I was pretty close to including Live After Death, but stuck to the studio albums. That one is the king of live metal albums. For the early DiAnno singles, nothing tops this one for me:

Maiden rules.

I return to Beast# and Piece of Mind the most probably. Killers is great but I almost never listen to it or the first record. Powerslave is rad and weird, and I do not hate 7th son or Somewhere in time for being weird too. No prayer for the dying was the first Maiden I ever heard and it blew my little 7th grader mind and set me on the path, but it isn't a great record. I never really liked much after that.

Going with POM Because the first 3 songs crush it so hard.

I bought Surfer Rosa and Number of the Beast Cassettes on the same day at my local record store in like, 1989 or 90 and the dude behind the counter called me fucking weird.

Beast
Slave
Killers
PoM
Iron Maiden

All rule. Still put on a great show too.

Kniferide wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2024 12:25 pm I bought Surfer Rosa and Number of the Beast Cassettes on the same day at my local record store in like, 1989 or 90 and the dude behind the counter called me fucking weird.

Haha, brilliant.

When I was 11 I got my dad to take me to the local 'alternative' record shop so I could buy No Sleep Till Hammersmith. The place was full of biker types and dudes with brightly coloured mohicans. I didn't notice, but he told me a few years later that they were all giving funny looks with open mouths at this little kid buying such a heavy record.

Not a fan of the band but looking at the tracklists I'm surprised how many of these songs I both know and like:

Iron Maiden: Prowler. Running Free. Phantom of the Opera. Iron Maiden.
Killers: None?!
NotB: Children of the Damned. Number of the Beast. Run to the Hills. Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Piece of Mind: Die With Your Boots On. Trooper.
Powerslave: Aces High. 2 Minutes. Powerslave.

Iron Maiden and NotB get into the finals on raw numbers, but I'll go with IM as a tiebreaker because I don't really like Bruce Dickinson's voice, or at least the way he sounds uncomfortable and unconvincing at the top of his range.

Curry Pervert wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2024 7:33 pm

Kniferide wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2024 12:25 pm I bought Surfer Rosa and Number of the Beast Cassettes on the same day at my local record store in like, 1989 or 90 and the dude behind the counter called me fucking weird.

Haha, brilliant.

When I was 11 I got my dad to take me to the local 'alternative' record shop so I could buy No Sleep Till Hammersmith. The place was full of biker types and dudes with brightly coloured mohicans. I didn't notice, but he told me a few years later that they were all giving funny looks with open mouths at this little kid buying such a heavy record.

These are both great. A couple years ago I was stocking up on old thrash records, I put Among The Living, Practice What You Preach and the SOD record down on the counter. Young metal-looking dude ringing me up looks them over one by one, looks up, says simply: "RIFFS".

Iron Maiden was a boat that left me on the island, but I'm starting a run through of all these now. Should be fun.

Man alive, that was fun. I'll never be one for the higher, shrieky metal wail, but I enjoyed listening to all of these.

Maybe a bit tricky after mainlining all five one after the other, but I think Piece of Mind was my favourite, by a hair from the debut.

A_Man_Who_Tries wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2024 6:58 am Man alive, that was fun.

The best thing about Maiden is how entirely fun they are. Watch live videos. I've never in my life seen a bunch of dudes having a better time on stage. Their intense dedication to being silly as seriously as possible is adorable and they are all fucking top notch musicians. Flight 666 is definitely propaganda but it is a great watch. Bruce Dickinson rules.

Setlist.com says they've played the song Iron Maiden 2358 times in concert. That's got to be the record for a band playing their own material, surely? Even the Rolling Stones have only played their big songs in the low 1000s. Springsteen has only played Born to Run 1850 times, the slacker. Touring machine Bob Dylan comes close, has played Watchtower 2222 times.