The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[KevShmev]

The first two albums remind me a little of Priest's first two albums in that they seemed more hard rock than metal, and then the 3rd album is when the metal was ramped up a bit.  Of course, quite a bit of the early Maiden material (thinking the first five albums) seems right out of the Priest playbook, from the soloing at times to the way Dickinson sings certain lines, so the parallels are easy to detect, IMO.

[Cool Chris]

Iron Maiden

Very little separation between #s 2-5
Number of the Beast
Piece Of Mind
Killers
Powerslave

Seventh Son
Somewhere In Time

[bobzor]

1. Somewhere in Time
2. Seventh Son

These two will always be top2, the rest change places with each other from time to time. Right now I'm thinking:

3. Piece of Mind
4. Powerslave
5. The Number of the Beast
6. Iron Maiden
7. Killers

[Zydar]

1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
2. Somewhere In Time
3. Powerslave
4. Piece Of Mind
5. The Number Of The Beast
6. Killers
7. Iron Maiden

I wrote my Top 7 and afterwards I realised that they are in backwards chronological order, so it must mean that they got better with each album

[Polarbear]

1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
2. Somewhere In Time
3. Powerslave
4. Piece Of Mind
5. The Number Of The Beast
6. Killers
7. Iron Maiden

I wrote my Top 7 and afterwards I realised that they are in backwards chronological order, so it must mean that they got better with each album

This would also be my list, only with PoM and Beast changing places!

[Mladen]

1. Somewhere in time
2. Seventh son of a seventh son
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of mind
5. The Number of the beast
6. Iron Maiden
7. Killers

[WardySI]

1. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
2. Somewhere In Time
3. Powerslave
4. Piece Of Mind
5. The Number Of The Beast
6. Killers
7. Iron Maiden

I wrote my Top 7 and afterwards I realised that they are in backwards chronological order, so it must mean that they got better with each album

This would also be my list, only with PoM and Beast changing places!

This WAS my list only with PS and POM switched 

[pg1067]

OK...I'll play...

1. Piece of Mind
2. Powerslave
3. The Number of the Beast
4. Somewhere in Time
5. Iron Maiden
6. Killers
7. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

The margins between 4-6 are paper thin, and I often flip-flop about which of the Di'Anno albums I like more.

[fadetoblackdude7]

1. Powerslave
2. Somewhere in Time
3. The Number of the Beast
4. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
5. Piece of Mind
6. Killers
7. Iron Maiden

[NoseofNicko]

1. Somewhere in time
2. Seventh son of a seventh son
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of mind
5. The Number of the beast
6. Iron Maiden
7. Killers

This.

[DoctorAction]

Powerslave
Somewhere in Time
Seventh Son
Number Of The Beast
Killers
Piece of Mind
Iron Maiden

BUT ... if forced to choose, Killers is the one I'd have on a desert island.

Also, the top three are nearly impossible to order.

[RodrigoAltaf]

https://www.sonicperspectives.com/features/iron-maiden-top-5-desert-island-albums/

[Stadler]

Adrian played Stranger in a Strange Land with his band Psycho Motel in the mid 90's, and it sounded great. Too bad there are no videos of it on YouTube anymore.

Actually, the two Psycho Motel albums have aged quite well, especially the second one. I wish Adrian did a low-key type of tour with this band, like Steve did with British Lion.

Big fan of the Psycho Motel records.  I agree with you.

[Stadler]

1. Powerslave
2. Killers
3. Piece of Mind
4. The Number of the Beast
5. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
6. Somewhere in Time
7. Iron Maiden


Any list where "Somewhere In Time" is 6 and "Iron Maiden" is 7 is one HELL of a list.  I love both of those records.

[nick_z]

So, while we eagerly await a Maiden song countdown that might come down the road, here is a ranking of Maiden's 80s album as compiled by the fine fans of DTF (based on the entries so far, 21 total), since, um, nobody asked 

1. Powerslave
2. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
3. Somewhere in Time
4. The Number of the Beast
5. Piece of Mind
6. Killers
7. Iron Maiden

Powerslave also leads the #1 rankings (5), while both Number and Seventh Son have 4. Somewhere in Time only has 3 #1s, but it's ranked high pretty consistently. The top 3 is relatively clear-cut (and close!), with a bit of a drop-off for #4 and then #5...Killers and Iron Maiden follow significantly behind. I'm perhaps a little surprised Number is not in the "consensus" top 3.

