Most overrated Maiden album?

[Dick Brucinson]

Number of the Beast, definitely.
In all "Best Metal albums of all time" it Is ALWAYS in the top 5, while in my opinion it is not even in Maiden's top 5.
By the time it was released, it was better than most contemporary albums of other NWOBHM bands, so yes, it can be seen as a hit album, and yes, it features several great hits. But it is also largely inconsostent, with a larger number of fillers, and it also featutes three (!!) of the worst 80s Maiden songs. That does not make it a bad album. But for an album that constantly gets praised as one of the best album of all time, it's a bit too much junk here.

Now I'm curious what a) are the fillers and b) the three of the worst Maiden 80s songs.
I agree with you that the album is massively overrated and you are right about inconsistency, but the only real filler track I can see is Invaders.

 

[Eddie's Uncle]

Is it popular these days for so called “hardcore maiden fans” to rubbish NOTB?

I’ve seen this quite a bit over the last few years were long term Maiden fans have been slating the album and saying it’s massively over rated with tons of weak tracks.

In my opinion NOTB doesn’t even get into my top 5 Maiden albums however, I can totally see why it is so revered by the Metal press and metal fans in general.

If you think back to when it was released in 1982 it was an instant classic. It was head and shoulders above what any other metal band was doing at the time. The only album that comes anywhere near close to this for me is Judas Priests screaming for Vengeance and even that album is a big step down from NOTB.

The artwork was amazing, Bruce was introduced and in my opinion blew Paul D’ianno out of the water. His range and overall tone of his voice was superb and allowed Maiden to write songs in a different way as they had a singer now that could pretty much sing anything he wanted.

The album itself is chock full of classics for me with gangland being the only weak track for me and even then it’s decent. It was also Maidens first number 1 UK album.

If you put into context what this album achieved and what was its competition in 1982 then it does become an instant classic. It’s the album the propelled them onto the international stage in a big way.

For me, Maiden went on to write better albums but some of the songs on this one are just classics that a lot of casuals will love like run to the hills, hallowed be thy name and the title track.

Not sure why it keeps getting so much hate. Think some fans like to hate on it to look cool. “Hey I’m hardcore maiden and I don’t care if this album is popular I know Maidens music better than the average fan and I like other albums more”

Lots of bands have revered classics but in my opinion wrote better albums but I can understand why the classics are revered. Slayer is a good example. Everyone raves about reign in blood and yes it’s a great album and I can totally see in 1986 why it was revolutionary for thrash and metal in general but I think seasons in the abyss blows it out of the water but that doesn’t make reign in blood a bad album.

Saying that an album is overrated is hate? Very weird perception.
Nobody here said the album is crap, or whatever, so where do you see hate here?

Chart positions and "rocket to the big stage" as arguments.... really? What the hell do sales tell about the quality and importance of any music? Nothing at all. If anything, they emphasize the overrating. Justin Bieber outsold TNOTB easily. Does that mean he is doing great music?

I think in reality it is the other way round: sometimes bands or albums get a reputation that is so overblown that everybody starts to accept it as some kind of undisputed natural law. The opinion that Led Zeppelin was one of the greatest band ever is so common, that many people automatically believe they are the greatest band ever, without even questioning it or using their own defintion of greatness. Same with the Beatles, with Reign In Blood, Metallica, and TNOTB.

 

[Mosh]

At a certain point I feel like an album can only be called “overrated” so many times before it should be considered just “rated” or even underrated. I’m not sure if TNOTB is considered Maiden’s best outside of very mainstream music publications, and even then I feel like other albums (Powerslave, Seventh Son) show up more frequently on best of lists.

 

[Helmuth Von Moltke]

Is it popular these days for so called “hardcore maiden fans” to rubbish NOTB?

I’ve seen this quite a bit over the last few years were long term Maiden fans have been slating the album and saying it’s massively over rated with tons of weak tracks.

In my opinion NOTB doesn’t even get into my top 5 Maiden albums however, I can totally see why it is so revered by the Metal press and metal fans in general.

