When I first got into Maiden, I thought The Clansman was one of their best songs, and I would still put it in their top10 probably. Same with Sign of the Cross, another Blaze song. Both Rock in Rio versions are awesome. As much as the Blaze era gets a lot of crap, I think the two Blaze albums are at least on par with, and if not even better than No Prayer and Fear of the Dark. Those albums also had that "B-Side"-feeling, and despite a very few select songs (like the title track on FotD), there wasn't much to get excited about.
Maiden had a pretty weak 90's, but that makes their return to form in the 00's even more remarkable. Maiden's 90's isn't really all that different from what a lot of other bands go through, whether it's Metallica, AC/DC, Judas Priest or Deep Purple (just a few long running bands), and Maiden did something that not a lot of bands can do, they returned to form and have been very consistent since Brave New World. Dance of Death is one of those albums that I probably like more than the majority, maybe even more than BNW. AMOLAD is up there in discussions for the best Maiden album IMO, and while I thought The Final Frontier sounded a bit tired in some places, there were still some amazing songs to make up for it. I thought the first half of the album was lackluster, but everything from Isle of Avalon and forwards was pretty strong.