No Prayer and Fear of the Dark are pretty similar albums. But I give FotD the slight edge since the songs that are good are better than anything from NPftD. And it really begins right from the opener. BQOBD >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Tailgunner.
To me, the difference between NPftD and FotD is significant, and some of that difference is a sense I get on FotD that the band is just tired and running on empty. I don't know if this was actually the case, but that's how it feels to me. Especially Bruce, whose studio performance was only improved upon by Blaze Bayley for one song in the entire discography: Afraid to Shoot Strangers.
Even some of the songs that I exclude from that bottom 4 group feel somewhat by-the-numbers: Wasting Love and The Fugitive being archetypal examples. And to bring that bottom four back in, there is no more generic song in the discography than Chains of Misery.
No Prayer for the Dying is a weird direction for the band to go, especially following SSoaSS, and it's their second weakest effort by far. But it still feels alive with energy and passion in a way FotD just doesn't. And whereas the middling songs on FotD often feel just rote (Fugitive, WL, FitK), the middling songs on NPftD have some fire, and usually their own distinctive energy and swagger. Holy Smoke, Public Enema Number One, and Hooks in You are very, very far from being Iron Maiden's best songs, but I find them fun. Much more fun than "Here's The Prisoner, but Worse" or "Here's a Power Ballad." One could easily find things to criticize about the most NPftD-esque song on FotD, From Here to Eternity, but that song is way more interesting to me than all but the best three songs on FotD.
And I'm not a Blaze hater either. In fact, I think TXF might be the single most underrated IM album in their entire catalog. It's the songwriting itself that ruins VXI. There are one or two good songs that I can listen to without begging for death before the end. (Clansman and Futureal aren't too bad). There are a few good ideas that turn into Chinese water torture (DLTTEOAS is a great example of this). And then there's just the songs that should be stuffed right up 'Arry's arse. (TA&TG)
All I can say is I very much agree about TXF, but disagree about VXI. Futureal and The Clansman are straight-up excellent Maiden songs that can stand up just fine to almost anything from the 80s or reunion eras. And then The Educated Fool and When Two Worlds Collide are just far, far too neglected. They're
Brave New World songs with Blaze (or, rather, a good 30-40% of BNW literally is
Virtual XI songs with Bruce: Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad, The Mercenary and maybe another).
I like The Angel and the Gambler a lot. It's Blaze's best performance on the album and it just goes all out and unapologetic on being what it is. Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger is a partly-succeeded and partly-failed experiment, but I really don't mind it at all.