IRON MAIDEN

PAGE UPDATED IN 2024

Reviewed:
- Iron Maiden (1980)
- Killers (1981)
- The Number of the Beast (1982)
- Piece of Mind (1983)
- Powerslave (1984)
- Live After Death (1985)
- Somewhere In Time (1986)
- Seventh Son of Seventh Son (1988)
- No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
- Fear of the Dark (1992)
- A Real Live One (1993, live album)
- A Real Dead One (1993, live album)
- Live at Donnington (1993, live album)
- The X Factor (1995)

- Best of the Beast (1996, compilation)
- Virtual XI (1998)
- Ed Hunter (1999, compilation)
- Brave New World (2000)
- Rock in Rio (2002, live album)
- Dance of Death (2003)
- Death on the Road (2005, live album)
- A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
- Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack (2009, live album)
- The Final Frontier (2010)
- En Vivo! (2012, live album)
- Maiden England '88 (2013, live album)
- The Book of Souls (2015)

- The Book of Souls: Live Chapter (2017, live album)

- Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico City (2020, live album)

- Senjutsu (2021)

- The Beat Sessions (2023, bootleg live album)


IRON MAIDEN          1980          (EMI)

- Standouts: All of it! 

This will be my second re-write of this page. I last updated it during COVID in 2020, but with the recent passing of 1978-1981 Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno (RIP), I went back to revisit this page and noticed some pretty stupid takes I had when I last worked on it. Not everything I wrote then I disagree with today, but a chunk of this page needs addressing. Some silly opinions and reviews I don't necessarily agree with now - I mean yeah, I'm entitled to my own opinions, but whatever was going through my head in 2020 is kinda baffling to me now (especially my reviews of Number of the Beast and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son). I also think I may have been a bit too harsh on some of the newer Maiden albums (and by 'newer', I mean anything from Brave New World onward), but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

For now, here's my updated review of Maiden's debut album, erm, Iron Maiden released in 1980!! In all honesty, I've always loved this album. The initial run of albums throughout the '80s is pretty much untouchable within the world of heavy metal, and the band got off to an incredible start on this debut. Even though things weren't quite set in stone yet - Paul Di'Anno was of course on vocals still at this point while Bruce Dickinson was still singing in fellow New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Samson. Dennis Stratton was in place of Adrian Smith on guitars and drummer Clive Burr would be around a few years before he was replaced by Nicko McBrain. None of this matters however, because even from day 1, bassist and Maiden brainchild Steve Harris was already killin' it with his songwriting and presenting us with an album that already contained pretty much all the key ingredients you'd expect to see on an Iron Maiden album. Unlike Judas Priest and their debut Rocka Rolla, Maiden had already discovered their true identity before they set foot in the studio.

I suppose you could argue that Bruce Dickinson was the missing ingredient when talking about Iron Maiden and it's follow-up Killers, but I've always been a fan of Di'Anno's vocal style here. No, he doesn't have the range or melody of Bruce, opting for a gruff, almost punk-like approach to his singing, but it doesn't take away from any of the songs themselves. His vocals remind me a bit of Jess Cox's on the Tygers of Pan Tang's first record, Wild Cat, also from 1980. And musically, other than maybe Diamond Head, Iron Maiden were the NWOBHM band to beat. The musicianship is tip-top from start to finish, with intricate guitar solos, leads and riffs from Dave Murray, and often complex songwriting from Steve Harris.

The standout song for me is 'Phantom of the Opera'. It is an always will be one of Maiden's greatest tunes if you ask me. It's proggy in the best way possible, and it's 7 minute-plus playing time never gets old. Endlessly cool galloping riffs and bass playing, great lyrics and just a bloody good time!! Second favourite number for me would have to be the album's closer - 'Iron Maiden', by the band Iron Maiden, from the album Iron Maiden!! Just a top-tier anthem in every sense. There's some technical wizardry to be had on instrumental 'Transylvania', which is far more enjoyable than 99% of other heavy metal instrumentals I can think of right now. 'Strange World' has kind of a ballad-ish touch about it, with it's more mellow vocals and superbly melodic playing. It breaks up the pacing of the record very nicely.  The band don't always show off their technical abilities - single 'Running Free' is actually a pretty straightforward slab of metal in many ways, but is ridiculously catchy for it. I love it. 'Prowler' too, is similarly great for the same reasons. And you can't go wrong with the moody 'Remember Tomorrow'. Meanwhile, 'Charlotte the Harlot' is an underplayed and overlooked classic. Not one duffer on here.

I don't really have much to complain about. The production is a little thin compared to following records, that much is true, but that could just be down to the band having a smaller budget at that point in time. There's also an awesome, up-tempo 1980 single called 'Sanctuary' that's included on my 1998 EMI remaster of the album, but was not officially included on the original version of the record. Shame, 'cos it rules! To me, 'Sanctuary' will always be a part of this one's tracklisting. When compared to other NWOBHM albums of 1980, this one could be number 1. I don't know if it's my absolute favourite of the entire movement (I don't really count anything after 1983 to be NWOBHM), but it along with Diamond Head's Lightning to the Nations were well ahead of their time and really set the bar high for the genre.

I've upped my score from a 9.2/10 to a 9.4... was tempted to go for a 9.5, but it's not actually my favourite Maiden record, and when thinking of NWOBHM in general, I also re-reviewed Venom's Black Metal a couple of months back. I also gave that album a 9.4, and I don't necessarily like Maiden's debut any more than I do Black Metal! So a 9.4 it is then. It's a timeless debut, and the band even had their imagery nailed too with that amazing album cover featuring iconic mascot Eddie, courtesy of artist Derek Riggs. Like, how could this album not be good?!

Adam's rating: 9.4/10

Original review:

I must confess: I was certainly a big Iron Maiden fan in my teens, but so far in my adulthood, my interest in them has somewhat withered over time. In my school years, they were probably one of my favourite bands, but there's just something about their music that doesn't quite strike every chord with me. Judas Priest did it more for me. Don't get me wrong, there's a handful of Maiden albums I love, but I've been really quite unimpressed with the vast majority of their albums from the past couple of decades. On the plus side, I can quite comfortably put this LP, their debut, in a list of what I consider to be the best so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal albums of all time. There's a reason why they became massively popular worldwide, and even if I don't consider myself to be a Maiden fanboy, as I said before, I do think they had a few releases that are pinnacle, prime heavy metal records. The NWOBHM movement of the early late 70's and 80's produced many classics in the genre, stuff like Diamond Head's Lightning to the Nations (in my eyes, the best album of the scene), Venom's Black Metal, Vardis' 100MPH, Def Leppard's On Through the Night and Saxon's Wheels of Steel. And of course, Iron Maiden's debut album. I know most of these bands are still recording new material to this day, but to me the NWOBHM movement only really lasted from around 1979-1982ish - I mean, as good as an album such as Maiden's Powerslave is, released in 1984, I don't really associate it with the whole NWOBHM thingy. By then, metal was huge, and bands were emerging all over the world and not just the UK. So yeah, the first 2 Iron Maiden LP's are definitely NWOBHM, anything after is not. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

In regards to the debut record, you can already hear that these guys could seriously play - generally far better than the majority of their NWOBHM competition at the time, save for maybe Diamond Head. Bassist Steve Harris was the man behind the writing of the music, but Dave Murray was a great, melodic guitar player, as was Dennis Stratton (this being his only album with the band, replaced by Adrian Smith shortly after). Musically the band were already tight and writing intricate numbers. Only problem was they still had vocalist Paul Di'Anno fronting them at this point in time. Well, to some, this was a problem. Let's be honest, everyone associates Maiden with the human air raid siren that is Bruce as their vocalist. Paul had a much more 'punk rock' approach to his vocals, meaning he has far less range and ability as a singer, and to some I guess it contrasts with the generally complex and melodic nature of the music. To me, I couldn't imagine anyone else singing on this record. I love Paul's vocals! Sure, he's raspy as hell, and he isn't anywhere near as technically-gifted as Bruce, but there's something about his vocals on this album that really gives it more character. I'll admit he'd have fitted better on something that sounds like the Clash's debut album, or maybe even something from the thrash metal scene that would emerge a few years later, but I really think his voice does not bring this album down. He came before Bruce, and that's his advantage. And these songs are classics, so who cares?

You've got really up-tempo, fast and technical numbers on here like 'Transylvania', 'Charlotte the Harlot' and 'Iron Maiden' along with proggy, melodic stuff like 'Remember Tomorrow' and 'Strange World'. All the ingredients that make Maiden the heavy metal icons they are were already here! The riffs aren't your typical power chord affair, more intricately picked, melodic harmonies with galloping bass lines. But they could still be catchy when they wanted! Just listen to the kick ass, infectious single 'Running Free', or the superb opener 'Prowler' to see what I mean. Not a single duff track to be found. If I had to pick a favourite, it'd be 'Phantom of the Opera' - that tune is just epic, and literally ticks all the boxes for a great Iron Maiden track.

The only issue I have with this album is the production. It's thin, and even though you can clearly hear Steve Harris' bass playing, it still isn't all that bassy. I never found Iron Maiden to be that heavy, despite being leaders of the heavy metal genre - and that could be the reason why I don't really get excited over a sizeable chunk of their discography. They're great musicians, and I totally recommend Iron Maiden the album, because every one of these tracks is special. But I really think they were always lacking on the 'heavy' front. That said, this debut is still one of the greatest albums the NWOBHM ever spawned.

Adam's rating: 9.2/10

KILLERS          1981          (EMI)

Standouts: 'Wrathchild', 'Murders in the Rue Morgue', 'Another Life', 'Genghis Khan', 'Innocent Exile', 'Killers', 'Purgatory', 'Drifter'

I always considered Killers to more-or-less be a continuation of the debut album, but with stronger, more professional production from the legendary Martin Birch (who would produce all following albums until 1992's Fear of the Dark). I said in my original review that the musicianship had also improved somewhat, but the playing was outstanding on the debut anyhow, so if the playing on Killers is more technical it's pretty difficult to pick up on. Whatever! Adrian Smith has now stepped in for Dennis Stratton and you have the band's classic guitar duo of him and Dave Murray. Paul Di'Anno was still on vocals for this record, which suits me fine. Of course, he'd leave not long after. According to Wikipedia, band manager Rod Smallwood as well as Steve Harris effectively ran the band and were like Mussolini and Hitler, and Paul didn't like their authority. Of course, the rest of the band say he was sacked for alcohol and cocaine abuse. I reckon it was a combination of drugs and authority.

Last album with Paul then, but what an album! After the brief instrumental 'The Idles of March', we're treated to not 1, but 2 of my favourite ever Maiden tracks - 'Wrathchild' and 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'. The former is extremely catchy, but heavy and the type of track I can just play over and over on repeat. It's songs like this that in my opinion helped boost the band's massive mainstream success. Meanwhile, 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' starts off with a slow-building intro, but quickly shifts into one of the fastest and most upbeat tracks on the record. And once again, it's catchy. 'Another Life' is really strong too - I always thought the twin guitar work almost sounds like a tribute to Thin Lizzy, but then I also think Maiden must've taken a lot of inspiration from Lizzy in the guitar department. For example, Lizzy's 'Emerald' sounds like Iron Maiden slowed down to me. Anyhow, 'Another Life' is great! And the band show off their skills on upbeat instrumental 'Genghis Khan'. It's not structured in any predictable way, but the music is still really memorable.

'Innocent Exile' - this one's another cracker! Fast, rockin' and full of superb lead guitar work. The title track has a really nice rhythm to it, with some pumpin' basslines from Steve Harris throughout. As far as metal bass players go, Steve's always been the man when it comes to basslines for me. I also like the acoustic guitar usage on 'Prodical Son'. It's the most mellow song on the album, but even with the acoustic bits, it still has some balls. Maybe it's my least favourite track on the record because I don't think it needed to last more than 6 minutes, but I still like it. By comparison, 'Purgatory' is the fastest track on offer - it's not face-rippingly heavy or anything like that, because Maiden have always had melody in their songs. But that's okay, because they like to kick your ass in their own way!! And the same can be said for 'Drifter', which is a tad slower, but more riffy. 

While Killers has actually gone up in my books since I last reviewed it 4 years ago, I still think I'll always put the debut on top of it! There's just a certain, tiny spark somewhere that makes those songs resonate more with me. But hey, if anyone prefers Killers to the debut, I wouldn't argue with them. Both are absolute classics and still hold up perfectly well to this day. Iron Maiden in those days weren't stretching their albums out to 70+ minutes long, nope, they were giving us finely crafted, to-the-point heavy metal 'bangers. There's other records in their catalogue that top Killers for me, but this one still sits high up my list.

Adam's rating: 9.2/10

Original review: 

Essentially a continuation of Iron Maiden's debut album, only with superior production and slightly improved musicianship. Steve Harris penned most of it once again, and Adrian Smith was in as the second guitarist. I wouldn't necessarily say that the songs are 'better' here, more like 'on par with'. Well, except for the kick-ass 'Wraithchild', that's one of their best tunes ever! The majority of 'Another Life' really gives me Thin Lizzy vibes in terms of it's guitar riffs and licks, but come to think of it, Lizzy's 'Emerald' to me sounds like Iron Maiden slowed-down, with different vocals. There's even a riff in the middle that goes full punk rock! 'Genghis Khan' is a nice guitar-driven instrumental that probably could've worked with words too, but either way it has a guitar lick in there that actually reminds me of - dare I say it - Papa Roach's 'Last Resort'! Who would'a guessed?! The title song has enough galloping bass-lines in it to rival 'The Trooper'. In fact, none of the tracks here are dodgy. I always considered Killers to be a nice companion to the debut. It lacks some of the hooks of tracks like 'Prowler' and 'Running Free' from it's predecessor, but it makes up for it in faster and more technically-proficient tunes - and the first album already had some impressive playing on it in the first place. Paul Di'Anno is Paul Di'Anno - love him or hate him. Again, I can't really imagine the album with anyone else on vocals, so no complaints from me. It would however, be his last album with the band. He was sacked due to cocaine addiction and waning stage performances. Let's be honest, his sacking wasn't exactly a bad thing in the long run...
Adam's rating: 9.1/10

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST          1982          (EMI)

- Standouts: Technically everything, but I'm tired of 'Run to the Hills' and 'Hallowed Be They Name' at this point!

For sentimental reasons, I want this to be my favourite Maiden album - but it just isn't!

Yep, Number of the Beast was the first Iron Maiden record I ever bought, and one of the first albums in general I bought with my own money as a 13 year old. If I wasn't 13, I'd have just turned 14. Hell, I still have my Number of the Beast t-shirt which I've now owned for 18 years, and still fits perfectly well! It's cracked and worn, but only looks cooler for it! Anyway, enough about t-shirts, this is one of those defining albums in my own musical journey. I played the shit out of my 1998 EMI remaster CD, but I've managed to keep it in good condition. The album's title track was featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, a game me and my brother used to play all the time - and I thought it ruled. In short, this is one of a handful of records that deserves a hell of a lot of credit in shaping who I am today. But as I've gotten older it's fallen down the Maiden ladder for me!

I really think if I'd never have heard the Maiden catalogue before, this one would sit in the top 3. Many of these songs are heavy metal cornerstones for a reason. Trouble is, as a die hard metalhead of almost 20 years now (I'm 32 as of writing this review), it's hard to avoid a lot of these songs, meaning some are just overplayed and I feel like I never need to hear them again. 'Run to the Hills' is up there with 'Paranoid', 'Back in Black', 'Enter Sandman', 'Smoke On the Water', 'Stairway to Heaven' etc., as one of the most overplayed hard rock/heavy songs of all time. It is a great song. It has every trait that makes Maiden the unstoppable machine they are. To the casual metal and rock fan, hearing it is a delight. To me, it was a delight in the first few years of my musical journey. Years later however, it's lost it's novelty and I'm just bored of hearing it. I almost feel bad for feeling so tired of it, as Maiden are metal royalty - but since I often skip it these days, I'm sorry to say that it will affect my overall rating of this classic album!!

Honestly, I'm tired of 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' as well. It was probably the most ambitious song they ever wrote at the time (and certainly the longest, but only beating 'Phantom of the Opera' by a few seconds), and is something of an epic. It's an important song in their catalogue, because writing lengthy epics is something that would become staple for the band (for better or worse...), and musically it's chock-full of great riffs, solos, vocals... you name it! But it's also the one oldie epic they almost always revisit live, while others such as 'To Tame a Land' from the following Piece of Mind album have been barely, if ever touched in the live setting!! Again, great song for sure, but in the words of John Coffey, "I'm tired boss"!!

Erm, oh yeah!! I completely forgot to mention the fact Number of the Beast was the first album to feature vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Fresh 'outta Samson, Bruce is a drastically different singer to Paul Di'Anno. Whereas Paul had that rough n' ready gruff attitude, Bruce actually sings in a much wider-ranging style and is normally thrown in with the likes of Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan etc. as one of the greatest heavy rock and metal singers of all time. While I agree that he was certainly in the same league as Halford or Dio throughout his '80s career, I don't think he's always been on point post-'80s (but that's a story for a later date). Either way, while I don't think Bruce was the only reason for Maiden's mega-success (I think musically the band were still amazing on the first couple of albums), he certainly boosted them and I wholeheartedly agree that in the '80s he did sport one of heavy metal's greatest set of pipes. He's also an amazing frontman on stage to this day. I'm just not the Bruce fanboy a lot of Maiden fans are.

But back to the songs, while I'm sick and tired of 'Run to the Hills' and 'Hallowed Be They Name' as a 32 year-old man, thankfully the rest of the songs still fire me up the same way they did as a young teenager. Ironically, given the album's iconic status, opener 'Invaders' is about as underrated as can be. It's a short and sweet slice of metal awesomeness that showcases Bruce's abilities as Maiden's new singer. Yet according to Setlist.fm, it's never been played live!! Shame. Maybe the band themselves don't like it for whatever reason? 'Children of the Damned', although only 4 minutes and 35 seconds long, somehow manages to feel like an epic. It's atmospheric and almost ballad-like in tone, and is just a classy song in general. Superb. And 'The Prisoner' may just be my favourite song on the album. If ever there was a list of "perfect choruses in heavy metal songs", this one's a top 10 contender for sure.

'22 Acacia Avenue' too, is a good time. I slagged it off in my 2020 review - I have no idea why. I said the lyrics were dumb by Maiden's standards (they're all about a hooker), but they're nowhere near as silly as something like 'Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter' or 'The Angel and the Gambler' from later albums. And I don't ever remember not liking this track growing up, so 2020 me is an idiot. The title track is definitely another of the most overplayed Maiden tracks of all time, yet somehow this one still holds it's original worth with me. Amazingly, I'm not tired of it! It's a live staple, sure, but it's not one I hear on the radio as much as I do 'Run to the Hills', 'The Trooper', 'Can I Play With Madness' etc., so maybe that's why. It's a pretty flawless song, and Bruce's "Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!" vocal will always be insanely cool!!

Funnily enough, as revered as Number of the Beast is with metalheads, 'Gangland' is often shit on a lot - at least within online communities. I'm guilty of labelling it as "throwaway filler" in my original review, which I think is actually kinda harsh. Having listened to it 4 or 5 times again in the last couple of days prior to writing this updated review, I don't think there's anything seriously wrong with it anymore. Maybe it is the weakest track on the album, but musically '80s Maiden is never boring, and Bruce's vocals are on par with the rest of the album, which means they're great of course. 'Gangland' reminds me of 'Escape' from Metallica's Ride the Lightning. Seen as inferior to the rest of the album, but still great somehow. 

In conclusion, I think I was too mean with that 8.5/10 score in my old review. It's more like a 9/10 for me. That said, I do still have silly personal reasons for not liking Number of the Beast more than the first 2 records. 'Run to the Hills' and 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' - as truly great as they are (and I really mean that) - are just tiresome gateway songs for the nerdy, devoted 32 year old metalhead and rock fan that I am today. That's 2 out of 8 songs, and it cannot be ignored. Fortunately the rest of the tracks I still dig just as much as anything off the self-titled or Killers. 'The Prisoner' and the title track might be better than anything from said records, even. And there's no mistaking that Bruce Dickinson is the superior vocalist to Paul Di'Anno. As much as I love Paul's performances, Bruce is the quintessential Iron Maiden vocalist, and I couldn't ever imagine Paul singing on, well, anything that came after Killers. 

