1: A Matter of Life and Death
2: The Final Frontier
3: Senjutsu
4: Brave New World
5: Book of Souls
6: Dance of Death
Senjutsu and TFF are in a close race for #2, I could see Senjutsu taking the spot but I still need to let it marinate. I think those last three Harris epics really capture what the reunion era, and Iron Maiden as a whole, is all about. A real signature moment. I guess the question is whether the rest of the album is up there. I'm not crazy about Darkest Hour or Senjutsu, although both have grown on me. Writing On the Wall is an instant classic, as is Days of Future Past (really glad it's getting some love live). Lost in a Lost World feels like an X Factor leftover, but I don't consider that a bad thing. Stratego is really cool as well. TFF is 14 years old though and was a really important album for me when it came out, so it's hard to compare the two. I think the weaker tracks on TFF are weaker than the weaker tracks on Senjutsu, and maybe ditto with the stronger tracks, but TFF might have a better flow to it, and better variety with more contributions from other members/combinations of different writers where Senjutsu very much feels like the Steve Harris show.
Book of Souls has not aged super well for me and has more fillers than any other reunion album besides Dance of Death, and the song rarely hits super high marks. That said, the title track, The Book of Souls, might be my favorite of the entire reunion era. Immense song. Brave New World ends up closer to the bottom more due to the quality of everything that has come since. It's a great proof of concept but, with just two exceptions, everything after really improves on the BNW formula in every way. Dance of Death is what it is, the more reunion albums that get made the more unnecessary the album feels in the overall discography. The concept of Paschendale was further realized with several stronger songs on the next album, the Gers acoustic epic of the title track has been seen on every album since to different degrees of success, and there are a bunch songs that are just kind of generic which Maiden has thankfully moved away from. With the exception of Book of Souls, it feels like all 10 song slots are used as effectively as possible - and we're getting really close to a Maiden that only makes epics, which has tended to be my favorite stuff from the recent albums.