Weakest Song from each Iron Maiden album

Since this is contextless, I can only assume you’re upset about the inclusion of “The Apparition” and “Don’t Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger”.
Flash Of The Blade and The Man Of Sorrows, actually.
 
IM: Iron Maiden
Killers: Prodigal Son
NOTB: Invaders
Piece of Mind: Quest for Fire
Powerslave: Flash of the Blade
Somewhere in Time: Heaven Can Wait
Seventh Son: Can I Play With Madness
NPFTD: Hooks in You
FOTD: The Apparition
TXF: Aftermath
VXI: Don’t Look...
BNW: The Mercenary
DOD: Age of Innocence
AMOLAD: These Colours Don’t Run
TFF: Title track
BOS: Man of Sorrows

give or take a few they'd all be either the worst or one of the worst for me bar Heaven Can Wait which would be one of the best. CIPWM is only one of the "worst" by default as well due to the quality of the album.
 
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Prowler
Another Life
Invaders
Quest for Fire
Losfer Words
Deja Vu
The Prophecy
The Assassin
The Fugitive
2 Am
Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
The Nomad
Age of Innocence
Different World
Mother of Mercy
The Man of Sorrows

Just spotted this, must have been out of my mind that day picking Different World, FTGOG has always been my least favourite on that album, and least favourite Steve Harris epic.
 
give or take a few they'd all be either the worst or one of the worst for me bar Heaven Can Wait which would be one of the best. CIPWM is only one of the "worst" by default as well due to the quality of the album.
I was listening to SIT tonight and it is so hard to choose a bad song on the album. HCW was last because I had to choose one!
 
Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden
Killers: Drifters (
Though I'm not very familiar with the album so this isn't really accurate)
Number of the Beast: Gangland
Piece of Mind: Quest For Fire
Powerslave: Losfer Words
Somewhere in Time: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Seventh Son: Can I Play With Madness?
No Prayer: The Assassin
Fear of the Dark: The Fugitive
The X Factor: Judgement of Heaven
Virtual XI: Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
Brave New World: The Fallen Angel
Dance of Death: New Frontier (
Sorry Nicko)
AMOLAD: The Longest Day (
Great intro, but I lose interest after)
The Final Frontier: TMWWBK
Book of Souls:
Either The Great Unknown or The Man of Sorrows. Undecided.

Update time! Added Senjutsu and changed my mind on a few songs after recent re-listens.

Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden
Killers:
Drifters
Number of the Beast: Invaders
Piece of Mind:
Quest For Fire
Powerslave:
Losfer Words*
Somewhere in Time:
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Seventh Son:
Can I Play With Madness?*
No Prayer for the Dying:
The Assassin
Fear of the Dark:
The Fugitive
The X Factor:
Judgement of Heaven
Virtual XI:
Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
Brave New World:
The Fallen Angel*
Dance of Death:
Age of Innocence
AMOLAD:
The Longest Day*
The Final Frontier: Mother of Mercy
The Book of Souls:
The Great Unknown
Senjutsu: Lost In A Lost World*

*These aren't bad songs by any means, just the weakest songs from very strong albums.
 
A new Maiden album and some changes. I'll divide this one in two groups: albums that contain what I consider to be bad songs/ fillers, those who are devoid of bad stuff but feature one or two songs that while not being as good as the rest are still strong material.

Regarding the first group, albums with stinkers/ fillers:

The Number Of The Beast - Gangland: Same as it was. While not being utter crap (lit's even enjoyable) it's a bit confuse and forgettable. Of course Invaders' chorus is awful and the lower point of the entire album. But its two repetitions are less than 20 seconds long and IMO the remainder of the song is a 10 out of 10 in my book. So yeah... Gangland.

Piece Of Mind - Quest For Fire: The instrumental section is quite nice but the lyrics and vocal line ruin it. If they made an instrumental with some soloing action out of this one it would turn out really cool (the chorus has some resemblances with Transylvania). If QFF wasn't included in the album the other song I can think of is Sun And Steel not because it's a filler of any kind (TBH it's a really cool track) but because the remainder of the songs are so amazing it kinda pales a bit in comparison. Nevertheless way better than QFF.