So, it's another classic album. Probably one of Maiden's best if you come into it fresh-faced, but if you've been following the genre for the last 40 years, you might share similar opinions of it to me.

Adam's rating: 9/10

Original review:

The Number of the Beast was the turning point for Maiden. They already had a cult following in the metal underground prior to their debut, Killers put them on the radar, and Number of the Beast was their first UK number 1 - but more importantly, it was the first album to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals. Aside from both men being members of the same band, Bruce and Paul Di'Anno aren't exactly comparable in regards to their pipes. Paul had that raspy, punk sensibility whereas Bruce can actually sing. I'll admit I've always found Bruce to be a tad overrated as a singer - even though he has an impressive vocal range, I don't think he comes close to other metal legends like Rob Halford or Ronnie James Dio despite the fact he is generally regarded as one of the greats himself. Hell, there's underappreciated guys in the metal genre like Tony Martin of Sabbath fame who I think could out-sing ol' Brucie, but regardless of what I say, the man is still Iron Maiden's quintessential vocalist, and is still the man for the job.

And I can't deny that the best tracks on this record are timeless classics. Every metalhead knows 'Run to the Hills' and 'Number of the Beast' - in fact, a lot of people who aren't metalheads probably know 'em too. 'Run to the Hills' is totally overplayed, but it is a good song whichever way you look at it. And 'The Prisoner' is just one of their best tracks ever, that song has great hooks, great riffs, great melodies - it's just great on all levels. Plus, opener 'Invaders' is severely underrated and kicks off the album with a no-bullshit approach to the music. It showcases Bruce's talents brilliantly. The moody 'Children of the Damned' and operatic 'Hallowed Be They Name' are also good songs; the latter is probably not one of their best epics from their earlier years, but it's a good attempt at a lengthy and progressive track.

It pains me to say that Number of the Beast isn't without it's faults. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already seen the rating I've given this album, and if you're a Maiden fan, then you're probably wondering why it's scored lower than the first two. Truth is, I think '22 Acacia Avenue' - a song about a prossie - is fucking dumb by Maiden's standards, and 'Gangland' is just throwaway filler. While I do like Bruce's vocal melodies on '22 Acacia Avenue', but the lyrics are silly and out of character for the band, and the riffs are kind of uninspired. And 'Gangland' is basically just forgettable and won't ever make it into a playlist. For those reasons, I put this album just below it's predecessors. The good songs on here are legit classics - even if none of them are really among their best per say. But those two dodgy tracks really bring this one out of the 9/10 realm for me. Shame, 'cos this was one of the first albums I ever bought, and it did at least have quite an impact on my musical tastes.

Adam's rating: 8.5/10

PIECE OF MIND          1983         (EMI)

- Standouts: Everything! 

I was fairly confident this would still be my favourite Maiden record all these years later, and I was right. It is! Piece of Mind has held that title for as long as I can remember. I picked it up not long after Number of the Beast when I was about 14, not because it was the chronologically the next album that Iron Maiden recorded, but because it had 'The Trooper' on it. Amazingly, 'The Trooper' isn't a song I'm completely burned out on. It's one of their better-known tracks, sure (and it's played at every concert), but I don't hear it on the radio or in rock bars as much as I do 'Run to the Hills'. And 'Trooper' is better anyway - faster tempo, cooler riffs, awesome drumming... maybe not more catchy, but definitely as catchy.

Speaking of drumming, Piece of Mind was the first album with Nicko McBrain. To be honest with you, I'm no percussionist myself - I have my own favourite drummers, sure, but to me McBrain is no better than Clive Burr. He's certainly not worse, no sir, I just don't hear much obvious difference in either blokes' drum work, 'cos I'm not a drummer myself I guess. Nicko certainly deserves a shoutout though, because he's played on every single album since, and for that reason is the Maiden drummer. And I didn't mean to slag the guy off - there is absolutely nothing wrong with his actual drum performances on any Maiden album... I just can't think of any standout things he does that makes him better than Clive Burr, if that makes any sense!!

Anyway, back to the songs. 'Where Eagles Dare' is an absolutely thunderous opener. Massive riffs, a stormin' pace... it's Maiden personified. The dramatic 'Revelations' is full of proggy songwriting and mood shifts, and as a result is one of the band's most underrated songs of this ilk, in my opinion. Awesome stuff. Almost as awesome as single 'Flight of Icarus', which features one of their catchiest, most infectious choruses of all time ("Fly, on your way, like an eaaagggllleee!!"). Bruce's delivery of it is just oh-so great, I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about it! Ooh, and 'Die With Your Boots On' is particularly brilliant in terms of it's vocal arrangements as well, with all those "If you're gonna die!" backing chants!! Another corker!

The relatively formulaic 'Still Life' plays things fairly safe musically, but is a fine example of what a heavy metal song should sound like. It still has the fantastic lead guitar work, the rumbling basslines and powerful vocals, even if it's not one of the best tracks on the album. The same can be said for 'Quest for Fire', which is sandwiched nicely within the tracklisting. And guess what? The underrated 'Sun and Steel' contains yet another of my all-time favourite Maiden choruses ("Sunlight, falling on your steel, death in life is your ideal, life is like a wheel!"). Damn! There's just something about Bruce's delivery of his vocals on this album that just puts it above all the other LPs in this catalogue!! Album finale 'To Tame a Land' is about as epic as it gets - Steve Harris somehow managed to write music that matches the vastness of the fictional planet Arrakis and actually seems to transport me there, mentally! Superb.

One thing this band have almost always been really good at, is lyrics - and this album contains potentially my favourite set of songs lyrically as well. 'Where Eagles Dare' is all about the 1968 Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood classic WWII film. 'The Trooper' is about the Charge of the Light Brigade. 'Flight of Icarus' is all about Greek mythology. And 'To Tame a Land' takes inspiration from Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel Dune (which has seen a resurgence in popularity recently thanks to the 2 new films that have come out in the past couple of years). What's not to love when Bruce Dickinson sings about the Muad'Dib and Gom Jabbars??!! Well, alright, 'Quest for Fire' is about as cliché as a children's pop-up book ("In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth..."), but I can dig it!

I think I'll stick with my original score this time, thank 'ya very much! Piece of Mind still gets a 9.5/10 for me - I don't know if I can quite call it a masterpiece, but if any band can excite me enough to earn a 9.5, then bravo! 

I just think out of every studio album in this catalogue, it's Piece of Mind that holds the most awesome deep cuts as well as possibly the band's greatest all-time classic hit ('The Trooper' of course). It's a record that just always feels fresh no matter how many times I listen to it. As a metalhead, it does seem a bit strange to not award a Maiden album a 10/10, given just how beloved they are... but for me there's some sort of X-factor that other metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest have that Iron Maiden somehow don't have. Erm, of course, Maiden would go on to release an album called The X-Factor in 1995, but we'll gloss over that! In the case of Piece of Mind, I think production might have something to do with it, but I don't fully know. It sounds good to me, but I always thought the guitars needed cutting through the mix a little more. Still, credit where credit's due - Maiden still have more classics under their belt than 99% of other metal bands, even if none of them are perfect 10s for me personally.

Adam's rating: 9.5/10

Original review:

I doubt most fans will agree with me when I say that this is the best Maiden money can buy. Piece of Mind is certainly regarded as a classic album, but I usually see Powerslave or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son ranked above it. I dunno, for me, this is the pinnacle of their career. While Maiden never quite had enough 'punch' in their approach to metal for my liking, they almost nailed it on this album! I think if it'd been produced slightly harsher and rawer, then I'd say Piece of Mind is a near-enough perfect heavy metal album, but as it stands, I just can't do that.

Well, everything has improved across the board at least. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith's guitar playing is magnificent, and there's never a dull moment; the album is full of those unmistakable Lizzy-esque twin harmonies, great riffs and solos. Bruce sounds excellent from start to finish, and Steve Harris' songwriting is spot-on. The music is technical enough to impress whilst there's enough hooks throughout the songs that also make them catchy and memorable. 'Flight of Icarus' and 'Die with Your Boots On' are extremely underrated songs that deserve more live attention! And the former was even a single, and I can see why. 'Where Eagles Dare' is one of their strongest ever, stormin' openers and 'Revelations' is a proggy journey. And who could forget 'The Trooper', a song that needs no explanation as to why it's so great. I'd probably say 'To Tame a Land' - a song inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune, and a track Herbert personally disowned because he didn't like rock bands - is my favourite of all their closing epics. Forget 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'To Tame a Land' is where it's at! Even the forgotten tracks like the marching tempo of 'Quest for Fire' and the anthemic singalong 'Sun and Steel' are better than anything from Number of the Beast in my opinion.

It wasn't difficult to pick a favourite - Piece of Mind has always been it for me. Even with my personal gripes and tastes, I almost always enjoy hearing 80's Maiden.
Adam's rating: 9.5/10

POWERSLAVE           1984         (EMI)

- Standouts: Everything's really good, but I'm getting bored of hearing '2 Minutes to Midnight' now!

Maybe it's just me, but whenever I look at Iron Maiden album ranking lists from both fans and critics alike, the most popular consensus is that Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son are usually ranked number 1 and 2. The order seems to vary, with either album taking the top spot about 50% of the time. Of course, this is just my own observation, but what I can say is that I don't think either Powerslave or Seventh Son will ever be in my top 2. That said, I can hardly ignore the fact Powerslave is a considered a classic for good reason. There's a whole host of golden oldies to sink 'yer teeth into here, most of which you're probably already familiar with.

I'll get it out of my system now and say that the ancient-Egyptian themed title track is probably a top 5 Maiden song for me. Always has been, always will be. It's such a powerfully heavy, rollicking song with that wonderfully epic aura the band were so capable of in the '80s. Like 'To Tame a Land' from Piece of Mind, they totally nailed it - and it's not even the album's closing finale! No, you've got the 13 minute 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' following directly after, but I'll come back to that one later. But yeah, the title track's a real defining moment of Steve Harris' songwriting talent.

'Aces High' and '2 Minutes to Midnight' are the 2 obvious live staples. 'Aces High' holds up as one of the band's greatest album openers with it's high-octane twin guitars and Battle of Britain-inspired poetry. One of the band's more popular cuts, but one that I'm not completely burned out on. As for '2 Minutes to Midnight', well, maybe I am beginning to get a tad bored of this song. Like 'Run to the Hills', it seems to be a little overplayed in my world, but also like 'Run to the Hills', it is a fantastic song when it all comes down to it. The main riff combined with Bruce Dickinson's chorus is fantastically infectious once again, and I can only imagine this is one of those tracks that drew people into the world of heavy metal. What I will say however - and I've mentioned this a few times before on this blog - that main riff in '2 Minutes to Midnight' sits dangerously close to Saxon's own 'Power and the Glory' from 1983, a year before Powerslave was released! Not that this really takes anything away from either song, it almost feels like my duty as a Saxon fan to make other people aware of this fact!!

So anyway, we get another rock-solid instrumental in 'Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)'. They hadn't recorded an instrumental since Killers, and this one's instrumentation is just as enjoyable as either 'Transylvania' and 'Genghis Khan' from the first couple of records. I suppose 'The Duellists' and 'Back in the Village' could qualify as 'deep cuts', but I guess it depends on what calibre of Maiden fanboy you are. Both are, again, supremely competent tracks, full of energy. 'The Duellists' is notable for it's fist-pumping rhythm and excellent twin guitar wizardry from Dave and Adrian. I think it lacks a little in the vocal department; not because of Bruce's actual vocal performance, it just isn't as hooky as some of the other songs here. 'Back in the Village' is probably my preferred track out of these 2. It's has a faster tempo and stronger vocal arrangements to me, but both are still quality Maiden at the end of the day.

And then there's the album's closing track, 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. I guess after a host of 7-minute songs ('Phantom of the Opera', 'To Tame a Land', 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' etc.), the next logical step was to take things further and record a 13 minute-plus, proggy epic! Now, I've often slagged off Maiden's latter-career, accusing them of writing far too many proggy, overlong and overblown songs on many of their new records, to the point where it's just getting out of hand. But I will at least admit that I do like 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', more-so than I did the last time I reviewed Powerslave in 2020. One of the main reasons I wanted to update this page in 2024 was 'cos I think there were times I was talking out my arse in my old reviews. I'll come clean and admit that my comments about 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' were totally stupid and even baffling to me now. I said this about it:

"...every track on here is more than solid once again, but there's one in particular that doesn't quite hit the spot with me like the entire Piece of Mind album did. It's the 13.39 minute closer 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. I dunno, but I never really dug the majority of the long-ass Maiden tracks. 'Powerslave', like 'To Tame a Land', is over seven minutes in length, but that's honestly one of the best metal tracks of the early/mid 80's (and is seven minutes really that long?), but 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is just too long for what is essentially just another heavy metal song. In fact, I've always found it to be a bit pretentious and unnecessary. If you look at the different segments of the song individually, it's rather impressive - but it goes from being a tight and fast speed metaller one minute, into an overblown and mellow instrumental the next. Who do they think they are, King Crimson?!"

Idiotic comments coming from what was quite clearly a stupid headspace I was in at the time. I mean sure, opinions are allowed - but I don't think calling 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' "just another heavy metal song" is fair! How many other metal bands were writing songs of this scale back in 1984? Not many I bet. Maiden deserve credit for their ambition, and the fact the song is well-paced and balanced, with plenty of progressive structure and lots of memorable parts throughout, both instrumentally and vocally. And let's not forget the as-always outstanding lyrics based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name. I can definitely say that 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' still isn't one of my all-time favourite Iron Maiden tracks, and not even my favourite from Powerslave for that matter (I still don't like the way it abruptly ends). So I won't be too kind about it. But it's definitely a highlight for me, and certainly adds to Powerslave's greatness. 

Moving on, I don't think Martin Birch ever produced a bad-sounding Iron Maiden album - he was one of the best metal producers in the '80s. Even if Powerslave isn't necessarily one of my absolute favourite Maiden records, I think it might be my favourite-sounding one. Everything's a little sharper here than on anything prior, but it still has a warm feel to it sonically and never feels too polished or over-produced. I can't really fault any aspect of this album's production.

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite by keeping my original score of 9.1/10!! But while 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' has risen in it's ranks, 'The Duellists' isn't quite as strong as I remembered (although still very, very good) and I'm getting a little tired of hearing '2 Minutes to Midnight' at this point in my life. Add this to the fact I gave Killers a 9.2 - an album I tend to listen to more than I do Powerslave and yeah... it just seems wrong to up my score. That said, giving Powerslave anything less than a 9/10 is just crazy. The album is yet another classic through-and-through, and deserves it's place in any self-confessed metalhead's collection.

Adam's rating: 9.1/10 

Original review:

This is the album I tend to see at the top of most people's Maiden lists. I guess I can't blame them, even if I don't personally regard it as the band's finest hour. You can't argue that 'Aces High', '2 Minutes to Midnight' and 'Powerslave' aren't kick-ass songs. The musicianship was at an all-time high on those tracks, and are every bit as good as the best tracks from Piece of Mind. In fact, every track on here is more than solid once again, but there's one in particular that doesn't quite hit the spot with me like the entire Piece of Mind album did. It's the 13.39 minute closer 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. I dunno, but I never really dug the majority of the long-ass Maiden tracks. 'Powerslave', like 'To Tame a Land', is over seven minutes in length, but that's honestly one of the best metal tracks of the early/mid 80's (and is seven minutes really that long?), but 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is just too long for what is essentially just another heavy metal song. In fact, I've always found it to be a bit pretentious and unnecessary. If you look at the different segments of the song individually, it's rather impressive - but it goes from being a tight and fast speed metaller one minute, into an overblown and mellow instrumental the next. Who do they think they are, King Crimson?!

Look, I get that Maiden were always very technically-proficient on their instruments, but Steve Harris is no genius. He can write rock-solid heavy metal tracks, sure, but he's no prog wizard, even if he thinks he is (just listen to some of the overblown tracks they've been putting out for the last couple of decades...). Most Maiden fans probably wanna see me hang after that rant, but whatever I say, Powerslave is up there among the best metal records of the 80's... even if they stole the opening riff of '2 Minutes to Midnight' straight from Saxon's 'Power and the Glory'! But we'll gloss over that.
Adam's rating: 9.1/10

LIVE AFTER DEATH          1985          (EMI)

A pretty legendary live album in the world of heavy metal. Bruce Dickinson screeching "Scream for me Long Beach!!" is nothing short of iconic! Live After Death perfectly summarises the band's initial years with Bruce; they hadn't gotten quite as sophisticated yet - the more artsy Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son were just around the corner, so the album only covers songs from the debut through to Powerslave. I consider the band's entire '80s catalogue to be their crowning achievement, so the only way you could improve Live After Death is to have songs from SiT and SSoaSS... but this was recorded across 1984 and 85, so that simply isn't possible! As it stands, what is here is still top-notch live metal madness from start to finish.

Personal favourite performances here are 'Flight of Icarus', 'Iron Maiden', 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Die with Your Boots On'. Notice how all these songs originally came from the self-titled debut and Piece of Mind, my 2 favourite Iron Maiden records!! But like I said, this entire package is infinitely enjoyable from beginning to end. They released it as a double LP back in the day, and my 1998 EMI remaster comes on 2 CDs. The fact they saw sense to release this as a double live album is part of it's charm. Maiden were (and still are) one of metal's premier live acts - the more material they can cram into 1 package, the better! Saxon missed the mark by releasing The Eagle Has Landed as a single-LP live album in 1982. I mean, yeah, that one's still regarded as a classic - but it's a prime example of a rock-solid live record from a seminal band in their prime that could've been so much more.

I'm not sure if I'd stick Live After Death in my own 'top 5 live albums' list. Top 10 for sure, but I can think of a few others that just about top this one for me - UFO's Strangers in the Night, Deep Purple's Made in Japan and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. Still, Live After Death is about as good as live Maiden records get. There's a lot to choose from nowadays, and even though they're all mostly good overall, none of them have topped the OG that is LAD.

Adam's rating: 9.5/10

SOMEWHERE IN TIME          1986           (EMI)

- Standouts: Pretty much everything.

By 1986 the band were toying with guitar synthesisers. On paper, this sounds like a potential flop; Judas Priest did the same thing in 1986 with the Turbo album, and that one's always been a stinker in my books. Maiden on the other hand bagged another winner even with the flashy new '80s tones. Yes, this album is a product of it's time, but the big '80s aura of the record only seems to work in it's favour. There's just a higher level of grandeur and an awesome atmosphere surrounding Somewhere in Time that most of their other albums lack. It helps that there's no obnoxious cheesiness coming from the synths... unlike Priest's Turbo. I'm not saying I'd have liked albums such as Killers or Piece of Mind to have been produced the same way, it just really works for this particular set of songs. It 'sorta reminds me of Sabbath's 1989 album Headless Cross, in that it's very much about as '80s as it gets production-wise, but is all the more memorable for it in the best way possible. 

Songs-wise, basically everything this album has to offer is yet again classic stuff. The almost-7 and a half minute opener 'Caught Somewhere in Time' is an excellent display of the band's intricate musicianship, and is packed full of melody and even some prog-like songwriting techniques. Instant classic, as is 'Wasted Years' - in my opinion one of the band's finest ever singles. Yet again, Bruce delivers a near-perfect singalong chorus that absolutely has me singing along every time I hear this track without fail. I know 'Wasted Years' is technically a heavy metal song, but I'd say it borders on being stadium rock with it's awesome vocal arrangements and generally hooky nature. It's just one of Maiden's best ever songs in general. I can't speak highly enough of it. 'Sea of Madness' kicks off with a speedy riff and some frantic drums, but is actually quite a varied song musically with it's moody atmosphere, melodic guitars and huge chorus. A deep cut in every sense of the word.

