Hey again, everyone! Just wanted to pop in and say that I'll be starting to post my Song Ranking list in here a week from today. I'd planned to start earlier this week, but have realized that I will be needing to take some extra time to really mull over my list and finalize the last details.
See, as you guys might remember, I originally planned on just doing a Top 25 list, but I have since decided to challenge myself a bit more and instead aim for a Top 50 list this go around. Obviously this is still not quite as extensive as either 425 or Kade's lists, but I think we'd all be waiting a fair bit longer on me if I tried to force anything past 50 or so.
So yeah! Mister Gold's Top 50 Iron Maiden Songs will be starting in a week's time!
SNEAK PREVIEW - Mister Gold's Iron Maiden Studio Album Rankings16. No Prayer For The Dying - Steve Harris' greatest mistake. You could make the case though that this album arguably led to where the band is today in the long run, so there's that going for it at least. But I'm of the mind that Adrian was right on the money when he thought Iron Maiden should've continued to explore its more progressive sound that they'd been developing on Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son. Still, we probably wouldn't have Janick Gers in the band today without this album, so maybe there's that also going for the album's favor.
15. Virtual XI - There's some great songs on here, like The Clansman and Como Estais Amigos, and the album certain "feels" closer to a typical Iron Maiden album than The X Factor does at first glance. However, aside from the rather stale production, it really feels like Steve wrote some of these songs subconsciously in mind for Bruce and not Blaze. The X Factor, with all of its flaws and charm, was clearly an album designed for someone with Blaze's vocal range.
14. Fear Of The Dark - This one's an interesting album and also has some good songs on it. But I always kinda got the feeling that you could hear Bruce's interest in the band dying out on this album... right along with his strained vocal performance from this era. Just not my thing, I suppose.
13. Killers - We've officially reached the part of the list where I'm going to constantly be second guessing myself, because I consider each of these albums to be pretty great in some regard or another. Honestly, I'm shocked I wound up listing Killers so low, because I LOVE the production of this album. Martin Birch's recruitment as the producer resulted in a HUGE leap in the quality of the sound here compared to the band's debut and I love Paul's performance on the title track especially. But at the end of the day, the songs here just aren't quite as strong as what the band had accomplished on the previous album, nor do they compare at all to what most of the band's future has to offer.
12. The Book of Souls - Another album that I'm shocked I'm listing so low. I remember when this came out five years ago and thought that the second disk on its own might've been one of the strongest runs in the band's history. That might still be the case, but in the time since, I've found myself returning less and less often to the album as a whole and instead revisiting key tracks like If Eternity Should Fail, Tears of a Clown, Empire of the Clouds and the title track. I've been very vocal about not liking the studio album of The Red & The Black, but admittedly that track really comes to life in the live setting.
11. Dance of Death - In a way, this album feels like the Reunion Era's "Powerslave" to me. It has some of the band's best songs ever, but it's also got some other songs in between that I don't find as strong either. Still, stuff like Rainmaker, Paschendale and the title track have been long lasting favorites of mine for practically the entire time I've considered myself an Iron Maiden fan.
10. The X Factor - I have a weird relationship with this album. It took me a good five years of being an Iron Maiden album before I really started to appreciate The X Factor, and there's a knot in my gut right now that's upset at my ranking it "too lowly." There's some terrific gems here, and while Blaze isn't as strong a singer as Bruce, he absolutely fits the material and mood here. However, with as much time the album's grown on me, so too have its flaws- the production is a huge setback. Moreover, while I personally don't dislike what has become the "Iron Maiden Epic" formula of "starting quietly, explode into big heavy epic, then end quietly again," it feels a bit too clunky on this album at times for me. Basically The X Factor is an album that's very much an acquired taste; when you're in the right mood for it, there's nothing else quite like it in the band's discography. Most of the time though, I just come here for Sign of the Cross and 2 A.M.
9. Brave New World - The band's best sounding album. I will fight anyone who argues otherwise on this point.
But seriously, in terms of the band's "sound," Brave New World has no equal. Bruce was back in the band and his voice had not only recovered by 1999/2000, he was in the absolute peak of his career. On top of that, Kevin Shirley's production on this album is the stuff of dreams... which only makes the "sound" of most other subsequent Reunion era albums all the more tragic. The only other Iron Maiden-related album that compares in the audio quality here is Bruce's solo album, The Chemical Wedding, which was made just a couple of years prior. There are some gems on this album, but as others have pointed out, the lyrics in certain choruses were perhaps a bit too lazy.
8. Iron Maiden - Where it all started. Obviously the production here is pretty dated and Dennis Stratton is no Adrian Smith or Janick Gers, but the songs just speak for themselves. Genuinely one of the band's strongest outings. If it had the production of Killers, I'm pretty sure I would be ranking it even higher.
7. The Number of the Beast - I'm surprised I'm ranking this album so highly. I have an innate instinct to talk smack on this album half the time, even if it features some of the band's most definitive songs. It's a bonafide classic! I know it, you all know it too... so why am I always talking down one of the most iconic metal albums of all time? Maybe it's just my appreciation for other works the band's done, but whatever the case may be, I can't deny quality material when I see it.
6. Powerslave - I once saw someone refer to this album as the "Thriller" of heavy metal. While I'm not entirely sure I agree, I absolutely get the case for such a claim. This album is just
iconic. One of the band's greatest ever album covers, several of their best ever compositions, it featured the "classic lineup" and it was all happening in the right time at the right place. However, as I said before with Dance of Death, Powerslave's middle portion doesn't quite match what kicks off the album nor what caps it off. Still, incredible stuff!
5. Somewhere In Time - One of the band's most experimental albums ever and that moment in time where Adrian Smith kinda cemented himself as the band's best guitarist IMO. While it sucks that Bruce wasn't on the same wavelength as everyone else for the songwriting on this album, there's a lot to appreciate about this album and how it foreshadowed what we would see the band morph into decades later with the Reunion era. It's a shame that Heaven Can Wait's chorus doesn't fit with the rest of that song. This album might've taken top spot with just a few tweaks in certain areas.
4. The Final Frontier - What can I say? It's proggy as hell... and I love "proggy as hell." It was also the first studio album to come out after I became a Maiden fan, so even if it's not my absolute favorite, there's a certain nostalgia I have for that window of time in Fall 2010.
3. Pieces of Mind - This album is
stupid close to being the best thing Iron Maiden ever did. It's incredibly well paced, the whole lineup's on fire, Martin Birch's production is terrific and the songwriting is mostly stellar... but goddamn do Quest For Fire and Sun & Steel get in the way.
Tied 1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son/A Matter of Life And Death - I adore these two albums. They're both consistent from start to finish, they both sound great and both played key roles in sparking my creativity and imagination for creative writing and storytelling. I fell in love with both albums over the course of Summer 2009. I'd already been an Iron Maiden fan for over a year at that point, but I'd mostly stayed in my comfort zone of listening to stuff off of Brave New World, the 80's era albums and Rock In Rio. Then, for whatever reason, I found myself looking up Seventh Son and then AMoLaD whilst on an extensive cross-country road trip with my family that took us back and forth across the United States multiple times over. Every new day I'd be writing something and listening to each riff and lyric as they would spark some new idea in my head and fuel my drive. Over eleven years later, I still feel inspired as hell whenever I listen to either album.
Topic: Iron Maiden Song Ranking Thread (Currently Ranking: Mister Gold) (Read 29471 times)