The Eclectic
Prowler
Hello everyone, and please go easy on a Maiden newbie 
And I can go on a bit, so for the substance of the question please go to the final few paragraphs.
Anyway, here's an interesting statistic to kick off with - I first heard Iron Maiden 30 years ago, but until a few of weeks ago the only Maiden song I could name was RttH (I think!). Yes, I'm pretty ancient by forum standards (if a recent thread on members' ages is anything to go by) although not quite as old as the Iron Maiden members!
By way of explanation, as a teenager I was heavily into punk - (ignoring my early teens' worship of glam rockers like Sweet and, er, Gary Glitter et al) and you'll understand that most people who were into either punk or metal would be quite tribalistic about it (although I believe punk had some influence on the very early Maiden stuff, although clearly it would be wrong to overstate this!). Of course, the punk era conicided with the NWoBHM scene (Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon et al) and I well recall Maiden bursting onto the scene, and one of my mates was a bit fan, and obviously we had lots of (generally good natured) arguments about the relative merits of punk and metal.
Anyway, as punk fizzled out - or bands like the Clash effectively changed genres and eventually disbanded - I moved onto prog rock (Rush and Marillion) and in actual fact a wide range of pop and rock.
About 15 years ago I was listening to some glam-metalish stuff (Guns n Roses, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, that kind of thing) but for a few years after that my interest in music fizzled out a bit, probably due to work and personal circumstances etc rather than developing a dislike.
But few years ago someone gave me a burnt CD of his rock faves, kind of thing, which piqued my interest a bit, and I started listening to a bit of Floyd and Zep, which I'd always shunned previously, and this was probably a legacy of my punk days - Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall was huge at around the same time as punk.
In the last year or so I've been buying quite a few CDs, including the best of the Metallica stuff and AC/DC (one advantage of coming to these things years later is that you can more easily avoid the bad stuff), and clearly Maiden were an obvious option to have a listen to - one of the tracks on my pal's rock CD was RttH (hence this being the only Maiden song I knew until recently), and I liked what I heard (obviously!).
However, the whole Eddie/666 sort of image had always put me off Maiden - another recent thread on here - although obviously I was aware of the band's influence and legacy. But I was browsing through Amazon recently and came across a little Maiden video, had a listen and loved the sound. So I went on a bit of a buying spree and bought most of the Maiden studio albums (except Killers, NPftD, the two Blaze albums (based on a bit of research) and the newest one - I only pay a fiver maximum these days
).
Objectively a bit irrational, perhaps, but now I've got ten Maiden albums, which is clearly quite a lot to digest, and it will probably take me a couple of years at least.
However, I picked out three albums to listen to initially - IM, FotD and BNW - effectively one from each major era but ignoring the real classics on the basis that even if I didn't rate those three then things could only get better.
Anyway, after quite a few listens I like IM - and I'm sure I'll progress to liking it significantly more - but my favourite of the three at present is defo FotD, which, er, rocks!
Which clearly bucks the trend a bit, and to be honest, based on the research I'd done FotD was bought by accident. But for what it's worth although I would agree with the oft-expressed opinion that although some of the songs on the album are a bit naff, they're all to a greater or lesser extent saved by great guitar solo/instrumental moments. For example, my favourite moment (thus far) on the three albums is the instrumental section on The Fugitive (2.46 - 3. 58 esp from 3.39) which ironically another poster specifically picked out as one of his least favourite sections.
Anyway, here's the slightly worrying bit. Despite generally being well regarded BNW is doing very little for me and to be honest the whole thing sounds sort of, you know, bland - the only track that I really look forward to presently is The Nomad.
So to cut to the chase (eventually!) do you think BNW is just difficult to get into - and I'll 'get' it eventually - or perhaps the bulk of the Maiden stuff just isn't for me?
Should I cut my losses and sell the albums I haven't listened to? (Joke.)
Or is BNW just overrated because of the hpye surrounding the reunion?
What are the most accessible Maiden albums?