'Heaven Can Wait' sounds relatively conventional to me, but this is no bad thing. The riff is speedy and punchy, while Bruce's soaring, uplifting chorus yet again treads very much into stadium rock territory. It even has big vocal chants that only enhance the song further. Another deep cut that could've maybe qualified as a single. The weakest track on the album to me might just be 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner', but I take no issue with it being on the record either. It's one of those tracks for me that's just lacking a certain key ingredient that other songs here do have. I do love it's up-tempo riffage, but it's definitely less memorable than the bulk of the other tracks here. But that said, I'll still keep it within the tracklisting thank 'ya very much! Maybe it's just overshadowed by the spectacular 'Stranger in a Strange Land', which, depending on which day you ask me, is my favourite song on the album (ask me again another day and I'd probably say 'Wasted Years'). It's one of those 'perfect driving songs' for me, with it's thumping bass line, perfect vocal matter, catchy riffs... the works. I get that heavy metal is something of a misfit genre by today's standards - most kids today probably haven't even heard of Iron Maiden and are too busy listening to Taylor Swift or whoever the fuck it is they listen to nowadays, but Iron Maiden were no stranger to the singles charts in the '80s (at least in the UK). And why shouldn't they have been?! There was plenty of metal in the mainstream for good reason back in those days, and you can certainly hear why with Maiden tracks like 'Wasted Years' and 'Stranger in a Strange Land'!!

The last couple of songs are very strong too. 'Deja Vu' is one more deep cut to add to the list. It's the shortest track on the record at just under 5 minutes, but in that time the band cram as much Maiden as they can into it. By contrast, 'Alexander the Great' is the longest song on the record, but is nowhere near 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' levels of lengthiness. It lasts 8 minutes and 37 seconds in total however, so it's definitely well within epic territory. You know what though? This is still '80s Maiden, and Steve Harris knew what he was doing with these kinds of tracks - as is the case with 'Alexander the Great'. It ticks pretty much all the boxes with it's proggy structure and storytelling, and is one more fine epic to add to the list. I just don't find it to be as enjoyable as 'To Tame a Land' for example. Couldn't really tell you why exactly, it's just not a personal favourite of mine I guess. But it's most definitely a highlight, that much is true.

There's a few details I don't quite agree with in my old review once again. While Somewhere in Time has always been one of my favourite Maiden records, I was too mean about the synths. Even though I said they mostly work (or at least work to the point where they don't ruin the album for me), I seemed to think that most of the tracks on the album would've worked just as well without them. Well, maybe. But then again, maybe not. How could I possibly know?! As it stands, I love Somewhere in Time's synthy tones and production and I don't ever remember not liking it. Erm, that is, until I wrote that silly review in 2020, but even then I never said I had took serious issue with the album sonically. 

Anyhow, scoring-wise this deserves a 9.4, easily. It's never topped Piece of Mind for me, but alongside the self-titled debut, it's always been a close second. It has it's share of damn-near perfect songs such as 'Wasted Years' and 'Stranger in a Stranger Land', amazing deep cuts like 'Sea of Madness', 'Caught Somewhere in Time' and 'Heaven Can Wait', and slightly-flawed yet still great tracks like 'Alexander the Great' and 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'. Overall though, it all adds up to create one of the better heavy metal albums of the '80s. Calling it one of the greatest of all time is a bit of a stretch, but of it's decade, sure.

Adam's rating: 9.4/10

Original review:

Given that the band were now dabbling with guitar synthesisers, I was ready to tear this one a new arsehole when I first heard it in my school years. Judas Priest released Turbo the same year, and look how that turned out... Maiden on the other hand, somehow managed to pull this one off with mostly positive results. The majority of Somewhere in Time's tracks - at heart - are as good as what you heard on albums like Number of the Beast or Powerslave. I absolutely love 'Caught Somewhere in Time' - what an opener! It was the first Maiden album to open on a seven minute plus song, and it works! Also, 'Wasted Years' is easily one of their best radio-friendly stadium anthems. The riffs during the verses are a bit dull, but that opening guitar-picked melody is glorious, and Bruce Dickinson's chorus is the stuff of dreams! Singalong dreams! It's simply an amazing driving track. 'Stranger in a Strange Land' - love it! Pure metal magic! 'Heaven Can Wait' too, is a very uplifting and seriously underrated track in their discography, with an extremely simple, but very effective singalong chorus. Steve really knew what he was doing in terms of writing stadium anthems at this point.

The only real issue I have with Somewhere in Time is obviously the synth usage. 'Stranger in a Strange Land' is the only track they really work perfectly on as the big, spaced-out reverby sounds go hand-in-hand with that song for some reason, but the rest of the album has that same effect on every song, and it just seems unnecessary to me. I was hesitant to give the album above a 9/10 because the production is very glossy in comparison to everything else that came before it, but honestly, I like most of the songs on here more than Powerslave. So yeah.
Adam's rating: 9.2/10

SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON          1988          (EMI)

- Standouts: Basically everything once again.

If there's one review on this page that's in dire need of a re-write, it's my god-awful 2020 review of Seventh of a Seventh Son. Sure, there's some basic points that I still agree with. For starters, it is a concept album, and I've never really given any concept record bonus points simply for telling a story from start to finish. If the music isn't good, then the lyrics aren't gonna save it. And I still don't fully understand the folklore story based on Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, nor can I be arsed to try to. Like I said, if the music is enjoyable enough, then I'm totally fine with any concept album regardless of whatever story it's trying to tell.

As idiotic as my original review was, I've never not liked Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. It's always been a great album in my books, it's just that for whatever reason I had my head up my arse 4 years ago and was determined to try and prove that this record somehow wasn't among Iron Maiden's very best - contrary to popular opinion, which is of course, that SSoaSS is most definitely one of the band's greatest works.

I said that Steve Harris had gone full "false-intellectual mode" here, and argued that he was trying to be as musically diverse as possible because this is a concept album. True, this album is more experimental than anything that came before, and even the synths have been cranked up another notch since Somewhere in Time, but this doesn't make the album automatically worse for it, no sir! Yep, you can immediately hear a more progressive-based song structure to both 'Moonchild' and 'Infinite Dreams' (the first 2 songs on the album). But the fact of the matter is that both are extremely well-crafted tunes penned by a band at the top of their game. 'Moonchild' takes a little while to get going, but it's slow build-up with the synths is kind of hypnotic, in a way. And when the album finally does pick up steam, it sounds like prime Maiden to me. It's up-tempo, it's melodic, the chorus is catchy... it features all the key ingredients that made them so great in the first place. As for 'Infinite Dreams', this track starts off moody and overall features many ballad-like passages. It's certainly proggy in it's own way, with big synths backing the dramatic vocal arrangements and melodies, but it also features a heavy, stormin' mid-section that adds some needed power to the track. It's a classic on all levels.

Despite kicking off with 2 ambitious songs, tracks 3 and 4 are both Maiden at their catchiest, and both were rightfully released as singles. The first is of course, 'Can I Play with Madness'. Well, okay, since this is a song I've been familiar with for well over half my life, it's been relegated to the 'overplayed' bins for me at this point, alongside 'Run to the Hills', '2 Minutes to Midnight' etc.. But like any of Maiden's more overplayed radio hits, they're radio hits for a reason. It's a great song, and just because I'm a little tired of it now doesn't mean that you can't enjoy it!! Bruce once again absolutely nails the chorus, like he always has done on all of Maiden's catchiest songs of the '80s, and the song feels like an arena rock anthem in the same way that 'Wasted Years' does from the last record. Track 4, 'The Evil That Men Do', is also irresistibly catchy, but is easily the one you're less likely to hear on the radio of the 2. See the band live and you certainly will hear it, but I'm not bored of it - so for that reason it's the song that'll never fail to make a playlist for me. Definitely up there with all the other all-time classic singles Maiden released throughout the '80s.

The epic-length title track (9 minutes and 54 seconds long, by far the longest on the album) is once again, as good as any other epic the band had put out at this point in their career. It has far more synths than any of their other tracks of the same calibre, but that's part of what makes it stand out in that category I guess. Some of the songs' passages and melodies remind me a little of both 'Powerslave' and 'To Tame a Land', but with the fancy synth work, 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son' also has a floaty, dream-like quality that those songs don't. But it's also heavy when necessary and is one of those rare songs that when it's over, doesn't feel like you've just sat through almost 10 minutes of music. It really does take me elsewhere, and everybody's performances on it are stellar. Outstanding.

The last 3 songs aren't as showey-offy and proggy as the title track. 'The Prophecy' focuses much more on just being a rock-solid heavy metaller, with it's marching riffage and bass-work, and fist-pumping tempo. 'The Clairvoyant' has some nice uplifting guitar work that leaves me with a smile on my face when it's over. Maybe it's the closest thing to 'filler' on this record, but that's only because I find it to be less memorable than most of the other tracks. It's still very solid. Album closer 'Only the Good Die Young' ends the record on another more straightforward cut, and easily features my favourite chorus of the 3 final songs. It also features some amazing Steve Harris bass fretwork - can never have too much of that stuff!

While it's difficult to be genuinely critical of any of Iron Maiden's '80s records, I did state in my newer Piece of Mind review that Maiden are a band missing a certain X-factor that Sabbath and Priest have. The more I think about it, riffs are probably a contributing factor to this. I'm a riff guy, much more so than I am solos or guitar melodies etc., and the number of favourite riffs I have from Sabbath and Priest is way higher than it is Maiden. I just don't find Maiden to be a band focused primarily on riffs, as weird as that sounds. They're more about the basslines (because this is primarily Steve Harris' band more-so than anyone else), the melodies and the twin guitar solos - and as far as metal goes, they're probably the greatest of all time in that sense. And there's nothing wrong with this either, it's just that by default I find it difficult to rate many of their albums among any of the metal albums I consider to be 10/10s. But at the same time, whenever I see albums like this and Powerslave among people's GOAT'ed metal album lists, it's hard to argue against them!! Like I said, it's all just personal preference and what you want out of a metal album I guess. Lucky for me, I think Maiden are (or at least were), one of the best metal bands in terms of guitar solos and melodies, and also vocal arrangements. I mean, the list of perfect-to-near-perfect choruses the band have come up with in some of their tracks is off the charts!!

This is a 9.1/10. To be honest, it was probably always a 9.1 for me, except for when reviewed it in 2020!! Anyhow, my reasoning for the 9.1 is because I think I enjoy it about as much as Powerslave. The best songs on SSoaSS ('Moonchild', 'Infinite Dreams', 'The Evil That Men Do' and the title track) are, in my opinion, superior to those on Powerslave. Trouble is, 'The Prophecy', 'The Clairvoyant' and 'Only the Good Die Young' - as great as they are (and they are, trust me) - are probably weaker than anything Powerslave had to offer. Production is, as always, tip-top thanks to Martin Birch. So they kind of balance out at the end of the day I guess. It's not up there with Killers however, so a 9.2 isn't gonna happen!

Hopefully I won't ruin your day with my diabolical original review below!!

Adam's rating: 9.1/10

Original review:

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is generally regarded as one of Maiden's greatest accomplishments, and while it's certainly the last of the golden years, I dunno if I agree that it's one of their best as such. It's a concept album about some folklore mumbo-jumbo - to be honest, I don't really care much for concept album's in regards to the lyrics. If the album and songs sound good and it just so happens to be a concept album, then so be it.

Musically (and lyrically) Steve's gone into 'full false-intellectual' mode on this album. I recently re-reviewed Judas Priest's attempt at a concept album, Nostradamus, and when they made that record they to had fallen into some kind of mindset along the lines of "oh, it's a concept album, so we must be as musically ambitious and diverse as we can be". More often than not, you get a more melodic, proggy and experimental album than usual. This is true of Seventh Son; the album is even heavier on the synths than Somewhere in Time, and none of the songs on here are heavy per say. That's not to say there aren't songs that won't get your fists pumping; who can resist the catchy awesomeness of the single 'Can I Play with Madness'? It's one of their best tunes! And I've gotta add that 'The Evil that Men Do' is another of my all-time favourite Maiden tracks, so what am I complaining about exactly? Well, there's a few problems in all honesty. I guess my biggest issue, aside from the pretentious lyrical matter which I don't care much for, is the lack of any memorable guitar riffs. This is heavy metal (supposedly) - a genre built around the guitar riff - and yet there's less memorable riffs on here than on any previous Maiden album. Maybe it's the clean production, or maybe it's the progressive song structures, but honestly, none of the riffs on any of these tracks come close to crackers such as 'The Trooper', 'Number of the Beast', 'Phantom of the Opera' etc.; the guitars are there more to guide Bruce's vocal lines through the tracks - at least that's what my ears are telling me anyway. 

What the album does succeed in, is it's melodies and the fact it really does sound operatic. While the riffs are lacking in any sense of heaviness, the leads from Murray and Smith are lovely to listen to from start to finish, and prove that metal can be quite beautiful when it really wants to be. And like I said, songs like 'Can I Play with Madness' and 'The Evil that Men Do' might not make you want to bang your head - in fact, basically none of this album does - they are at least very good songs in their own right. The musicianship as a whole is stellar across the board, their best in this sense at the time of release.

Really I think Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is a very good album in terms of it's actual musicianship, but it's not a particularity good metal album. The good points of this album are not exactly what I look for in a heavy metal album, but the actual record itself is still a very well-made piece of music with some very solid tracks in that sense. I guess the average metalhead probably considers any score less than a 9.5/10 for this album is sacrilege, and even I couldn't bring myself to give this thing anything lower than an 8. It is a quality album, but it's not one I play very often when I want to hear some Maiden. I think Steve Harris and co. are very talented musicians, but all the stupidly long songs he's churning out these days pisses me off, and I wouldn't be surprised if the man's ego grew after Seventh Son was released to the world. 

Adam's rating: 8/10

NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING         1990          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Tailgunner', 'Holy Smoke', 'No Prayer for the Dying', 'Public Enema Number One', 'Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter', 'Mother Russia'

No Prayer for the Dying is nobody's favourite Iron Maiden record. It's not mine either, but 'cos I'm weird I'd say I probably like it more than the average fan. I said in my old review that this album was essentially a "back to basics" effort, and I think that's a fair take. Stood beside Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, the music on No Prayer is far more simplistic and formulaic - there's no prog to speak of here, and not 1 song even reaches 6 minutes!! So don't expect any epic-length tracks, conceptual lyrics and whatever else the band was sinking their teeth into within the past few albums. 

I suppose this record was gonna be a letdown for many by default; that 7-album run from the debut all the way up to SSoaSS has gone down in heavy metal history as iconic. They got smarter with every release; whether or not they got better is entirely up to the listener, but no one can deny that each and every one of those 7 albums are classics of the genre. So deliberately taking things back to basics wasn't exactly gonna fly with a lot of fans and critics, but I do sort of understand why Steve Harris and co. made this album the way they did. It can't be an easy task to follow-up a critically-acclaimed ambitious album like SSoaSS and still maintain the same level of momentum. I can only assume the record label and management were pressuring them to carry on recording new material on top of this... a return to their roots seems fair to me.

Of course, the songs speak differently. As I said before, I like this album! But it's a fact of life that it was still the worst thing they put out at the time. Still, the first 3 songs are all well-above average in my books. I always dug 'em, and I still do. 'Tailgunner' is a fun opener about WWII bombers (it even features a Dresden reference) - the riffs are nice, the chorus is memorable... a catchy little heavy metal ditty. 'Holy Smoke' is fun too! The lyrics are kinda punky and full of attitude, and again, all forms of guitar work on it are catchy and I often find myself sticking this one in my Spotify playlists! And as for the third song, the title track, well, this one's a competent ballad with some engaging lead guitar melodies that stay in my head long after the song is over. Not necessarily one of their best ballads, but there's nothing wrong with it either in my books.

Forget the silly song title, 'Public Enema Number One' is pretty cool too! The "Fall on your knees today..." chorus is one of the most memorable of the record, and this track in general has always been a standout for me. It's also the chorus that makes 'Run Silent Run Deep' enjoyable too. The riffs are fine, but the vocal arrangements can easily be sung along to. 'Hooks in You' is kinda fun as well. It's a rocker - yes, a rocker. Not a metaller. The riffs and the upbeat vibes are much more hard rock than metal to my ears, and there's no way in hell this would've made it on any of the previous records!! But whatever, I sort of like it! And you know what, 'Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter' is a good bit of silly fun too! Despite their long list of near-perfect charting singles here in the UK, I think this was the only one that actually got to number 1!! It's the dumbest single they ever released, but it is catchy alright! Kind of explains everything then. The last track, 'Mother Russia' almost feels as if they were going for an epic with it's keyboards and atmosphere, but only lasts 5 and a half minutes - so I won't call it an epic. But it still has it's fair share of musical transitions and the performances on it are great.

I do get peoples' criticisms for this album. Even though there's nothing on here I really dislike, some of these tracks aren't quite up to snuff at times. 'Fates Warning' is a good example of this. The guitar solos are really nice, but vocals-wise it's not much of a singalong affair, and not the kind of song I'd ever listen to individually. Far from bad and unlistenable, just not great. 'The Assassin' has some cool drumming on it, but is devoid of any energy. Again, it's not a total disaster (although the backing vocals do suck) in that I can listen to it quite easily without pressing the skip button - but you won't be seeing it on a compilation anytime soon! But to be fair, out of 10 songs in total, these are my least favourite, and even then they're still listenable. Strangely, I praised both these tracks in my old review!

I did make another valid observation in my old review. I said that Bruce's voice had seemingly deteriorated sometime after SSoaSS, and is now raspier and gravellier here than it ever was before. I said Bruce was suffering from "Brian Johnson syndrome" - essentially, Brian sounded amazing on his Back in Black 1980 debut with AC/DC, but by the time Fly On the Wall came along in 1985 his vocals were never quite the same again, somehow. Same thing with Bruce, in my opinion. It's not that he's bad or anything like that, but listen to him sing something like 'Number of the Beast' or 'Wasted Years', and then compare it to anything from No Prayer for the Dying, and the difference is noticeable. 

Maybe it's just me and I have no taste in music, but I'm unashamedly a No Prayer for the Dying fan!! Hearing it in full again presumably since the last time I reviewed it, I really enjoyed it!! Yeah I know - Bruce's drop in vocal quality is noticeable from the get-go, the lyrics have gotten sillier at times, and the songwriting is far less ambitious too. But it's the most fun Maiden album since maybe Number of the Beast, and I kinda like the fact they weren't taking themselves quite as seriously this time around - especially after the deep and artsy Seventh Son record. No Prayer was still handled by Martin Birch production-wise, and still sounds fine to me. Also notable is the fact it was the first album to feature Janick Gers on guitar, since Adrian Smith left the band through the '90s and wouldn't return until 2000's Brave New World. How much better No Prayer could have been had Adrian stayed in Maiden I don't know, but like I said, I think this is a solid album all in all.

So yes, I do agree with general consensus that this was the weakest Maiden record at the time. But is it still good? Hell yes!

Adam's rating: 8/10

Original review:

This album is very much a 'back to basics' effort, and the critical reception towards it at the time was somewhat lukewarm; I for one welcome it. I do like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, but it's far from one of my favourite Maiden albums. Steve was getting a bit carried away with his songwriting at that point, and the songs - as good as they were musically - had no balls left at that point. At least on No Prayer for the Dying, they're actually trying to be a heavy metal band again. That said, even though I presumably reckon this CD is better than the average listener, it still manages to have problems of it's own. There's just no pleasing some people! But seriously, what happened to Bruce's voice in the space of time between Seventh Son and this? Unless it was an intentional shift to try and sound raspier and give these songs a slightly edgier, uh, edge, Bruce had definitely strained or just generally damaged his voice in some way around this period. He doesn't sound bad - still better than the average dude singing in a metal band for sure, but he was definitely suffering from 'Brian Johnson syndrome' in the 90's. FYI, Brian Johnson of AC/DC sounded amazing on Back in Black, then a couple of albums later his voice suddenly went to shit. Either way, Bruce was lucky that Steve wasn't trying to get all artsy on this album, 'cos I don't think Bruce could've coped on a 'Seventh Son Part II' in 1990.

Thankfully the actual music on this record is decent from start to finish. 'Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter' was a hit, and while the lyrics are dumb, it's harmless dumb fun. I love opener 'Tailgunner' as well, even if the "Tailgunner... you're the tailgunner" part of the chorus is kinda lazy. I like the metal balladry of the title song, 'Holy Smoke' has a really cool and catchy riff, 'Fates Warning' is prime Maiden and 'The Assassin' is a great, Piece of Mind/Powerslave-ish style slab of metal despite the irritatingly cheesy "better watch out..." repeating line. The stupidly-titled 'Public Enema Number One' is enjoyable too.

