Favorite album(s) by Iron Maiden?

[1990 UM fan]

This poll contains ALL of their work. It includes 16 studio albums, 5 compilation albums, 11 live albums, 2 box sets and 4 EPs. Other budget compilation albums, a few box sets and all video albums are not included.

NOTE: This poll is multiple choice. However, once you have placed your vote, it cannot be undone.

[1990 UM fan]

Here's a list of all the songs from each album I chose that are favorites of mine:

"The Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills", "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

"Where Eagles Dare", "Flight of Icarus", "The Trooper", "Die with Your Boots On" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

"Aces High", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (from Powerslave, 1984)

"Wasted Years", "Heaven Can Wait", "Stranger in a Strange Land" (from Somewhere in Time, 1986)

"Moonchild", "Can I Play with Madness", "The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant" (from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, 1988)

"Holy Smoke", "Bring Your Daughter...to the Slaughter" (from No Prayer for the Dying, 1990)

"Fear of the Dark", "Be Quick or Be Dead", "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" (from Fear of the Dark, 1992)

"Sign of the Cross", "Man on the Edge" (from The X Factor, 1995)

"The Clansman" (from Virtual XI, 1998)

"The Wicker Man", "Brave New World", "Blood Brothers", "Out of the Silent Planet", "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" (from Brave New World, 2000)

"Rainmaker", "Paschendale" (from Dance of Death, 2003)

[Race's Girl]

Okay, my go now:

"Run to the Hills" (from Number of the Beast, 1982)

"Bring Your Daughter...to the Slaughter" (from No Prayer for the Dying, 1990)

"Out of the Shadows" (from a Matter of Life and Death, 2006)

[ABlairican Pie]

OH MY GOSH, THESE POLLS JUST KEEP GETTING BETTER AND BETTER!!!!!

I bought my first Maiden album, "Killers" in 1983. I was aware of Maiden when I went to Green River College in Auburn, Washington, that year, when "Number Of the Beast" and the new album "Piece Of Mind" were receiving regular airplay on their station KGRG. To be honest, I was being drawn into the new wave hype at that time, and for a while, metal was not quite so much back on my radar yet. However, it was that freaky cool cover of "Killers" with Eddy wielding a bloody hatchet that made me think, "If my friends at church would hate this album just for the cover, it MUST be good!!"
So I bought it. I was blown away at the opening tracks, 'The Ides Of March" and "Wrathchild"--scary!!! The other tracks were a bit different than I had expected, the sound of a rather young-ish band, well, it was 1981 when I first saw the album, with Paul Di'Anno's growly vocals, before Bruce Dickinson's air raid siren replaced him. It was rather different from how I understood metal, which was largely Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and The Scorpions, very big and arena-style. Maiden in their early stages were pretty much rather street, and there was a sort of, say, "punkishness", a streetwise attitude to their sound on tracks such as "Murders In the Rue Morgue" and "Another Life". This album had to grow on me a bit, but I did find it impressive.

The year before, in 1982, Maiden were a band making headlines with the bogus "Satan-worship" accusations and "backwards masking", and I did like tracks like "The Number Of the Beast" and "Run To the Hills", very compelling. When I saw "Piece Of Mind" being played at the college station where I hung out, it didn't really grab me--yet. "The Trooper" and "Flight Of Icarus" got some airplay and those songs stood out.

But it was with the 'Powerslave' album in 1984 which COMPLETELY sold me on Maiden!!!! It was the song and video for "2 Minutes To Midnight", a gripping apocalyptic track about war and the threat nuclear strikes. This song kept me focused on Maiden to this day!!!

[ABlairican Pie]

I remember at Christmas in 1985, Iron Maiden's live concert video, "Live After Death", from which their double-live album was based, was aired on MTV. My brother and I were watching it, and my mother, obviously not understanding them, said, "But where's the beauty?"
And I said, "But mom, this is IRON MAIDEN!!!!!"



Was any real explanation necessary?

But that video and album stand up as one of the best live albums and concert films of all time, all filmed during their multi-night stint at Long Beach Arena during the Powerslave "World Slavery" Tour.

In 1986, the band followed up with "Somewhere In Time", and oddly, it should have been a career-defining time for them. The world was at their feet, and they were very much in the position to make their Physical Graffiti. But they came up with pretty much a good album, more or less, but, by their standards, not particularly groundbreaking. This was rather ironic, because some very major changes in rock and roll and metal were happening, particularly with Bon Jovi and an underground thrash band called Metallica. Maiden and Priest seemed to not have caught the momentum.
However, there were great tracks from that album, "Caught Somewhere In Time", "Stranger In a Strange Land", the epic "Alexander the Great", and of course, "Wasted Years", a song documenting more of their fatigue on the road. Changes were in the wind....

In 1988, the band came back with a strong followup, "Seventh Son Of a Seventh Son", a concept album about an ill-fated mystic with prophetic abilities. Great songs on this album include "Moonchild", one of their first to incorporate acoustic guitar and synthesizer, "Infinite Dreams", "The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant"--an awesome track, and the excellent song and video, "Can I Play With Madness?" This was going to be the last one to feature guitarist Adrian Smith for a while. They were nearly upstaged by a new opening act, Guns "N' Roses. For a while, Maiden did well and played some of their biggest audiences.

[ABlairican Pie]

Guess what's playing now?? That's right--

THE TROOPER!!!!!!!!!

[ABlairican Pie]

Maiden's next album, "No Prayer For the Dying", had a few good tracks on it, including the newest air force pilot song, "Tailgunner", as well as "Holy Smoke", which poked fun at the t.v. preacher scandals, and the thrashy title track, and the memorable "Bring Your Daughter To the Slaughter". However, the band's momentum was curtailed a bit by the departure of guitarist Adrian Smith. He was replaced by guitarist Janick Gers, who had appeared on Bruce Dickinson's first solo album, a rather poppy, un-Maiden-ish "Tattooed Millionaire". The band faced a struggle to meet and match its previous standards, with mixed results.

