rate all 17 Maiden albums best to worst

Here's my list. Vaguely interchangeable sets are 15-14, 13-10, 9-8 and 5-4.

17 - The X Factor - Dull, depressing, and devoid of the bands usual energy. Judgement Of Heaven is a great song though.

16 - Killers - I love a lot of the songs from the album but I still can't tell you the difference between several of them.

15 - A Matter Of Life And Death - some real stinkers (The Pilgrim, These Colours Don't Run) and some good songs with annoying parts (The Legacy, The Longest Day) but also a lot of songs to love.

14 - No Prayer For The Dying - eh, it's fun. I don't really dislike most of the songs, it just lacks some weight and variety.

13 - Brave New World - The Nomad is their worst song ever and The Mercenary feels much longer than it actually is but I like the rest and love a few of the songs here.

12 - Piece Of Mind - The first five songs are as good as any album. The last four let the team down.

11 - Virtual XI - I love TAATG and DLTTEOAS. If you did you'd rate it higher too.

10 - Iron Maiden - Loads of great songs here, with some nice variety in styles.

9 - Fear of the Dark - Very experimental but it mostly works for me. A ton of really cool songs here that make for a nice change of pace.

8 - The Final Frontier - A grower. The title track might be the bands most underrated tune ever.

7 - Powerslave - lots of hits but a few misses too.

6 - The Number of the Beast - like Powerslave, with more hits and fewer (but bigger) misses.

5 - Senjutsu - Very consistent with some great stuff at the top end. Pushing for the #4 spot but it feels early.

4 - Somewhere In Time - Consistently good but needs more truly great moments for me to rate it higher.

3 - Dance Of Death - A great, varied album with a ton of great songs including a few very special ones. No big misses for me.

2 - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - The bands most consistently good album with several great songs.

1 - The Book Of Souls - Not quite as consistent as the above album, but still good throughout especially considering the length, and at its best is something truly special.
 
Dick Brucinson said:
what I think is interesting is that there's people out there not considering Virtual XI their worst album.
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I don't consider Virtual XI to be the worst Maiden album. There are, in fact, lots who do - both Fear of the Dark and No Prayer For the Dying generally end up with lower ranked songs.
 
There is a thread covering overall Maiden album rankings here, but I can cut & paste my list from there:

1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son: 9.2 >
2. Powerslave: 9.0 >
3. A Matter Of Life And Death: 8.6 >
Excellent​
4. Senjutsu: 8.2 >
5. Somewhere In Time: 8.2 >
6. The Number Of The Beast: 8.0 >
7. The Book Of Souls: 7.9 >
8. Piece Of Mind: 7.8 >
Great​
9. The Final Frontier: 7.3 >
10. Brave New World: 7.3 >
11. No Prayer For The Dying: 7.0 >
12. Killers: 6.9 >
13. Dance Of Death: 6.6 >
Good​
14. Iron Maiden: 5.9 >
15. Fear Of The Dark: 5.9 >
16. The X Factor: 5.5 >
OK​
17. Virtual XI: 4.4>
Kinda stinky​
 
Love doing album rankings for Iron Maiden

  1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
  2. Somewhere in Time
  3. A Matter of Life and Death
  4. Powerslave (+1)
  5. Brave New World (+2)
  6. Iron Maiden (-2)
  7. Piece of Mind (-1)
  8. Killers (+2)
  9. No Prayer For the Dying (+3)
  10. The Number of the Beast (-1)
  11. The X Factor (-3)
  12. The Final Frontier (-1)
  13. Fear of the Dark (+1)
  14. Virtual XI (-1)
  15. The Book of Souls
  16. Dance of Death
  17. Senjutsu - only been six months, feels wrong to place it any higher than this currently. Sometimes I can do mental gymnastics and think, "well this kind of sounds like the Iron Maiden I like" but those moments are few and far between. Every few weeks I'll sit down to listen to The Parchment, and I think that's a great track, but everything else I can do without. I saw a comment on YouTube a few weeks ago that really captured the hivemind praise of this album perfectly: "I think this sounds good, I can't wait for my brain to climatize to these sounds!". The days of hearing (new) good music from Iron Maiden are over and never will return. Your rockstars got too old.
My ranking pre-Senjutsu:
  1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
  2. Somewhere in Time
  3. A Matter of Life and Death
  4. Iron Maiden
  5. Powerslave
  6. Piece of Mind
  7. Brave New World
  8. The X Factor
  9. The Number of the Beast
  10. Killers
  11. The Final Frontier
  12. No Prayer For the Dying
  13. Virtual XI
  14. Fear of the Dark
  15. The Book of Souls
  16. Dance of Death