Overall I find No Prayer to be the most underrated of the albums with Bruce on the microphone. It's far from perfect and it's clear that the songwriting was starting to slump a little at this point when compared to the golden years of the 80's, but it is still a rock-solid heavy metal album. I like the rougher production on it and find the riffs to be more memorable than anything on it's predecessor, even if the actual musicianship and performances are far less impressive by comparison. And obviously you've gotta deal with Bruce's sudden drop in vocal quality, but it's not awful by any stretch of the imagination. I've actually increased the score of this album by .5 as I found it to be slightly better than I remembered. It was also the first album to feature Janick Gers on guitar, since Adrian Smith left the band for a good few years around this time.
Adam's rating: 7.5/10

FEAR OF THE DARK          1992          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Be Quick or Be Dead', 'From Here to Eternity', 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', 'Chains of Misery', 'Judas Be My Guide', 'Fear of the Dark' 

In my head Fear of the Dark is a classic Iron Maiden record, mainly because it has the actual song 'Fear of the Dark' on it. Well, duh! That epic song is among their most popular and a regular at their live shows. But then of course, you listen to the actual album and suddenly remember that by the early '90s the creativity within the band was at their lowest point. It had to happen - you can't release 7 all-time classics and not expect a slump at some point. Lots of fans and critics also like to point their fingers at No Prayer for the Dying, but I like that one a lot. I agree it's not as good as anything that came before, but it's far from a disaster in my books. As for Fear of the Dark, well, my original review score was lower than No Prayer, but since I've upped many of my scores for these updated reviews, here's hoping Fear of the Dark will rise among the ranks also!!

Well things start off very positively - 'Be Quick or Be Dead' and 'From Here to Eternity' have been regular listens since my school days, so I must like 'em a fair amount. And I still do. 'Be Quick or Be Dead' is a speedy, heavy opener with a great riff - Maiden are not my number 1 band when it comes to riffs, but that one's full of energy and kicks a lot of arse! And 'From Here to Eternity' is a fun, singalong-type stadium anthem with a chanty chorus. The riffs are simplistic (words that may just repeat a lot in this review...), but it always manages to make me smile so it must be good, right? 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' has grown on me over the years. It's not that I ever disliked it, but there's no escaping the fact it's a lengthy ballad and probably not the kind of Maiden track I want to hear all the time. But when I do, it hits the spot. The song is dark and depressive for a good chunk of it's playing time, but the soloing in the middle and vocal parts towards the end really pick up the pace and keep the song nicely balanced throughout. I'm not gonna call this track 'classic Maiden', but it's a quality tune for sure.

The title track is the last obvious pick for 'instant classic' status. It's long at 7 minutes and 18 seconds, but not too long. And lyrically it's not particularly clever or based on any sort of literature/history topic like many of the band's other epics are. But it doesn't matter, because it's the most catchy epic they ever penned! You only have to listen to it once to have that massive chorus stuck in your head! Musically though, it's as inspired as ever and comes with an irresistibly spooky-yet-cheesy atmosphere! 

The weird thing for me about Fear of the Dark is that there's songs on here that are definitely subpar Maiden, but I like them anyway! I suppose that's also true of my thoughts towards No Prayer for the Dying. Anyhow, songs like 'Fear Is the Key' - it literally plods along at a snails pace for much of it's duration, but I like the chuggy riff and the "I remember a time..." chorus! I also really like 'The Fugitive' - compared to what they were doing in the '80s, this is autopilot Maiden. But it is a rock-solid heavy metal song with a catchy chorus with a nicely-paced intro. 'Chains of Misery' is underrated too - the chord progressions and the way Bruce sings it is really nice and gets my foot tappin', and my head noddin' almost immediately. Also, 'Judas Be My Guide' certainly sits close to the Maiden of the '80s. Lots of energy, lots of grandeur and lots of melody. It ticks the boxes and deserves more attention in this catalogue.

Unfortunately, there is a small share of songs that just don't cut the mustard here. It's not like this album has a terrible reputation as such, it's just often seen as average-to-decent at best by many fans, and it's songs like 'Childhood's End' that make me understand why. It's melodic, sure, but there's something about the drumming combined with the guitar leads that don't settle right with me. I don't hate this track, but I don't particularly like it either. I'm not a 'Wasting Love' fan either - I like the lyrics, but I feel like this album didn't need another ballad after 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers'. Maybe if it was released as a Bruce Dickinson solo number I'd like it more, but whatever. And then there's 'The Apparition' - the solos are cool, but the rest of this track is about as filler as its gets. 'Weekend Warrior' too, has the most basic power chord riff I've ever heard from this band. It's baffling how it ended up on the finished record when you look at any of their previous records. Lyrically it's about football hooliganism, which is actually the best thing about it. Seems like an odd topic for Maiden to cover, but if you know anything about Steve Harris you'll know he's a keen footballer and West Ham fanatic and was even scouted by them as a youngster.

This was the last album that Martin Birch would produce for the band, and is probably my least favourite one in that regard. The album has a big, echoey kind of reverb sound - sort of like how a lot of '80s rock bands sounded, but less shiny somehow. Either way, I think it works on songs like the title track and 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' as it adds to the atmosphere. But it doesn't always mesh well with my ears on the harder songs like 'Be Quick or Be Dead'. I will add that just because it's my least favourite of the Birch-produced records, it doesn't ruin the songs for me. And in all fairness, there's later albums to come that sound far worse to me, but more about that later of course. But I can't simply ignore the fact the production here is flawed, even if it is passable. 

I wouldn't say my opinion of Fear of the Dark differs that much overall since the old review. It's definitely still my least favourite of the band's original run with Bruce Dickinson. There's some great tracks scattered throughout - 'Be Quick or Be Dead', 'From Here to Eternity', 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' and 'Fear of the Dark'. There's also good'uns like 'Fear Is the Key', 'The Fugitive', 'Chains of Misery' and 'Judas Be My Guide'. But then there's also a share of uninspired, tired cuts like 'Weekend Warrior', 'Wasting Love', 'Childhood's End' and 'The Apparition' to sit through, and there's no other way of putting this - but they're lazy compared to what they were doing in the previous decade. They could have cut some of these songs from the tracklisting and you'd have a more streamlined record overall. Oh, and it has to be mentioned that Bruce still sounds like he did on No Prayer for the Dying. That means he's good, but he's not the same Bruce you loved in the '80s with that added raspiness in his voice now.

So that's Fear of the Dark then. Some mediocre numbers here and there, but plenty of good songs too. It's an album I always thought was good, but I still prefer No Prayer for the Dying overall. It was also the last album with Bruce Dickinson until he returned to the band in 1999. He released a string of successful solo records in the '90s. Meanwhile, Blaze Bayley would fill his shoes for Iron Maiden...

Adam's rating: 7.5/10

Original review:

In comparison to anything that came before it - even No Prayer for the Dying - Fear of the Dark is an incredibly lazy album with a whole host of it's own issues. Firstly, Bruce's voice suffers from the same raspiness, so by default he sounds worse than anything pre-No Prayer for the Dying. But the real problem is the apparent lack of creativity within the songwriting. Tracks like 'The Apparition', 'Weekend Warrior', 'Judas Be My Guide' and 'Childhood's End' are mostly composed of basic, generic power-chord riffs. They're not terrible as such - in fact, the solos are mostly very good throughout - but you'd certainly expect a whole lot more than all this filler from a band like Iron Maiden. Well, alright, the football hooligan-inspired 'Weekend Warrior' is pretty woeful on all levels, aside from the nice picked guitar lick it's built around. But as I said, there's a lot of filler to sit through with this record. Thankfully it's listenable filler, but none of said tracks will be making it into your 'Best of Iron Maiden' compilations anytime soon.

The production is questionable too. It has that big, echoey, reverb sound that a lot of overproduced, slick hard rock bands of the 80's had. I suppose you could say the production is comparable to that of Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (minus the synths of course). Either way it doesn't suit the stripped-back sound of a lot of these songs, although it does work on the lengthy, atmospheric  and cheesy title track (and I mean cheesy in a good way!), which is certainly a genuine classic among Maiden's huge arsenal of songs. And thankfully, the good songs that are on here are mostly better than any of the tracks from the last album. Along with 'Fear of the Dark', 'Be Quick Or Be Dead' is an ass-kicking, speedy opener with some of the best riffs in years. 'From Here to Eternity' is again, kinda lazy guitar-wise, but I always liked the singalong, stadium metal vibes of the chorus. It's fun! I also think 'The Fugitive' and 'Chains of Misery' are forgotten gems. Couldn't really tell you why, they just do something right for me!

So, this one is slightly worse than No Prayer thanks to the inconsistency of it's songs, the often lazy guitar work and the unfitting production job. BUT, it's still worth owning because there's a handful of great songs on it that thankfully save the album from total mediocrity. It's clear when you listen to this LP however, that the band were clearly tired and running out of ideas around the early 90's. Hell, Adrian Smith had already jacked it in after Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and Bruce actually left after Fear of the Dark to pursue a solo career for a few years. Both blokes would return by the end of decade, but it goes to show that Maiden were struggling in the 90's.
Adam's rating: 7/10

A REAL LIVE ONE          1993          (EMI)

This disc comes nowhere near the greatness of the legendary Live After Death, but I still think the band were putting as much effort into their live shows even at this point in their career. No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark aren't nearly as revered albums as anything they put out in the '80s, and aside from a few tracks from Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son, the rest of the tracks here focus entirely on those 2 records from the early '90s.

Even though this CD is missing icons such as 'The Trooper', 'Number of the Beast' and whatever else from the first 5 studio albums, it's the fact you're getting performances of deeper cuts such as 'Be Quick or Be Dead', 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', 'Tailgunner' and 'From Here to Eternity' that makes me want to listen to it in the first place. Songs like these have rarely - if ever - been played live since the '90s, so it only gives me more reason to listen to it anyway. Of course, it helps that I've always liked No Prayer and Fear of the Dark in the first place, but I can comfortably say that A Real Live One - while not essential Maiden per se - is still a very enjoyable listen for more serious fans like myself. There's no major issues with the band's playing itself; Bruce sounds a little tired and rough at times, sure, but he's still putting on a well above-average performance overall. And the mixing is just fine. In fact, 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' sounds scarily close to a studio performance in terms of the music.

I gave this a 6/10 originally, but having just given it another spin and having a good time from start to finish, it's certainly much better than that. Like I said, there's some better live album options out there, but this one's still well worth picking up for fans and collectors like me.
Adam's rating: 7.8/10

A REAL DEAD ONE          1993          (EMI)

Aside from the tracklisting, which now focuses only on the first 5 Maiden albums, A Real Dead One (if the title couldn't make it any more obvious) is a companion disc for A Real Live One. The performances are again taken from early '90s live concerts, and the production/mixing is extremely similar to that of it's counterpart live album. Even though I like the majority of the songs within this tracklisting more than I do what A Read Live One had to offer, I still listen to it's predecessor more than I do this disc because of all those rarely-played '90s cuts it has on it. Many of the tracks on A Read Dead One are the stuff you'll hear at almost every Maiden concert - '2 Minutes to Midnight', 'Number of the Beast', 'The Trooper', 'Run to the Hills', 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'... you get the picture. And considering the fact Bruce's voice didn't always hit the mark in the '90s, the way I look at it I may as well just listen to Live After Death if I want to hear the band playing these classics. I get that many of the post-2000 Bruce/Adrian Smith reunion albums have all these classics on them too, but 21st century Maiden is a different beast to me, somehow. Therefore A Read Dead One is kind of like the 'black sheep' Maiden live album for me, in that I don't listen to it nearly as much as I do anything else they've put out in this sense.

Still, it's nice to have live versions of 'Prowler', 'Transylvania' and 'Remember Tomorrow'. Any Paul Di'Anno stuff is always welcome in my books, and I still get enough enjoyment out of this CD to the point where I can recommend it. It's live Maiden, so even at the bare minimum it'll still be good. Both this and A Real Live One were reissued into a single package, cleverly titled A Real LIVE DEAD One in 1998! That's probably the best version to pick up you can find it. Seems to have shot up in price in recent years however.

Adam's rating: 7/10

LIVE AT DONNINGTON         1993         (EMI)

Another live album recorded in 1992 and released in '93. Both A Real Live One and Dead One should've probably been released as a single package when they first dropped, so the benefit of Live in Donnington is that you get an entire concert on 2 CDs. The setlist has songs from every album at the time and the performances are similar-sounding to what you heard on either of the previous 2 live albums. Makes sense considering this headlining Monsters of Rock festival gig was recorded around the same tour. Sadly, Bruce's voice still has that noticeable strain going on at times, but thankfully still pulls off the songs decently overall. The rest of the band's playing is as enjoyable as ever.

The downside to this album is that I think the production is worse this time around. The instruments don't cut through as sharply within the mix and I can only assume this has something to do with the fact it was an open air festival performance? Either way, I enjoy this platter. I think when combined the whole Live/Dead One is probably the better album, but Live at Donnington is still worth adding to your collection, even if it's not quite great.
Adam's rating: 7.8/10

THE X FACTOR          1995          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Sign of the Cross', 'Lord of the Flies', 'Man On the Edge', 'Fortunes of War', 'Look for the Truth', 'Judgement of Heaven', 'The Edge of Darkness', 'The Unbeliever'

... And at this point within Iron Maiden's long career, we enter vocalist Blaze Bayley. Yep, it was now the mid-90s and many classic heavy metal bands were in awkward positions. Like Bruce Dickinson, it was around this time that Rob Halford had gone solo and left Judas Priest without a vocalist too. Priest played things a little safer by recruiting Tim Owens on behalf of his abilities to mimic Halford's vocal style. Maiden took more of a gamble however; Bayley is a drastically different vocalist to Dickinson. Whereas Bruce would hit the highs with a soaring energy, Blaze is much more subdued by comparison. He doesn't have the same impressive range that Bruce has, but luckily on 1995's The X Factor, Steve Harris wasn't trying to rip-off the sound the band had developed throughout the '80s. This is very much a standout album musically, because I don't think anything that came before or after is quite like it - and it's not just because of Blaze's vocals (he'd stick around for a second album in 1998).

Naturally, the Blaze era is essentially low-hanging fruit for many critics and fans alike. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a big fan of this record, but if I went on Reddit and said I like this album more-so than I do any of the post-Dickinson reunion albums from 2000 onwards, I'd be bombarded with angry comments and downvoted into oblivion. Strangely enough, the most praise I see for this record is on Metal Archives, where it holds a 78% average score. MA is an odd place. Sometimes it's the most agreeable metal community on the internet for me. But then you'll also find 0% reviews trashing absolutely seminal albums!! Never a dull moment in that neck of the woods. But anyway... yes, I like this album. But that wasn't always the case.

Other than maybe 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Man on the Edge', I wasn't an X Factor fan when I first heard it almost a couple decades ago. I found it dull, monotonous and full of far too many long-length tracks. As I got a little older however, it grew on me to the point where I actually love it as an adult man. I think I was being too kind with my old review of a 9.2/10, but more about that later. I feel a tad hypocritical in saying that, because I've criticised a lot of the later Maiden records on this blog for being too long and proggy for my tastes, but I'm sort of hoping that with this 2024 rework, my opinions of them will have lifted somewhat. We'll see. Back to The X Factor - indeed, this is a long album. At 70 minutes in total, it was the longest they'd ever done at the time, but I also think a lot of artists began making longer records in the '90s due to the CD taking over for vinyl as the prominent format. And let's be honest, you can fit much more music on a CD than an LP.

I love this album because it's dark. Really dark by Maiden's standards. I couldn't imagine Blaze singing the entirety of an album like Powerslave or Piece of Mind, but he's perfect for this one. The music is darker then, yes, but the actual instrumentation and the way the riffs/solos/basslines etc. are performed is still very much Maiden-like. Even if you've never heard Blaze before, it's easy to tell that this is still an Iron Maiden record. And I still stand by the fact opener 'Sign of the Cross' is one of Steve's crowning songwriting achievements. It's 11 minutes long, and it's a fantastic track from start to finish. It takes a long time to get going, focusing a lot on atmosphere and dread, but is always full of energetic transitions and some amazing guitar work. More importantly is the fact it's enjoyable from start to finish, with every different section of the song being memorable. 'Sign of the Cross' has deservedly made it's way into live setlists throughout the years, even with Bruce fronting them. To keep the listener entertained, 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Man on the Edge' come next and much more standard-length by comparison. 'Lord of the Flies' comes with a nice riff and chorus, and was released as a single. I can see why. 'Man on the Edge' however, is probably the fastest and most energetic song on the album, with lyrics based on the film Falling Down starring Michael Douglas (great film!)! The way Blaze sings the "Falling down!" chorus was a little grating at first, but I grew to love it with time. Both these tracks are far more inspired than a lot of what Fear of the Dark had to offer. 

'Fortunes of War' and the introduction to 'Look for the Truth' are dripping with atmosphere. Like I said, this is Maiden's darkest record, and 'Fortunes of War' is a prime example of this. But it's great - I particularly like Steve's bass riff after the melancholic guitars during the intro. 'Look for the Truth' has some anthemic qualities once it gets going, with the "Oooooowwwaaaaooo!" chanting chorus, yet it still retains plenty of atmosphere that only this album has. Meanwhile, 'The Aftermath' is about as close to '80s Maiden as it gets. Of course, it'll never fully sound like classic Maiden with Blaze on the mic, but musically there's some energy to this one. It's very good anyhow, and I particularly like the war-themed lyrics. I also really like 'Judgement of Heaven' - again, very strong pondering lyrics about life. This song has it all - moody and dark intro, a soaring chorus, fast soloing... the works. It's one of those songs they never touched live, but I think would've worked very well in that sense.

'The Edge of Darkness' is probably one of my favourites from this disc. It helps that lyrics are inspired by quite possibly my absolute favourite film, Apocalypse Now! But it's long intro with helicopter sounds sets the tone wonderfully. When the riffs kick in, it's actually one of the faster songs on this album, and the guitar solos are fire. Lastly, 'The Unbeliever' is full of tempo-changes, complex song structures and also contains some of Steve's finest bass work in my humble opinion. Actually, this whole album contains some of Steve's best basslines in general if you ask me. But yeah, I even get some almost jazz-like feels with some of 'The Unbeliever''s usage of chords and time signatures. It's an interesting song, in a good way.

Not much of this record offends me. Maybe 'Blood On the World's Hands' would be rather generic if it wasn't for that cool acoustic bass intro, but I still kinda like it. Maybe '2 A.M." is weaker than a lot of the other tracks too, but is still much stronger than most of what you heard on Fear of the Dark. The production isn't all that great either I guess. While I like it more than Fear of the Dark's, the guitars are lacking a certain little oomph, somehow - but this is a fairly minor niggle when it comes down to it. Also, this is very much a, erm... how should I say it? An album experience?! What I mean by that is, other than 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Man on the Edge', there aren't many tracks here that I like to listen to individually very often. It's not like most of their '80s albums in this sense at all. Most of The X Factor's songs are very strong, but it's the kind of record I like to listen to in full. There's nothing really wrong with this, I just find many of it's tracks don't always mesh well with a lot of the '80s classics if I'm listening to a Maiden playlist of some kind. Many of these songs have long, slow introductions that work perfectly well in the album setting, but not so well in a compilation kind of way.

Unlike many of my 2020 Maiden reviews, I actually think I was a little too kind by giving this the 9.2/10 score I did. Saying it's better than Seventh Son or Number of the Beast is just ridiculous, frankly!! But I maintain that The X Factor is still a great album. I know there's plenty of people that really don't like this one at all, and while I could just write them all off as "Bruce Dickinson fanboys", I'm actually open to debate and I can understand why some fans don't dig this album. Blaze's vocals are drastically different, the album is moody and depressive a lot of the time and many of the songs take a long time to get going (a bit like modern Maiden!!). But there's an untouchable atmosphere surrounding The X Factor that I don't get from the rest of the catalogue! I feel a lot more passion in this album than I do Fear of the Dark, which bordered on lazy songwriting at times.

Maiden's most underrated album.

Adam's rating: 9/10

Original review:

I used to hate this album in my teens. Well, maybe not 'hate', but I definitely found it boring as fuck and monotonous. However, once I gave it another chance some years later, I strangely began to realise that it's actually the last Maiden album recorded that I'm genuinely a fan of. So, it's the mid-90's, and instead of calling it a day after Bruce departed, Steve and co. decided to find a new vocalist and settled on Wolfsbane singer Blaze Bayley, who sounds drastically different to both Bruce and Paul Di'Anno. And with a new singer comes a new direction musically with the band, so there's no ripping-off past albums from any era - and that's probably why I think this album just works, even if it didn't click with me for a very long time.