If you think back to when it was released in 1982 it was an instant classic. It was head and shoulders above what any other metal band was doing at the time. The only album that comes anywhere near close to this for me is Judas Priests screaming for Vengeance and even that album is a big step down from NOTB.

The artwork was amazing, Bruce was introduced and in my opinion blew Paul D’ianno out of the water. His range and overall tone of his voice was superb and allowed Maiden to write songs in a different way as they had a singer now that could pretty much sing anything he wanted.

The album itself is chock full of classics for me with gangland being the only weak track for me and even then it’s decent. It was also Maidens first number 1 UK album.

If you put into context what this album achieved and what was its competition in 1982 then it does become an instant classic. It’s the album the propelled them onto the international stage in a big way.

For me, Maiden went on to write better albums but some of the songs on this one are just classics that a lot of casuals will love like run to the hills, hallowed be thy name and the title track.

Not sure why it keeps getting so much hate. Think some fans like to hate on it to look cool. “Hey I’m hardcore maiden and I don’t care if this album is popular I know Maidens music better than the average fan and I like other albums more”

Lots of bands have revered classics but in my opinion wrote better albums but I can understand why the classics are revered. Slayer is a good example. Everyone raves about reign in blood and yes it’s a great album and I can totally see in 1986 why it was revolutionary for thrash and metal in general but I think seasons in the abyss blows it out of the water but that doesn’t make reign in blood a bad album.

NOTB is a phenomenal album, there's no hate.

It is more about how NOTB was sometimes elevated beyond everything else Maiden had recorded, especially for casual fans, in the years since its release.

Case in point (since I came into Maiden / metal in the 90s). Kerrang! and even Metal Hammer at times became singularly committed to placing NOTB high in 'best albums ever' lists, which was fine for marketing the band. But a bit odd given they then ignored the rest of Maiden's work.

I knew UK metal fans in the late 90s / early 00s of my generation (so teenagers then) who would have stacks of Metallica, Machine Head, Slayer, Sepultura, Korn cds and one perfunctory Maiden CD - yes, you guessed it, NOTB. Again, no harm, but I felt as if the point that Maiden's body of work had value over and above one album was being lost.

I'm sure it is different now with streaming, by the way.

 

[Eddie's Uncle]

Now I'm curious what a) are the fillers and b) the three of the worst Maiden 80s songs.
I agree with you that the album is massively overrated and you are right about inconsistency, but the only real filler track I can see is Invaders.

Invaders, Gangland, and yes, I am serious, Run To the Hills.
As I also said in the NOTB subforum, this song is one of the biggest mysteries in music history to me. It is their bigest hit, but I wonder why ever since I heard this song for the first time. The riffs are dull, the lyrics are lame and melodies are all super annoying. They remind me of boyscout children songs. Take away the heavy metal instrumentation and you get exactly that, a children's song. It sounds out of place for me, more like a weird cover version than a Maiden song.
The fact that this song is overplayed to death at every metal club, every party and every gig does not help. But you can still scream along after 35 beers, and that's probably the reason why it is so popular. People can crucify me now, but this is it for me. I really can't stand that song and never could.
It is the same with Appetite For Destruction. Sweet Child o mine is by far the biggest hit on that album, and I also totally dislike he song (Slash does too, by the way, and he wrote that dreadful thing).

As for comparison, Powerslave has 3 fillers too (Losfer Words, Village, Duelists), but each of them are in my opinion clearly better than the 3 fillers on TNOTB.

 

[Kalata]

TNOTB is rightly rated. It's filled with big metal classics and great songs. Opinions vary ofc (with the classics too), Invaders is probably disliked by the majority of the Maiden fans, but almost all classic/best albums of the bands have some not so good songs, especially compared to the other songs on the albums. And also, most of the fans like Total Eclipse, which could have been on the album. Some songs can be called fillers (Gangland, Losfer Words), but the others I don't think so. How to call Quest For Fire filler? Musically it's great. Sun And Steel is more such song (structure, parts). Gangland is one of Maiden's least good 80's songs, but some fans can say that about some songs from the first 2 beloved albums. In the early days and in the 90's (FOTD album has 2-3 such songs) Maiden probably ''wrote'' fillers, but I don't think that's their intention. I admit, for a big classic album like TNOTB 2 weaker songs is probably much, but one can't ignore the rest 6 classics and it's not like we don't have other such examples.

