Most overrated Maiden album?

Perun said:
I know I'm gonna get crucified for this, but: Somewhere in Time. To my ears, Sea of Madness, TLOTLDR and Déja Vu have "filler" written all over them, and Heaven Can Wait is probably the least interesting song of the "classic" period. Bruce is abysmal on some of these tracks, and I have yet to talk to a die-hard, table-pounding SIT fanatic who won't admit that in the end. I do enjoy the tracks I mentioned, but the only parts that really stick out to me are the instrumental section of Sea of Madness and the intro to Long-Distance Runner. Of course, CSIT, Wasted Years, SIASL and Alex are timeless classics, I won't deny that.

SIT has had a weird career in fan reception. In the early 2000s, my feeling was that it was the lowest rated of the First Seven, and it was mostly a small group of die-hard nerds who held it in such high esteem. General opinion was that it was the most dated and commercial sounding of their albums. I was actually one of the people who liked it better than the average Maiden fan. And then came SBIT and the album's under-representation in the setlist, and as these things go, when something is obscure and under-represented, it has to turn into the Best Thing Ever, and suddenly everyone thought it was the Great Underappreciated Classic, and it became their One Great Masterpiece, and there developed a mass hysteria about ATG having to be played live. Maybe the 80's nostalgia juggernaut that overwhelmed us in the 2010s also contributed, I don't know. I also don't know if I believe the general fan hive really appreciates the album and its deep cuts any more now, and isn't just caught up by the album art, the 80's vibe and Alexander The Forgotten Epic. I've seen too many bandwagon movements in my life to be convinced
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I kinda agree, although I really love Sea of Madness and Runner, while I'm personally colder towards Stranger and Caught.

And Alexander is really good, but overrated af.

I also agree with the reassessment - even back in 2013 when I joined the forum (and still proclaimed SIT as my favourite - mostly because I liked its unusual sound, the cyberpunk theme and the very 80s melodies) I still felt like an outlier in the general fandom yet. The shift came only later.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I'd say NOTB is ridiculously overrated by the "general" fandom (and the general populace) while SIT is incredibly overrated by the "fandom" fandom, if you know what I mean.
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I don't disagree, but I can understand the overall reverence for Number of the Beast - it IS overrated, but it still heralded Bruce's arrival in the scene and features some of Maiden's and metal's very best songs. Somewhere in Time is just sandwiched between two much stronger albums and feels very transitional - everything about it was bettered by Seventh Son.
 
Confeos said:
Funny, I'd argue this rather applies to Somewhere in Time. Bruce sounds quite shouty and borderline out of tune on much of it (as if he tries to hard to make up for how beat up his voice was after the World Slavery Tour). On Powerslave his singing is powerful and absolutely on point.
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I get what you mean. There's plenty of material on SIT (Sea Of Madness, SIASL) that I can't stand, but due to going through the whole ordeal that the World Slavery Tour was, Bruce's voice changed quite a bit. I'm not a big fan of how Bruce sounded in the early 80s. He was (still is, always has been) an amazing vocalist and his vocal range was utterly insane but he didn't have true control over his voice and overshot pitches all over the place. Beast Over Hammersmith is the perfect example of this where he missed a ton of notes by going over them. SIT has other issues, but he sounds a bit more mature, a shift in his vocals that got more pronounced as the years went on. I much prefer 90s and early 2000s Bruce compared to 80s Bruce.
 
Perun said:
I know I'm gonna get crucified for this, but: Somewhere in Time. To my ears, Sea of Madness, TLOTLDR and Déja Vu have "filler" written all over them, and Heaven Can Wait is probably the least interesting song of the "classic" period. Bruce is abysmal on some of these tracks, and I have yet to talk to a die-hard, table-pounding SIT fanatic who won't admit that in the end. I do enjoy the tracks I mentioned, but the only parts that really stick out to me are the instrumental section of Sea of Madness and the intro to Long-Distance Runner. Of course, CSIT, Wasted Years, SIASL and Alex are timeless classics, I won't deny that.

