Now that I pissed off a bunch of people about Ozzy, let's do Iron Maiden.

Great album with great memories of 1983 and peace of mind was my favorite tour of all the times I’ve seen Iron Maiden. Steve’s writing was starting to evolve from the earlier albums, but with that said I would put beast and killers ahead of it. I’d put peace of mind ahead of Powerslave though.
 
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Killers is such a great album and that snotty, NWOBHM feel. Number of the Beast is awesome and dig the whole thing. Piece of Mind is killer too but I like NOTB better. Powerslave has some great songs I never get sick of. I could listen to 2 Minutes of Midnight forever on repeat. Flash of the Blade kicks ass.

As far as Priest goes, British Steel end of thread. Codpiece dip, salute, etc.
 
Whilst I absolutely love Number of the beast, Somewhere in Time is prob. my favourite..... I know its not a popular opinion....
Regular rotation tends to be Somewhere in time, 7th son, Powerslave, Killers and Brave new world.....occasionally put on Dance of Death..
 
The instrumental music is great; but Paul (RIP) was just not good. It’s like he talks through verses. Doesn’t sing. Ya know, like a real singer with range and great vibrato.

Coming from a blues background I can understand where vocals to you might not be important. Many blues tunes don’t have much talent going through the vocal mic.

Bruce is one of the top 2-3 hard rock/metal vocalists all time. With Dio and Halford.
Nuff said.
You are right about Dickinson, he's the better singer in terms of technique, but Di'Anno had THE sound and I'm a blues guy, so I like it raw. I like to be belligerent about it cause I always thought Metallica sucked and Maiden ruled back in the day but a buncha guys wore Metallica and Kreator shirts where I grew up and they were all dicks. Even the Maiden t-shirts were more killer so Di'Anno or Dickinson it doesn't matter I still beat those bastards by upping the irons plus it's sweet revenge on McTallica since they sucked not long after Dave got the axe.....

As for blues, I consider it vocal music, first and foremost. If you don't have decent vocal I don't care how much you can wang wang on your guitar.
 
Definitely Number of the Beast for me. Not one mediocre track on it. Even Gangland. But a lot of it comes down to I like the sound of it better than Piece of Mind and much prefer Clive Burr’s drumming to Nicko. When I was an aspiring 13 year old drummer, The Prisoner was the shit to jam to. I’ll also take Killers over POM.
But what Maiden can really surpass Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter. I mean really. It’s like first record, Boston perfect. 😂
That was the only Maiden tour I got to see (No Prayer..) but it doesn’t really matter if the albums not good, you still get all the good stuff live.
Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter is prolly my fav Maiden tune. It's catchy, kicks ass, AND the name is epic.
 
Agreed. PoM has overall a higher number of quality songs throughout than Powerslave.

But...production wise, style-wise, finesse-wise (of where the band was in their 'arc'), I'd recon Powerslave was them at their peak.

And yes, I prefer Clive Burr to Nicko, just like I will die defending Les Binks being the best drummer Priest ever had!
Both Clive and Les had a certain swing, almost jazzy/funky feel to their grooves.

Oh, and soooo stupid "Total Eclipse" wasn't included on the American and European pressings of NotB. That's a great fuckin' song. At 2m39s into it, Maiden basically starts doing Mercyful Fate. 🤘:eek:

Regarding the Maiden vs. Priest stuff, here's my 2 cts, and given that I've played in multiple tribute bands of each, it might be worth 2.5ct :p ) :
I'd say that Maiden has a higher base level of quality in their songs, but rarely deviates from that. Say on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being best), Maiden's base level sits around 7 or 8, where occasionally a song is a 6 or a 9.
When it comes to Priest, I'd recon to say that the base level of quality is a tad lower, but they deviate more. Priest has some absolute horse shit songs that were either just plain shit or just trying too hard to become anthems (United, Red White and Blue, Take on the World).
But against those, there are pure gems that potentially surpass some of the (sometimes better) ones from Maiden.
I mean, if we're comparing the sort of slow, clean, moody stuff, say "Strange World" vs. "Dreamer Deceiver", Priest wins that one easily for instance.

And Screaming for Vengeance, Stained Class, The Ripper, Devil's Child, Painkiller, Freewheel Burning, Ram it Down....all fuckin' bangers. 🤘

...but, that being said, I enjoy playing Maiden more usually. Except when I crank Unleashed in the East, I usually play along completely, with vigor.
And how can you not love a band that has 3 songs about BJ's on one album?! 😉
 
Maiden is one of those bands I'll still go listen to the first 6 albums beginning-to-end now. I'd rank the first below the others on production value alone, but the greatness is already evident there. Killers is great, but Bruce definitely raises the ceiling when he enters. I'd place NotBf and PoM as pretty equal for me. I like all the songs. I like all the songs on Powerslave well too, but they're a bit more smooth and polished, and honestly I just don't like that quite as much.

