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Iron Maiden Albums Ranked: From Best to Beast
10 Plays1 year ago
On the first-ever episode of The NerdFlow, Drew, Jai, and Janko tackle the daunting task of ranking Iron Maiden’s iconic albums. Things get heated as they debate their personal favourites, argue over the classics, and throw in some unexpected twists. Who’s got the hottest take? Tune in to find out!
Transcript
Introduction to Nodeflow Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is the Nodeflow. Wear a bunch of nodes and we have words flow out of our mouth. My name is Drew and I am joined by my lovely co-hosts. Ciao!
00:00:11
Speaker
I guess I'm supposed to say something at that point or talk over Drew. I think that's a good way to introduce ourselves for the first time. What do you think? You probably should say something at some point. I mean, like, this is a podcast. This is the thing where we want
Setting the Stage: Iron Maiden Attire
00:00:23
Speaker
to talk and sort of banter with each other, I guess, talk about a whole bunch of our sort of different nerdy interests, things that interest us, metal music, games, pop culture, all those kinds of things.
00:00:35
Speaker
Movies, yes. No one said there was going to be talking involved. I thought it would be some sort of chocolate podcast. When do we get paid? we We don't get paid. There is nobody. We've got a hundred million dollar Spotify contract for it. Hopefully that'll come down the track. If you do like the podcast, keep listening. um All right. The reason we are here today is I did introduce myself.
Iron Maiden and Friendship Stories
00:01:01
Speaker
Go ahead.
00:01:03
Speaker
Hi, I'm Yanko. You can continue.
00:01:08
Speaker
Good. Glad that we got that out of the way. Hi, Yanko. How are you doing today, mate? Very good, mate. Thank you. hey Good to see you. It's been a while. It's been a while. ah It has been a while. All right. Do you guys like Iron Maiden?
00:01:28
Speaker
I've heard a few songs. Given that you're both in Iron Maiden shirts and Jaya can see all the records in your background, I think yeah you would like Iron Maiden. Fun fact, Yanko and I actually bonded really early in our friendship over Iron Maiden, because I remember you showed me a video that you had cut together of Karma Get In 2 with the soundtrack to The Troopa. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how I originally got introduced to Iron Maiden. Yeah, I borrowed ah the Carmen Gedding game for one of my uncles. It was extremely violent
Concert Experiences and Tier List Introduction
00:02:01
Speaker
at the time and best graphics ever back in the frickin' 90s, of course. and and And it played in the background. I was just like, the hell is this band? It's like, it just, everything about it was just so awesome, like running over people that fit so well, you know, crashing into cars. And it was great. it was um
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah, Man on the Edge, um The Trooper, and Ace is High. I think we could be dead within it as well. Did it have the lyrics or were they just instrumentals? No, it was the proper songs. Like the full songs, yeah. Yeah. It was pretty crazy. yeah Say right over people to, you take my life but I'll take his too. Yeah, perfect. yeah like There's no better better track for it. um What's your relationship with Iron Maiden, Jay?
00:02:47
Speaker
How did you get into them? That's interesting, because I've been listening to them since high school. And I think it was just one of those natural progressions of, you know, I watched wrestling, I heard Enter Seaman for the first time. I was like, what's that type of music? I got into Metallica. So Finding Iron Maiden, I can't pinpoint the exact time. It definitely was the number of the beast album, though. ah And it was just kind of one of those things. You kind of fall in love with it. And my my dad and I really bonded over that. Dad took me to see my first Iron Man concert with my brother.
00:03:14
Speaker
And he he just fell in love after they came out for the somewhere in time tour or somewhere back in time tour. yeah I'm not that old. oh ah But after him seeing the trooper live, funny enough, the trooper once again and Bruce running around flying that flag. My dad's been in awe ever since. So ah yeah yeah, we've bonded over it and I know you two as well. I don't know who's seen Iron Maiden the most out of us. I think we're all tied in some sort of way, aren't we? I think the upcoming tour, so as of the podcast releasing this week, Iron Maiden are actually coming back to Australia after what, like seven or eight years? Eight years, yeah. Eight years since they've last been here. yeah yeah So all three of us going to the show, we're super excited, which is why we are doing a tier list of all of Iron Maiden's albums.