[TAC]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

[jammindude]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

IDK…wasn’t ROTAM the first of its kind in metal? I was a teenager headbanger back when this came out and by my recollection, everyone was going nuts because no one had ever heard of a 13 minute metal song before.

[TAC]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

IDK…wasn’t ROTAM the first of its kind in metal? I was a teenager headbanger back when this came out and by my recollection, everyone was going nuts because no one had ever heard of a 13 minute metal song before.

Yeah, I guess, although they already had To Tame A Land. I was kind of put off at the time because in the press, they talked about how long it was, like they were so proud of it for being long for long's sake.

[nick_z]

For what it's worth - and purely from anecdotal evidence (read: friends and discussion groups) - growing up in Europe there was this impression that Powerslave was much more loved in the US than elsewhere. I mean, of course it's generally considered "classic" Maiden everywhere (with plenty of "classic" songs in it to back this up), but the feeling was this is the album that made Maiden huge in North America, so perhaps there's special appreciation correlated with that? Where I was, The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind would instead almost invariably rank higher whenever I asked...

Can you guys confirm this? Do I even have the "facts" right?  (meaning: Powerslave was the album that truly broke Maiden big in the US?)

[TAC]

For what it's worth - and purely from anecdotal evidence (read: friends and discussion groups) - growing up in Europe there was this impression that Powerslave was much more loved in the US than elsewhere. I mean, of course it's generally considered "classic" Maiden everywhere (with plenty of "classic" songs in it to back this up), but the feeling was this is the album that made Maiden huge in North America, so perhaps there's special appreciation correlated with that? Where I was, The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind would instead almost invariably rank higher whenever I asked...

Can you guys confirm this? Do I even have the "facts" right?  (meaning: Powerslave was the album that truly broke Maiden big in the US?)

I think the album that "broke" Iron Maiden in the US was The Number Of The Beast. They were in heavy rotation on MTV with Run To The Hills. They had a great opening slot on Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance tour, another album that was huge.

Their first headline tour was with Piece Of Mind. The singles did pretty well, Flight Of Icarus first and then The Trooper. In 1983-1985, heavy metal/hard rock really started to become mainstream, and by that, these bands did well enough to support arena tours.

Powerslave featured the lead single Two Minutes To Midnight, which had decent rotation on MTV. They toured everywhere in the US. With their Eddie logo, and MTV support (don't believe any bullshit Bruce Dickinson tells you) the kids flocked to them. While Maiden didn't have radio support, MTV played them a ton.

In my opinion, it was the Live After Death album and video that was way more impactful than the Powerslave album. They were really the first of the hard rock/heavy metal bands of that era to do the "double live" album, the likes of which were so popular in the 70's. The video was shown on MTV, and I think that was the thing that really catapulted them. But again, bands like this were extremely popular, to the point where in another year or so, rock, with Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Def Leppard ruled the charts.

[jammindude]

I think TAC is close. But I don’t think it was the LAD album…it was the Powerslave tour. That was literally “the greatest show on earth” and I think the hype had been building ever since NOTB, and just happened to hit a fever pitch when PS was released. That, combined with the spectacle of the tour…it was just all “right place right time”

[TAC]

I think TAC is close. But I don’t think it was the LAD album…it was the Powerslave tour. That was literally “the greatest show on earth” and I think the hype had been building ever since NOTB, and just happened to hit a fever pitch when PS was released. That, combined with the spectacle of the tour…it was just all “right place right time”

Right, but I think we're saying a similar thing. The tour played everywhere, multiple legs. It had a cool stage show and I think people gravitated to the Egyptian motif, even though Dio toured with one a few months earlier. You say the tour..sure, but it was captured with the great live album/video.

[WardySI]

For what it's worth - and purely from anecdotal evidence (read: friends and discussion groups) - growing up in Europe there was this impression that Powerslave was much more loved in the US than elsewhere. I mean, of course it's generally considered "classic" Maiden everywhere (with plenty of "classic" songs in it to back this up), but the feeling was this is the album that made Maiden huge in North America, so perhaps there's special appreciation correlated with that? Where I was, The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind would instead almost invariably rank higher whenever I asked...

