Piece of Mind or Somewhere in Time?

Piece of Mind or Somewhere in Time?

  • Total voters
    52
For me it is clearly Piece of Mind. The album is a masterpiece, for me even better than The Number of the beast, but usually underrated for being in the middle of the comercial success of NOTB and the masterpiece that is Powerslave.

In fact, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I think SIT is the first album since Number of the Beast that is inferior to its predecessor.
For me every album since NOTB was better than its predecessor. This is not true for me with SIT which I don't consider better than Powerslave or Piece of Mind. I put it close with NOTB and it's still of course an amazing album.

I think Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is a much better effort and I would give it the edge over Piece of Mind. I consider it along Powerslave as the best two albums in Maiden's discography.
 
Mosh said:
One album has timeless production, excellent guitar sounds, well written and unpredictable songs, instrumental excitement, and fantastic performances from the entire band. The other is Somewhere In Time.
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Agreed. Piece of Mind is miles better.
 
Nothing negative to say about SIT. Great album. But come on now.. piece of mind is audio gold. The greatest album ever. Love both. POM is my Maiden album # 1, SIT #7.
 
Somewhere in Time all the way. It is more consistent and the epic is better. I have never really liked To Tame a Land. I find it quite boring.
 
Easy pick. Somewhere In Time is the strongest of Iron Maiden's 80s outputs the opening Salvo of the title track followed by Wasted Years is amazing and leads into one of the greatest albums the 80s had to offer with incredible guitar work and magnificent vocals.
 
There are only three years between those albums. And Powerslave and World slavery tour as well. They were at their peak. Legendary classic albums. Both are grandious records. 2 of their 5 best records in their entire discography IMO. Both works shows different sides of the band. Who can tell one..
 
srfc said:
No of course not, and I mean no offence to anyone who loves SIT.

But I'm a bit cynical about the amount of people who claim to love SIT over the last 20 years or so. It was a bit of a flop when it was released, and the band obviously don't rate it that much so there is obviously ample room for a hipster angle. There's not a lot of cred available to people who say the album with the Trooper on it is great.

Of course, I've no doubt that there are also tons of genuine fans who love it, as there are with any Maiden album.
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SiT and PoM are, all things considered, my favourite Maiden records. This thread is a bit wonky for me.

I was introduced to Maiden by a compilation tape, that a friend from school made for me. There were songs from 4 albums, from PoM to SS and a single No Prayer track there. The first three CDs I bought myself were SiT, PoM, and SS. My favourite era is and always will be 83-88 and I might go on why that is, but it is not that relevant. I might say that 21st century output is the best, the best lineup, and AMOLAD is the best record, objectively the only one played live in eternity, but that's just exaggerating things a bit - just for showing off that the band is still in top shape.

I had no slightest clue that Maiden were "neglecting" SiT material. This is what I found out years after, in the mid 2000s when, again due to reasons not belonging in the "what's better album" category, I started collecting Maiden boots Somewhere on Tour stuff being the top priority.

SiT production is different to any other. You might not like it. Taking that into condsideration, SiT sounds better than PoM. Any version against any version. Guitars just have more distortion, more drive to them. There is a song called Quest for Fire that is B side material. SiT production sounds dated, retro-futuristic, it can get tiresome but the power is there. All songs are top.

This is my reasoning for SiT being (slightly) better than PoM.
 
Zare said:
You might not like it.
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I'm not sure if this post is aimed at me, or if "you" is just referring to people in general.

But to clear things up just in case, I think SIT is a classic album, as are 12 of Maiden's albums, and even the other 4 I like a lot, particularly TXF.
 
Both albums have 1 sub-par track. POM has QFF and SIT has HCW.

In terms of songwriting I think POM is the clear winner lyricaly, but musically I would give the edge to SIT. POM is very basic compared to SIT music-wise. The rythm guitars under Davey's solo on CSIT are unique, the riffs are imaginative and no need to talk about the music of ATG.

Production. SIT wins. Again, SIT's clear production wins. Yeah it sounds dated, mai ly because of the guitar synths and Gallien Krueger amps' chorus, but even with that SIT and SSOASS might be the best production Martin did with Maiden. POM is good but I don't like the sound of the guitars. Both TNOTB and Powerslave have a better guitar sound IMO.

And finally there is nostalgia. When I started listening to Maiden someone lent me Best Of The Beast. I was blown away how Wasted Years sounded... Mystic sound of SIT. And I immediately got SIT followed by SSOASS soon. There is something about that song that makes it the best way to introduce someone to Iron Maiden.

So, SIT for me.
 
Piece of Mind's top 3:

Revelations
Where Eagles Dare
The Trooper

Somewhere in Time's:

Sea of Madness
Caught Somewhere in Time
Stranger in a Strange Land

This isn't hard. Piece wins hands down.
 
Piece of Mind. The bands performance sounds hungrier and the songwriting peaks are higher. I think SiT is a more consistent album, but the sheer power and soaring high points of Piece of Mind wins.
 
Somewhere In Time

It was my first Maiden album. I bought it having never heard of Iron Maiden based on the album cover. I saw Metallica's Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets in a display window in the mall so I had to have them based on the covers. I saw SIT as I was standing in line and took a chance on it. My eleven year old mind was blown by all four albums.
 
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