Blaze can sing pretty well - he has a very distinctive voice, but he doesn't hit the high notes in the same way that Bruce can. He definitely has less ability in comparison to Bruce, but Steve wrote songs that are really tailored to Blaze's pipes. The best albums with Bruce were melodic, up-tempo and sometimes progressive pieces of heavy metal, The X Factor is progressive without being pretentious, and it's still melodic for the most part too, but the whole album has a much darker and moodier vibe than past works. Occasionally they tried to be dark on tracks like 'Children of the Damned' or 'Fear of the Dark', but with Bruce on vocals it always came off as a little cheesy and comic, The X Factor on the other hand, feels like less of a joke in this sense. And while the songs take a lot more getting used to, they're just far better in basically every aspect than anything from the last couple of albums.

I'll admit that I think Maiden have written way too many long songs, especially in recent times, but because the approach to the songwriting is a little different this time around, the fact a lot of The X Factor's tracks are pretty long for the most part actually works quite well, I think. The opener, 'Sign of the Cross' is more than 11 minutes long, but the whole thing is brilliant from start to finish. From the atmospheric opening, to the heavy riffs later on and one of Dave Murray's best ever and longest guitar solos, this track really is classic Iron Maiden, and in my humble opinion, one of the best songs Steve ever penned. And I honestly believe the album as a whole features the best lyrics of any Iron Maiden record. With songs like 'Man on the Edge' and 'The Edge of Darkness' inspired by 2 of my favourite films - Falling Down and Apocalypse Now - what more do you want?! Steve's still getting creative without trying to be a false intellectual!

The longer songs like 'Sign of the Cross', 'The Unbeliever', 'The Edge of Darkness' and the brilliant 'Fortunes of War' are dark, atmospheric romps done right, but the album still has a small handful of shorter, faster heavy metal 'bangers too. 'Lord of the Flies' is really inspired in terms of it's guitar work, and the aforementioned 'Man on the Edge' are more straight-forward and enjoyable tracks that I can stick in any generic Spotify metal playlist and never skip. I also really like the more soulful, ballady nature of 'Judgement of Heaven'.

You know, while Maiden never clicked with me like Judas Priest or Black Sabbath did, I am a genuine fan of some of their albums like the debut, Piece of Mind and Somewhere in Time. And honestly, I'm a big fan of The X Factor too. I really find it to be one of their best, despite what a lot of critics and fans may think of it. The only thing real negative I can think of is that Blaze's voice probably isn't for everyone, and the album as a whole is not one I can just listen to regardless of how I feel. But when I am in the mood to hear it, I'm always impressed with it.

Adam's rating: 9.2/10


BEST OF THE BEAST          1996          (EMI)

A few different versions of this compilation exist, but mine is just the bog-standard single CD edition by the looks of it. These days I tend to only go out of my way to pick up compilations if they have something exclusive on offer - and this one does with the 1996 single 'Virus'. This track isn't available anywhere else, so that's why Best of the Beast has found it's way into my own collection. About the song itself, well, it very much fits in line with what the band were doing on The X Factor. Yep, Blaze Bayley was the band's vocalist when this 'best of' hit the shelves, so if you don't dig the Blaze years, you probably won't dig 'Virus' either. It's a very slow-building track with an insanely dark and moody atmosphere to begin with (again like many of those X Factor tracks), but it does pick up in speed and energy after a couple of minutes or so. To be honest, it doesn't make for a very good single. The 2 shortest, punchiest tracks on The X Factor ('Man On the Edge' and 'Lord of the Flies') were selected as singles for good reason - 'Virus' on the other hand, is gloomy, depressive and pretty long too at 6 and a half minutes. It's a good song though, maybe not as strong as the majority of the tracks found on X Factor and certainly not catchy as a single in any way - but if you like any of the tracks from said album, you're gonna like this one too.

The rest of the songs on Best of the Beast are fairly predictable picks - 'Number of the Beast', 'Can I Play With Madness', 'Aces High', '2 Minutes to Midnight'... you get the picture. The only thing I find weird (at least regarding the single-CD edition which I have) is the fact there's nothing here from Killers and the 1 early Paul Di'Anno-era song that is on here is the live version of 'Running Free' from Live After Death, with Bruce Dickinson on vocals! Not really a bad compilation all in all, but like I said at the beginning of this review, I only picked it up for 'Virus'.

VIRTUAL XI          1998          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Futureal', 'The Angel and the Gambler', 'Lightning Strikes Twice', 'The Clansman', 'When Two Worlds Collide'

The X Factor, despite being one of the most unpopular Iron Maiden records broadly speaking, definitely has it's fans (me being one of them). It's follow-up, Virtual XI however, is probably the most hated Maiden album in general from what I can gather online. It is of course, the second and final album they made with Blaze Bayley. Strangely enough I actually liked this one more than it's predecessor to begin with. I picked up most of Maiden's studio albums during my school days, and this was easily my favourite of the 2 Blaze LPs. Ask me today however, and I'll choose X Factor 1000 times over. I think my initial preference for Virtual XI was mostly because the music itself is a bit more in tune with the Maiden of old, and moves away from the dark, atmospheric aura we got on X Factor. 

Obviously The X Factor grew massively on me as I got older, and I think it's a much stronger record than this one nowadays. But I will say that I still appreciate Virtual XI a lot more than the average critic or fan. I referenced metal journalist Martin Popoff in my old review, because he apparently scored this album a 0/10 in his book 'Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal' - bit harsh there Martin, eh??!! He's one of those guys I watch on YouTube a lot - he has many contrarian takes on music, but I almost always respect his opinions even if I don't agree with him. He backs up his arguments because he knows what he's talking about. Regarding Virtual XI however, giving this a 0/10 is just insanity!! This album literally contains one of the band's best songs of all time!!

That song in question is of course, 'The Clansman'. In fact, 'The Clansman' might just be my all time favourite Maiden track! At least in terms of their epics, it definitely is. At 9 minutes long, this Braveheart-inspired monster of a song is just incredibly motivating to me! The way Blaze shouts "FREEDOM!!" over and over again brings out the inner Scotsman in me, despite the fact I'm an Englishman with Irish heritage and no Scottish background in my family history!! It doesn't matter if Bruce doesn't sing this song - it's so damn good both musically and vocally. It has just the right amount of musical progression, the pacing is perfect and every segment of the song sticks with me. It's probably the only song from this record that still pops up in concert every once in a while, and for good reason. It's just as good when Bruce sings it too.

As for the rest of the songs, I think the first half of this album is actually pretty strong. Obviously 'The Clansman' helps, but opener 'Futureal' is a short and sweet, fast opener built around possibly one of the band's coolest ever riffs in my humble opinion. Just a fun song that I have no shame in admitting I love. I also have no shame in admitting that I unironically enjoy 'The Angel and the Gambler' - a song I often see touted as Maiden's worst ever track!! Then again, I'm a No Prayer for the Dying fan, so maybe it's not so surprising that I also like 'The Angel and the Gambler'! Yeah, this song gets tons of flak for it's endlessly repeating "Don't you think I'm a saviour? Don't you think I could save you? Don't you think I could save your life?" lyric that Blaze sings about a million times over. Yet I can't help but sing along to it and not get bored!! It has a stadium rock quality about it that was lacking on anything the darker X Factor had to offer, and an upbeat, uplifting kind of vibe to it overall. That's why I like it I guess. 'Lightning Strikes Twice' is decent too. The chorus is fast and hard-hitting, and in general this is an engaging song with plenty of classic Maiden instrumentation traits.

The second half of the record isn't quite as solid overall, but thankfully there's nothing on here I cannot stand. 'When Two Worlds Collide' is another good track that again sounds a little '80s-inspired. 'Course, it isn't as good as anything from Piece of Mind, Powerslave etc., and with Blaze on vocals it never will sound exactly the same by default - but it's entertaining enough and still far more inspired than songs like 'The Apparition' or 'Weekend Warrior' from Fear of the Dark. The closing ballad 'Como Estais Amigos' begins all melancholic, and ends very dramatic and full of nicely-utilised backing keyboards. It's a rock-solid ballad all in all. Not amazing or anything, but I enjoy it. Virtual XI's production is also the stronger of the 2 Blaze albums, with guitars sounding more prominent in the mix and in general the sound is a bit grander and less subdued this time around.

I can't be too kind about this album however. Even though there's stuff I like about each of the 8 songs this record has to offer, 'The Educated Fool' is easily one of the lesser ones. Like I said, I don't dislike it, but vocally it's one of the worse tracks on the album. I don't particularly like the way Blaze sings the chorus as it kind of drains away any energy this track has. That said, musically it's not bad at all. I have similar feelings towards 'Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger' - there's a distinct lack of energy here until you get half way through the song, and it didn't need to last 8 minutes in total. But it's still totally listenable all the same. I'd never listen to it individually, but I can deal with it when hearing the album as a whole.

Part of me would like to give this album an 8/10, but I just think that'd be too kind overall. It has quite possibly my favourite Maiden track of all time ('The Clansman'), and that definitely counts for something. I think 'Futureal' is great, and I consider 'The Angel and the Gambler', 'Lightning Strikes Twice', 'When Two Worlds Collide' and 'Como Estais Amigos' to be good songs. 'Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger' and 'The Educated Fool'... these couple of tracks aren't that good, but they're not particularly bad either. So I'm gonna stick with my old score of 7.8/10 I think. I know that's a higher-than-average score compared to most other reviews, but I appreciate the shorter tracklisting this time around - 8 songs feels like less filler and the 53 minute playtime is a bit less taxing than the 70-minute X Factor (even if I do prefer that record). So really, even if The X Factor overtook this album for me in my adult life, I'd say I still like Virtual XI about as much as I did when I first got my hands on it many, many years ago. Underrated.

By 1999 Bruce was back and the band's popularity would explode once again.

Adam's rating: 7.8/10

Original review:

I know that I'm in a small minority of fans that consider The X Factor to be one of Maiden's best albums. That's obvious. The album had it's own unique vibes, although it did still unmistakably sound like Maiden. Whichever way you look at it however, it certainly leaves many opinions divided. When the band followed up on The X Factor, the resulting album was this, Virtual XI. This album definitely has more of a 'traditional' kinda Maiden sound, although obviously it still has Blaze on vocals, and he sounds no different here than he did on the predecessor.

Despite the overall more upbeat style this time around, a lot of people seem to hate on Virtual XI, though I'm not entirely sure if it's mostly down to the fact Blaze is still here or they just don't like the songs full-stop. If Bruce had sang on it, I'll bet the response would've been much more positive. Whatever, personally I think this album is pretty solid all-round. It's got issues, sure, but it's a much more consistent album than Fear of the Dark ever was, even if it generally doesn't come close to the greatness of all those 80's LP's. In fact, this CD actually contains one of my favourite Maiden numbers, ever: 'The Clansman'. What a FUCKING awesome tune! Probably my favourite of all their longer epics, in fact. It's 9 minutes of sheer brilliance with lyrics about slavery, and Blaze totally does it justice. 'The Clansman' alone is enough to put this album ahead of Fear of the Dark. And there's a handful of other good tracks on here too. For starters, I've always really liked 'Futureal', a punchy little opener with great lyrics and some cool riffs. I think 'Lightning Strikes Twice' is particularly memorable too, and 'Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger' is a very inspiring lengthy track with some of the best guitar melodies of the entire album. I sorta like 'The Angel and the Gambler' too, which is basically a longer, concert-ready singalong. Even if it is extremely repetitive, there's just something about the way Blaze constantly sings "Don't you think I'm a saviour? Don't you think I could save you? Don't you think I could save your life?" over and over again that I totally dig! It's catchy!

The only track I don't particularly like is the Janick Gers-penned 'Como Estais Amigos' as it just bores me. 'The Educated Fool' is nothing to write home about either, but really I don't think this album is nowhere near as bad some people will tell you. If you look on the Wikipedia page for this album, you'll see that it scored a 0/10 in the 'Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal' book by Martin Popoff! Really?! I mean, I get that Blaze didn't mesh well for every fan, but a 0/10?! I actually respect Popoff a lot, and often agree with him. I really enjoy watching his Contrarians videos on YouTube, as well as his appearances on Sea of Tranquility, but I just can't agree with Martin regarding Blaze-era Maiden!

So yeah, uh, I went a little off-track then, but anyhow, I think this a respectable effort in all honesty. It isn't as good as The X Factor, but I would say it's easily stronger than Fear of the Dark and even slightly better than No Prayer for the Dying. The 90's were tougher times for a lot of the old-school metal bands, with genres like grunge exploding in popularity, and metal music going down the nu and groove metal road, or industrial route. Judas Priest were in the same boat as Maiden around the same time, what with Tim Owens replacing the iconic Rob Halford. Virtual XI was the last studio album with Blaze Bayley on vocals, and as you can see, I don't think it gets enough love. It's not perfect by any means, but 'The Clansman' rules! I actually briefly met Blaze back in 2011 - Wolfsbane were supporting Saxon at the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton, and Blaze was hanging by the bar, surrounded by fans after his set. Super cool and friendly guy, absolutely no ego (at least in my experience) and funny too - I remember him poking fun of himself throughout the Wolfsbane set between songs. He was taking photos with everyone and shaking hands afterwards, and he thanked the 19 year-old me when I told him The X Factor was one of my favourite Maiden albums!

Edit (February 2022): I just got back from Hammerfest 2022 in Birmingham, which was one of the worst-organised festivals I've ever attended! Still, I got to see Blaze do an Iron Maiden set, playing only songs from X Factor and Virtual XI... and it was awesome! And yes, he's still just as cool and funny as he was when I first saw him, only now he has less hair!

Adam's rating: 7.8/10

ED HUNTER          1999         (EMI)

A rare compilation that I personally consider to be essential for all serious fans, despite the fact they'll already have all 20 of these songs! It's not 'cos of the music though, it's because out of the 3 CDs featured here, the last disc is the actual Ed Hunter PC game! Yeah you heard me, Iron Maiden released a video game back in 1999!! And I've played it! I mean, I haven't been able to play it for many, many years now because I even though I do still occasionally play computer games, I didn't even bother to fit a disc drive into my current computer when I built it. Pretty much all PC games - even old ones - are all available as digital downloads on Steam nowadays, and all my old CD and DVD-ROM PC games are in storage somewhere now. I don't think I've played Ed Hunter since school, but it was a light gun-style shoot 'em up, with similar gameplay to Virtua Cop or House of the Dead from what I remember. You shoot street punks and zombies using the mouse while Iron Maiden songs play in the background! I mean, it's not a particularly good game, but it was amusing enough from what I do recall! And soundtrack was obviously top-notch. I'm sure you can probably download this thing for free somewhere nowadays, but I never tried to be honest.

As far as the actual music goes in this package, like I said, there's 20 songs from each and every Maiden studio album that was out at the time. Apparently the tracklisting was selected and voted for by fans on Maiden's website back in the day. If that is true, then I'm amazed the Blaze-era tracks 'Man On the Edge', 'Futureal' and 'The Clansman' made it on here. I love all those songs and Ed Hunter was the first time I heard any of them (I'm fairly sure I owned this before The X Factor and Virtual XI), but it's just surprising to see any Blaze material make it onto a 20-track compilation compiled entirely by fans. The rest of the setlist is fairly predictable, but for good reason.

BRAVE NEW WORLD          2000         (EMI)

- Standouts: 'The Wicker Man', 'Ghost of the Navigator', 'Brave New World', 'The Fallen Angel', 'Dream of Mirrors'

Bruce is back and its at this point that the band's modern era begins. Brave New World was a comeback for them, and an album that is well-regarded amongst fans and critics alike. Well, except NME, who according to the Wiki page gave this thing a 4/10 when it dropped and essentially claimed the band had been dethroned by Korn and Slipknot. Fuck NME, Maiden forever! Aaannnyyyway... out of all the modern Maiden records, this one's always been my favourite (spoiler alert... until now). That said, it seems a little crazy to me that I only gave it a 7.7 in my old review. Again, I was being deliberately obtuse. I like the Blaze era, probably more-so than the average fan. And I'll definitely take X Factor over Brave New World... but saying Virtual XI is better just seems so wrong! Yep, it's that weird COVID headspace I was in, back in 2020. If you'd asked me at any other point in my life which album was the better of the 2, I'd have picked BNW almost every time. 

I won't kiss this record's arse that much however. I don't like the production much. Nicko McBrain's drums have sounded thinner than Kate Moss on pretty much every Maiden record since this one. The band keep hiring Kevin Shirley to produce all their latter albums and a lot of the time I just can't get on board with them sonically. The guitar tones are lacking too, and in general I think the production doesn't match the quality of the songs. It's not the worst-sounding album I've ever heard - far from it - but compared to how they sounded when Martin Birch was producing them, this really ain't cuttin' it.

Thankfully the songs are far better than the production, even if they don't always standout as classics. Some do however. Kicking off with 'The Wicker Man', Brave New World is off to a rock-solid start. It's a nice and straightforward single with an extremely memorable chorus and riffs that hearken back to the Maiden of old. Great stuff. 'Ghost of the Navigator' too, is a finely-crafted slice of melodic heavy metal that really lets you know Maiden are back and here to stay. And I've always loved the title track too; it has me singing along like it should, and the trademark galloping rhythm that the band does so well takes hold after the nice mellow intro. Just a very good song, 'nuff said. Better than 'Blood Brothers' anyway. Not that 'Blood Brothers' is poor - it's actually strong. However, out of all their post-Dickinson reunion songs, this one is played live all the bloody time and there's something about the insanely catchy singalong chorus that is beginning to irritate me now!! At it's core however, 'Blood Brothers' is classic Maiden, and I used to dig it a lot! It's certainly losing it's novelty for me now though, but I won't call it a 'bad' song. I like 'The Mercenary' a lot too. It has a fast tempo with a riff that kind of reminds me of '2 Minutes to Midnight'. Any standard-length, upbeat Maiden track is usually solid in my books. 

Of all the epic-length songs here, 'Dream of Mirrors' is probably the best one. It's nearly 9 and a half minutes long, and while it's no 'Clansman', this is easily one of my favourite long prog pieces the band have recorded in this century. There's far too many of them now, but this one I like. All the song's musical transitions mesh together seamlessly, and there's enough vocal hooks in it to make me want to revisit it regularly. The second 9 minute epic here is 'The Nomad'. I don't like this one as much, but it's still pretty decent overall. It has a nice and vast kind of atmosphere surrounding it. 'Sorta reminds me of 'Powerslave' in a way, but it's not quite classic Maiden for me. Sandwiched between these 2 epics however, is the shorter 'The Fallen Angel' - about as old-school as this record gets!

The last couple of tracks aren't among my favourites, but 'Out of the Silent Planet' still has it's strengths. It definitely has the signature galloping tempo and basslines, and the chorus is nice too. As for closer 'The Thin Line Between Love and Hate' - again, I like it overall. It's not one I feel the need to hear very often, but it's good while it lasts. It feels slightly more modern by Maiden standards, though I can't really explain why! I'll also say that Bruce sounds better here than he did on either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark. The strange raspiness in his voice is gone and as much as I liked Blaze, it feels like he's come home on this record. And it's also worth noting that Adrian Smith returned to the band at this point. With him back on board, you'd think Janick Gers would've exited, but no - he's still here to this day, and the band have had 3 guitar players ever since!! Not to diss Janick - I like the guy - but I always wondered what the benefit of having 3 guitarists is? Janick barely plays any solos live and is just another dude to watch on stage I guess! 