As I said, please go easy on me

And I can go on a bit, so for the substance of the question please go to the final few paragraphs.
Anyway, here's an interesting statistic to kick off with - I first heard Iron Maiden 30 years ago, but until a few of weeks ago the only Maiden song I could name was RttH (I think!). Yes, I'm pretty ancient by forum standards (if a recent thread on members' ages is anything to go by) although not quite as old as the Iron Maiden members!
By way of explanation, as a teenager I was heavily into punk - (ignoring my early teens' worship of glam rockers like Sweet and, er, Gary Glitter et al) and you'll understand that most people who were into either punk or metal would be quite tribalistic about it (although I believe punk had some influence on the very early Maiden stuff, although clearly it would be wrong to overstate this!). Of course, the punk era conicided with the NWoBHM scene (Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon et al) and I well recall Maiden bursting onto the scene, and one of my mates was a bit fan, and obviously we had lots of (generally good natured) arguments about the relative merits of punk and metal.
Anyway, as punk fizzled out - or bands like the Clash effectively changed genres and eventually disbanded - I moved onto prog rock (Rush and Marillion) and in actual fact a wide range of pop and rock.
About 15 years ago I was listening to some glam-metalish stuff (Guns n Roses, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, that kind of thing) but for a few years after that my interest in music fizzled out a bit, probably due to work and personal circumstances etc rather than developing a dislike.
But few years ago someone gave me a burnt CD of his rock faves, kind of thing, which piqued my interest a bit, and I started listening to a bit of Floyd and Zep, which I'd always shunned previously, and this was probably a legacy of my punk days - Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall was huge at around the same time as punk.
In the last year or so I've been buying quite a few CDs, including the best of the Metallica stuff and AC/DC (one advantage of coming to these things years later is that you can more easily avoid the bad stuff), and clearly Maiden were an obvious option to have a listen to - one of the tracks on my pal's rock CD was RttH (hence this being the only Maiden song I knew until recently), and I liked what I heard (obviously!).
However, the whole Eddie/666 sort of image had always put me off Maiden - another recent thread on here - although obviously I was aware of the band's influence and legacy. But I was browsing through Amazon recently and came across a little Maiden video, had a listen and loved the sound. So I went on a bit of a buying spree and bought most of the Maiden studio albums (except Killers, NPftD, the two Blaze albums (based on a bit of research) and the newest one - I only pay a fiver maximum these days

Objectively a bit irrational, perhaps, but now I've got ten Maiden albums, which is clearly quite a lot to digest, and it will probably take me a couple of years at least.
However, I picked out three albums to listen to initially - IM, FotD and BNW - effectively one from each major era but ignoring the real classics on the basis that even if I didn't rate those three then things could only get better.
Anyway, after quite a few listens I like IM - and I'm sure I'll progress to liking it significantly more - but my favourite of the three at present is defo FotD, which, er, rocks!
Which clearly bucks the trend a bit, and to be honest, based on the research I'd done FotD was bought by accident. But for what it's worth although I would agree with the oft-expressed opinion that although some of the songs on the album are a bit naff, they're all to a greater or lesser extent saved by great guitar solo/instrumental moments. For example, my favourite moment (thus far) on the three albums is the instrumental section on The Fugitive (2.46 - 3. 58 esp from 3.39) which ironically another poster specifically picked out as one of his least favourite sections.
Anyway, here's the slightly worrying bit. Despite generally being well regarded BNW is doing very little for me and to be honest the whole thing sounds sort of, you know, bland - the only track that I really look forward to presently is The Nomad.
So to cut to the chase (eventually!) do you think BNW is just difficult to get into - and I'll 'get' it eventually - or perhaps the bulk of the Maiden stuff just isn't for me?
Should I cut my losses and sell the albums I haven't listened to? (Joke.)
Or is BNW just overrated because of the hpye surrounding the reunion?
What are the most accessible Maiden albums?
As I said, please go easy on me
