I wonder if Dance of Death will go back to being a lower rated Maiden album.

 

[Spambot]

Just a word or two about The Final Frontier.

Some things surrounding this album seemed like just another Maiden album. Single dropped at the start of the tour (which should've been named differently), taking the plane to start the world tour in February, that half-assed documentary about making the album, changing that simplified Eddie avatar, IDK, at some point it seemed like they stuck to the formula that worked.

The album itself wasn't just another Maiden album. All you people wanting Maiden to do something progressive (and that term is used loosely with Maiden) and then putting the TFF in the lower part is the reason why we have Wrathchildren in the setlists. Personally, there's only one song I skip, and that's The Man Who Would Be King. It just sounds directionless. Like, they had an idea they couldn't crystallize, so they just kept on adding. The rest of it, I wouldn't change a bit.

That doesn't mean I hear or see something the rest of you do not. Satelite 15 intro is glitchy, Mother of Mercy is strained, and the Isle of Avalon chorus is a word-salad, but to me, the album works because it has that quality that got me into Maiden (and Brave New World being the prime suspect)—it's catchy. It has numerous nooks and crannies that, to this day, manage to surprise me no matter how many times I have replayed it. The majority of the songs have that humm effect, the whistle thing, where you can catch yourself humming and/or whisteling something and only later realize it's a part of a chorus or verse, or even a solo. I wasn't overblown by AMOLAD as a whole, and TFF brought exactly what I was missing in the previous album: impactful melody (especially in the choruses). Also, like most Maiden albums that I rank highly, it manages to do something that I love about music; it takes me somewhere else. Isle of Avalon starts? I'm not here, I'm already gone. Bruce belts The Talisman chorus? I'm clutching the mast of the ship as waves wash over me. They've mistaken an earthquake for a fallout? Tears bro, rivers of tears.

In reflection, there are faults you can find in this album or use it to paint a certain period for a band. And you wouldn't be wrong. I understand that most of the things that are said about have a lot of truth. Me? I loved this album on the first listen, and 13 years later, I still love the shit out of it.

 

[Spambot]

Mosh summed up the gist of what I was thinking, but I'm still going to write something. A word or two.

No matter how much I'll praise Brave New World when it comes up (I gave it No. 1 spot), I got to say this about it: it's a safe album. Dance of Death is everything but. If these two swapped places for their release dates, Iron Maiden wouldn't be selling out arenas today. The reunion had to be played safe; a lot of it was at stake. But when it came out as a success, I believed it gave them freedom to take a step further, and a DOD is definitely a step further, for better or worse. Just looking at the tracklist and seeing songs like Rainmaker, Paschendale, and Journeyman on it, I can only think of two albums with such a variety of songs: Fear of the Dark and debut. FOTD was more of a miss than a hit, and you can't really hold against debut to be something that it had no idea what it wanted to be.

For me, it was the first "new" Maiden album. I still remember huge Eddie posing as a Death poster at my local record store (I think it was the one without CGI characters), Wildest Dreams playing on MTV, my friend complaining about how many times Bruce says "No More Lies" and even today, when somebody mentions DOD it gives me some sort of autumn-ish feel. Many times I've read the word filler and to be honest, there aren't that many. Wildest Dreams doesn't strike as hard as Wickerman, but it's not like it's a snoozefest. I haven't heard a lot of people complaining about Rainmaker. Montsuger is a monster of a rocker, and everything you heard here, you've heard 12 years later in the second part of Book of Souls title track. Face in the Sand and Age of Innocence get a lot of slack, but it's mostly about things I don't care about (those double bass drums sounded good then, and at 16, I didn't care much about politics, and both of those haven't changed a lot over the last 20 years). Also, I can't shake these dreamy, nostalgic intros both of those songs have. Filler my ass!

It's a bit downgrading to look at Dance of Death as a step in Iron Maiden career when you can say that about every album (again, for better or for worse). But then again, Dance of Death really was a step upward in Iron Maiden career and a step forward to greater things that came.

