5- Man On The Edge: The 5th position was the hardest one to pick. There are also some good videos that could easily get this last spot: Wasting Love's director and photography team sure did an excellent work, Women In Uniform's low budget in your face early 80's nostalgia along with great image edition would also fit and the memorabilia video from Wasted years is also really cool (plus it has personal value since it was my first contact with the band). But I really like the distorted strobbing footage of the band playing alongside the intentionally artificial montage of businessmen falling down from skyscrapers. It really gets the tense and paranoid state of made the song wants you to feel.
4- Speed Of Light: Hedgehog haired Sonic like Eddie playing a videogame starring himself is already a great idea. Adding the fact it starts in the early 80's portraying Maiden's cover and game's graphic quality from the said era and every level he passes shows us a more recent incarnation of Eddie and a better looking videogame is even better. Picturing the last level as a last generation FPS with Eddie removing his own heart on a Mayan temple is super. But the icing on the cake is when the machine crashes in the very end leaving Eddie livid (we all hate when that happens and Eddie's no different). Funny as hell, well designed, animated and conceived and filled with delicious Easter eggs.
3- Rainmaker: Once again great photography directing, wardrobe, make up, editing, etc. Hell, this video manages to deliver the ambiance that abomination of a cover from Dance Of Death failed ridiculously in a glorious and beautiful way. As a bonus we're presented with the boys doing some playback and Eddie's cameo is also great and refreshing (pun intended).
2- Can I Play With Madness: I was just a kid when I first saw this damn thing and I went bananas. a) the concept and storyline are top notch b) the Eddie animations are super c) the cave elements, situations and overall ambiance is absolutely surreal and bizarre. Even to today's standards this video is rock solid. Plus it was the last footage ever featuring the great late Graham Chapman. In sum: everything's top notch in this clip.
1- The Final Frontier: The easiest choice by far. Great inclusion of the cover's visual elements, cool plot, Hollywood like production, great CGI elements unlike the majority of the band's previous clips (although Eddie's skin texture sometimes looks a bit too glossy), top notch direction, etc, etc... To sum it up: when you put renowned cinema professionals in command of things you risk yourself to get one hell of a top notch eye popping video clip. And that's precisely what happened.