SIT has had a weird career in fan reception. In the early 2000s, my feeling was that it was the lowest rated of the First Seven, and it was mostly a small group of die-hard nerds who held it in such high esteem. General opinion was that it was the most dated and commercial sounding of their albums. I was actually one of the people who liked it better than the average Maiden fan. And then came SBIT and the album's under-representation in the setlist, and as these things go, when something is obscure and under-represented, it has to turn into the Best Thing Ever, and suddenly everyone thought it was the Great Underappreciated Classic, and it became their One Great Masterpiece, and there developed a mass hysteria about ATG having to be played live. Maybe the 80's nostalgia juggernaut that overwhelmed us in the 2010s also contributed, I don't know. I also don't know if I believe the general fan hive really appreciates the album and its deep cuts any more now, and isn't just caught up by the album art, the 80's vibe and Alexander The Forgotten Epic. I've seen too many bandwagon movements in my life to be convinced
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Somewhere in time have always been popular here and on the original IMBB. And you’re right that many newer fans seem to like it very much. But many old schoolers think it is very dissapointing and poor compared to the other 80’s albums.
 
SIT is a weird album for me. TLOTLDR is one of my favorite Maiden songs for the entire decade. Deja Vu, CSIT and HCW are amazing songs. Alex is okay, if not a bit overrated.

Wasted Years is okay. The other two Smith songs are incredibly weak with their only saving grace being the guitar solo for each of them.
 
Sth2112 said:
Somewhere in time have always been popular here and on the original IMBB.
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Dunno about the IMBB, but it's had more of a fringe following here before, say, 2010. Of course, everybody here liked it, but there were few who would call it the best thing ever.
 
7th Son. Barely and just about makes it into top ten. Too fantasy type for my taste, which is more rock n roll. For example if I got a chance to go see a gig in 7th Son Tour or No Prayer On The Road, I'd pick the latter.
 
Fear Of The Dark

As far as I know, it is highly regarded mostly for the title-track. While it is definitely a great song, except Be Quick Or Be Dead, Judas Be My Guide, Afraid To Shoot Strangers and to an extent From Here To Eternity (IMO, the only song where they nailed that riff-based catchy songwriting approach) are the only high points, while the remaining are either too unconventional/hard to get into or too AC/DC-meets-Def Leppard-esque which is an odd take for the band.
 
Siddharth said:
Fear Of The Dark

As far as I know, it is highly regarded mostly for the title-track. While it is definitely a great song, except Be Quick Or Be Dead, Judas Be My Guide, Afraid To Shoot Strangers and to an extent From Here To Eternity (IMO, the only song where they nailed that riff-based catchy songwriting approach) are the only high points, while the remaining are either too unconventional/hard to get into or too AC/DC-meets-Def Leppard-esque which is an odd take for the band.
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Honestly, I think that's an example of an underrated album, if anything - I don't see people mentioning it at all, or with certain disdain at least, with only the title track and maybe Strangers getting a pass... but as someone who appreciates the majority of the album (the thrashy Be Quick, the song I took my nick here after, the catchiness of Fugitive, the unusual atmospherics of Childhood's End, Wasting Love, which is the blueprint for both Tears of the Dragon and Out of the Shadows (and therefore best of them by far) and honestly, even the quirkiness of The Apparition, along with the rightly praised Fear of the Dark and Afraid to Shoot Strangers) I certainly don't see it being overrated anywhere. Here, general public, Metal Archives, demands in concerts, whatever.

There was a time I felt it might have been overrepresented on T-Shirts and hoodies - probably because the creepy Treeddie is so darn cool - but even that seems mostly gone nowadays.
 
Sth2112 said:
Somewhere in time have always been popular here and on the original IMBB. And you’re right that many newer fans seem to like it very much. But many old schoolers think it is very dissapointing and poor compared to the other 80’s albums.
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I wouldn't call myself that much of a newer fan, Maiden is my all time fave band from 1986 on when I was 11 years old, and back then I loved SIT the same way as I do nowadays.
 