 

[DJMayes]

As one of the two people who rated Dance of Death the highest, I'd like to offer an alternative perspective to the one @Mosh has given. Namely, I think that this album rocks. It's criminally underrated, has a fantastic mix of songs, and is (in my opinion) significantly better than the two albums either side of it.

On one end of the spectrum, the album has the title track and Paschendale. These are two very distinct epics, but I think both are near the very, very top end of the bands catalogue.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have two really good, snappy songs in Wildest Dreams and Rainmaker. The latter of these deservedly seems to be held in quite high esteem, but the former gets a lot of stick. The criticism I've seen most often is that the lyrics are very pedestrian compared to other songs. This is fair, but I honestly quite like the simple upbeat nature of it, and we haven't seen any songs as direct as these two ever since.

In between those two extremes, Dance of Death has so many gems buried inside. Face In The Sand gets a special mention here, as it's one of my favourite songs from the band and really stands out in their discography. No More Lies is another great, dynamic song - the chorus is repetitive, sure, but this criticism never feels like it is fairly and consistently applied to the bands entire discography. Montsegur is great fun, and Journeyman is an interesting, unique way to end the album. One song I particularly want to shout out is Age of Innocence, which I really enjoy. I get the sense a lot of people dislike it for the politics in its lyrics. I can appreciate that, even if they don't personally bother me, as I can think of several songs I would really enjoy if they were about something else.

The only two songs I haven't covered are Gates of Tomorrow and New Frontier. To me, these are the weakest links of the album, and the only reason I haven't ranked the album even higher. With that said, whilst I wouldn't seek out either song, they're enjoyable enough and I wouldn't skip either of them.

TL;DR: the album is catchy and fun, go listen to it

 

[Mosh]

No matter how much I'll praise Brave New World when it comes up (I gave it No. 1 spot), I got to say this about it: it's a safe album. Dance of Death is everything but. If these two swapped places for their release dates, Iron Maiden wouldn't be selling out arenas today.

This is pretty much what it all comes down to for me. Brave New World is a very good album but it's probably the least interesting of the reunion era in terms of the more progressive tendencies of the band. Sometimes they have made more interesting albums that also weren't as good (Dance of Death, The Book of Souls) and sometimes they have made more interesting albums that also surpass Brave New World (AMOLAD, Senjutsu, really they hit the mark more often than not). I don't know if Maiden would have retained my interest all these years if they just kept churning out Brave New World-like albums.

 

[DJ James]

When I first got into Iron Maiden (2010), I listened to Dance of Death a lot. I liked it. Even No More Lies. Now when I go back and listen to it (which I haven’t in 3 odd years) it does not hold up. It sounds like a strange hard rock trying to do one last album even though every member is well past their prime. Nothing on here really works for me, even the “classics” like Rainmaker, Paschendale, and the title track. I don’t know what it is but this album really doesn’t sound metal to me, it sounds like those German power metal bands that went hard rock later in their careers. I don’t know if I’m making sense, but I don’t like this album.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

DoD is what it is - really high highs (the title track, Montségur, Paschendale, Rainmaker, even No More Lies and Face in the Sand to a degree) with really low lows (Gates, Frontier and one of the worst Maiden songs ever in Wildest Dreams... and yes, even Journeyman, which should have been half as long), all packed in a really bad production (mastering) that makes it somewhat hard to listen to.

But then again, the highs are really high and on their own keep this album afloat (in my general preference it is so, songs I love are more important than the bad ones or general consistency) - in my personal ranking I sent to Mosh (which was helped by the preference revealer, I admit), it was still higher than all of the 80s albums except Powerslave. *shrugs*

For what it's worth, excepting The Legacy and Rime, DOD is probably my favourite IM song.

 

[DJ James]

The Legacy is quite good, it’s surprising to me that they bounced back so hard with A Matter of Life and Death. That album has next to no filler with the exception of Out of the Shadows, which I find atrocious.