In 1992, the band returned with "Fear Of the Dark", whose title track became a live concert staple. The band excelled with the intense commentary of "Be Quick Or Be Dead" about corrupt politicians, and the balladesque "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", which touched on the horrors of the Persian Gulf War. "Wasting Love" became a moving track about broken relationships. Unfortunately, while the album became an improvement over "No Prayer", things were about to hit a very dark patch for the remainder of the decade when Bruce Dickinson announced his departure from the band to pursue a solo career. It was the beginning of a very difficult decade for metal.

[ABlairican Pie]

After two lackluster live albums, Iron Maiden fans said goodbye to Bruce Dickinson as he embarked on his career as a solo artist--and none were happy at his depature. In 1995, Maiden released their first album with a new singer in over a decade, "The X Factor", with former Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley. While Bayley was a capable vocalist, he was standing in the shadow of the Human Air Raid Siren, and had quite a reputation to match. For the most part, fans were glad to see the Maiden still active and putting out albums in a decade where metal became a bad word with all the grunge, alternative, and hip-hop glutting the charts. Still, Iron Maiden, like other metal acts, had to be content to fill small clubs and theaters than the huge arenas from ten years before.

The band continued to put out compilation albums and other product while their popularity was taking a nosedive in the coming years. The music still had that indelible stamp of Maiden, but with a new vocalist, expectations by fans were disappointing. It was not the same. Good, but not epic. The next album, "Virtual XI" was met with low sales.
The classic songs from that era included "The Sign Of the Cross", "Man On the Edge", based on the Michael Douglas urban vigilante movie "Falling Down", "The Clansman", "The Angel And the Gambler", and "Futureal".

By 1999, it was through a chance meeting Steve Harris had with Bruce Dickinson that two decided to mend ways--Bruce wanted to come back after his solo career had faltered, but after discussing some of his concerns as to why he left in the first place, he was willing to come back as long as Adrian Smith was on board as well. Smith's solo career had tanked as well--and the two members decided gladly to come back to the Maiden--in time for the new millenium!!

[ABlairican Pie]

In 2000, the original lineup--including Janick Gers--returned with a new album,
"Brave New World". It was an amazing return to form for the band--however, aside from faithful fans, the group was competing against a bizarre "metal" scene of what was called "NU-metal", the rap and hip-hop infused chord-heavy rock usually composed on 7-string guitars and radical detuning. Would the veteran legends of metal find a place in the NU musical landscape?

The "Brave New" album featured a fearsome Eddy peering down from the skies at a futuristic cityscape, a rather ominous sign for those times, as all would see.
The first track, "Wicker Man", based on the horror/suspense movie of the same name, featured the classic revved-up Maiden style and became an instant favorite, as did the epic "The Ghost Of the Navigator", a huge concert number. The balladesque "Blood Brothers" was another standout track.

Finally, the classic reunion tour went on the road. The band was slated to appear at the Tacoma Dome that summer, but unfortunately, the concert was under-attended--a little over of the arena was full, with the back section partitioned by a curtain with a wide beer garden with merch stands filling the empty area. However, the stage was spectacular--against a backdrop of the "Brave New World" illustration, props resembling collapsed structures of futuristic ruins spread about the sides of the stage, where often Bruce Dickinson, now sporting neatly cropped short hair in keeping with his new occupation as airline pilot, would grab onto rings and hoist himself down the parallel bars in a frantic bout of onstage gymnastics. The band was in top form, performing mostly new songs, a smattering of Blaze Bayley-era tracks, as well as a nuimber of familiar favorites such as "The Trooper" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

This being my first Maiden concert, I certainly enjoyed it, but only if the T-Dome were filled to capacity!! Everyone was excited to see the Maiden, one fellow behind my began "drumming" on my back in time to "The Trooper", this was hilarious!! Some people were having a great time! Bruce came out in his Crimean War outfit with the British flag, amazing!
Bruce was aware of the media beating metal was taking as of lately, saying that for all the naysayers claiming that metal was "dead", he countered with "Look up--the resurgence is all around you!!" A newspaper critic mocked this comment by saying, "But the Tacoma Dome was only half full! What was he talking about?"

Give it time, give it time. Metal and Maiden were about to make a full return...

[ABlairican Pie]

The next few years were huge for Maiden everywhere else in the world, as in 2002 they played for some of their largest audiences, in South America where they released "Rock In Rio" to commemorate their success down there. Wherever they went on the globe they drew vast, fanatical audiences.

However, in America, the beast lie sleeping....

In the fall of 2003, the band released "Dance Of Death", a fine album whose album cover, however, was panned due to the CGI depiction of Eddy in a Southern antebellum establishment. Fans and critics preferred the more organic, traditionally illustrated Eddy as on previous covers.
Regardless, the album contained a number of excellent tracks as the riveting
opener "Wildest Dreams", as well as the epic war tale, "Paschendale", about one of the bloodiest battles of World War 1, "Rainmaker", "No More Lies", and folksy title track resembling the music of Riverdance.
Still, the world tour behind the album featured only two American dates. Clearly the band felt that America had largely forgotten them in the past several years commercially, which made a full-scale tour seem not so feasible at this point.

Bruce Dickinson would often rant onstage about disappointing trends in America, from Jennifer Lopez' nearly-invisible dress at an awards show to "trendy" NU-metal bands like Korn. Unfortunately, when Maiden later did make a major tour in America, Bruce's outspokenness would have certain..... repercussions....