Date: November 14th, 2024 7:24 AM Author: Manually Patching Allaire (No Future)
No Prayer is super underrated IMO; tons of bangers. It's certainly weaker compared to everything that went before, but it gets way too much hate IMO. It reminds me of the scrappier, shorter songs of the first two records, and the glib, vaguely political, cynical, sneering content to me dovetails well with my own interests of the mid 80s to mid 90s splatterpunk movement (right down to "Bring Your Daughter..." which was of course used for Nightmare on Elm Street 5, which was partially written by splatterpunk impressario John Skipp).
I'm gonna track by track this actually.
1. Tailgunner--It's no Aces High, but it
2. Holy Smoke --I like this one, again in part because it dovetails with the culture wars of the late 1980s and the reaction from the splatterpunks, etc.
3. No Prayer For the Dying Filler
4. Public Enema Number One Also filler, and a horrible title, but it's solid, and has a shout-out to The Earth Dies Screaming, which is the sort of British horror namedropping I appreciate
5. Fates Warning I don't really remember this one
6. The Assassin --I loved this song in high school. I'll concede it hasn't aged that well--it's kinda hokey--but I think it's catchy as hell.
7. Run Silent Run Deep --This is total classic Maiden--historically grounded, good Steve Harris work, incredible operatic Bruce vocals.
8. Hooks In You--Love this song! Catchy catchy catchy!
9. Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter--It's a pretty bad title, but Bruce gives it his all on the vocals, and I'm just really fond of it.
10. Mother Russia--Closing strong, with a heavy, portentous track (and more history!)
I've never really clicked w/ Seventh Son that much; I need to remedy that. It's not that I don't like any of the songs but they never jump out at me, and honestly some of it is way too poppy ("Can I Play With Madness" isn't a bad song but to me it's all the things people complained about w/ No Prayer)
Date: November 14th, 2024 4:05 PM Author: Manually Patching Allaire (No Future)
it's certainly the weakest out of those 8 (although tbh I only like about half of the first album--but that half is nutso good), but I think it's still a fine piece of heavy metal
Date: November 14th, 2024 7:36 AM Author: garnet domesticated piazza
i have cutoffs with a lot of bands. like the rolling stones - i don't care about anything after tattoo you. david bowie ends for me with scary monsters...
i stop with iron maiden at seventh son. i like specific songs, like fear of the dark, etc. but i just don't listen to the albums.
Date: November 14th, 2024 8:20 AM Author: garnet domesticated piazza
1. piece of mind
2. number of the beast
3. powerslave
very hard, they could all be no. 1 though. the rolling stones are my favorite band and i'd have an easier time ranking their classic albums. hard to do with maiden.
Date: March 26th, 2026 7:49 PM Author: iridescent effete dog poop dilemma
I think the first 2 albums are rated a bit low. This might be because they are pre-Bruce records. He elevates all the staple songs on both albums and allows them to really shine on their live records.
Paul Di'Anno's gravelly lower register voice makes them sound like a generic proto-version of the classic Iron Maiden we all love.
But those early records have some of the band's absolute best songs.
From Self-titled, I'd put Prowler, Phantom, Iron Maiden and Transylvania against any 4 songs on any other album.
Killers has some absolute monster tracks too. The opening 3 in particular (Ides, Wrathchild, Murder in the Rue Morgue) are some of Harris's best compositions. You also have Ghengis Khan. Prodigal Son is a uniquely pretty song too.
I'm going to say something a little controversial here, but I think Number of the Beast is a bit overrated as an album even if we can say it is "great". It has Hallowed be Thy Name which is prob my fav Maiden song. Number of the beast is a solid, if monotonous and overrated song too. 22 Acacia Avenue is good too. But Run to the Hills is massively overrated. Invaders is a decent song but kind of generic within their catalog. Also not a huge fan of children of the damned which kind of drags. The song makes you suffer and there's no real payoff. The Prisoner too, for me, is a bit forgettable outside of the intro. It's like a few slapped together riffs to justify a half assed sing along chorus.
I've kind of run out of steam here so i'll just do a ranking:
1. Seventh Son
2. Iron Maiden
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of Mind
5. Killers
6. Somewhere in Time
7. Number of the beast
EDITED on 8/21 to account for the face that I got a lot more into Iron Maiden after making this post and have learned a ton of their songs on bass since that time.