 

[Siddharth]

I agree! At times I look upon the reunion lineup as a new band in itself, formed in '99. Brave New World - thier debut, the songs they came up with when the entire ensemble was put together, ultimately hitting the nail and Dance Of Death as their sophomore effort where they have had a taste of glory and now confident enough to make experiments, something they further took to a whole new level in AMOLAD.

 

[Kalata]

No surprise here, but I would definitely consider this an overperformance for Dance of Death. IMO there are four Iron Maiden albums that can be considered weak: Fear of the Dark, No Prayer For the Dying, Virtual XI, and Dance of Death. All four of these albums have a higher proportion of fillers and songs that I consider among the weakest in their catalog (in the case of this album, Gates of Tomorrow, Age of Innocence, Wildest Dreams). There are a few things that separate it from the other "bottom three" for me. One is that obviously it is not from the 90s, instead it is from a lineup and era that is generally very highly regarded among the fans. Another is that when this album is good, it contains some of the best work the band has ever done. In other words, the quality spread on this album is wider than perhaps any other. Finally, this album needed to happen for the band to be successful in the reunion era. Somewhere along the way, there was a choice to keep things fresh instead of always going back to the well of tried and proven ideas. That decision IMO made it possible for this lineup to last over two decades.

Ultimately I think the album is best summed up by its cover. There is a lot of ugliness there and it has the qualities of something that isn't quite finished. The production is really poor (the worst of the reunion era, easily) and most of the ideas are prototypes. But just like there is a cool Eddie lurking behind the muck of the CGI monstrosity, there are seeds of great ideas to come.

So I find myself a little surprised at how high this album got. I think a lot of it has to do with Dance of Death being grouped in with a beloved period for the band. As for placing higher than The Final Frontier? Probably has a lot to do with songs like Dance of Death and Paschendale being modern day classics for the band. Much like I wonder if the Di'Anno albums will perform well again after there is some distance from the reunion era, I wonder if Dance of Death will go back to being a lower rated Maiden album.

I ranked the album pretty high, although the songs are not perfectly balanced, but I really like all but one (Age Of Innocence, probably the only Reunion era song I don't like!). I love to listen to it from start to finish. The album contains some big classics for the Reunion era of the band - the title track, Paschendale, Rainmaker, No More Lies. Face In The Sand is up there too imo. New Frontier and Montségur are solid and strong pure Maiden songs. They combine, heavy, melodic, fast, catchy and soaring parts. Btw, I feel like Adrian and Bruce wanted to write Road To Hell 2.0 with the former. The latter is unmistakable song written by Janick.

Journeyman is also a great way to end the album. It should be noted. An unexpected one (although they experimented with the album closers for the previous 2 albums). Maiden's discography should have at least one such song. It's something different. The dreamy vibe is amazing.

The other two songs are real fun. Gates is underrated imo, chorus and solo are awesome. Wildest Dreams is far from a bad song, but it's like they wanted tor write Wicker Man again. These ''lesser'' songs are way better than some 90's song.

I also really like that they did some experimentation for this album. For their 2nd Reunion album! Brave choice. I think it was needed for them. A song written by Nicko was about time, as well as double bass, full-on acoustic and two different epics (DOD and Paschendale). The album was a needed fresh approach for the band which wanted to continue to evolve but also to stay true to their sound. I think that was one of the reasons for Bruce to came back. For the next album, they took things to the next level.

Another feature I like a lot is that the long songs have 3 solos in them - this will be missing for the next album in which only one of them has this feature!!! The album is full of great guitar work.

I like the powerful (louder) sound of the production. The cover is offensive for a band like Maiden, although I like the carnival vibe of it. They just should have used a drawing instead - or fixed it with an anniversary edition. It's not like they haven't done this before.

In the end, I don't think DOD deserves to be the lowest ranked Reunion album because of the strong material that dominates it, but then again, all Reunion albums are good. I don't think its place (near the middle) is that big of a surprise. Or that it is higher than TFF. The surprise is that it is higher than the debut album.

 

[Vaenyr]

As seen in Mosh's post DOD is in my top 5 albums. It took a long while, I used to prefer BNW, but a few years ago I noticed that I enjoy most parts of DOD even more.