Considering Maiden's whole discography (and especially listening to it now, not around the time the albums were released), I can see why TNOTB isn't rated highly in some fans rankings (mine too), but that speaks about the quality of the material. Add to that listening to the other genres of metal. Other such examples are Priest's SWOD or BS.

 

[srfc]

re: is Number of the Beast actually overated discussion

I believe its sold in the region of 10 million more than the next best seller

 

[Vaenyr]

re: is Number of the Beast actually overated discussion

I believe its sold in the region of 10 million more than the next best seller

Sales do not disprove it being overrated. You could argue the fact that it sold well proves that it is overrated. People buy that album because they know or have heard it is legendary, not necessarily because they heard it and liked it. Hell, I remember buying Painkiller as a teen as the first Priest album I ever purchased, purely because I knew of its status as a legendary album. I ended up liking most of the music on there, but I purely bought it based on status, not artistic merit.

Apologies if I misinterpreted your comment and the point you were making.

 

[AncientMariner_Essex]

Saying that an album is overrated is hate? Very weird perception.
Nobody here said the album is crap, or whatever, so where do you see hate here?

You’re right, I guess hate was too strong a word. I guess I can accept, but disagree, if someone thinks NOTB is overrated but then you yourself went on to trash the album saying its full of filler and has 3 of maidens worst 80’s songs! If that’s your opinion fine it’s all subjective but that’s a strong feeling towards an album that is universally considered an all time classic.

Chart positions and "rocket to the big stage" as arguments.... really? What the hell do sales tell about the quality and importance of any music? Nothing at all. If anything, they emphasize the overrating. Justin Bieber outsold TNOTB easily. Does that mean he is doing great music?

Sales do have a big say in the importance of music. Sales aren’t the be all and end all and in isolation don’t really prove an albums quality but a high volume of sales is not to be ignored.

I hear metal fans use the old “sales doesn’t equal quality” argument all the time. Quality of music is totally subjective but metal fans seem to take a dim view of certain pop acts outselling their favourite metal bands and then go on to say stuff like “we’ll all those people buying the pop stuff are just sheep and only buying albums because they’ve been told the artist is good and they are really stupid people”. It’s like some metal fans think they have a superior music taste to anyone who listens to stuff like Justin Bieber in your example. You don’t have a superior taste in music you just have a different taste in music.

someone like Justin Bieber is important in the world of music as he has sold over 150 million records. That means he has a lot of fans who like like what he does. Just because you might think his music sucks doesn’t mean that he isn’t important and significant to the world of music nor does it mean everyone who listens to him and buys his records are just dim witted idiots.

 

[GhostofCain]

The Number of the Beast is one of the best metal albums of all time. It changed the musical landscape in ways that not many other metal albums have ever done. An all time classic.

 

[DJ James]

Very good question, the Senjutsu hype has died down a bit, but there was a very fervent and mindless obsession with that album when it first dropped. I got the feeling a lot of Maiden fans were just starved for new material and were ready to call anything a masterpiece.

My pick for most overrated might be The Number of the Beast, but I think that album came at a perfect time. Satanic panic was at an all time high and heavy metal was transitioning from its blues-based origins to something sharper and more metallic. Iron Maiden struck the heart of a young and restless early 80’s crowd at the perfect time. Certain albums I think are more than music and TNotB is a good representation of that.

 

[Spaldy]

There's a lot of silly stuff being thrown around here but I think RTTH being called a filler track was the point when this thread pivoted into parody.

 

[Vaenyr]

Oooor someone dislikes RTTH and went into detail explaining why. Why is it so difficult to accept that some people simply have different tastes? One can hate that song and regard that as filler, another can adore it. Both are valid. None of those opinions make the thread a "parody".

Learn to be a bit more open-minded folks

 

[srfc]

Sales do not disprove it being overrated. You could argue the fact that it sold well proves that it is overrated.