No Prayer For The Dying - Hooks In You: Hard rock-ish second tier material. Easy, easy pick. There are some songs that lack some consistency here like The Assassin or are kind of strange bodies on the album like Holy Smoke but all of them have something to offer while Hooks in You is an utter disgrace.

Fear Of The Dark - Fear Is The Key: In a record I consider to be filled with garbage (From Here To Eternity, Wasting Love), weird tunes (The Apparition, Weekend Warrior, Chains Of Misery) and still can spawn an insipid filler in The Fugitive it would probably be hard to pick an absolute low point. But no. Fear Is The Key is by far the song I hoped Maiden would never wrote. That's how much disdain I have for it.

Virtual XI - The Angel And The Gambler: Maiden's eleventh record sure has some mediocre tunes (Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger, When Two Worlds Collide) but that irritating keyboard a la The Who meets Van Halen's Jump and listening "Don't you think I'm a savior? Don't you think I could save you? Don't you think I could save your life?" dozens of times is what makes of TAATG the albums' worst track by any counts.

Brave New World - The Mercenary: Absolute filler. Is it horrendous? No, by any means. But it's damn boring. And while some other songs here wreck my nerves due to some dumb passages or structural chaos they still bring great stuff to the table. The title track's chorus is mundane and from that point on is an essay on repetition of previous great passages on uptempo but fact is up to the first chorus it's simply gorgeous stuff. Dream Of Mirrors has that horrible prologue and intro and also embarks on the uptempo repetition train but the verses, calm bridge and chorus are really good. So yeah... The Mercenary simply does nothing for me.

Dance Of Death - Age Of Innocence: Awful chorus, the soft parts on the bridge are really feeble and the lyrics are poor. New Frontier is also a bit of a filler: weak chorus and I'm really not buying Bruce's melody on the verses. But nonetheless it still has some energy in it unlike AOI.

The Book Of Souls - Shadows Of The Valley: Starting with one of the most blatant cases of self plagiarism ever and presenting us with Bruce's worst performance in the album this track still sounds boring as hell to me. The Man Of Sorrows is perhaps the song that comes a bit closer due to its completely out of context beginning but the remainder is enjoyable and by no means can be compared to SOTV that easily gets the worst of TBOS IMO.

Now albums without weak songs or fillers but with a couple of songs less good than the others:

Iron Maiden: Yeah... no bad songs here, Super solid with a huge stand out track in it (Phantom Of The Opera). I think it comes out to Charlotte The Harlot, Running Free or Iron Maiden but while being really different between themselves I think each one of these songs have their charm and are truly well penned. I'll pick Iron Maiden on overplaying alone once again.

Killers: Amazing and unique record full of energy but I believe Another Life and Drifter are the songs that feel a bit more made on the run. Still really good hard n' heavy stuff. This time I'd go with Drifter while still liking it a lot. P.S.: that was until @Mega reminded me that The Ides Of March is a song (duh!) and although I really like it as an intro to the whole album it loses a bit of value on its own.

Powerslave: This album presents us with 3 of the most perfect moments in music (Aces High, Powerslave and ROTAM) as well as 5 other amazing tunes. Hell, I think it comes down to The Duelists or Flash Of The Blade (two songs that would be stand outs on various Maiden albums). And once again I'll pick Flash Of The Blade although it saddens me.

The X Factor: Another super cohesive ( and truly underrated) album featuring a masterpiece (SOTC) and several great songs. And while being great tunes the last two songs from Maiden's tenth studio effort are the ones I believe to be the least good here. And while 2 AM is much better constructed and really nails the ambiance it's intended to build, The Unbeliever is somewhat hurt by those cringe worth harmonics and first vocal line. But the remainder of the song is absolutely amazing so this time I'll switch it to 2 AM.

A Matter Of Life And Death: IMO this remains to this very day the best post reunion Maiden release. And one of the reasons is the fact that, besides featuring a handful of tracks that I consider to be on par with Maiden's classics, it's absolutely devoid of a single filler. As I stated before the least amazing tracks here are The Pilgrim (101 exciting well written Maiden) and Out Of The Shadows(a glorious semi acoustic song that would shine in the vast majority of Maiden's releases). By these picks alone one can see how great of an album AMOLAD is. And I'll still go with The Pilgrim although it is one hell of a track.

