Jupz's Top 50!

Dance of Death: 9th
The Duellists: 39th
Brave New World: 36th
Look for the Truth: 73rd
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son : 4th
The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg : 64th
The Evil That Men Do: 37th
Flash of the Blade: 74th
The Prisoner: 19th

Everything outside of the top 20 (which is songs that get 10s and a few songs that are 9s) regularly shuffles around for me . 1 week it could be 10 places higher than the next, it's just how it goes for me. The thing is that Flash of the Blade and Look for the Truth are the best 7s for me, so there's about 55 songs in the 8 and 9 range. Wonder how well my rankings match up with Jupz's rankings.
 
Iron Maiden have so many good rockers.
Flash is near the bottom of that group at 94 overall, The Prisoner near the top, at 45.
Evil, however, is on that rarified list of all-time great rockers, at 14, and has been in my top ten.
 
The Evil That Men Do : 13th
Flash of the Blade : 41st
The Prisoner : 31st

I agree greatly with all your points, although The Evil that Men Do is much higher up on my list.
 
41. Fear of the Dark
A great song, but a tad overrated. Going on only live versions, this song would probably be top 10, but the studio version isn't nearly as good. It seems weird without the "oooohhhhs" at the start, and somehow less complete. Either way, still a great song, with a spooky intro before exploding into heaviness, which continues for the rest of the song. The chorus has a nice vocal melody, but it really comes into its own live, with the whole crowd singing along. In the studio version, I wish Bruce completely got rid of the raspy style of vocals he used on this and the previous album. They just don't work for a song like this in my opinion. There are some nice guitar melodies in the instrumental section aswell. Anyway, this is a great and fun song that never gets old when performed live.

40. Out of the Shadows
A fantastic ballad and possibly my favourite from the last decade by Maiden, simply everything is good about this song. The chorus features one of their best vocal melodies (although it is repeated slightly too often for my liking). The lyrics are fantastic, as are all the lyrics on the album, but this particular song is one of my favourites lyrically. I think the first verse is about life and the second about death. The little leads that H does at various parts of the song such as under the chorus are great, something that I've really loved of his during the last two albums (see: Starblind). His solo is great as always and a highlight of the song. My only gripe is that the chorus is repeated a few too many times near the end. If they just had a short instrumental section and then closed out, I would have liked the song even more :)

39. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate
This song features one of Bruce's all time best vocal performances, in my opinion. The way he sings "Theres a thin line between love and hate" is beautiful, aided a lot by the lead guitar underneath and Nicko's simple but excellent beat. (A lot of the choruses in the album were made better by this too, see the second repeat of each chorus in  "The Fallen Angel", and Nicko's nice drum beat in the second and third choruses of "Out of the Silent Planet"). My favourite vocal part however is the "I will hoooopppee! My soul will fllyyyyyy! And I will live foreeeeeeeevveer!". The instrumental section is fantastic, one of Maidens best, with a couple of great solos broken up with a fantastic guitar lead.




15. Killers
Killers is my least favourite album for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that the songs are simply not good enough to match up to other albums. Although some other albums have worse songs, they also have some gems that lift them above Killers. Another reason is that I think Di'Anno's voice does not suit this album as well as it did their debut, besides the title track. Overall, this album has some good songs but really overall it is just too weak.
 
38. The Educated Fool
One of the stronger songs from a strong album, this is a very underrated gem. It features Blaze's best vocal melodies, as well as the best lyrics from the album. I really think this song was built for Blaze more than Bruce. There are some awesome guitar melodies in the instrumental section aswell. There isn't too much else I can say about this song. Its just a well-written, thoughtful song that loses points for Nicko's horrible performance across this entire album.

37. No More Lies
This is one of the best tracks from a rather poor album in my opinion. The clean guitar intro is great, and I love the way it builds up to the chorus, which never seems to get repetitive for me. It really seems like it was built to be played live, with the crowd chanting along to the chorus. Vocal melodies in the verses are good aswell. The only song Steve wrote by himself on the album, and in my opinion he should have gone for some more.