That would indeed be in the ballpark of the point I was making, it's definitely the prime candidate Maiden album to be described as "rated"

 

[srfc]

Oooor someone dislikes RTTH and went into detail explaining why. Why is it so difficult to accept that some people simply have different tastes? One can hate that song and regard that as filler, another can adore it. Both are valid. None of those opinions make the thread a "parody".

Learn to be a bit more open-minded folks

The lead single off an album is literally the dictionary definition of the opposite of a filler. If someone thinks RTTH is shit, that's a fair enough opinion, but use a more apt derogatory term when describing it than "filler".

 

[Abas]

Killers is nowhere near a good album that had the benefit of being between a great debut and a defining album.

 

[Vaenyr]

The lead single off an album is literally the dictionary definition of the opposite of a filler. If someone thinks RTTH is shit, that's a fair enough opinion, but use a more apt derogatory term when describing it than "filler".

Again, isn't that quite subjective? We can look at Killers for example: The lead single was Twilight Zone (with Wrathchild as a B Side) which wasn't even part of the regular album in multiple territories. The second single was Purgatory. I think there is an argument to be made that both of those could be seen as fillers, even if I personally love Purgatory a lot.

Someone calling a song filler doesn't make an objective statement that needs to be accepted by others. It's their subjective assessment that the song isn't as good as the rest of the album. So, despite the success, despite the legendary status, someone can dislike RTTH and believe that it is a filler track due said dislike.

Killers is nowhere near a good album that had the benefit of being between a great debut and a defining album.

Absolutely. Many of the songs are blatantly unfinished and keep repeating the same verses multiple times. Iconic artwork, better production, but the songs themselves aren't as good as the ones on the debut. Which makes sense, considering Steve chose the best songs in his opinion from 75 to 80, put them on the debut, and used the "left overs" for Killers. So, one could theoretically call it "Fillers"

 

[Dick Brucinson]

Invaders, Gangland, and yes, I am serious, Run To the Hills.
As I also said in the NOTB subforum, this song is one of the biggest mysteries in music history to me. It is their bigest hit, but I wonder why ever since I heard this song for the first time. The riffs are dull, the lyrics are lame and melodies are all super annoying. They remind me of boyscout children songs. Take away the heavy metal instrumentation and you get exactly that, a children's song. It sounds out of place for me, more like a weird cover version than a Maiden song.
The fact that this song is overplayed to death at every metal club, every party and every gig does not help. But you can still scream along after 35 beers, and that's probably the reason why it is so popular. People can crucify me now, but this is it for me. I really can't stand that song and never could.
It is the same with Appetite For Destruction. Sweet Child o mine is by far the biggest hit on that album, and I also totally dislike he song (Slash does too, by the way, and he wrote that dreadful thing).

As for comparison, Powerslave has 3 fillers too (Losfer Words, Village, Duelists), but each of them are in my opinion clearly better than the 3 fillers on TNOTB.

Cool statement on RTTH, I feel the same way about it. I never liked the song. And I have the same thing that you have about a song about an album. Everybody seems to like, but I never got into it. And that is Piece Of Mind. Now that I wouldn't call it overrated, to me it's not more than an average album tho. And I never liked the guitar sound on that one.

 

[Dick Brucinson]

Senjutsu hype has died down a bit, but there was a very fervent and mindless obsession with that album when it first dropped.

this.

 

[srfc]

Again, isn't that quite subjective? We can look at Killers for example: The lead single was Twilight Zone (with Wrathchild as a B Side) which wasn't even part of the regular album in multiple territories. The second single was Purgatory. I think there is an argument to be made that both of those could be seen as fillers, even if I personally love Purgatory a lot.

Someone calling a song filler doesn't make an objective statement that needs to be accepted by others. It's their subjective assessment that the song isn't as good as the rest of the album. So, despite the success, despite the legendary status, someone can dislike RTTH and believe that it is a filler track due said dislike.

I was waiting for someone to come back with Paranoid as an exception that proves the rule.

I don't want to be a smartarse, but Killers didn't have a lead single, Twilight Zone double A side with Wrathchild was actually released a month after the album was already out.