I initially thought SiT sounded so fresh and the approach was a recovery from the lackluster Powerslave.
I can't really put into words why it really hasn't held up. Oddly, one song I was never really a fan of at first was Heaven Can Wait, and that is the one song in their discog that has actually aged the best for me. That and Powerslave.
Huh. I guess it makes sense that you'd have a more positive reaction given the context, and there's really little accounting for tastes otherwise.
I had a very strong feeling those 2 songs were coming up. Actually I expected For The Greater Good if God to be ranked higher!
Funny you should mention that... I've been thinking over and over about this and I really can't help thinking I need to move it one place higher, from #7 to #6, with my previous #6 going down to #7. So I'm going to repost its writeup in this post in the #6 spot, along with #7 and #5. The one and only time I'm going to tinker with the list after having already posted songs.
7. Hallowed Be Thy Namefrom
The Number of the BeastThere’s pretty much nothing I can say about Hallowed Be Thy Name that hasn’t already been. This is a classic that absolutely deserves that status. The songwriting is superb, with every riff and melody contributing to a fantastic whole. The lyrics are thought-provoking and emotionally powerful at every stage. And the whole piece absolutely kills every time they bring it out as part of the live show.
As I’ve said before, I typically find it difficult to rank these live staples. But this one I absolutely never tire of. It can still provoke an emotional reaction after probably hundreds of listens, and it never fails to provide excitement in spades, either. Iron Maiden has so many great songs, but there’s a very real argument that they have never quite topped this moment off their third album. Certainly if I had to show someone one song to represent the band’s whole body of work, this would still be my choice.
6. For the Greater Good of Godfrom
A Matter of Life and DeathThough it ranks high, The Legacy is not my favorite song on
A Matter of Life and Death. That title goes to its other 9-minute track, Steve Harris’s finest hour save one as a solo composer. This is one of those longer songs that absolutely sprawls, making full use of its runtime, while also not feeling excessive or disconnected. It’s an epic that’s truly deserving of the title.
I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite part of this song, because I think it’s one of those where every piece is near-equally strong, and all the pieces come together to make an even better whole. But at a push, I’d point out the emotional intro and outro, the instrumental section before and after the solos, and the chorus, which along with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is one of only a couple of times where I think a repeated-song-title chorus absolutely works and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It actually gives this lament even more power, in my opinion.
5. Sign of the Crossfrom
The X FactorLike For the Greater Good of God, Sign of the Cross is feels like an absolutely massive song, and not just in terms of length. The riffs, the melodies, the vocal sections here just bring such a strong sense of grandeur and scale—and that’s without even mentioning the Gregorian choir. On this song, I get the sense of despair at its most majestic. This is especially true on the instrumental section that rises from a full drop into the second Gregorian choir part through a series of huge riffs and melodies before eventually arriving at one of my favorite solo sections in the Iron Maiden discography, featuring back-to-back lightning-fast solos from Dave Murray and Janick Gers. And then it continues from there, with a number of other wonderful sections before finally bringing things to a close with a climactic rendition of the chorus. I love gradual build-ups, and this is one of Maiden’s best. I also love melodic instrumental sections, especially those that don’t entirely rely on solos, and, again, this is one of Maiden’s best.
My one sorrow on this song is that there is not a version that I would regard as clearly definitive. I very much like both singers on this song, but I slightly prefer Blaze Bayley. I think he sounds a little better on the intro and outro, and I slightly prefer his delivery on “Holding communion so the world’ll be blessed / My creator, my God’ll lay my soul to rest,” which is the most substantive difference. I would be willing to consider a Bruce performance of this song to be a definitive version, but, to me, the
Rock In Rio performance of this one is one of the rare times that a Maiden song becomes perceptively weaker by being played at a faster tempo live. This song needs to march, it needs to proceed at a measured pace, it doesn’t need to race along. The tempo on
The X Factor is absolutely perfect in my book… but the production is very bad, taking away some of the weight that the guitar riffs should have and causing a too-wide disparity in volume from the quiet parts to the loud parts. Doesn’t stop Sign of the Cross from being a top 10 song by any means, but I would really like to have a version, with either Blaze or Bruce, that combines the best of the two released versions and matches the way I imagine this song to be in my head.
Album 2. A Matter of Life and DeathAfter two very strong releases on
Brave New World and
Dance of Death, albeit with some imperfections, everything came together completely on the third reunion album,
A Matter of Life and Death. This is Iron Maiden at their proggy best. The album has three highly refined, sophisticated long epics, two of which have already been named in my top 10, and the third in my top 20. It also has four excellent mid-range songs, all of which have been named on this list (These Colours Don’t Run, The Longest Day, Benjamin Breeg and Lord of Light). The shorter songs are not quite as superb, but they are by no means bad. The Pilgrim in particular is a fun, distinct piece that very nearly made my top 60. The full album experience of AMOLAD is also quite strong. In some ways, this feels like an album that takes the dark, contemplative tone of
The X Factor, renders it a bit less oppressive, and steps up the quality of the songwriting to a very high level.
Simply put, this is a very fine album, one that would stand out in any band’s discography, and that must especially stand out among 14th studio albums! I hope the band themselves are still proud of this one, and I think they are, if the fact that this is the only Iron Maiden album to be played live in full is any indication.
Album 1. The Final FrontierThe Final Frontier is a very close sibling of
A Matter of Life and Death, and I love them both for very similar reasons. With the reunion style pretty much perfected on AMOLAD, I think it makes sense that the next album would iterate that style somewhat, and cast it in a different tone, but not make any radical changes. There was a lot of creative juice left over from AMOLAD, and I think in TFF the band was able to produce an album that just barely topped it.
I have already mentioned a great many songs from this album on my list—most notably, I have mentioned a couple of the shorter songs: Mother of Mercy and The Alchemist. This is one place where I think TFF has a clear edge on AMOLAD: The shorter songs are just a bit better. Coming Home also came very close to making my list. This isn’t to say that I don’t love the epics, as well. Far from it, as I have already shown by placing The Man Who Would Be King and When the Wild Wind Blows in the top 25.
To me,
A Matter of Life and Death and
The Final Frontier form a natural pair that features my favorite songwriting of Iron Maiden’s career. The main distinction is that TFF feels a little happier than AMOLAD, which is a plus for me, and that I like the shorter tracks on TFF a little better, generally speaking. Both are worthy of a top ranking, but only
The Final Frontier receives it. This album made a massive impact on me when I first listened to the Iron Maiden discography, and many years later I still do not get tired of it. It is truly one of my all-time favorites, without a doubt.