IRON MAIDEN STUDIO ALBUM COVERS SURVIVOR 2015: Results -> Somewhere In Time wins!

Satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    12
Personally, I like the alternate one better. I know the proper one has its place in the Eddie mythology, but I don't like it very much. Not because it's too gritty for my taste, but because I just don't like the way it looks... something bothers me with it, and I can't really point my finger on it. The alternate one on the other hand perfectly illustrates the mood and atmosphere of the album. It's dead on.
 
The original cover is just ugly, and really lacking in terms of quality. The alternate is better, but I'd only rank it slightly better than the TFF and IM covers.
 
What happens if the new album comes out before this survivor ends? Especially if the artwork is rubbish. :p
 
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14. The X Factor
15. Dance Of Death
 
B0000251W7.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Fear of the Dark: not only was the idea of Eddie "being" a tree good, it was also very nicely done. The moon and these fingers! That beard. Melvyn Grant certainly did his best! There's more (see interview segment below).

What I also like is that for the first time on a Maiden album (it was done before on The Evil That Men Do & The Clairvoyant singles), the bandname is printed vertically, giving more room to this particular artwork. and the font of the album title is quite cool! Like in Live After Death (another dark cover!) the combination of yellow and blue works very well. Add some black et voilà.

I certainly prefer it over several Riggs covers.

From an interview with the creator:

- What kind of attitude did you use to approach the creation of a new Eddie incarnation?

Maybe I could have shown Eddie as a cute Romeo with a cheeky twinkle in his eye. But I don’t think so. Eddie would sooner axe you as look at you. And that’s always been his pleasure. Any twinkle in his eye happened just as the blade fell. So, my approach to Fear of the Dark was to see how sinister I could make Eddie. We’ve had all the physical violence with the blood and sharp things, now let’s instil something more psychological. So I created this Eddie as part of a tree set in a pleasant wood that you might like to wander through on a beautiful moonlit night, thinking all is wonderful. But unbeknown, the trail would lead a poor innocent soul straight to Eddie’s lair and even if you had no fear of the dark at the time, you defiantly would from then on.
Part of the spookiness of Eddie in the Fear of the Dark painting, is that the image is really double-edged, Eddy's shoulders, head and arms, at first glance, fit the body fused to the tree in the sitting position, but if you look further, they also belong the, less obvious, body coming down the trunk. The dark branch at the top edge of the moon is a kind of tail and the legs would carry on up the main trunk, or maybe his upward lower body is more snake like. This begs the question ‘which body is which? If Eddie is really coming down the tree and the other body is not Eddie’s, then who, or what, is sitting in the tree?’
fotd.jpg
 
IM, No Prayer, Virtual XI

In amongst the TFF and AMOLAD debate I almost forgot the debut album. Accepted, it was very early days, had a lot of the no-nonsense feel of the time, and it introduced Eddie to the world, but it's not up to most of the other album covers. I quite like FOTD. It's a departure from the 80s look that worked, imo, matching the more no-frills musical approach. The image is quite simple, well executed, and it sticks in your mind.
 
Fear is easily the best non-Riggs cover and better than some of Derek's.
Simple but atmospheric and awesome.
 
Top 15
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
13. Virtual XI
14. The X Factor
15. Dance Of Death
 
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