Favorite Iron Maiden album

[the milkman]

So I’ve been listening to them a lot during my daily walks and I was just wondering which album was their most popular with fans. My personal favorite is Piece Of Mind but that’s probably because it was the first one I owned. I fell in love with it immediately and a few months later I purchased The Number Of The Beast. Of course that’s a great album but I remember being a little disappointed in it.

I lost interest in them for a long time but a friend told me about A Matter Of Life And Death so I decided to give it a listen. He was right, it’s an amazing album. It might just be my second favorite Maiden album.

[Leigh Burne]

If you asked me which is their best piece of work, I'd probably say The Number of the Beast. With most of their other albums, if you knock off the two best tracks you're left with a substantially lesser album, but if you knock the two best tracks off NotB you've still got a killer record. (My only criticism is they should've put "Total Eclipse" on it instead of "Gangland", although even the band has admitted that!)

But if you asked me which is my personal favourite Madden album, it would be Somewhere in Time. Mostly because it's got my three absolute favourite Maiden songs on it - "Wasted Years", "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Alexander the Great".

As for their recent stuff, they still do some decent music but I've liked them substantially less since Bruce left the first time.

[WeeMann]

I was having a similar conversation on Facebook only yesterday.

I was asked the question and I came back to one simple fact - when I'm making up a playlist of Maiden tracks, I'll go through each album (except, obviously, the Blaze era ones ) and pick my favourite tracks. When I look at it there are only two albums where I pick pretty much all the tracks - Number Of The Beast and Seventh Son, with Seventh son just pipping Beast.

Again, similar to Milkman, this was the first album I bought new. My mate had got me into them through Live After Death the previous summer, then Seventh Son came out and we went to Donington Monsters Of Rock in '88.

I felt that the material was starting to dip from No Prayer For The Dying and I never got on with Blaze singing for them (I spent the entire gig at the Brixton Academy in the bar). I've loved what they've done since Bruce and Adrian returned - it may not be quite as strong as the earlier material in some ways, but there are still plenty of classic Maiden songs coming out.

[the milkman]

I really don’t know why I lost interest after Powerslave because I was a pretty big fan. I would purchase all the magazines with them in it and I had a bunch of buttons for my denim jacket, but for some reason I never purchased Somewhere In Time when it came out. I listen to it a lot now and I love all the songs Leigh mentioned plus Heaven Can Wait.


Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is another story. I really want to love this album but it never clicks with me. Most of the people I know who listen to Maiden feel like this is their masterpiece. I listen to it from start to finish several times a year and I think it’s good but not great.

[the milkman]

Hallowed Be Thy Name is the ultimate Maiden song IMHO. That one will always be my favorite track. Total Eclipse would have made it a stronger album for sure.

[the milkman]

I felt the material was starting to dip from No Prayer For The Dying and I never got on with Blaze singing for them (I spent the entire gig at the Brixton Academy in the bar). I've loved what they've done since Bruce and Adrian returned - it may not be quite as strong as the earlier material in some ways, but there are still plenty of classic Maiden songs coming out.

Mother Russia is the only song I listen to from No Prayer. Fear Of The Dark is a much stronger album IMO and a couple of songs would make my Maiden playlist. I love the title track. Blaze didn’t do it for me as well and I never listened to the second album with him on it.

I love what they’ve been doing since 2000 also. Dance Of Death has a terrible cover but I really enjoy the music. Paschendale is a classic. The Final Frontier is my least favorite since 2000.

[Leigh Burne]

I feel sorry for Blaze, because my problem with the Maiden albums featuring him isn't his singing, it's the fact that most of the songs on them just aren't very good. On the rare occasion when they actually gave him something decent to work with (e.g. "The Clansman") he's great.

The stuff he's done with his own band since leaving Maiden is ace. His track "Stare at the Sun" is better than a lot of Maiden songs, and shows how good he can be when given the right material.

Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is another story. I really want to love this album but it never clicks with me. Most of the people I know who listen to Maiden feel like this is their masterpiece. I listen to it from start to finish several times a year and I think it’s good but not great.

I never understood the adoration for that one either. It's got some great stuff on it ("The Evil That Men Do" is probably one of the four or five quintessential Maiden songs if you ask me) but as a whole it's by no means their best work.

[the milkman]

I tried to listen to Wolfsbane on Apple Music but they didn’t have much.

[Leigh Burne]

I've never actually listened to any Wolfsbane. I was referring to his namesake band post-Maiden. Started out being called Blaze, but more recently he's started releasing under his full name.

[the milkman]

I've never actually listened to any Wolfsbane. I was referring to his namesake band post-Maiden. Started out being called Blaze, but more recently he's started releasing under his full name.

Thanks! I’m listening to Stare At The Sun now.