I love Priest two. I remember when those were the two heaviest bands around - articles in the mags talking about it anyway. I always loved that they definitely set in the same space, but are each so distinctly their own thing. Really, there are only a handful of Priest albums I'll go back to in their entirety. Also, I probably like Sad Wings of Destiny the most, with it's (relative) proggy feel, and despite the uneven mix. Otherwise, it's the two live albums from the 80s that really capture it for them. (Same for Maiden, now that I think about it)
 
Conventional wisdom ranks Number of the Beast or Powerslave as their best album. That's bullshit. Number of the Beast is a good album, but it's really three or four stellar tracks and the rest is kinda filler. Same with Powerslave. Which album is really number one ? The one where every song kicks fucking ass. Where Steve Harris really loosens up and lays down perfect bass tracks on all 9 songs. Where he loses his songwriting monopoly because Adrian and Bruce and Dave all step up and write killer tracks. Obviously it's Piece of Mind. Just a fucking great album from start to finish. A handful of songs on Number of the Beast are of the same caliber as the songs on that album. Also the best personnel line up.

Fun fact I just learned. Iron Maiden had 3 singers with the first name Paul.

I can't agree with you there.. I think Powerslave has 4 incredibly strong tunes and then the rest is filler yes, but Number of the Beast is pretty awesome the whole way through.

Piece of Mind is incredible no question but I gotta say, Seventh Son?? It's pretty fucking good too. This is a hard one for me.
 
Agreed. PoM has overall a higher number of quality songs throughout than Powerslave.

But...production wise, style-wise, finesse-wise (of where the band was in their 'arc'), I'd recon Powerslave was them at their peak.

And yes, I prefer Clive Burr to Nicko, just like I will die defending Les Binks being the best drummer Priest ever had!
Both Clive and Les had a certain swing, almost jazzy/funky feel to their grooves.

Oh, and soooo stupid "Total Eclipse" wasn't included on the American and European pressings of NotB. That's a great fuckin' song. At 2m39s into it, Maiden basically starts doing Mercyful Fate. 🤘:eek:

Regarding the Maiden vs. Priest stuff, here's my 2 cts, and given that I've played in multiple tribute bands of each, it might be worth 2.5ct :p ) :
I'd say that Maiden has a higher base level of quality in their songs, but rarely deviates from that. Say on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being best), Maiden's base level sits around 7 or 8, where occasionally a song is a 6 or a 9.
When it comes to Priest, I'd recon to say that the base level of quality is a tad lower, but they deviate more. Priest has some absolute horse shit songs that were either just plain shit or just trying too hard to become anthems (United, Red White and Blue, Take on the World).
But against those, there are pure gems that potentially surpass some of the (sometimes better) ones from Maiden.
I mean, if we're comparing the sort of slow, clean, moody stuff, say "Strange World" vs. "Dreamer Deceiver", Priest wins that one easily for instance.

And Screaming for Vengeance, Stained Class, The Ripper, Devil's Child, Painkiller, Freewheel Burning, Ram it Down....all fuckin' bangers. 🤘

...but, that being said, I enjoy playing Maiden more usually. Except when I crank Unleashed in the East, I usually play along completely, with vigor.
And how can you not love a band that has 3 songs about BJ's on one album?! 😉

I just listened to Stained class and realized I remembered it being better than I found it a few days ago when i listened to it working out. Some cheesy shit on that one. I do think Glenn was sort of ahead of his time and kept improving album after album though. That guy is brilliant. On the Maiden side though, I absolutely love Adrian too. That guy is in my top 10, incredible composer of songs and leads. Almost every single lead Adrian ever played is perfection whether or not the song itself was shit.
 
Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter is prolly my fav Maiden tune. It's catchy, kicks ass, AND the name is epic.

to be Fair, Tail Gunner is also pretty awesome. Like a second rate Aces High but still great. Actually No Prayer is sort of a raw sounding production with some solid tunes in spots. Next to Seventh Son though, I understand why people felt it was a let down with really simple songs and pop hooks at times. that of course was because there was no Adrian. Apparently he didn't like the simple stripped down sound the band wanted to go with after releasing such an epic album like Seventh Son. ( He was right for the most part because they turned it around with Fear of the Dark )
 
I absolutely love Adrian too. That guy is in my top 10, incredible composer of songs and leads. Almost every single lead Adrian ever played is perfection whether or not the song itself was shit.
I agree with this. Plus he had some sweet Lado guitars on the Live After Death tour. I've never seen any of these forum hosers so cool they had a Lado.

