I'm noticing a trend, both Di'anno era albums are rated very low by most people here. Why?
Both albums, especially the debut are great, raw and very influential, they're top 5 in my opinion.
Fans like Iron Maiden for different reasons. Some people don’t like the rawer sound of the Di’anno albums. Some people find the early songwriting and lyrics to be sorely lacking. Some people don’t care how influential something is when they’re assessing it on its own musical merits.
Personally I’ve found that Bruce and Adrian’s contributions, and about 2/3 of Steve’s contributions, make up the core of what I love about the band. Dave and Nicko have their moments too, but Janick’s contributions are a net negative for me. Based on that it’s not hard to guess that I like
Killers more than the debut, that I don’t find much to like during the Blaze era, that NPFTD and FOTD generally don’t rate as highly for me as the albums with Adrian on them, and my relationship with the reunion era albums is up and down depending on how much influence the different band members have, and whether Steve is playing to the 2/3 of his instincts that I like or the 1/3 that I dislike.
Other people are ALL STEVE fans, or they really like Janick, or Dave, or Dennis Stratton, or Paul, or Blaze, and that influences their views. Some people really value high-quality production, and
that influences their views. Some people don’t mind repetitive noodling and bad vocal phrasing, while other people are driven nuts by it. Some people don’t mind out of tune vocals, other people hate them. Some people can’t get into a song unless it has a galloping rhythm and is at least 140bpm, while others don’t have that issue. We all come in with different preferences and biases and get something different out of the music.