36. Isle of Avalon
One of the better songs from the most recent studio album, I honestly have no idea how this one ended up so low on my list. Featuring one of Maiden's best clean intros with wind in the background, which really helps to set the scene. It builds up for a little while before it explodes with "Can you hear me? I can hear you...". The short vocal part that follows the chorus has never done much for me, but then H's solo arrives and carries me away. Its a fantastic solo, as they all are on this album, and leads into another soft passage similar to the intro, before exploding again with "Mother Earth! I can feel you". The guitar lead after the "post-chorus" is amazing and probably my favourite from the album. Then there is another vocal passage which repeats the melody of the post-chorus, and the guitar lead comes in halfway through. Total  :shred: moment!
A shame they didn't play this live, I think it would be the best live song from the album.
This song is still growing on me, and it probably should be in a higher position.
 
Fear of the Dark : 25th
Out of the Shadows : 110th
The Thin Line Between Love & Hate : 64th
The Educated Fool : 125th
No More Lies : 46th
Isle of Avalon :  21st
 
Hahahaha. IOA is in the running for my favorite Maiden song.
 
I don't see a problem with that ranking. I rank it higher currently, but not by *that* much.
 
I don't either, but like I said, it's pretty high up there for me.
 
The only one we're really off on here is Shadows.
Looks like we mostly agree No Lies is underrated on this forum, Fear great but a bit overrated, and Fool and Thin Line hidden treasures.
Avalon is currently one of my biggest growers and may have moved higher since the daily song thread set my rankings.

Mine:
Fear of the Dark : 24th
Out of the Shadows : 101th
The Thin Line Between Love & Hate : 48th
The Educated Fool : 47th
No More Lies : 16th
Isle of Avalon :  41st
 
Sorry about the wait, I was at my dads house and forgot the writeups and the list :(

Anyway, here we go.

35. Infinite Dreams
Here is another pretty controversial pick. Usually considered one of the best Maiden songs, and it was at one point close to my top 10, but I've listened to it a bit too much, and the melodies have faded a bit. The intro is still amazing, and Bruce is awesome during the intro as it builds up. Great vocal melody in the chorus. The guitar melody during the instrumental section is awesome, as well as the guitar solo. My favourite part would have to be the ending though ("Theres got to be more to it than this, or tell me why do we exist?"), probably my favourite part of the song. The lyrics in this song are very mysticism-based, like the rest of the album. One of the best songs from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

34. Stranger in a Strange Land
This song is awesome, from the riff at the start, to the vocal melodies in the chorus and Adrians amazing solo, one of my favourite Maiden solos. I really dunno why this one ended up so low, must just be because Maiden have such a strong discography. The bridge before the second chorus is one of my favourite parts, which is repeated before the final chorus. This song really is another example of how Somewhere in Time really is Adrians album, and probably his best performance on an album (except maybe The Final Frontier).

33. Transylvania
My favourite Maiden instrumental, they are really good at these short instrumentals in my opinion. Transylvania has some awesome guitar work, from the melodies, riffs and solos, everything is exceptional. Steve is pretty good on the track and Clive Burr puts in a decent performance aswell. Very underrated song and one of my favourites from the debut album. This song just has so much energy to it, which the whole album carried in my opinion.



14. No Prayer for the Dying
Another pretty bad album in my opinion, with 6 or so filler songs. The only songs I actually like are the title track, Mother Russia and Public Enema, with Run Silent Run Deep being just alright in my opinion, same with Fates Warning. Much like Killers, it is simply song quality that lets them down, a big factor for this being Adrian's departure and Bruce's more raspy vocal style.
 
I'm mostly on track with your comments, but lower on ratings.

Dreams 42
Stranger 65
Transylvania 54
 
Huge difference between me and you again.

Infinite Dreams - 8th
Stranger in a Strange Land - 11th
Transylvania - 26th
 
Even if I lost my rankings list, I'm pretty sure mine and yours are like Heaven & Earth.

Anyway, have a praise for the whole project. :ok:
 
Black Thunder said:
Even if I lost my rankings list, I'm pretty sure mine and yours are like Heaven & Earth.
Click to expand...

If your list doesn't exist and his does, then this is EXACTLY true. One is real and the other not.

:ninja:
 
This is a great idea, and I love that this is turning into Blasphemy No. 2  :lol:

I really like the write-ups and appreciate it, once again it shows the diversity amongst Maiden fans and especially this forum.

That being said, how can Dance of Death be 50 when Fear of the Dark is, by your own admission, overrated? I'd put FOTD out of the top 50.

And don't even get me started on BNW :)  :D
 
I don't even have a list, but I'm planning to make one when I finish listening through the whole discography again...
 
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