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@Floyd Eye if we are going to argue Dickinson era then I'd say as good as Piece of Mind was, Powerslave is the more epic "Maiden" album cause it has Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is like a british metal magnum opus and quite beautifully done IMOIMO
When i was in high school, my English teacher played the video for Rime of the Ancient Mariner in class and all of us headbangers were in Heaven. We were reading about it in class and I about shit when she played the video.
 
to be Fair, Tail Gunner is also pretty awesome. Like a second rate Aces High but still great. Actually No Prayer is sort of a raw sounding production with some solid tunes in spots. Next to Seventh Son though, I understand why people felt it was a let down with really simple songs and pop hooks at times. that of course was because there was no Adrian. Apparently he didn't like the simple stripped down sound the band wanted to go with after releasing such an epic album like Seventh Son. ( He was right for the most part because they turned it around with Fear of the Dark )

No coincidence for me that Maiden took a downturn when Janick came along.
 
Revelation on POM must be my favorite Maiden tune.......Must be cranked

My controversial opinions.....
Prefer Clive over Nicko.....
Kind of hate Harris's bass playing based on unofficial live recordings I've heard....He's great on the records.....On certain recordings his fret noise and the bad harmonics coming off of that destroy the whole listening experience. I've never been to a Maiden show.

I don't necessarily hate fret noise on bass.......You get a lot of it from McCartney playing his Rick in the Beatles and IMO it sounds pretty cool..
ON the other hand a lot of it with lack of muting can let out some horrible harmonics
 
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Every song on NOB is killer, and there's really no arguing. Sorry.

Piece of Mind IS also killer, and almost the whole thing is as good as NOB but in comes Quest for Fire...and To Tame a Land. Stupid.

Powerslave has Aces High, 2 Minutes, and Rime which might be my fav all time Maiden tune. But the rest...nah.

Somewhere in Time has the Title track, Wasted Years, Sea of Madness, and Stranger....great tunes but again, nah to the rest.

So, to sum up...Number of the Beast is killer front to back. POM comes in 2nd...then the rest. And no, I don't listen to the DiAnno stuff.

Priest is also an equal killer influence on me....I can go with either band and be happy.
:)
These are exactly my thoughts 👍
The first time I heard quest for fire after the masterpieces before it I was like a dog hearing weird frequencies and cocking his head 😂
There are a few of those on everything except NOB.
When the bar is set that high it would be really tough to have an entire album of songs at that level, most bands except a very very few have had the same problem on most of their albums.
Luckily they seemed to know that and rarely did those songs live, they stuck to the good stuff. I had the good fortune of seeing Rime done live on 3 occasions and it was stunning every time 😍
 
Revelation on POM must be my favorite Maiden tune.......Must be cranked

My controversial opinions.....
Prefer Clive over Nicko.....
Kind of hate Harris's bass playing based on unofficial live recordings I've heard....He's great on the records.....On certain recordings his fret noise and the bad harmonics coming off of that destroy the whole listening experience. I've never been to a Maiden show.

I don't necessarily hate fret noise on bass.......You get a lot of it from McCartney playing his Rick in the Beatles and IMO it sounds pretty cool..
ON the other hand a lot of it with lack of muting can let out some horrible harmonics

What I found interesting listening to Harris' isolated bass tracks, is how loose they are. He comes up with incredible stuff but if you listened alone, you might think he was " sloppy"? Not the right word, but really loose in that his timing isn't always perfect but the notes are brilliant. I think this is actually what makes him so special.. he's not a metronome, he's a living being entity on that bass. So much movement, so much color, so much GALLOP!
 
What I found interesting listening to Harris' isolated bass tracks, is how loose they are. He comes up with incredible stuff but if you listened alone, you might think he was " sloppy"? Not the right word, but really loose in that his timing isn't always perfect but the notes are brilliant. I think this is actually what makes him so special.. he's not a metronome, he's a living being entity on that bass. So much movement, so much color, so much GALLOP!
Listen to McCartneys isolated bass tracks. Not nearly as impressive as they are in the mix. A guy playing fast melodic runs with his fingers, in a metal band, and someone expects there to be no clank ? He probably does that shit on purpose. Either way his shit is perfect for the songs
 
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