I guess one of my biggest problems with Brave New World is the fact it essentially provided the foundations for which any later Iron Maiden albums would follow. I've moaned and moaned for years that modern Maiden records have way too many long and proggy songs on them, and things like hooks, memorable melodies and riffs etc. that old-school Maiden did so well are lacking nowadays. Brave New World has 2 songs that are over 9 minutes long ('Dream of Mirrors', 'The Nomad'), 1 that lasts 8 ('The Thin Line Between Love and Hate') and a half minutes and 1 that is over 7 minutes ('Blood Brothers'). They're good songs, thankfully - but it also makes me not revisit this record as much as I do, well, anything they recorded in the '80s. The X Factor had a lot of long songs too, but that album just resonates better with me for some reason. Aye, BNW is one of those albums that is always better than I remember whenever I do listen to it, but is definitely not one I feel the urge to repeat all that often. It seems really stupid to give this album less than an 8/10 considering how good the songs can be at times... but I genuinely turn to No Prayer for the Dying (which is an 8/10 for me) more than I do BNW. I'd rather rock out to 'Tailgunner' or 'Holy Smoke' 9 times out of 10 over songs like 'The Nomad' or 'The Thin Line Between Love and Hate'!! I respect that the band weren't necessarily trying to rip themselves off and write songs that were directly comparable to what they were doing 2 decades prior, but if I don't listen to this album as much as I do the more simplistic and low-brow No Prayer, then how can I score it higher?! 

There's not a bad song on this album; some are better than others for sure, but on the whole I think it falls short of greatness. It's definitely stronger than Virtual XI, but not by much for me. I genuinely think if the production was stronger, the album would sit comfortably in the 8/10 realm. Even if I don't listen to it as much as I do most of the old stuff, there's some clever and maybe even classic tunes to be found here. A strong comeback record for sure, but not necessarily a return to form for me personally. It was for a lot of people though, and I can understand why. 

In my head it's all downhill from hereon, but we'll see what happens when I revisit Dance of Death and everything else that followed!!

Adam's rating: 7.9/10

Original review:

Both Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith had returned for the new millennium. Blaze had done his job and departed, but rather than sack Janick Gers, they kept him on and became a 6-man band with 3 guitarists, for some reason. I never really knew what the point of this was, or what it added to the band, aside from having someone extra to watch on stage, but there you go. Anyhow, Bruce was back, which is obviously what most fans had been waiting for, and the first album of the reunion was 2000's Brave New World, the only Maiden album from 2000-onward that I think is legitimately good.

Well, I'm not the biggest fan of the guitar tones on the record, and while Bruce seems to have fixed the 'raspiness' that plagued his voice on No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark, he sounds more tired at this point, like he's really having to strain his vocal chords - and he's sounded this way on every following Maiden album since. I suppose that's fair enough. He was already in his 40's at this point, and think about how many years he'd already been doing this. And thankfully Steve Harris still had a lot of great ideas up his sleeve, because musically this is a very inspired record with some well-crafted tracks from start to finish. 'The Wicker Man' is a nice, up-tempo and catchy opener with some simple hooks that just work. And 'Ghost of the Navigator' and 'Brave New World' are stupendous melodic metal pieces with tons of impressive performances across the board. 'Dream of Mirrors' is another A+ metal epic, and the chorus to 'Blood Brothers' is certainly one for the live audiences to sing to. While I do find the album to be a little longer than it needs to be, I wouldn't say there's any filler on here per say, and I can't think of much to complain about aside from what I've already mentioned before. I suppose I will add that I think Brave New World just falls short of greatness because even though the album is solid from start to finish, it's one that I rarely listen to when I want to hear some Maiden. The album is more consistent than Virtual XI, but the best tracks on that album are still better than the best songs on here in my opinion. Either way, it's a more-than acceptable comeback for Bruce.

Adam's rating: 7.7/10

ROCK IN RIO         2002          (EMI)

Probably my favourite of the modern Iron Maiden live platters, the band played to roughly quarter of a million people for this Rock in Rio festival performance!! 6 of the tracks across this 2 CD set are from Brave New World - not one of my favourite Maiden records by any means, but they sound fantastic in this live setting. Especially 'The Wicker Man', 'Dream of Mirrors' and 'Ghost of the Navigator'. 'Blood Brothers' still manages to irritate me somewhat, but that's one of my only real faults with this album! The actual on-stage playing and musicianship here is almost as energetic as the legendary Live After Death, and the band sound refreshed again now that Bruce and Adrian are back. Bruce is certainly putting on a much more inspired performance than what you heard on either of those Real Live/Dead One albums and Live at Donnington, and it's also super cool to see the band paying tribute to the Blaze Bayley era. Aye, both 'Sign of the Cross' and 'The Clansman' - 2 absolutely phenomenal Maiden tunes regardless of the fact they come from the band's least popular era - were played here, and are easily 2 of the best performances across this entire album. The production is also top-notch, with no sound quality or individual instrument issues to be had.

I suppose it's a little disappointing to not see anything from Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in the setlist, but there's plenty of live albums released after this one with songs from both those records on them. I guess no setlist is ever gonna be perfect for everyone, but as it stands Rock in Rio is an insanely fun live album which showcases a band that came back with a bang. I know Brave New World and some of the later albums aren't exactly among my absolute favourites, but I think almost all Maiden live platters are a pretty safe listen. They're always gonna be enjoyable to some extent. And this is one of the best ones to choose from.

Someday I'd like to compile a playlist of all the absolute best tracks from the band's big live album discography. It'd take a lot of effort I'm sure (although not as much effort as Deep Purple's even bigger live discography!), but it'd be worth it!

Adam's rating: 9/10

DANCE OF DEATH         2003          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Wildest Dreams', 'Rainmaker', 'Montsegur', 'Gates of Tomorrow', 'New Frontier', 'Paschendale'

Ok, so according to me circa 2020, this is the worst Iron Maiden album. I also stated that the production and guitar tones were best in years. It's still produced by Kevin Shirley, so it's not hugely different-sounding than Brave New World - although I do still agree that the guitar tones are stronger and the drum sound has gotten ever-so-slightly better too. They're still sounding a bit thin, but yeah the production is something of an improvement. Not one of the best albums sonically by any stretch of the imagination - but certainly not bad either. Musically I don't think the songs on Dance of Death are a huge departure from their predecessor either. The album does have a slightly different vibe going for it, but easily sits firmly alongside most other modern Maiden records. Put it this way, you're not gonna be mistaking Dance of Death as something they recorded in the '80s, for better or worse. 

It starts off pretty strong - 'Wildest Dreams' and 'Rainmaker' are 2 relatively straightforward tracks in similar vein to something like 'The Wicker Man' from Brave New World. Good hooks, strong vocals from Bruce and also lots of energy. I think 'Wildest Dreams' is the stronger of the 2, with it's upbeat feel and heavy, driving riffs - but I like both. Better though, is 'Montsegur'. In fact, this is probably my favourite track on the record, and possibly one of my favourite 'modern' Maiden tunes in general. The excellent riffage combined with Bruce's vocals are heavy and ballsy, but crazy infectious all the same! I love the "And the gates and the walls of Montsegur, blood on the stones of the citadel!" chorus, and also the part that follows on from it just puts me in a good mood! Just brilliant songwriting all-round. It really surprises me that I rated this album lower than others like A Matter of Life and Death or The Final Frontier - just the fact it has 'Montsegur' on it qualifies it for an extra Brucie bonus!!

The guitar lick at the start of 'Gates of Tomorrow' reminds me a little of AC/DC, but the rest of this song sounds like Maiden for sure. Very melodic and uplifting. Not a particularly heavy song, but a good'un. And to be fair, listening to this album again has made me realise that pretty much all the more standard-length numbers (i.e. under 6 minutes long) are all pretty good, because 'New Frontier' is decent too. It's more energetic and hard-hitting than 'Gates of Tomorrow', and according to this album's Wiki page, is also the only song Nicko has any songwriting credits on. The man is apparently a born-again Christian, and the track is about his thoughts on human cloning and how God is the only one who has the right to create human beings. I dunno what your thoughts on religion and this particular subject are, but the lyrics are interesting to say the least. As for the longer songs on the record, 'Paschendale' is my favourite. I won't put alongside the band's all-time best epics, but the lyrical theme of The Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 during the First World War is my cup of tea - I love military history. And it doesn't take an age to get going, which is always a plus in my books also. It's dramatic and atmospheric, but still heavy and energetic enough that it never bores me. And closer 'Journeyman' is a surprisingly good acoustic ballad and a smooth, floaty way to conclude this record.

Naturally, I have bones to pick with this CD. I'm not a fan of the first epic on the album, 'No More Lies'. Well, does 7 minutes even qualify as an 'epic' for Maiden anymore? Either way, any of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray's lead guitar work on it is stellar, but it's the chorus that brings it down for me. It's the repetition that I don't get on with, and I don't mind a repetitive chorus so long as it's fun (and yes, I am fully aware I had good things to say about 'The Angel and the Gambler'!!)! Good song musically, just not vocally for me. 'Montsegur', with all it's unbelievably awesome vocal hooks comes straight after and shits all over 'No More Lies'!! I don't particularly dig the entirety of the 8 and half minute title track either. After you've sat through the first 3 minutes and the electric guitars finally kick in, it's a great song. The keyboards add a nice symphonic touch to the music, and a level of grandeur to the track. But like I said, I don't know if I can really be kind enough to list it as a highlight when I'm sat there waiting for over 3 minutes for it to finally get going!! I have the same problem with 'Face in the Sand' - it takes far too long to warm up, but I quite like it when it finally does. I like Bruce's vocals on it, I like the guitars... but it's a track that could've been cut down to 4 or 5 minutes long max, and didn't need to last 6 and a half minutes. Also, 'Age of Innocence' is kind of just 'there'. It's not horribly unlistenable or anything like that, but I can never remember how it goes even if after I've just listened to it.

And then of course, there's the horrific computer-generated mess of an album cover!! This has been talked about a billion times by the metal community and often appears on those 'worst album covers of all time' lists, so I can't really add anything that hasn't been said about it before other than the fact it's terrible. When you consider the fact this band are one of the greatest of all time in any genre, in terms of their covers and imagery, it's crazy how this abomination got the go-ahead from the management. Yeah, Maiden have a huge list of album covers you'd want to have on a t-shirt - this isn't one of them!!

Crappy album cover aside (which isn't something I can judge the actual music by), I was well off with my old review score. This album is much better than I remembered, and far stronger than the 5.8/10 I gave it originally! The production is better than Brave New World, and even though the songs on that album are more consistent overall, when Dance of Death does shine, I'd say it may even shine brighter than it's predecessor. However, like most modern era Maiden albums, this one goes on a bit too long. Even if there's things to like about most of these tracks, I start getting tired of it around the time 'Face in the Sand' comes on, and as a result I just don't think this album flows all that well. I think Brave New World is still the better album overall, but only just. 

Still, there's a nice list of underrated gems on this album. Some of them do recapture what I love about this band in the first place. For example, I think 'Montsegur' - in case you couldn't already tell - is just awesome!! A very good album, but not a classic. But hey, I'm cool with that, 'cos by default that means it's grown on me.

Adam's rating: 7.8/10

Original review:

While the production and guitar tones on Dance of Death are the best in years, most of the songs on here don't do a lot for me. 'Wildest Dreams' is a cool upbeat opener, 'Paschendale' is a rock-solid epic about the battle of Passchendaele during the First World War and 'Montsegur' is chock-full of great riffs and a brilliant vocal performance from Bruce. However, the rest of the album just goes straight over my head. I mean, 'Journeyman' is one of the biggest snore-fests to ever close a Maiden record. The only reason I listened to this album again is because I'm rewriting this page of the blog, and even then I'm struggling to even talk about it. I honestly have fuck-all to say about this album. It's like Brave New World, with a few decent tracks whilst the rest is just listenable filler, no more, no less. And the album art is terrible! Who in the band thought this horrible mess of CGI passed for an Iron Maiden album cover?! It came out in 2003, but there's FMV segments in 90's video games like Command & Conquer: Red Alert that look better than this monstrosity! Bleh!
Adam's rating: 5.8/10

DEATH ON THE ROAD          2005        (EMI)

Since Brave New World, Iron Maiden seem to bring out a new live album between every major studio release. Does that seem unnecessary? Well, not for us fanboys and completists! The more, the better! Anyway, Death on the Road features the full recording of a 2003 gig in Dortmund, Germany during the Dance of Death tour. Like the majority of Maiden live albums, the whole thing is spread across 2CDs once again... and also once again, they've done a good job with this one. The album sounds good across the board - you can clearly hear every instrument and you can feel Bruce's stage energy throughout the concert. It's a classy performance, as you'd expect from this band.

The only real downsides to this one stems on how much you dig the Dance of Death album, 'cos naturally there's a fair chunk of songs here from that record. It was the album they were promoting after all. I'd have picked 'Montsegur' over 'No More Lies' any day of the week, but at least Dance of Death is an album that I've come to enjoy more as the years go by. By default then, that makes Death on the Road a better live album for me as well. I think 'Wildest Dreams' is such a fun and upbeat song, and was a neat way to kickstart this live album. Also, 'Paschendale' and 'Rainmaker' are 2 of the better songs from the DoD album, and slot quite nicely here alongside classics such as 'The Trooper', 'Fear of the Dark' and whatnot. I don't have a problem with 'Journeyman' being on here as it adds some musical diversity to the setlist, but I'm surprised they leave it so late into the setlist. Whatever. Also nice is the inclusion of 'Lord of the Flies' from The X Factor. It's always good to see those Blaze albums getting recognition years after his departure. 

I still like Rock in Rio more-so than I do this one, but a lot of that is down to the setlist. The actual performances here on Death on the Road are perfectly enjoyable from start to finish. It may not be my favourite Maiden live album, but at least you're getting something different with each and every release. It gives me more reason to listen to them. Definitely worth owning.

Adam's rating: 8.1/10

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH          2006          (EMI)

- Standouts: 'Different World', 'The Pilgrim', 'The Longest Day'

This was always the most boring album in the catalogue to me, from what I can remember. Not necessarily the worst, but the most dull. Considering I unironically enjoy The X Factor however, I'm always surprised at how low A Matter of Life and Death has always ranked for me. Both are long and proggy, with many slow-building songs (or just slow in general), and lyrically AMoLaD takes a lot of inspiration from war, something I've always had an unhealthy interested in. But no, in 2020 I scored it a 5.9/10, so the album still wasn't doing it for me 14 years after it's initial release. How about 18 years then? Christ, I can't believe it's been that long. I remember this coming out as a new release when I was in school!

Well, the production's taken a nosedive once again. It's not St. Anger bad or anything like that, but it sounds a lot like Brave New World once again, meaning the guitar tones are lacking any real bite and the drums sound hollow and dry. They didn't master it properly because they liked the raw, live feel, but the album only suffers for it in my opinion. Honestly, I think the band should just get on board with Andy Sneap at this point. He has his haters, sure, but is anyone seriously gonna argue that the past couple of Judas Priest records (Firepower and Invincible Shield) sound worse than anything Maiden have put out in this century?! Short answer, both those Priest albums sound a billion times better production-wise than anything Maiden have recorded in the past 24 years.

The production is a bit of a letdown then, but the album at least gets off to a good start with 'Different World'. This is the shortest and most straightforward song on the album, and along with 'The Pilgrim', one of the only ones that really recaptures any classic Iron Maiden vibes. 'Different World' was released as a single for good reason, while 'The Pilgrim' certainly delivers what I want to hear from 21st century Maiden. 'Brighter Than a Thousand Suns' is the first of about 6 epic-length songs here (!!). This one lasts nearly 9 minutes, and I can dig it. It doesn't waste time to get going, and actually manages to rock me with it's heavy riffage and at times, faster tempo. Given how long it is, of course the band touches on prog structurally, but it doesn't feel like a slog to sit through. I also think they deliver another solid epic in 'The Longest Day'. If the title didn't give things away enough, this track is about the Allied invasion of Normandy - D-Day - during World War II. Like 'Paschendale' from Dance of Death, the band deserve bonus points for the lyrics here! Also, I think this might be my favourite track vocally. Despite it's long length, Bruce delivers some very memorable vocals and melodies to what is essentially another proggy piece of music. Very solid stuff. I guess I can give props to 'Lord of Light' too. Like a lot of these songs, it's too slow to begin with, but the bulk of it is really strong. Bruce again sounds fantastic on it, and there's a good soaring atmosphere to the music. 

Maybe I'm a tad more welcoming of all the long songs now - if they're memorable, then I can get on board with them. But the biggest problem I have with A Matter of Life and Death is probably it's distinct lack of energy throughout the record. Tracks like 'These Colours Don't Run' are devoid of energy, and the only time I revisit a song like this is when I end up re-reviewing the album every 4 or so years for this blog!! I like Bruce's vocal performance on 'Out of the Shadows', otherwise this is a forgettable ballad mixed in with what is a mostly mid-tempo, plodding set of songs. While I do appreciate the heaviness of 'The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg' (when it does eventually get going...), again, it's just slow and makes me yearn for the galloping tempo of songs like 'The Trooper' or 'Number of the Beast'!! Like, it's really not a bad song - but among all these other long and lethargic tracks, I just can't enjoy it as much as I'd like!!

I've whinged about Steve Harris taking Maiden far too deep down the prog rabbit hole in my old reviews, and sadly I still think this is a relevant argument to make at times, even if I am starting to warm more towards these newer Maiden releases somewhat. 'For the Greater Good of God' is another epic-length track, and one that I quite like under it's own terms. Trouble is, the album is horribly paced that by the time it does come on towards the last portion of the record, I'm often temped to skip it. Why didn't they stick shorter tracks like 'The Pilgrim' or 'Out of the Shadows' later on in the tracklisting to at least break up the pacing of the songs and keep the listener interested? Well, given the overall positive reception AMoLaD holds, I guess I'm in the smaller minority of Maiden fans that take issue with this album overall. I don't want to be too mean about the final track 'The Legacy' either, because there's passages in this song I do like. But again, it's over 9 minutes long and by the time it does come on, I'm pretty much finished with the album.

The crazy thing regarding this album was the tour that followed. They played the entirety of A Matter of Life and Death live at each show. Fan response was apparently mixed. I said in my old review that I'd have been pissed off if I'd bought tickets and not known that I was getting that setlist until I got to the gig, but I do somewhat respect the band's decision to do what they did as I've gotten older. The band members were all supposedly very proud of this record, and who knows, maybe it is better heard live? I could just go on YouTube and watch an entire performance of it, but to be honest, I can't be arsed! I think had they released a live album of the tour, I would've bought it. But as it happens, they didn't.

Mehhh... I reckon A Matter of Life and Death is worthy of a higher score than what I originally gave it. A portion of these tracks are very good. And even the one's I don't enjoy as much all have something to like about them, whether it be the vocals, certain riffs, solos etc.. It's not a bad album at it's core at all. Far from it. But I stand by what I said about the horrible pacing, and the lack of energy throughout. Also, you can't escape the weaker production. Yeah, it's just not an album I find myself wanting to stick around 'til the end whenever I do attempt to listen to it. And it's a damn shame - considering how much I enjoyed Dance of Death in comparison to how I used to view it, my opinion hasn't changed all that much regarding AMoLaD. Well, roll on The Final Frontier from 2010 I guess!

Adam's rating: 6.2/10

Original review:

From Dance of Death onward, Iron Maiden have generally bored me with their releases. They're still a great live band - I've seen them twice in the past ten years and they were brilliant both times. You can't beat the classics, but I really think they've become a very different band musically since Bruce Dickinson returned. I guess that comes with age, but seriously, where's all the hooks and riffs these days?! A Matter of Life and Death doesn't exactly do much for me to improve the reputation of their modern-day records either. The guitar tones are flat once again, just like they were on Brave New World, and the drum sound is very hollow. The only song on here that really has any hooks to speak of is the opener, 'Different World'. The rest of the album is an overblown - well, not 'mess' - but an overblown product of proggy metal. But like a lot of their stuff these days, much of the album is barely even heavy enough to qualify as 'metal', sitting more comfortably in the realm of prog rock than anything else. I will admit that the lyrics are still top-notch, with historical themes of war playing a major part in this record. This is especially true of the powerful 'The Longest Day', which is obviously about the Allied invasion of D-Day during World War II, and the song itself is one of the few on here that really stood out for me. I've always been interested in military history, so it's no wonder that this and 'Paschendale' from Dance of Death stood out for me. I do think 'The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg' deserves some credit too. Sorta reminds me of 'Fear of the Dark' with the cheesy attempt at being spooky for the first section of the track.

