Your Top 5 Iron Maiden albums

Siddharth

Siddharth

Long Distance Trooper
There have been numerous threads regarding favourite Maiden songs and ranking all the studio albums but for a band having a wide discography ranging across 17 records to their name, we will not only be listing but discussing our top 5 favourite albums by the band!

My Top 5:

5. A Matter Of Life And Death
In my opinion, the best post-reunion record by the band. If there is a "desert island" Maiden album, I would go for this! Solid rockers like the opener Different World and The Pilgrim, anthems like The Longest Day, epics like For The Greater Good Of God and The Legacy, to mid-range epics like These Colours Don't Run. Love the overall atmosphere of the album.

My review of the album - HERE

4. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
One of the very best records from what I call the band's golden age. The guitar tone and the overall theme of the album is just awesome. Each member is at the top of his game. Favourite songs: The Evil That Men Do, The Clairvoyant, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and Infinite Dreams.

My review of the album - HERE

3. The Number Of The Beast
Bruce's first record with the band. The energy is just infectious on this one. The album that gave us some of the most iconic songs not just by Maiden but in the whole genre like Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Number Of The Beast, Run To The Hills and The Prisoner. Not to mention, Clive's drumming is also pivotal for its legendary status.

2. Powerslave
You just can't go wrong with Powerslave. The entire band in its prime with a take-no-prisoners approach. Aces High, 2 Minutes To Midnight, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, Powerslave, Flash Of The Blade all top notch bangers! Definitely put the band's name among the very legends of Heavy Metal!

1. Somewhere In Time
My favourite album by my favourite band! The tone of this album feels like a warm blanket in a chilly winter. The songwriting, the overall instrumentation in the songs are rock-solid. Favourite songs: The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Deja-Vu, Wasted Years, Alexander The Great.
 
5. Somewhere in Time / The Book of Souls / The X Factor
4. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
3. The Number of the Beast
2. Piece of Mind
1. Powerslave.
 
1 No Prayer For The Dying
2 Debut
3 Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
4 Somewhere In Time
5 The Final Frontier

I really love SIT for its 1980s style melancholy.
 
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1. Piece of Mind, first Maiden album I bought, special place in my heart.
2. Number of the Beast
3. Powerslave
4. Seventh Son
5. A Matter of Life and Death.

Best live album of all time for me is Live After Death.
 
1.Brave New World
2.Senjutsu
3.Somewhere In Time
4.A Matter Of Life And Death
5.Virtual XI (yes I know I can say SSOASS or Powerslave, but melancholic vibes are special to me)

I also like DOD, TBOS and TXF a lot.
 
1. Somewhere in Time
2. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
3. Powerslave
4. The Number of the Beast
5. Piece of Mind

Notable mention: Live after Death ( live album )
 
The love for Somewhere In Time is amazing on this forum! It wasn´t the first Maiden album I got but that one always will be my favourite.
 
1. Virtual XI
I've made no secret about my love for this album. Yeah, I'm aware of its shortcomings. How couldn't I be? It all everyone talks about with regards to it. Nicko's performance is woefully uninspired. The production is weak. A few edits here and there could've been quite effective (funnily enough I disagree with DLTTEOAS or TAATG being shortened, my choices would be the final choruses for WTWC and TEF which go on for a bit too long without real changes).

Blaze sounds much better and more comfortable on this album compared to TXF. The general songwriting is incredibly close to the style of BNW. The focus on singable guitar melodies and catchy choruses seals the deal. People should really listen to the live versions (Futureal and The Clansman with Bruce, the rest with Blaze's solo band) to see how strong this material can be when presented in a different form.

Kalata said:
5.Virtual XI (yes I know I can say SSOASS or Powerslave, but melancholic vibes are special to me)
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2. A Matter Of Life And Death
VXI is my favorite, in large parts due to nostalgia, but this one probably qualifies as their best album in my opinion. Incredibly consistent, not a single weak song on there, great production, phenomenal performances. So many little details and intricacies in the arrrangements. I really hope we'll get an official live album of the 2006 leg at some point to really appreciate the differences. Also, really cool album cover.

3. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
By far the best album of the 80s and another almost perfect record. OTGDY is the only track I find to be a bit weaker than the rest. The chorus just doesn't do it for me. The rest though? Bloody amazing. Moonchild's chorus is an absolute earworm (the guitar work!), the acoustic outro to The Prophecy is almost hypnotizing, and the final minutes of the title track are contending for the best music they've ever recorded. The artwork is gorgeous as well.

4. Fear Of The Dark
Now for some more controversial takes again. Yeah, songs like Chains Of Misery or FHTE are kinda goofy. So what? A happy-go-lucky song about cowboys vs native tribes, or a song essentially quoting the main melody of "When The Saints Go Marching In" while singing about Satan and demonic nightmares is pretty goofy as well. Having fun is not mutually exclusive with heavy metal. I take the songs on FOTD for what they are.

You have atmospheric and darker songs like ATSS, The Fugitive or the title track. The dumb but fun rockers like FHTE, COM or WW. The incredibly underrated Childhood's End, with its parallels to TETMD. Judas Be My Guide, unfortunately forgotten despite being one of their best rockers. Wasting Love, filled to the brim with gorgeous melodies. I love almost all songs on the album, The Apparition being the sole exception.

I've always loved the production on the album, with its dreamy and mysterious vibe. It's one of the more unique sounding albums. I also adore the extensive use of acoustic guitars throughout the album. Unfortunately something they didn't pursue further; nowadays those are mostly used for an intro to a Gers/Harris epic at best. The artwork is one of the more iconic ones.

5. Dance Of Death
This one swaps positions with FOTD, they are essentially tied for me. This one doesn't have any songs I outright dislike but even the weakest tracks have something I can appreciate. Wildest Dreams is not the most exciting song, but the VI VII I progression after the chorus and Adrian's lead work is phenomenal. Never really cared for Paschendale, but the tapping lick is brilliant. Montségur consists of one half obnoxious and annoying power metal cheese and one half one of the coolest and heaviest tracks they've ever recorded.

On the other hand, soooo many great things to hear. Rainmaker, the super melodic short rocker. NML and DOD, epics full of amazing melodies and great story telling by Bruce. Gates Of Tomorrow might get a ton of hate, but I genuinely adore the amount of vocal harmonies and their playing around with modal interchange. Journeyman has a lot of the latter as well, with some truly stunning verses. Age Of Innocence might have shitty lyrics, but the music is great; we get the James Bond chord progression!

The production is a wreck, especially compared to BNW and AMOLAD, and the less we talk about the cover the better. BNW had them still getting into the groove of things and featured a lot of similarities to VXI; this one showed that the reunion is here to stay, they still have something to say and to prove, and they aren't out of ideas yet.
 
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