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Perun said:
I know I'm gonna get crucified for this, but: Somewhere in Time. To my ears, Sea of Madness, TLOTLDR and Déja Vu have "filler" written all over them, and Heaven Can Wait is probably the least interesting song of the "classic" period. Bruce is abysmal on some of these tracks, and I have yet to talk to a die-hard, table-pounding SIT fanatic who won't admit that in the end. I do enjoy the tracks I mentioned, but the only parts that really stick out to me are the instrumental section of Sea of Madness and the intro to Long-Distance Runner. Of course, CSIT, Wasted Years, SIASL and Alex are timeless classics, I won't deny that.

SIT has had a weird career in fan reception. In the early 2000s, my feeling was that it was the lowest rated of the First Seven, and it was mostly a small group of die-hard nerds who held it in such high esteem. General opinion was that it was the most dated and commercial sounding of their albums. I was actually one of the people who liked it better than the average Maiden fan. And then came SBIT and the album's under-representation in the setlist, and as these things go, when something is obscure and under-represented, it has to turn into the Best Thing Ever, and suddenly everyone thought it was the Great Underappreciated Classic, and it became their One Great Masterpiece, and there developed a mass hysteria about ATG having to be played live. Maybe the 80's nostalgia juggernaut that overwhelmed us in the 2010s also contributed, I don't know. I also don't know if I believe the general fan hive really appreciates the album and its deep cuts any more now, and isn't just caught up by the album art, the 80's vibe and Alexander The Forgotten Epic. I've seen too many bandwagon movements in my life to be convinced
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Somewhere in Time is my pick as well, and seeing the five songs played live last year solidified my opinion here. Don't get me wrong, I love the Future Past setlist and really enjoyed getting all those deep cuts, but I didn't really find any of them to be real showstoppers outside of Wasted Years and Caught Somewhere in Time. If Alexander the Great was played live back in the 80s, I don't think it would be talked about nearly as much as Rime or Seventh Son in terms of their epics. The album shines instrumentally, but you can say the same about Powerslave and Seventh Son without the asterisk of Bruce phoning it in the whole time (not to mention the lack of Bruce's lyrical contributions, as Adrian's lyrics really don't compare). I agree that Heaven Can Wait is one of the weakest of the band's live staples and I feel that on this song (as well as several others) we start to get a hint at some of Steve Harris' writing pitfalls that would plague much of their 90s work. I have a really hard time believing that the SIT hype is around the quality of the music and not the mystique around it being the forgotten album with the cool Blade Runner artwork and retro-futuristic production.
 
Chronologically, my pick would be
Somewhere in Time
Brave New World
A Matter of Life and Death

As regards the first two, the covers partake in this overrating because they are great (conversely, I think DoD is underrated especially because of its horrendous cover) but SiT definitely lacks Bruce's input and BNW starts very well but has little to offer past the first four songs. I know I'm in the minority but I don't like listening to AMOLAD a lot because I find it bland, on the one hand because it lacks variety (musically and, above all, thematically) and while I admit there are some inspired moments, the songs are unnecessarily long. Its more than average cover doesn't help either, but then again, it is a matter of personal opinion.
 
The Number of the Beast features some of the best songs in metal, but for me, a truly great album needs a powerful opening track. Invaders is probably the most forgettable Maiden song from the '80s. I wouldn’t call The Number of the Beast overrated, but that lackluster opener deserves more discussion. Who thought that was a good idea?
 
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efekåseo_suomi said:
The Number of the Beast features some of the best songs in metal, but for me, a truly great album needs a powerful opening track. Invaders is probably the most forgettable Maiden song from the '80s. I wouldn’t call The Number of the Beast overrated, but that lackluster opener deserves more attention. Who thought that was a good idea?
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Maybe they thought it was really great.
 
el diablo said:
This will be a very unpopular opinion, but for me it’s AMOLAD.

While I appreciate the high level of musical expertise, overall the mood is just too relentlessly miserably dark and depressing for my taste.
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I couldn't agree more. I've listened to it a million times, admiring all the technical efforts and enjoying the lyrics, but I simply don't love it. It's hard to explain with words, but all the other post-reunion albuns have a bigger emotional impact for me. Even TFF, that is one of my least favorites Maiden albuns, has at least one masterpiece (The Talisman), something that I can't say about any song of AMOLAD.
 
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