The Final Frontier: While not being a super album per se, The Final Frontier amazed me by not featuring a simple "mmmmm skip it" moment. Mother Of Mercy receives a lot of flack and besides the mundane lyrics that really puzzles me: excellent intro, strong pace, intense and passionate. Is it closer to the lower tier of songs on the album than the best ones? I concur so. However IMO the overpraised Coming Home is on the same echelon (if not a bit lower). Yes it is a great song with an excellent pre chorus and a built to play live refrain but I think all the remainder of the tracks on TFF are better. All but one: The Man Who Would Be King. But even this track features some truly amazing passages like its final part. And overall, is truly well built and enjoyable (although I'd make the initial part shorter). But nonetheless The Man Who Would Be King remains as my least great from TFF.

Senjutsu: Ah! A freshly released album and to my pleasure once again not a single stinker or filler. That doesn't mean that some songs here and there could be better rounded but one thing's certain as far as I'm concerned: Senjutsu won't present you skipable or mediocre songs. That being said I believe the least achieved moments may be The Time Machine and Darkest Hour: two well put together songs that absolutely hit the target they're intended to strike but fall a bit short when compared with some others in my opinion. And although it's a great song I'll go with the gloomy anguish of Darkest Hour which proves how much of a cohesive and astonishig album Senjutsu is.

WAIT! There are two albums missing. Yup you're right. These two I won't even bother say which song I'd pick since they're so good it's almost criminal. So let's see.

Somewhere In Time: In my last post I picked Deja Vu. And yes... besides being one heck of a song it's not my favorite track out of SIT. But excluding Caught Somewhere In Time, Wasted Years, Heaven Can Wait and Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (four absolutely untouchable songs IMO) and perhaps Sea Of Madness which is nearly as perfect, I can't seriously point a worst or least good song here. So it's easier to point which ones aren't my picks for sure (those 4) and the rest while not being as mind blowing are equally amazing and untouchable. There are no worst of's or least good's here. It's SIT, period.

Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son: This album has the same "problem" than SIT but while not considering it as good overall, it's even more cohesive. I picked The Evil That Men Do in my last post. Man... The Evil That Men Do and "worst song" simply don't fit. Period. So I'll do the same I did with SIT. There are 4 tracks I consider to be absolutely untouchable in SSOASS: Moonchild, Infinite Dreams, Can I Play With Madness and The Prophecy. The remainder four are almost as perfect as these but I grade them a tid bit below. If you want to point a least good fom that group go ahead. I won't.
 
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So some albums dont have any "worst" song sinse I find the albums perfect, but there are some songs I dont like. So lets see.

Iron Maiden: Charlotte the Harlot. Dont like it

Killers: Drifter. Not memorable

Number of the Beast: Gangland

Piece of Mind: Quest for Fire. I like it alot

Powerslave: Duellists. Like it alot

Somwhere in Time: Deja Vu. Dont like the lyrics so much

Seventh Son: Prophecy. Like it alot

No Prayer: The Assassin. It sucks

Fear of the Dark: The Apparition. One of Maidens worst songs

X Factor: Look for the Truth. Boring

Virtual: Angel and the Gambler. The worst song they have written.

Brave New World: Out of the Silent Planet. Like it

Dance of Death: Age of Innocence. Dont really like it

Matter of Life and Death: The Legacy. Its great, but to long

Final Frontier: The Alchemist. Could have been left off

Book of Souls: Man of Sorrows. Could have been left off

Senjutstu: Days of Future Past. Like it
 
Now, once again let's make an exercise... An album featuring 9 of my least favorite songs per album:

The Ides Of March
The Pilgrim
Flash Of The Blade
Charlotte The Harlot
The Mercenary
Darkest Hour
Gangland
2 AM
The Man Who Would Be King

Is it a mind blowing album? No. But still damn good!
 
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Charlotte The Harlot
Drifter
Invaders
Quest for Fire
Losfer Words*
Alexander The Great*
The Evil that Men Do*
Hooks in You
Weekend Warrior+
Judgement of Heaven*
Don't look to the eyes of a stranger
Mercenary*
Age of Innocence
The Pilgrim*
The Alchemist*
The Red and The Black+
Lost in a Lost World*

The (*) mark are songs that happen to be least favourable on the record, while also being good or sometimes excellent tracks
The (+) mark are songs that have competition. E.g. I had to choose one from multiple bad options.
The unmaked are those that don't have competition, e.g. they're the sole track of the record I don't find that likable.