It has exactly one song that I don't like and two songs that have good ideas but fall apart in the details. The song I don't like is Paschendale. The lyrics are great, the tapping lick is catchy, but that's all the positives this song has to offer. Other than that it is pure boredom disguised as an epic. The other two tracks are Wildest Dreams, which is quite a weak track with a phenomenal post-solo section (can't beat the VI VII I progression, especially in the live version), and Montsegur, which has some really heavy sections, but manages to completely nosedive with all the happy-go-lucky, straight-out-of-a-children's-song melodies.

The rest of the song range from great to legendary. Sure, there are parts that aren't perfect, like AOI's lyrics or Journeyman's far too shouty chorus. Despite those issues the songs are still fantastic. Special shout out to Gates Of Tomorrow which gets a ton of hate. For me it is a 9/10 and I adore the multi-layered vocals. It's such a shame that after BNW, DOD and Bruce's solo albums those mostly disappeared. SNJ had a few more harmonies again, maybe The Mandrake Project will see the return of them.

The cover artwork is embarassing and manages to squander the potential of a really cool Eddie, the inverse of TFF which had a nice art style, but stupid Eddie design. The production was all kinds of messed up as well. You'd think a legendary band like Maiden would easily side-step issues like that, but on the other hand Metallica, who's even bigger, has had plenty of production misshaps, so maybe at some point there isn't anyone left to tell the band leaders that some things don't work and need to be changed lol

 

[Jer]

I don't like […] Paschendale. The lyrics are great, the tapping lick is catchy, but that's all the positives this song has to offer. Other than that it is pure boredome disguised as an epic.

We may not agree on much, but we’re 100% aligned on this point. Always glad to see another Paschenfailer out in the wild.

 

[Jer]

Dance Of Death is an odd duck in the discography, a relatively experimental record that falls on its face about as often as it succeeds — and the original version of the album has the worst mix of any reunion-era record, and possibly the worst mix of all of their studio albums. Whenever the album gets heavy and layered it just turns into sonic mud, and the effect is so bad that the remaster had to play selective EQ games to draw out specific instruments in certain parts of the songs at the expense of others (see “Paschendale” and “Montsegur” for the most glaring examples).

I don’t understand the love for “Paschendale”. To me it’s a failed epic that had the right idea and tone, but completely botched the execution with that awful doubled descending melody through the verses, and a chorus that’s merely solid and not that special. “Journeyman” is another failure, with a great verse and buildup, but a truly bad, incongruously shouty chorus that topples the entire house of cards. “Gates Of Tomorrow” could have been good if it weren’t for those inexcusably awful vocal harmonies in the verse, but we got what we got. And the title track is almost a great song, but the whiffed notes on the pre-chorus, the weak chorus 2, and the terrible sped-up section later on drag the entire affair down.

On the flip side, I think “Wildest Dreams” and “New Frontier” are perfectly fine and don’t deserve all the hate they get. I also like “The Age Of Innocence” musically, and the lyrics don’t annoy me enough to tank the song. “Rainmaker” is great, “Montsegur” and “Face In The Sand” are good, and most of “No More Lies” is good, aside from the horrible repetition in the chorus and the whole thing running on too long.

Perhaps the album’s biggest sin beyond its sonic issues is that you can see the bones of a truly great record here, but it almost never lives up to its potential. There’s just one unforced error after another bringing the whole thing down, and it’s a shame. It’s still a pretty good album overall, but it’s weak enough to be a bottom-third Maiden record, IMO.

 

[LooseCannon]

IMO when you agree with Vaenyr on a point related to Iron Maiden, you're on the wrong side of history

 

[Kalata]

Some things surrounding this album seemed like just another Maiden album. Single dropped at the start of the tour (which should've been named differently), taking the plane to start the world tour in February, that half-assed documentary about making the album.

Yeah. The documentary should have been more detailed.