For the most part though, the band aren't doing a whole lot to excite me here. It's a damn impressive album in terms of it's musicianship, and I can't deny that. Better than Dance of Death, if only slightly. But if you compare it to anything from the 80's, or even some of their 90's tracks, I pretty much guarantee none of these tracks will stay with you. Steve Harris is no longer interested in writing good old-fashioned, straight-forward galloping Maiden anthems anymore, that's obvious. Sure, you've got 'Different World', but that's it really. I don't want to call any of these post-2000 albums 'bad', because clearly a lot of people would disagree with me. They're certainly not 'bad' when talking about the actual performances from each of the musicians involved, but to me the majority of this stuff just doesn't capture the spirit of Iron Maiden like the older material does. It takes itself way too seriously. Hell, in 2006 when A Matter of Life and Death was released, they played the album live in it's entirety. How disappointed would I have been if that was the first time I'd seen them live?! I'd have been furious!
Adam's rating: 5.9/10

FLIGHT 666 - THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK          2009          (EMI)

Well this one was always gonna be great. It's yet another 2 CD live package, and it covers various different performances from the band's 2008-09 Somewhere Back in Time world tour, where they only played songs from the '80s (apart from 'Fear of the Dark'). So naturally, that means every single number on this album is a 'banger, although it does feel as if they forgot all about Killers! No 'Wrathchild' then, but that's just about the only issue I have with the setlist. There's absolute classics on here such as 'Heaven Can Wait', 'Revelations', 'Moonchild' and even the hulking 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' - songs that every fan knows and loves, but not songs you're absolutely guaranteed to hear at every Maiden concert. Certainly not like 'Run to the Hills', 'Fear of the Dark', 'The Trooper' etc. which are all on here too of course. So, great tracklisting then. I mean, other than the odd song I'm completely burned out on, vintage Maiden never gets old. And as for the actual playing on the album, I'd say the performances are pretty much on par with what you heard on Death on the Road. Maybe Rock in Rio still edges it's way to the top in terms of the actual performance quality, but Flight 666 is jam-packed full of energy and grandeur as is normal from Iron Maiden. And it's certainly a superior live effort next to any of those 1993 live releases (A Real Live/Dead One, Live at Donningon). I still like those albums, but the early '90s seemed to be the weak point in terms of their stage career. Since Bruce came back, they've gotten better again.

I'd like to slap a 9/10 on this one, but there's 2 other classic-focused live albums I listen to more than this one. The first is obviously Live After Death, but the second is Maiden England '88, which came out on CD in 2013. Both those albums are also only full of golden age Maiden considering they were recorded during the '80s, and I just think they're kind of unbeatable for that reason. I also find that Rock in Rio is my go-to modern era Maiden live album as well. That said, there's nothing really wrong with Flight 666 and I still totally recommend it. It's a later-career live album that still proves the band can crush it on stage with the oldies. 

'The Original Soundtrack' part of the tile refers to the 2009 Flight 666 documentary. It followed the band during the Somewhere Back in Time tour and I remember watching it in 2009 on TV. I don't remember if it was televised on BBC or Sky, or whatever, I just remember recording it and watching it during college. I think most, if not all of the songs on this album where shown in the doc, with interviews in between them. It was good from what I remember, but for some reason the thing I remember most about it was the camera zooming in on a guy in the crowd literally crying once the show had finished. Says a lot about Maiden fans.

Adam's rating: 8.4/10

THE FINAL FRONTIER          2010          (EMI)

- Standouts: Satellite 15... The Final Frontier', 'El Dorado', 'Mother of Mercy', 'Coming Home', 'The Alchemist'

Of all the modern era Maiden records, this is the one I've spent the most time with. Not because it's my favourite one of this century, but because I saw the band live for the first time on The Final Frontier tour in 2011, so I probably wanted to be familiar with all these songs before they inevitably played them in concert. I remember the gig being great, and most of the tracks from this album sounded fresh from that perspective - but sadly, like A Matter of Life and Death, there's plenty of holes to pick again here.

Well, I have no major issues with the first couple of tracks... in fact, the first half of this album gets a big thumbs-up from me. Although I don't like the way 'Satellite 15... The Final Frontier' has been handled within the tracklisting, both parts of this song are actually pretty darn good if you ask me. 'Satellite 15' is more of a mood-setting introductory to the album, but it sets the tone for the sci-fi themed 'The Final Frontier' very nicely. Speaking of which, the latter is a nice and simplistic rocker with an extremely catchy, singalong chorus and great hooks throughout. The riffs are your pretty basic power chord affair, but everything about this number sure is infectious! I just don't like the way they've been stuck together as a single track, when in actuality they're more-or-less 2 completely different, individual songs. Sometimes I don't feel like hearing 'Satellite 15' and would rather dive right into the album with 'The Final Frontier', but whatever. I can deal with this. 'El Dorado' too, is very strong. It sounds like the Iron Maiden of the past 20 years, sure, but it certainly does take some inspiration from their '80s heyday. It has that trademark galloping tempo as well as all the signature vocal hooks you'd ever want to hear from the band. Very nice!

I also like both 'Mother of Mercy' and 'Coming Home'. 'Mother of Mercy' isn't as energetic as either of the first couple of songs, but it does it's job as a rock-solid, mature slice of melodic heavy rock from a band that have undoubtedly evolved a lot since the '80s. I don't always get along with Steve Harris' songwriting evolution, but you know what, there's still a long list of tracks I can totally appreciate from the modern, 6-piece band era. As for 'Coming Home', well, this one's a nicely-executed ballad. I think Bruce Dickinson is maybe my favourite aspect of modern Maiden, 'cos even in the tracks I don't particularly enjoy, I can often count on Bruce to at least come up with top-quality vocal arrangements. They're usually the most memorable aspect of 21st century Maiden for me, and 'Coming Home' is no different. Great vocals across both the verses and the chorus once again. Track 5, 'The Alchemist', is also decent. A bit more upbeat than either 'Mother of Mercy' and 'Coming Home', and helps wrap-up the first half of this record rather well.

And then of course, you've got tracks 6-10. The first bunch of songs are all pretty standard-length. 'Satellite 15... The Final Frontier' is over 8 minutes, sure, but if you take both songs individually, they're around 4 minutes long each. In the second half of the record however, the shortest song ('Starblind') is still lasts nearly 8 minutes! So it goes without saying that I think The Final Frontier, much like AMoLaD, is a pretty horrifically-paced record once again. The 9-minute 'Isle of Avalon' could've worked better as a shorter, mid-tempo cut in my opinion. I get that they probably wanted it to be proggy in the first place - which it is - but it just isn't entertaining enough to justify this. It's not particularly exciting, nor does it take you to different places like a prog song should. But there are parts of the song I do like, for example it's fantastic atmosphere. But yeah... as it is, it just drags overall. 'Starblind' - well, I do dig the guitar harmonies on this one, the jammy feel and the song as a whole does flow a little better than 'Isle of Avalon' to my ears. But again, I don't revisit this song individually, well, ever. So I can't like it that much!

'The Talisman' starts off with an incredibly dreary intro that lasts more than 2 minutes, but once the song finally kicks into gear, it's a a fairly solid one. It has Steve's signature galloping bass on it, as well as some tuneful guitar melodies. It's long and complex enough that it has things to like about it, but for the same reasons it also has things I don't like about it (mostly that tiresome intro). 'The Man Who Would Be King' goes on for too long yet again, but like 'The Talisman' or 'Isle of Avalon', still has some energy and bits I do enjoy. It'll never make it's way into a playlist of course, but whatever. It's okay. The 11-minute finale 'When the Wild Wind Blows' is probably the best of the epics on this record. Yeah it takes a long time to get going, but it has a ton of atmosphere and is probably the only track in the second half of the album I ever revisit on it's own terms. That said, it takes 65 minutes of other music first before you can appreciate it's proggy goodness, and I'm not cool with this! 

Another complaint of mine - one that thankfully doesn't affect my overall rating and certainly not the music itself - is the album cover. When it dropped in 2010, I actually kinda liked the new sci-fi take on Eddie. Hell, I bought the tour shirt with this album cover on it, so I must've liked it. As the years go by however, I can easily say that The Final Frontier sports one of their worst album covers in the catalogue. Eddie barely looks like Eddie here, and there's something about the fancy colour shading of the logo that rubs me the wrong way!! And yes, it's always worth mentioning album artwork when discussing Maiden, because they're one of those benchmark bands for me regarding album art. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the actual quality of Final Frontier's artwork - this is no Dance of Death after all (!!) - but it's certainly an oddball album in their discography in this sense. Needless to say, I don't think I've worn that tour shirt in over 10 years. I won't ever get rid of it, because I never throw out any shirts I've bought from gigs with tour dates on the back. But I'll admit I have 2 other Maiden shirts that do still get worn from time to time (my Number of the Beast shirt from my teens and my 2014 tour shirt with the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son artwork on it)!!

All in all, I like this one more than I do AMoLaD. There's a reasonable number of songs I like a lot here, and I think the songwriting is slightly more engaging this time around. But I really don't know what the hell the band were thinking by sticking a 9 minute song, followed by a near-8 minute song, followed by another 9 minute song, followed by an 8 and a half-minute song... followed by an 11 minute song!! At least place them in between the more bog-standard length tracks!! Or better yet, cut this 10-song tracklisting down by getting rid of a couple of the bloated epics!! Make the album last an hour in total instead of 76 fucking minutes long!! Well, at least the production is better... but the drums still sound kinda hollow and boxy to me even if the guitar tones have improved. I'm sorry, but even if none of these songs are genuinely painful to listen to, I find myself getting tired of The Final Frontier by the time 'Starblind' (track 7) is over. Like I said, there's no outright terrible tracks here - Iron Maiden are simply too talented to deliver something that is utter garbage - but that doesn't mean they can't still bore me when they want to.

I'll give The Final Frontier a 6.5/10. The first half is great, and even the bloated second half still has it's moments. However, I can't give it a legitimately 'good' score if it leaves me yearning for '80s Iron Maiden by the time I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the tracklisting. Musically a solid album, but one that ultimately ends up becoming a slog to sit through all the way. Maybe it's the sort of record that needs to be heard in portions rather than in one go? But then what's the point of even releasing an album if it was never intended to be heard in one sitting? 

Answer - they should have released this as a double album. Then it would've worked better.

Adam's rating: 6.5/10

Original review:

Well, this one I like better than the last couple, but that still ain't saying much. I think the reason I like it slightly more is because I forced myself to listen to it a lot back when it was new, or newish at least. I saw the band live on the 2011 tour for The Final Frontier, so I guess I wanted to be as familiar with the tracks as possible, before I caught 'em on stage. But really, I wouldn't say the album is that much better than either of the last two, even if I personally like it more. There's a handful of songs I do actually like; 'I always liked 'Satellite 15... The Final Frontier' - or at least the second half ('The Final Frontier') because 'Satellite 15' is just a lengthy, sci-fi-inspired introduction that sounds like it's there primarily as an entrance theme for the live show, before the band step on stage for the first time. At least that's what it was there for when I saw them that time. The actual song 'The Final Frontier' isn't really anything special as such, especially in terms of it's riffs, which are basically just your standard power-chord affair. But it does at least set things up on a more upbeat note. I also like 'El Dorado', because aside from Bruce's aged voice, it does at least slightly resemble that of prime 80's Maiden with it's faster, galloping tempo. The same can be said for 'The Alchemist', which for once does feature some memorable guitar work! 'Coming Home' is a serviceable rock ballad with a nice chorus, but it's far-removed from the Maiden you loved all those decades ago. Basically, I think all the shorter tracks are mostly pretty decent.

The rest of the album however, is full of overblown prog rock pieces such as 'When the Wild Wind Blows', 'The Talisman' and 'Isle of Avalon', and the whole thing lasts over 76 minutes, so it's even longer than A Matter of Life and Death! That means you've got another album that is about 1/3 (sort of) classic-sounding Maiden, and 2/3 prog rock 'epics' that are extremely well-performed and written, but ultimately forgettable and lacking any real memorable hooks. I get it Steve, you like writing long songs. You obviously want more music nerds to listen to Iron Maiden. And that's fine, but in my opinion you only need a couple of songs max, lasting over 8 minutes! I mean, do the average Maiden fans really go to albums like The Final Frontier or A Matter of Life and Death when they just wanna rock out to some Maiden?! 'Cos I seriously doubt it. I think I'll kick back and listen to Piece of Mind, thank you very much!
Adam's rating: 6/10, but that's being very generous...

EN VIVO!          2012          (EMI)

Yep, another 2-disc live album. This one was recorded in 2011 in Santiago, Chile during the Final Frontier world tour. Maybe I'm a tad biased towards it because I saw them on this tour and the setlist was identical to what En Vivo! has to offer, but the performances on this album certainly rival the quality of Death on the Road and Flight 666, and so does the production/sound quality of the concert. 

The only downside is the fact there's understandably multiple songs from The Final Frontier - not a particularly great Maiden album in the first place - to sit through. That said, almost every track from said album sounds better in the live perspective. In fact, 'El Dorado', 'The Talisman' and the actual song 'The Final Frontier' are oozing with charisma and power, and even the crowd singalong to the ballad 'Coming Home'. 'When the Wild Wind Blows' isn't one of my favourite Maiden epics, but it is at least the best one from the album it's taken from. Alongside the Final Frontier tracks are a few other 21st century cuts - stuff like 'The Wicker Man', 'Blood Brothers', 'Dance of Death', plus the usual staples 'Fear of the Dark', 'Number of the Beast', '2 Minutes to Midnight' etc.. Not the best setlist you could ask for, but it does hold some sentimental value to me at least, and the actual quality of the concert itself is rock-solid. As good as the majority of their other live releases.

There's better live albums in this catalogue to choose from, sure, but this one is still worthy of any fans' time. The choice of songs is maybe a 6/10, but the performance itself sits well within the 8/10 ballpark.

Adam's rating: 7.9/10

MAIDEN ENGLAND '88          2013          (EMI)

This live album was originally released on VHS in 1989 as a music video, then again as a single-CD release in 1994. In 2013 however, the entire concert was re-released as 2-CD package in the same way that the bulk of their other live albums are too. Maiden England was recorded during the Seventh Son of Seventh Son period in 1988 at the NEC in Birmingham. I have a lot of history with this venue; my first ever concert, Heaven & Hell with Lamb of God and Iced Earth way back in 2007 also took place at the NEC. I've also seen Judas Priest there twice (2009 and 2024) and literally just saw Deep Purple there about a month ago. So it's relatively local for me.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand! Maiden England '88 is a top-notch effort from the vast live album catalogue in Maiden's discography. The band were still arguably at the top of their game in 1988, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the last absolutely classic album they made depending on who you ask. There's plenty of stuff which came after that I'm a fan of, sure, but that initial 7-album run from the debut up to SSoaSS is pretty remarkable. By default then, every single song they played during this concert is a stone-cold classic, and the performances are almost, if not as good as what you heard on Live After Death if you ask me. Weird to think songs like 'Can I Play with Madness' and 'The Evil That Men Do' were still new at the time of the gig! Yet the crowd sings along to them like they've been around forever! That's just the sign of a good song if you ask me. Personal favourite performances are 'Sanctuary', 'Killers', 'Running Free'... pretty much any of the Di'Anno stuff 'cos I love hearing Bruce's take on those oldies!!

Sound quality is... maybe not as good as Live After Death, but still rock-solid. And the band are as energetic as you'd expect them to be. It's probably my favourite Maiden live record behind LAD, all things considered. Had it been released with this longer tracklisting and 2-CD format back in 1989, I reckon it could've achieved all-time classic status.

Adam's rating: 9.2/10

THE BOOK OF SOULS         2015         (BMG)

- Standouts: 'If Eternity Should Fail', 'Speed of Light', 'The Red and the Black', 'The Book of Souls', 'Death or Glory', 'Shadows of the Valley', 'Tears of a Clown', 'Empire of the Clouds'

Okay, this is the longest Iron Maiden record to date. 92 minutes long. 90. 2. Minutes. Long. And only 11 songs in total! Sounds like my worst nightmare, especially after the slog that was the second half of The Final Frontier!! Yeah, that's what I thought. But then I looked at my crappy 2020 review and saw I gave 2015's The Book of Souls a fairly respectable 7.5/10 (which still isn't good enough for a band of this calibre, but you know what I mean). Since I've been binging the Maiden catalogue lately for this blog update, I've already listened to this album a handful of times now - probably more times than since I first picked it up back in 2015!! Even when I reviewed it in 2020 and gave it my decent score, I shelved the album once again until now. As for revisiting it multiple times over in 2024, I can say now that...

... I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with The Book of Souls - from start to finish!!

Yep, if there's any modern era Iron Maiden album that really gets a thumbs-up from me, it's this one. I can't escape the fact it's a long and demanding listen. I mean, it's 92 fucking minutes long for crying out loud! But when the songs are as good as they are here, it's not as big of a deal. And anyway, the band did the correct thing by releasing The Book of Souls as a double album. That means disc 1 is comprised of 6 tracks, while the second contains the remaining 5. It doesn't matter if there's only 11 songs in total, when an album clocks well over an hour long, I think it often makes more sense to release it as a double album. Hell, if they'd done the same thing with The Final Frontier and evenly spread the epics across both discs, then I'd have likely scored it higher. I find with double albums that I can listen to either disc at any time and not necessarily feel the need to put the other one on straight after. If I do feel like listening to both all in one go, then great, but if not it shouldn't matter because in many cases just 1 disc is long enough to qualify as a regular album anyway. For example, I think I've listened to the first disc of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti about a 1000 times more than I have the second, and that's fine with me! I still like the second CD, but the first disc alone still stands as one of their greatest accomplishments!!

In the case of The Book of Souls, both discs are pretty consistent to the point where neither is necessarily better than the other. Maybe I'd pick the first if I had to choose just one, but this is a consistently strong record from start to finish. The first disc starts off with 'If Eternity Should Fail'. It builds up slowly with it's fanfare, sure, but the songs' chorus is oh-so powerful and catchy, who cares?! Yes, this is potentially the best Maiden album opener in decades. And yes, the chorus is repetitive - but like I said, it's so damn cool it doesn't matter!! An epic way to begin this album, and for once, not just because it's a long track (it's 8 minutes and 28 seconds long)!! Meanwhile, 'Speed of Light' was released as a single and blends the old with the new. The tempo is fast and old-school, but it still has that touch of modern Maiden about it. Thankfully, it's the touch of modern Maiden I want to hear, in that new Maiden can still be great musically, and this one most definitely fits alongside other new-era upbeat classics like 'The Wicker Man' and 'Wildest Dreams'. Maybe 'The Great Unknown' is weaker than the first 2 tracks, but I still like it a lot. It's slower and more in-line with what a lot of A Matter of Life and Death was all about, only it's much more inspiring musically and doesn't make me nod off so quickly!

'The Red and the Black' is of course a deep number thanks to it's 13 minute total length, but it doesn't waste much time in grabbing my attention and keeping me hooked from start to finish. It actually has some anthemic qualities about it; there's plenty of those "Whooaaahhh"-type chanting vocals to singalong to, it's full of fist-pumping riff and melodies and it makes you wonder where those 13 minutes went once it's over. So basically, it doesn't outstay it's welcome within the album's tracklisting... making it a real winner once again. It's superb. As is 'When the River Runs Deep' - like 'Speed of Light', this upbeat track blends new and old Maiden characteristics in a way that I want to hear. Disc 1 ends with the title track, which, although not the longest song on the CD is still very much an epic at 10 minutes long. Again, I really like it. It has that big and vast, almost mesmerising like sound that songs such as 'To Tame a Land' or 'Powerslave' had. The use of keyboards enhance the song's atmosphere of course, and while it isn't always as energetic as the rest of the first disc (not a bad thing FYI, although it does pick up past the half-way mark), it's a strong conclusion to a varied set of great songs that show what Maiden are still capable of in their older age.

The second disc begins with a 'banger - the fast and galloping 'Death or Glory'. Alongside that hard-hitting introductory to disc 2 is 'Shadows of the Valley', a big, soaring and dynamic anthem with guitar parts that throwback to 'Wasted Years'. You could call 'em lazy for doing this, but I personally like it 'cos any reminder of their '80s past is always a good thing. It just is! Oh, and 'Tears of a Clown' is apparently based on Rob Williams' tragic battle with depression with eventually led to his suicide in 2014. It's a melodic track, but it's not necessarily a ballad as such. No, it actually has this really cool riffy part with a weird, jazz-like groove that gives the song a modern metal flavouring. It's probably one of my favourite songs on this album, actually. By contrast, 'The Man of Sorrows' is probably my least favourite song here - but it's still no worse than anything else this band have recorded since Bruce came back. It's definitely the least inspiring song musically with it's fairly slow and plodding pace, but whatever. It's certainly not bad, just inoffensive filler that I still kind of enjoy overall. It doesn't make any substantial impact on my overall enjoyment of the album.   