Top 3 stayed the same and Bottom 2 (almost) stayed the same. Fear of the Dark jumped above Virtual XI. Both albums are a chore to get through, but I think Fear of the Dark is less of an endurance test than Virtual XI is. Brave New World and No Prayer have both grown on me a bit. No Prayer has so much interesting guitar stuff going on that I love listening to.
 
17. Virtual XI
16. No Prayer For the Dying
15. X Factor
14. Fear of the Dark
13. The Final Frontier
12. Dance of Death
11. Iron Maiden
10. A Matter of Life and Death
9. Brave New World
8. Book of Souls
7. Somewhere in Time
6. Killers
5. Senjutsu
4. Piece of Mind
3. Powerslave
2. Seventh Son
1. Number of the Beast

I normally don't like to rank the albums but this is how I feel today. Could change tomorrow.
 
Dityn DJ James said:
...I saw a comment on YouTube a few weeks ago that really captured the hivemind praise of this album perfectly: "I think this sounds good, I can't wait for my brain to climatize to these sounds!". The days of hearing (new) good music from Iron Maiden are over and never will return. Your rockstars got too old....
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Yes, if you look at their identity cards, they are old, but comments like that baffle me because “Senjutsu”, wether you like the album or not, so clearly sounds fresh and musically innovative.
That’s why this commentator’s brain has to process it first.
 
1. Piece of Mind
2. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
3. Somewhere in Time
4. The Number of the Beast
5. Powerslave
6. A Matter of Life and Death
7. Senjutsu
8. Brave New World
9. The Book of Souls
10. The X Factor
11. Dance of Death
12. Iron Maiden
13. No Prayer for the Dying
14. Fear of the Dark
15. The Final Frontier
16. Virtual XI
17. Killers
 
My rankings...

1: Brave New World
2: Piece of Mind
3: The X Factor
4: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
5: Senjutsu
6: Powerslave
7: A Matter of Life and Death
8: Iron Maiden
9: Killers
10: The Number of the Beast
11: Somewhere in Time
12: Virtual XI
13: The Final Frontier
14: Dance of Death
15: The Book of Souls
16: Fear of the Dark
17: No Prayer for the Dying
 
Jer said:
There is a thread covering overall Maiden album rankings here, but I can cut & paste my list from there:

1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son: 9.2 >
2. Powerslave: 9.0 >
3. A Matter Of Life And Death: 8.6 >
Excellent​
4. Senjutsu: 8.2 >
5. Somewhere In Time: 8.2 >
6. The Number Of The Beast: 8.0 >
7. The Book Of Souls: 7.9 >
8. Piece Of Mind: 7.8 >
Great​
9. The Final Frontier: 7.3 >
10. Brave New World: 7.3 >
11. No Prayer For The Dying: 7.0 >
12. Killers: 6.9 >
13. Dance Of Death: 6.6 >
Good​
14. Iron Maiden: 5.9 >
15. Fear Of The Dark: 5.9 >
16. The X Factor: 5.5 >
OK​
17. Virtual XI: 4.4>
Kinda stinky​
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I am surprised to see Senjutsu so high on your list.
 
GhostofCain said:
I am surprised to see Senjutsu so high on your list.
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I was too, but some of the longest songs on the album were rated 9 or 10, and everything other than “Lost In A Lost World” was at least a 7, so I guess it makes sense. I was very comfortable saying it was my second favorite reunion-era album (which it is), but I didn’t think it would make my top 5.
 
My ranking at the moment.

1. Seventh Son
2. Piece of Mind
3. Powerslave
4. Brave New World
5. Number of the Beast
6. Senjutsu
7. Somwhere In Time
8. AMOLAD
9. Book of Souls
10. Final Frontier
11. Dance of Death
12. No Prayer
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Killers
15. Iron Maiden
16. X Factor
17. Virtual XI
 
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