The album itself wasn't just another Maiden album. All you people wanting Maiden to do something progressive (and that term is used loosely with Maiden) and then putting the TFF in the lower part is the reason why we have Wrathchildren in the setlists. Personally, there's only one song I skip, and that's The Man Who Would Be King. It just sounds directionless. Like, they had an idea they couldn't crystallize, so they just kept on adding. The rest of it, I wouldn't change a bit.

I personally want a mix of both - progressive and classic Maiden. It's just the fans like Maiden's other ''progressive'' albums more. And they will always play old classics songs live.

About King, I can agree, but at the same time the different parts have a nice flow.

I would make some changes to the album:

Spoiler

- shorter intro and to have a guitar harmony for the title track.
- different chorus for Mother Of Mercy.
- Janick to have a solo in Avalon (and maybe no proggy solos, but they fit). Btw, Talsiman would have been great with a solo from each of the amigos as well.
- King to be a shorter song (although I love the intro).

and TFF brought exactly what I was missing in the previous album: impactful melody (especially in the choruses).

Also, like most Maiden albums that I rank highly, it manages to do something that I love about music; it takes me somewhere else.

AMOLAD is full of impactful melodies. As for the choruses, I would love if Maiden use more double harmony vocals for them. But it's true that TFF has more ''melodically hopeful'' choruses.

Your second comment - so true.

The reunion had to be played safe; a lot of it was at stake. But when it came out as a success, I believed it gave them freedom to take a step further, and a DOD is definitely a step further, for better or worse. Just looking at the tracklist and seeing songs like Rainmaker, Paschendale, and Journeyman on it, I can only think of two albums with such a variety of songs: Fear of the Dark and debut.

Also, I can't shake these dreamy, nostalgic intros both of those songs have.

It's a bit downgrading to look at Dance of Death as a step in Iron Maiden career when you can say that about every album (again, for better or for worse). But then again, Dance of Death really was a step upward in Iron Maiden career and a step forward to greater things that came.

This. DOD is an important album for the band's development. Love nostalgic intros. It's interesting that the debut, FOTD and DOD represent different eras of the band.

Namely, I think that this album rocks. It's criminally underrated, has a fantastic mix of songs
the album is catchy and fun, go listen to it

I agree.

Brave New World is a very good album but it's probably the least interesting of the reunion era in terms of the more progressive tendencies of the band.
I don't know if Maiden would have retained my interest all these years if they just kept churning out Brave New World-like albums.

That's actually true about BNW, although Nomad and Thin Line are very progressive.

About your second comment, my answer is: of course it will.

It sounds like a strange hard rock... I don’t know what it is but this album really doesn’t sound metal to me, it sounds like those German power metal bands that went hard rock later in their careers.

Well, New Frontier, Age, Wildest Dreams and Gates can be viewed as a less-metal songs and some of the songs have power metal-esque melodies and vocals. Songs #4, 6 and 7.

But then again, the highs are really high and on their own keep this album afloat (in my general preference it is so, songs I love are more important than the bad ones or general consistency) -

in my personal ranking I sent to Mosh (which was helped by the preference revealer, I admit), it was still higher than all of the 80s albums except Powerslave. *shrugs*

About your first comment - I agree. About your second comment - wow, but nice.

That album has next to no filler with the exception of Out of the Shadows, which I find atrocious.

Not a single filler imo.

and Dance Of Death as their sophomore effort where they have had a taste of glory and now confident enough to make experiments

We have to say that they did big experiments for some songs on VXI, TXF and FOTD albums.

DOD is in my top 5 albums.
with a phenomenal post-solo section
Special shout out to Gates Of Tomorrow which gets a ton of hate. For me it is a 9/10 and I adore the multi-layered vocals. It's such a shame that after BNW, DOD and Bruce's solo albums those mostly disappeared. SNJ had a few more harmonies again, maybe The Mandrake Project will see the return of them.
Journeyman's far too shouty chorus
but stupid Eddie design.

Agreed with everything (especially about the multi-layered vocals, I love that we have some for the latest album and let's hope for me) - except for TFF Eddie. I think he's cool.

Journeyman's chorus should be shouty to make the needed contrast with the calm verses. To get the message through.