00:03:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's a tea list and a ranking in one. So this could be controversial for some people. I know that all three of us will probably have some pretty strong opinions with it. But that is what it's going to be. And yeah, I think I've seen them three times. This will be the fourth time younger. I think you're the same guy. You're the same if you've seen them at Värken as well. So you've got the leg up on that. Yeah, yeah I saw them at Värken stuck in the mud. But you hear that Blade Runner theme play over the speaker and then to hear ah caught somewhere in time blasting. Oh, you guys, i I just got goosebumps. You guys are going to experience that in literally 16 days. Not like I'm counting, but 16 days. This doesn't come out until
Ranking Early Era Albums
00:04:41
Speaker
later. off Yeah. Eight days. You will certainly see it. Yes. You will see it in a lot of days. were we're We're Australian. We're in the future anyway. They just don't know how far.
00:04:54
Speaker
yeah yeah So with that in mind, we're going to be putting together an RT list of Iron Raiders albums and ranking them as well. Gentlemen, where do we want to start? Where do we want to start placing these albums? Who's got a suggestion? Should we go in?
00:05:10
Speaker
like discography order, like from first album? Yeah, let's do that. We can have a bit of discussion, then we can have the nightmare task of arranging them at the end because I've got some hills I'm going to run to die on that you might not be happy with. So I'm looking forward to this being a pain. I think Drew stopped sharing the little screen. So we're in the dark now, which is fun. Oh, okay. There green our mary there yeah here we go. All right.
00:05:37
Speaker
So, Iron Maiden. I think that's a C tier album, to be honest. Are you going to look at um songs or just what we know of the album? We can we can definitely look at songs and like discuss some different tracks on it. Might pull up Spotify here.
00:05:58
Speaker
look it's funny because i thought this this is going to be controversial right off the bat i'm sure other people are like nah and if you turn the podcast off already you haven't heard me say this but if you're still listening uh We are in our 30s. It is a bit different. To me, at least Iron Maiden is the voice of Bruce Dickinson. Don't get me wrong, there are some cool songs on some of these albums that don't feature Bruce. I don't know, I just, I feel, Iron Maiden's very raw and it's very cool in its own little way. But to me, if that's what the bands sound like for the whole discography, I probably wouldn't listen to them as often as I do. In fact, I'd probably be one of those bands where I'm like, I know five songs.
00:06:36
Speaker
Like take it and leave it on that one. Yeah. Yeah. It really, it really could be like that. I think I agree there with, to me, Iron Maiden very much is Bruce. And that's not to say the Paul wasn't great, but it had to be more of a punky energy to it yeah um at the time. yeah And I mean, if you're looking at tracks, there are some absolute
Debating Mid-Era Albums
00:06:56
Speaker
banging tracks on there. Like Phantom of the Opera, I still think holds up as one of the best Iron Maiden songs. But I kind of prefer Bruce singing it as well. Yes.
00:07:05
Speaker
So to me, I think this falls squarely in the middle of you know sort of quality of Iron Maiden personally. So I would say C tier. I'm happy to go B tier though. It just depends what you guys think.
00:07:20
Speaker
Well, look, we're going to be chucking stuff around. I'm happy for you to sit and see at the moment. We don't have anything else up there. And by the way, we're comparing Iron Man to Iron Maiden here, guys. so if you like What are you thinking? It's like, you've got to compare Iron Man to Iron Maiden. We're not comparing on anyone else. It's comparing a whole bunch of 9 out of 10 and 10 out of 10s, to be honest. Like, that's that's really what it is, because everything is so fantastic. So then if we move on to Killers, do you feel like Killers sort of stepped it up from the self-titled album, or do you think it kind of sat around the same?
00:07:54
Speaker
killer look Look, it's got cooler artwork, I'll say that. agree But it didn't it didn't have anything like Phantom of the Opera on it. What have we got on Killers? I don't know, it's one of those ones, man, where I'm like, Killers, yeah, Raft Child's awesome.
00:08:13
Speaker
Power guitar is all right. yeah I kind of agree. like It felt like it didn't have to me at least the impact that Iron Maiden did. And especially if you think of like the cultural impact of when it originally came out, hearing Iron Maiden for the first time, the actual song Iron Maiden for the first time would have been insane. This feels like a bit more of the same. So to me personally, I kind of rank it, I'd say it's still a C tier album, but I think it ranks slightly lower than Iron Maiden.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, I can agree with that. And so far, we're all agreeing so far. This is going to change because we're going to get to the stuff we're more in tune with. And I've got some opinions that some people might not like. So, yeah let's see. So, up next, we have...
00:08:59
Speaker
Probably, I'd say the most popular I have made and now, but the most well-known, the one that cause riots in the streets and people burning copies of it everywhere, which to me is insane and yep in number of the best. Fellas, thoughts? On that, before you start, people always go, oh, this generation's too soft. You guys in the 70s used to march in the street because people had long fucking hair and they listened to metal music. You listen to this compared to cannibal corps? Grow up.