The finale of the entire package is 'Empire of the Clouds' - the longest song the band has ever recorded at 18 minutes. It tells the true story of the British R101 airship, which crashed in 1930 and killed 48 of the 54 people on board. This is a classic Maiden history lecture, and musically it combines melodic guitars with some extremely memorable piano usage. Without the pianos, you probably wouldn't remember the songs' melodies so much - they're essential to the overall atmosphere and pacing of the track. Of course, the rest of the musicianship on this song is stellar, and there are large instrumental portions of the song. After all, how long can Bruce continually keep spitting facts about the R101 airship for 18 minutes straight?! Is it the band's best ever epic? Probably not, but it's up there for me. Unlike many of the previous epics from the last few records, it somehow manages to keep me intrigued from start to finish and I love the lyrics. It's impossible to get so far into this album and not listen this ambitious conclusion.

The production was handled by - uh-huh - Kevin Shirley yet again. Sadly, this kind of means it's flawed by default in my eyes. While there's Maiden records he's produced that I don't necessarily dislike sonically, i.e. Dance of Death, possibly 2021's Senjutsu and (spoilers) this, they're still not perfect. There isn't a 21st century Maiden album that doesn't sound like it was produced by Shirley. Even if some sound better than others, they still have a similar-ish vibe, and in the case of Book of Souls, the drums still sound like arse. Everything else sounds decent; the guitar tones are nice while Steve's bass tone alongside Bruce's vocals are mixed nicely to the point where they never overpower each other. But jeez, why does Nicko settle for these weak-sounding, boxy drums on every new Maiden record?! When Shirley plays the drum tracks back, why does Nicko nod in agreement and say "Yeah, that sounds awesome!"?! Of course, I don't know exactly what goes on behind the scenes but I'm really baffled as to how a band of this status has been consistently putting out substandard-produced albums for so long now!! I also know I'm not the only one in agreement that production has been a problem of theirs for a long time now. Not to keep bringing up Judas Priest and Andy Sneap, but seriously - listen to Priest's Firepower or Invincible Shield from the last few years, and in terms of mixing, they absolutely crush anything Maiden's put out since Brave New World. At least they haven't worked with Rick Rubin... yet. Fuck that guy.

Any other complaints? Well, the production is the only real serious one. Had it been handled by someone other than Mr. Shirley, I might have stuck this album above Powerslave!! Ummmmm... the album cover is a little pedestrian than usual too? Like, Eddie looks cool, but the simple black background and white font is surprisingly minimalist by Maiden's standards. But it's not terrible either, not at all. And anyway, the songs are mostly excellent. None of them come close to sucking. Even the longest tracks here have been thought-out and paced far better than the vast majority of the long list of previous epics from the past 4 Maiden records. And many of the more standard-length ones sound far more energetic than they have done for years. In fact, that's part of the reason why this album is so strong - I feel much more energy from these songs (long or not) that I often didn't feel from AMoLaD or The Final Frontier. And as much as I like Brave New World and Dance of Death, they don't quite cut it as classic albums for me. 

So, other than the disappointing production (yet again), for me The Book of Souls is easily the best album Iron Maiden have put out this century. While it's a shame I still feel the same way about albums such as A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier, the fact The Book of Souls has grown on me as much as it has done has really put a big smile on my face. While I was originally gonna score this a 9/10, I've had to settle with the still very respectable rating of 8.9/10. Giving it a 9 would mean I like it as much as Number of the Beast, which I don't. Nor do I listen to it as much as I do any of their '80s works. There's also the odd 21st century album from other legacy bands like Deep Purple, Saxon and of course, Judas Priest that I'd say I just about enjoy more than this. But alongside The X Factor, this is definitely my favourite Maiden album post-1980s. I can happily sit through both discs in 1 sitting if I'm in the right mood, and that's not an easy feat for any band to pull off.

Again, I can't say I like this as much as anything they made back in the '80s, but it does certainly prove they can still deliver the goods when they put their minds to it!! I was glad that Dance of Death had at least grown on me significantly since I last reviewed it; meanwhile I'm chuffed that The Book of Souls comfortably qualifies as classic Maiden for me now!!

Adam's rating: 8.9/10

Original review:

When I heard that Maiden was doing a double album for their latest studio release, well...honestly I was just expecting two CD's of A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier-like tunes, but I enjoyed this one a lot more than I did the last bunch. It may be a double album, but there's still only 11 songs in total...so yeah, expect a whole lot more 'epics'. Thankfully, I did find there to be a few excellent numbers that do somewhat hark back to the glory days - 'Speed of Light' is probably my favourite song of theirs since 'The Wicker Man' or 'Ghost of the Navigator'! I also really enjoyed 'Death or Glory', 'Shadows of the Valley' and the lengthy opener 'If Eternity Should Fail', probably the best stuff since Brave New World. The album sounds great too - like, really good. The mixing and production is the best I've heard since the 80's. I dunno why, but I've always thought that the drums sounded thin on everything from Brave New World up untilThe Final Frontier, but it's not the case with The Book of Souls. I know I was getting fed up of 8 minute plus songs, and while I do think there are still a few too many on this record, they definitely reminded me of golden age Maiden than one's found on the last few predecessors. 'Empire of the Clouds', the finale to the second disc is a bit pretentious for sure, clocking at over 18 minutes,  but at this point in time, it's dumb to assume they'll end on a short and snappy number. I liked both discs overall, maybe to the point where I'd say it's the best since BNW. But honestly, I still rarely see myself listening to anything from this period when I want to hear some Maiden.
Adam's rating: 7.5/10

THE BOOK OF SOULS: LIVE CHAPTER          2017          (Parlophone)

Once again, another double CD live album from Iron Maiden!! This one can be purchased as a standard jewel case package or as the deluxe book format. I have the book version; it doesn't add anything exclusive music-wise, so you're basically paying extra for the packaging - but I'm a sucker for this kind of thing (plus I got it as a Christmas gift!), and in terms of the overall presentation this thing is really nice indeed. The hardback book itself looks and feels great, and is full of photos from the The Book of Souls tour of 2016/17, plus lots of notes and a full list of all the dates played. So as a collector's piece it's well worth having on your shelf.

As far as the music goes, about a 1/3 of the setlist is composed of Book of Souls tracks, and other than 'Blood Brothers' from Brave New World (which I could've done without), the rest are all golden oldies. Like I said in my Book of Souls review, it's an album I liked when it first dropped in 2015, but rarely revisited until re-reviewing it in 2024. Since then it's become my favourite 21st century Maiden record, so having any of those tracks live certainly grabbed my attention. Yep, tracks like the soaring 'If Eternity Should Fail', the storming 'Death or Glory', the vintage Maiden-inspired 'Speed of Light' and the anthemic epic 'Red and the Black' all sound just as good in the live setting as they do in the studio. I was kinda surprised to see 'The Great Unknown' here - personally it was one of the weaker tracks from The Book Souls in my books due to it's slower pacing, but maybe that's why they selected it in the first place, to keep the setlist more diverse? Either way, it's just a minor niggle because overall I don't think there's any outright poor tracks from The Book of Souls.

There aren't many surprises to be had with the rest of the tracks here. It's nice to see 'Powerslave' and 'Children of the Damned' in the setlist - not exactly 'deep cuts' as such, but not regulars in the setlist either. 'Blood Brothers' gets on my nerves a little these days, but whatever - I can deal with it. Naturally, you're getting more versions of 'Iron Maiden', 'Fear of the Dark', 'The Trooper' and 'Number of the Beast' here to add to your already huge list of live renditions, but they're timeless classics that I can almost always enjoy at the end of the day. Nice to see the album end on 'Wasted Years' too. In terms of performance quality, Bruce is giving it his all and the rest of the band are playing as tight as a drum. And as usual, production and mixing is top quality. The songs themselves are taken from various different concerts all over the world, so the band probably compiled what they thought were the best representations of them.

At this point in time, I don't think Iron Maiden would even consider putting out a live album of subpar quality. The Book of Souls: Live Chapter is about as good as most of their other live albums of this century such as En Vivo! or Death on the Road, and your own preference of them is mostly gonna be down to what you want to hear from the setlist. I loved The Book of Souls, so I'm gonna say I like this one a tad more than the other one's I just mentioned, but I wouldn't necessarily say the performances here are any better as such. I just like the setlist more. Whatever! Great live album as you'd expect.

Adam's rating: 8.2/10

NIGHTS OF THE DEAD, LEGACY OF THE BEAST: LIVE IN MEXICO CITY         2020          (Parlophone)

Aaannnddd here we are with ANOTHER 2 CD live album!!!! This time it's composed of different tracks recorded across 3 different nights all taking place at the Palacio de los Deportes arena in Mexico City during the Legacy of the Beast World Tour in 2019. Like my Book of Souls: Live Chapter album, I have the fancy book format version in my collection, and as with the aforementioned predecessor, the Nights of the Dead book also comes with tons of photos, notes and tour info and both of these live albums look great on my shelf next to each other. Packaging is a big deal the more serious you become about collecting physical format music! The setlist is completely different this time though; it's made up almost entirely of classics from the '80s and '90s. Erm, apart from 'The Wicker Man' from Brave New World and 'The Greater Good of God' from A Matter of Life and Death that is! Not entirely sure how that one slipped into the setlist, but there ya go! It's not a song I dislike as such, but it's not one of my favourite tunes from AMoLaD either. In fact, it's actually my least favourite Maiden album of all time, so that's easily my biggest flaw with the setlist presented on this particular live album. Thankfully the rest of it is gold however. I have no problem with 'The Wicker Man' being on here; it's not 'Blood Brothers' after all! Yeah okay, you're also getting '2 Minutes to Midnight', 'Fear of the Dark', 'Number of the Beast', 'Run to the Hills' etc. for the millionth time, but this was to be expected. They're cornerstones of the metal genre after all. 

What is awesome, is the high number of Piece of Mind tracks - classics, sure, but not one's you're guaranteed to hear often when Maiden do perform live. Yep, you're getting terrific renditions of the blazing 'Where Eagles Dare', the proggy masterpiece 'Revelations' and the insanely catchy 'Flight of Icarus'. Also a big deal for me are the 2 Blaze Bayley classics, 'The Clansman' and 'Sign of the Cross'. 2 incredible songs that thankfully haven't been ignored by the band post-Blaze.

Out of all their 21st century live albums, this one is most comparable to Flight 666 because of it's mostly old-school setlist. I think I actually like the setlist more than Flight 666 due to the Blaze cuts and the added Piece of Mind numbers, but I don't think Bruce sounds as good here as does on said other live album. He's hitting the highs still, sure, but I'm starting to hear a tad more aging with his voice at this point. Completely understandable because he is older now (and still sounds great on this album to be fair), but not something I can ignore either. The music however, is as epic as it's always been. 

Like most of these latter-day live albums, they aren't necessarily essential in the same way that Live After Death is, but they are totally worth a purchase either way. Like I said in the Book of Souls: Live Chapter review, the band probably wouldn't put something out if they didn't think it was up to snuff.

Adam's rating: 8.3/10

SENJUTSU          2021          (BMG)

- Standouts: 'Stratego', 'The Writing on the Wall', 'Days of Future Past', 'The Time Machine', 'Death of the Celts', 'Hell on Earth'

I've been rather unkind to 21st century Iron Maiden overall. There's just something about their formula that doesn't work anymore for me, and it probably has something to do with the list of endlessly long songs with little in the way of hooks or refinement (makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite considering X Factor is one of my favourites...). I can take prog just fine, I just don't wanna hear it coming from Maiden, who to my ears have near-enough morphed into a prog band over the past twenty or so years. It's just evolution I guess. Some bands just keep doing the same sort of thing over and over, and it still works. Maiden on the other hand, aren't writing songs in the vein of 'Wraithchild' or 'The Trooper' anymore, and I guess I'm one of the fans that can't accept this, even if the band themselves are more than capable of performing long and intricate songs.

But here we are with 2021's Senjutsu, an album I bought within the first three months of release and then didn't even bother listening to it for at least a YEAR! Like The Book of Souls, it's another double album which means it's more than eighty fucking minutes long. If I'm honest, alarm bells were already ringing when I heard they were making a second double album with a Japanese samurai theme going for it. Would it be two discs of finely-tuned melodic heavy metal songs, or two discs of bloated, long and unmemorable prog pieces? I guessed the latter of course. Turns out there's a bit of both going on here. 

Disc one begins with the title track, a song I found to be more of a mood-setter than anything else. I barely remembered anything about it after first listen, and as a song I don't particularly like it. It's kind of a sloppy mess of militaristic drums, slow riffs and muddy tones, but I will say that it does at least set the tone for the record rather well. Saying it sucks seems unfair for that reason. Fortunately, 'Stratego' kept me interested. I'm not gonna claim it could comfortably fit on one of the band's '80s works, but it's definitely good. The melodic guitar leads layered with the riffs are nice and the whole song has a good, upbeat feel. This track is up there with the better 21st century Maiden tracks for me. 'The Writing on the Wall' however, is genuinely great; it's not particularly metallic aside from the odd melody here and there, but the bluesy guitar playing is stellar and makes it stand out from the pack. It's almost like Iron Maiden's take on southern rock.

The first notably lengthy number across the album is 'Lost in a Lost World'. The instrumentation on this track in the mid-section is fantastic, with some particularly nice guitar soloing. I like Bruce's vocal performance too and the way it shifts between being a ballad and a melodic rock number, but I'm still on the fence with the cookie-cutter, slow power chord riffs. Yeah, it's a bit of a mixed bag for me. 'Days of Future Past' is more my cup of tea. This one has more of a classic upbeat Maiden sound going for it, mixed with the highly melodic sheen of present-day songs I'm actually a fan of like 'The Wicker Man', 'Different World'. I think this number could have maybe worked as an opener to either one of the discs. 'The Time Machine' is also a standout in my books. I don't find it to be directly comparable to their earlier works, but as far as the current incarnation of the band goes, and the way Steve Harris writes songs these days, it has the ingredients that actually work for me. It's upbeat, soaring and melodic, and while the riffs are lacking once again, it makes up for it with it's guitar leads. A fine way to conclude the first disc.

As for the second half, disc two's opener 'Darkest Hour' features more fantastic lead guitar playing. I really can't praise Murray/Smith/Gers' fretwork enough in this department. It's the riffs that just AREN'T THERE!! Again, there's not a single riff on the sluggish 'Darkest Hour' that I could remember after it's running time was over. I get that this track has more of a ballad-like quality, but come on! Maybe the band just aren't about riffs anymore, 'cos it certainly feels that way. 'Death of the Celts' is a ten minute-plus proggy piece. Musically though the middle of the track is full of instrumental lead guitar wizardry that actually reminds me of 'The Clansman' from Virtual XI. Of the longest tracks on this record, 'Death of the Celts' is probably my favourite. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact I didn't find it to be a slog; all those 'Clansman' comparisons are a good thing.

Next up is a rather bloated twelve minute epic, 'The Parchment'. Yet again, any and all of the lead guitar work is brilliant, but the whole structure and pattern of this track feels very repetitive, and the tempo is once again sitting within the mid-tempo realm until the ten minute mark. Someone on Metal-Archives compared it to Dio-era Rainbow and Black Sabbath... I mean, I have no idea how he or she came to that conclusion. Sounds like 21st century Maiden to me, and no one else. Luckily 'Hell on Earth' actually does have some riffage on it, even if it takes a while to get going. It has that traditional Maiden galloping style that Steve loves doing, meaning it's also one of the more upbeat songs within the entire package. It's not perfect however; it's upbeat by this album's standard, but it's certainly not what you'd call 'fast'. And there's an aura of tiredness about it that I suppose comes with age. But to be fair, it does somewhat remind me golden-age Maiden, so on principle, it's a standout.

I can pick holes with almost every track on this album, and while it sounds like I just dislike a lot of the longer numbers, I can still find things I do like about them. For instance, I can't really fault Bruce's vocals on anything here. No, he'll never sound as good as he did on Number of the Beast, but to me he's sounded consistently good since Brave New World, and certainly far better than he did on No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark. And like I said before, the lead guitar work is outstanding on pretty much every track across the board, even if there's barely any memorable riffage to speak of. 

With all that said however, I can't see myself listening to Senjutsu again anytime soon. Even though it has a few upbeat(ish) moments here and there, the whole album once again suffers from quite a slow pace and everything is just difficult to take in in one sitting. It's what I expected in all fairness. I still think this album is worthy of a 7/10; songs like 'The Writing on the Wall', 'The Time Machine' and 'Days of Future Past' are some of the best in a while. Thing is though, this is Iron Maiden, and a 7/10 isn't good enough! 

You know, in 2020 I went back and updated this page. I re-reviewed every studio album, until I got fed up and couldn't be arsed to revisit The Book of Souls that is. Even though I gave it a 7.5/10, a fairly respectable score, something just resisted against me hearing it again. After reviewing Senjutsu however, I'm kind of tempted to go back and actually take a look at it's predecessor once again - and everything from Brave New World-onward for that matter. I think more redux reviews of these records are in order.

2024 update: I've just finished re-reviewing every Maiden studio record bar Senjutsu. The Senjutsu review has been up since 2023 and is certainly due an update. But not just yet!!

Adam's rating: 7/10

THE BEAT SESSIONS (Bootleg)          2023          (Sutra)

An unofficial live release recorded in Bremen, Germany in 1981 during the Killer World Tour. It's nice to have this in my collection because despite the high number of Iron Maiden live albums in print and widely available to buy, there's not a lot of live material from the earlier days with Paul Di'Anno out there. They're all pricey and rare EPs such as the legendary Soundhouse Tapes and Maiden Japan etc. - but no complete recordings of entire shows as such. Therefore bootlegs like this one - The Beat Sessions - are a fun way to get hold of more live material that we otherwise wouldn't have. It also helps that CDs like these are easy to get hold of and regularly in stock on mainstream retailers such as Amazon and the like.

Of course, the downside to bootlegs is just how good are they actually gonna sound? Thankfully this one sounds pretty darn good - much better than I was expecting at least. Maybe Paul's vocals are a little high in the mix and Clive Burr's drums aren't always that easy to decipher, but the guitars are nicely audible and Steve Harris' galloping bass tones can always be heard throughout the songs. Speaking of which, there's 15 tracks in total here, all of them from the first couple of records of course - they hadn't made any more full-length LPs in 1981! But that's okay with me - those first couple of Maiden albums are among my favourites (particularly the debut), and the Di'Anno era was still one hell of a lineup. It's surprising just how tight they were, even in the live setting. The songs are played near enough note-for-note perfect, and Paul's vocals sit pretty close to his own studio performances. The only real downside to this disc is the technical difficulties the band ran into during 'Remember Tomorrow'. They even split the song into 2 tracks, because once the issue was resolved they began playing the song again!! Yet somehow, there's a certain charm about a hungry young band dealing with this kind of shit on a live album. I wouldn't have wanted this on Live After Death (at which point they were heavy metal superstars), but the sound issue adds a weird sense of authenticity to this CD, and in a way manages to bring me closer to the music! It's hard to explain what I mean, maybe I just like hearing an unapologetically honest live performance with zero studio trickery and editing every once in a while?!

Great disc then. I won't say it's better than some of their official live releases, but it's a highly enjoyable listen for fans like myself, and certainly worth adding to your own collection.

Adam's rating: 8.7/10

Closing thoughts on this discography:

My absolute favourite bands of all time - Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Judas Priest all have records that I consider to be 10s. Iron Maiden don't. However, they do have an insanely high number of genuinely terrific and absolutely classic albums in their catalogue, more-so than most other bands. And that initial 7-album run from the debut up to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is easily one of the greatest and most impressive feats in rock/metal history. I also think they boast one of the strongest live album collections of all time. I'll admit some of their 2000 to present studio albums haven't always hit the mark for me - but there's still some that I do genuinely like a lot from this era. So in conclusion, Maiden are a band that are easily in my top 10... possibly top 5 depending which day you ask me! They won't ever be a top 3, but this is a fine discography and you're in for a hell of a good time if this is your first time delving into Eddie's world!!