 

[Mosh]

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9: THE BOOK OF SOULS
10: DANCE OF DEATH
11: THE FINAL FRONTIER
12: IRON MAIDEN
13: THE X FACTOR
14: KILLERS
15: FEAR OF THE DARK
16: VIRTUAL XI
17: NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING

Highest Score: 17 (@DJMayes )

Lowest score: 2 (@MindRuler )

Shortly before Iron Maiden’s 16th album was officially announced, I remember some fake artwork going around for “Powerslave 2.” I’ll always find it hilarious that this is essentially what we got with TBOS. Nevermind the adjacent theming and influence on the stage show, there were a lot of weird (obviously unintentional) similarities between the two albums. The only albums with two Dickinson only penned songs. TBOS contains a song that breaks the longest Maiden song record previously held by a track on Powerslave. Even if Empire of the Clouds was not present, The Red and the Black would still tie the record for being the exact same length as Rime. Weird granular coincidences.

I bring this up because I feel it extends to the quality spread found on the two albums as well. Obviously Powerslave has a funny reputation where four songs (not coincidentally the four that appear on LAD) hold legendary status among the fans, and the rest of the songs tend to get overlooked. The “Fillerslave” term is unfair, but it does feel like something like Two Minutes to Midnight is on a different stratosphere than something like The Duelists. On The Book Of Souls, a similar dynamic exists, but here there actually does seem to be quite a lot of filler.

I strongly believe that this album ranks as high as it does partially because of a couple tracks that genuinely are worthy of a Maiden top 25. The title track and If Eternity Should Fail are each mammoth tracks. Empire of the Clouds has shown to be a bit divisive as time goes by, but the novelty of the song does bring an element to the album that sets it apart. After that, however, I think the album really loses steam. I really have a hard time putting something like When the River Runs Deep up against most of the similar shorter tracks in the discography. The Red and the Black, while I enjoy it more than most, is not anywhere near the caliber of When the Wild Wind Blows or Sign of the Cross, to name just post 80s Harris epics.

Being the first Maiden double album, a bit of filler is to be expected. Weirdly though the album structure is pretty much the same as the last few albums. It’s just that certain songs were long enough to put it over the 80 minute mark. It’s not a Fear of the Dark situation where the band intentionally wrote way more music than necessary. This feels like a natural progression in terms of length and song structure (each album had been incrementally longer than the last for awhile). I think the album misses the heavier Harris influence (more Smith/Harris or Smith/Harris/Dickinson) and while it’s cool to see Bruce and Adrian going for the classic 80s style high energy songs with infectious hooks, they’re a little rusty especially when you compare them to what they contributed to Senjutsu or what they came up with for Accident or Birth.

It’s certainly not a bad album, and placement is almost right, but I would argue it’s a couple spots too high and that The Final Frontier is a vastly superior album. Aside from a couple top tier mentioned earlier, a lot lot of this album is pretty middle of the road for reunion era standards. I actually think you can already see the fanbase cooling on it and I wouldn’t be surprised if it places even lower next time we do one of these games.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

I think TBOS is easily the third strongest record of the reunion era and it’s entirely because of its strong tracks.

The comparisons to Powerslave are pretty apt, but I also think some comparison can be drawn with The Number of the Beast (incredibly high highs and some low lows).

• Empire and the title track are up there with the best songs the band has ever recorded.
• Eternity and Unknown are powerhouse modern Maiden tunes.
• Speed of Light, Death or Glory, and hell, even Tears of a Clown, managed to bring back the fire to the shorter songs (something that is still lacking on the reunion albums).

Not to mention the touring cycle and general hoopla surrounding its release just felt bigger than most, and thus, the excitement about it seemed quite enhanced.

I think of the album very fondly, despite its flaws, and certainly rank it higher than Senjutsu.

 

[KidInTheDark666]

I think TBOS is a masterpiece and it ranks in my top 5 currently. The title track, Empire, Death or Glory, Tears of a Clown, and The Red and The Black are all some of their best ever songs imo. I could do without The Man of Sorrows but other than that the album is flawless.