Can you guys confirm this? Do I even have the "facts" right?  (meaning: Powerslave was the album that truly broke Maiden big in the US?)

I think the album that "broke" Iron Maiden in the US was The Number Of The Beast. They were in heavy rotation on MTV with Run To The Hills. They had a great opening slot on Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance tour, another album that was huge.

Their first headline tour was with Piece Of Mind. The singles did pretty well, Flight Of Icarus first and then The Trooper. In 1983-1985, heavy metal/hard rock really started to become mainstream, and by that, these bands did well enough to support arena tours.

Powerslave featured the lead single Two Minutes To Midnight, which had decent rotation on MTV. They toured everywhere in the US. With their Eddie logo, and MTV support (don't believe any bullshit Bruce Dickinson tells you) the kids flocked to them. While Maiden didn't have radio support, MTV played them a ton.

In my opinion, it was the Live After Death album and video that was way more impactful than the Powerslave album. They were really the first of the hard rock/heavy metal bands of that era to do the "double live" album, the likes of which were so popular in the 70's. The video was shown on MTV, and I think that was the thing that really catapulted them. But again, bands like this were extremely popular, to the point where in another year or so, rock, with Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Def Leppard ruled the charts.

Don't believe Brice regards they got no MTV or Radio play or something else?

[425]

I think TAC is close. But I don’t think it was the LAD album…it was the Powerslave tour. That was literally “the greatest show on earth” and I think the hype had been building ever since NOTB, and just happened to hit a fever pitch when PS was released. That, combined with the spectacle of the tour…it was just all “right place right time”

Right, but I think we're saying a similar thing. The tour played everywhere, multiple legs. It had a cool stage show and I think people gravitated to the Egyptian motif, even though Dio toured with one a few months earlier. You say the tour..sure, but it was captured with the great live album/video.

This makes a lot of sense to me. As a fan who was not alive when these albums came out, I really don't view Powerslave as this special album (see: me putting it in 5th upthread). I attribute that mainly to not being too fond of the middle of the record, although I'd also generally agree with the idea that it's more formulaic, Rime excepted. But I do think Live After Death is really special, even in the modern context. It's just such a good show, a setlist that features almost all the best songs of their first five albums, and the energy is palpable.

[jammindude]

I’m only saying that Live After Death was not the watershed moment that brought them to the masses. It was a postcard back to the fans after that had already happened.

And I suppose now that I think about what I posted earlier, I think you could make a strong case that Powerslave was the absolute peak of their popularity in the US. The buzz had been gaining steam for 2 albums (NOTB and POM) and by the time Powerslave was getting ready to be released, anticipation (stateside) had never been higher.

And to the MTV point: I’ve heard that Bruce sometimes claims that they did it without MTV support and that is pure balderdash.  The NOTB and POM video did receive some regular airplay, but 2MTM was the first time that MTV actually advertised the world premiere of the new Iron Maiden single. They ran commercials to say exactly when they were doing it. They actually made an “event” out of the premier of that video. So ya, it was a much bigger deal than the videos that came before it.

[DoctorAction]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

Interesting. From my perspective, Aces High, Back In The Village, Powerslave and ROTAM stick out and sound different from anything else they'd done at that point. I'm not sure of the formula you're feeling there.

I'm not a fan of 2MTM, mind, and it sticks out as not very Maiden to me.

My wife always jokes that all Maiden sounds the same, anyway. There is a LOT of E minor C-D-E across their catalogue.

[WardySI]

And to the MTV point: I’ve heard that Bruce sometimes claims that they did it without MTV support and that is pure balderdash.  The NOTB and POM video did receive some regular airplay, but 2MTM was the first time that MTV actually advertised the world premiere of the new Iron Maiden single. They ran commercials to say exactly when they were doing it. They actually made an “event” out of the premier of that video. So ya, it was a much bigger deal than the videos that came before it.

Cheers 👍

[jammindude]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

Interesting. From my perspective, Aces High, Back In The Village, Powerslave and ROTAM stick out and sound different from anything else they'd done at that point. I'm not sure of the formula you're feeling there.

I'm not a fan of 2MTM, mind, and it sticks out as not very Maiden to me.

My wife always jokes that all Maiden sounds the same, anyway. There is a LOT of E minor C-D-E across their catalogue.