Edit : removed + from Invaders. I don't find Gangland a bad track at all. Sort of a Killers mental leftover but not bad.
 
I don't consider these songs the "worst", they're still good but I think they're the weakest from each album.

Running Free
Prodigal Son
Gangland
Quest for Fire
Back in the Village
Deja Vu
The Prophecy
Hooks in You
The Apparition
Look for the Truth
Angel and the Gambler
Out of the Silent Planet
Age of Innocence
The Legacy
The Alchemist
Man of Sorrows

I don't have a "worst song" from Senjutsuyet.
 
Iron Maiden: Charlotte the Harlot
Killers: Prodigal Son
The Number of the Beast: Gangland (I feel really tempted to pick the title track)
Piece of Mind: Sun and Steel (great song)
Powerslave: Losfer Words
Somewhere in Time: The Loneliness of... (would be the best song on some of their lesser albums)
SSOASS: Moonchild (I still don't get the love for this at all)
No Prayer for the Dying: Tailgunner
Fear of the Dark: Weekend Warrior
The X-Factor: The Unbeliever
Virtual XI: The Angel and the Gambler
Brave New World: The Fallen Angel (great song)
Dance of Death: Wildest Dreams
AMOLAD: Out of the Shadows (Another great song)
The Final Frontier: Satellite 15/The Final Frontier (I like this one quite a lot as well)
The Book of Souls: The Man of Sorrows
Senjutsu: Senjutsu (It just doesn't work as an opener. I'm really torn between this and The Time Machine)
 
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

Killers - Another Life / Twilight Zone if we consider the USA/Canada/1998 ed.

The Number of the Beast - Invaders

Piece of Mind - Quest for Fire

Powerslave - Flash of the Blade

Somewhere in Time - Heaven Can Wait

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Only the Good Die Young

No Prayer for the Dying - Bring your Daughter... to the Slaughter

Fear of the Dark - The Apparition

The X Factor - 2 AM

Virtual XI - The Angel and the Gambler

Brave New World - The Nomad

Dance of Death - Wildest Dreams

A Matter of Life and Death - Different World

The Final Frontier - Isle of Avalon

The Book of Souls - Speed of Light
Senjutsu - Lost in a Lost World
 
Running Free
Another Life
Gangland
Quest For Fire
The Duellists
Déjà Vu
The Prophecy
Mother Russia
The Fugitive
Look For The Truth
The Angel and the Gambler
The Mercenary
Age of Innocence
Lord of Light
The Alchemist
The Great Unknown
Lost In A Lost World
 
I don't get the dislike for Lost In A Lost World at all. To me it's either the 3rd or 4th best song on Senjutsu.
My 4th favorite paired with Death Of The Celts and only surpassed by Stratego, The Writing On The Wall and of course Hell On Earth. Great tune.
 
But then again @KidInTheDark666 it's all personal taste. I also don't get your dislike for Moonchild, The Alchemist, Mother Russia or the Great Unknown or even thinking about putting The Number Of The Beast on this lot. But I don't need to get it... it's your taste and it's ok as far as I'm concerned.
 
It's hard to read lists here because inevitably you will see a track you think is great at the bottom of someones list. More than one, if you're a fan of TAATG like I am.

Anyway, my list as it stands:

Iron Maiden - Transylvania
Killers - Genghis Khan
The Number Of The Beast - Invaders
Piece Of Mind - To Tame A Land
Powerslave - The Duellists
Somewhere In Time - Heaven Can Wait
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - The Prophecy
No Prayer For The Dying - Run Silent Run Deep
Fear Of The Dark - Fear Is The Key
The X Factor - Look For The Truth
Virtual XI - When Two Worlds Collide
Brave New World - The Nomad
Dance Of Death - Gates Of Tomorrow
A Matter Of Life And Death - These Colours Don't Run
The Final Frontier - El Dorado
The Book Of Souls - The Man Of Sorrows
Senjutsu - Death Of The Celts
 
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