Aww guys, seems like I missed the start of the party. You've already been through the 80s. But I'll give a quick power ranking of Iron Maiden's seven first albums:
1. Killers
2. Iron Maiden
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of Mind
5. The Number of the Beast
6. Somewhere in Time
7. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
I like the Di'Anno albums best musically, even though Bruce is way better singer. And again, I'll take some of the Bruce's solo albums ahead of any Iron Maiden album. Also, I didn't first think I'd put Powerslave that high up, but when I thought about it, it's pretty damn solid album, without any filler. Those are also pretty much the best Iron Maiden albums. Maybe I'd snuck The X Factor between TNOBT and SIT.
Now onto No Prayer for the Dying. After Seventh Son, guitarist Adrian Smith (who I think is the best guitarist of the current three) left the band. After No Prayer, long-time graphic designer Derek Riggs left the band and and the follow-up Fear of the Dark is the last album produced by Martin Birch. After touring for FOTD Bruce Dickinson left to pursue a solo career. Early nineties were a clear end of an era to Iron Maiden to my mind the band has never reached the heights of the 1980s, even with Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson rejoining the fold in 1999.
I love the cover art. It's pretty simple and effective. It's also worth noting that Eddie is no longer sporting metal plate keeping his skull in one piece in his forehead, which he received after being lobotomized in Piece of Mind era. Oh, and the original picture with Eddie strangling the undertaker is the better one.
Musically, Maiden pretty much abandoned the synths and proggier song structures and opted to make pretty much balls-out rock record, the album along with Killers are the only Maiden albums to date not to have at least one longer epic song. The overall sound of the album is also a lot grittier than most of its predecessors. Bruce also sings with raspier voice than on earlier Maiden albums. The new guitarist, Janick Gers, is a good guitarist, but severely lacks the finesse when compared to Adrian Smith. I feel Adrian's solos are usually tasteful and well thought-out, where as Janick just squirts notes all around.
The material on the album is very uneven, there are some amazing songs and some meh songs. I think you could make one great album if you'd take the best tracks from No Prayer and Fear of the Dark, but both albums have too many lackluster songs.
The album starts with two rockier songs. Tailgunner (named after an XXX movie) evokes again images of II World War dogfights, but is musically a far cry from Aces High. Holy Smoke has a catchy main riff, but is otherwise pretty dull (fun guitar solos though).
Oh, and it has an absolutely hilarious music video.Then the quality thankfully jumps up a lot. The title track has some of the best guitar melodies in the band's whole catalogue. Public Enema Number One is the best straight-forward rocker on the album, with catchy chord structure and an amazing guitar solo by Dave Murray. I love the punny title and its rather dystopic lyrics. Fates Warning begins with a slow guitar intrduction reminiscing De Ja Vu from Somewhere in Time, but soon picks up pace with heavy gallopping rhythm and heavy guitar chords. The verse has an amazing guitar melody.
The Assassin has some good ideas, but the end product feels quite disjointed. The same can be said about the album closer Mother Russia.
Run Silent Run Deep is also one of the highlights of the album, amazing verse riff and a catchy chorus. I remember reading from some interview that Bruce doesn't really like the lyrics of the song, but I'll have to disagree, they'll portray pretty well the nature of submarine warfare. Also, the twin-guitar solo at 2:51 is one of the greatest moments in any Iron Maiden song ever.
Hooks in You is the only song on the album that has writing credits for Adrian Smith. It is yet another straight-forward major key hard rocker such as the two opening song. And similarly with them, it is a decent, but not very memorable song. Although it has cowbell in the intro.
Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter is a reimagining of a Bruce Dickinson solo song written for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, with a heavier sound, but it's pretty much home among the other rockers on the album. I've never liked the song very much, but it's an OK hard rock track. Damn, did Maiden want to make an AC/DC record?
Mother Russia, like I said before, has its moments, but it seems like it's composed of parts that don't always go together seamlessly.
To recap, there are four top notch songs on the album (No Prayer for the Dying, Public Enema Number One, Fates Warning and Run Silent Run Deep). I wouldn't call any song on the album bad, but most are just quite average. I don't think hard rock/hair metal is where the Maiden should be at, they're a fucking heavy metal band with some progressive edge.
I also want to say that I love
this cover of Kill Me (Ce Soir) which was a B-side and it beats most of the album easily.
Well, this turned out to be a slight novel. Thanks for everyone who bothered to read this far!