My brain had an error 404 cascade failure trying to comprehend this.

[nick_z]

Thank you Tim and Jammindude for the historical "tidbits"...it's always cool to hear what was actually happening then...

It would be interesting to have a mega-poll of fans in the US and in Europe and see whether/how the rankings systematically differ. Here it would be too small a sample 

[Podaar]

Piece of Mind (it has my favorite Maiden song of all time)

Which is?

Still Life

[Podaar]

Also, from my perspective, Wrathchild from Killers is where it all got started in the states. That song was VERY popular on rock radio. But yes, Run to the Hills catapulted them to metal god status. Powerslave was their peak in popularity. IMO

Oh, and there is nothing more formulaic about Powerslave the album than any other Maiden album. They had their formula, and they stuck with it.

[Dream Team]

The first two albums remind me a little of Priest's first two albums in that they seemed more hard rock than metal, and then the 3rd album is when the metal was ramped up a bit.  Of course, quite a bit of the early Maiden material (thinking the first five albums) seems right out of the Priest playbook, from the soloing at times to the way Dickinson sings certain lines, so the parallels are easy to detect, IMO.

Thinking about this; it's one of the drawbacks of having a bass player be your main songwriter (at the time), the riffs are often lacking. Adrian is BY FAR the best riff-writer in Maiden and often his are the only heavy ones, Davey never writes anything heavy and both he and Yanick often just have these fruity single note harmony lines as "riffs".

[Stadler]

I have never understood what people see in Powerslave. For a band that sounds so damn original on all of their albums, Powerslave is so formulaic.

Side two, man.  Side two.  I know I like Back In The Village more than most, but that's probably my favorite Maiden album side (though the version of Number with Total Eclipse instead of Gangland is right there, too).

[Stadler]

I think TAC is close. But I don’t think it was the LAD album…it was the Powerslave tour. That was literally “the greatest show on earth” and I think the hype had been building ever since NOTB, and just happened to hit a fever pitch when PS was released. That, combined with the spectacle of the tour…it was just all “right place right time”

Right, but I think we're saying a similar thing. The tour played everywhere, multiple legs. It had a cool stage show and I think people gravitated to the Egyptian motif, even though Dio toured with one a few months earlier. You say the tour..sure, but it was captured with the great live album/video.

This makes a lot of sense to me. As a fan who was not alive when these albums came out, I really don't view Powerslave as this special album (see: me putting it in 5th upthread). I attribute that mainly to not being too fond of the middle of the record, although I'd also generally agree with the idea that it's more formulaic, Rime excepted. But I do think Live After Death is really special, even in the modern context. It's just such a good show, a setlist that features almost all the best songs of their first five albums, and the energy is palpable.

I was there; I got into Maiden with Number, saw them open for Priest, but the entire package of "Powerslave" (with it's epic cover, which I sort of remember having a sort of textured cover, not the flat cardboard you'd get from the bargain releases), the epic tour (they went through 145,678 guitar picks!) and the live album/video (the video of which was different than the record!).  It was all on a scale that I had not seen before.   Everything else - at the time - was 45 minute record, tour, MAYBE a double live LP (Kiss, MSG, Scorps, Sabbath) but nothing on the scale of what Maiden did.  It's hard to put into context, because now, 37 years later, I can point to other examples of everything there, but it just felt so new and different then. 

I'm going to add something to it too:  Bruce.  There wasn't anyone really like him.  Ozzy was already turning into a clown. Dio was way too serious (for me). Joe Lynn Turner, Gary Barden, Joe Elliott, weren't in Bruce's league on any level.  Even Halford wasn't that kind of front man. He could SING, but he didn't stand out like Bruce did.  Bruce grabbed you by the front of your shirt and made you pay attention in a way that the other singers at the time didn't (at least for me).

It was, for me, a lot like Van Halen, in that you had to sort of be there.

[TAC]

The thing is, plenty of people that weren't there rate Powerslave very highly.

To me, there's something too "straightforward" about the album. Other than a very long song, it feels...ordinary to me. Yes, I love the title track now, but back then, I thought the middle section felt a little forced.

That said, it's an album that has aged fairly well for me, mostly due to its sound, but it's still not an upper echelon Maiden album for me.