00:09:28
Speaker
Everyone's always been soft all along. No one's special. We're all stupid. Anyway. Very well said. that All the snowflakes in the 80s going, oh, it's going to convert my child to Satanism. Ah! No. It's going to convert your child to heavy metal. Yes. right Honestly, I think this is a solid A2.
00:09:51
Speaker
It's a very good album, yes. So good songs on it. ah jar like I don't think there's a bad song necessarily on it. And if you look at like individual songs, Hallowed be thy name, I think is the most quintessential Iron Maiden song there is. So that at the very least owns 80, if not S tier, because that is a song that I use to introduce people Iron Maiden because it tells everything that the band is about. It's just like, it's just like a story. It's just everything. It's just, it's
Albums Post-2000 Discussion
00:10:19
Speaker
like one of their like,
00:10:20
Speaker
First like fucking story songs. Yeah, they always have like one of those epics. I think is the word I I think fan of the opera would counts the first but that's based on a story that already exists when hello be thy name I think with something new that's I'm assuming Steve Harris Ari wrote it because you know writes everything. But yeah, I've got a feeling that was kind of the first big one from start to finish that really, I don't know, it just still holds up. It just holds up. 100%. Yeah, hundred percent and I 100% agree. And are we thinking AT or are we thinking ST here?
00:10:55
Speaker
i I wouldn't be mad at putting it in ST at all. Don't get me wrong. And some people might get angry going, it's definitely an ST. There are some weaker tracks on it, but I don't know. It couldn't move back down to A. But you'd mentioned Hello B though. Now M plus, I think everyone's parents knows Run to the Hill. Like that had such a big impact on everyone. And it's kind of like, it was their mainstream kind of crossover. And it's such a banger of some life too. So it's just one of those ones where you kind of go, yeah, I don't know.
00:11:25
Speaker
Put it up there for now. All right. We've got it in STF for now. So then that moves us all on to peace of mind. I think all three of us would agree the trooper is probably one of our favorite tracks. And as we mentioned earlier.
00:11:38
Speaker
Probably the song that got us into Iron Maiden. It i think seems like a ah uniting song across the front, The Trooper. It really is one of those songs. And I mean, the album as a whole has heaps of bangers, Wear Eagles Dare, Revelations, Flight of Icarus, Die With Your Boots song. Like, quest for flight. I'm going to disagree with you there. I feel like the first half of the album is fantastic, but then after The Trooper, which is the fifth out of nine tracks, the album kind of falls off to me. So that To me, I like Steel Life, but actually I really like Steel Life. True. Steel Life actually yeah is a pretty good song. I will. I will quite right with that. But to me, it's also doesn't hit the heights of the earlier songs.
00:12:22
Speaker
Yes. So while I think this is a fantastic album, I personally don't think it's an STR album. I would agree. um I was actually given a spin earlier at today just to catch, for like, just a refresher. And it's yeah, it definitely kind of sits in that A category, but it does. I think it ends well. I think entertainment lands a great ending. Yes. ah But it is one of those albums that Well, the trooper is the big pickup and then putting a dead bang at number five was probably the smartest thing you could do if you, you know, listen to the vinyls back in the 80s. But I think, yeah, after that, still life is good, don't get me wrong, but that questifier comes in, you're kind of like, yeah, what the hell are they talking about? All right, so we're thinking, we're thinking ATA for this one for now.
00:13:06
Speaker
For now, yeah. Yeah, for now, yeah. Cool. And as we know, things can change. But I think something that isn't going to change is how great of an album Power Slave is. My God. Yeah. Yeah. This is, um, I think Power Slave, it goes in two ways with a lot of people, because some people fell off maiden completely after Power Slave. Of course, they went with these big long epics and a lot of songs like Power Slave, Rhyme and the Ancient Mariner. You've got the classics like, you know, Ace is High, Two Minutes and Midnight. So it is one of those albums that it's just so Like it's just, it's so metal to me. yeah And strike me down if you want to, but I always thought why wasn't power slave talked about as kind of like the saving grace of metal instead of master of puppets.
00:13:48
Speaker
e i Just looking at the song Power Slave itself, it again, it's not another one of those quintessential songs that really has everything that you could want out of a Maiden track in it. It's got the beautiful soft parts. Steve Harris's bass solo is fantastic. You have the amazing guitar solos of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. The drumming from Nico, the vocals from Bruce, like everything about that song and about this entire album really feels amazing. And it's kind of a contrast, I think a bit to
00:14:19
Speaker
piece of mind where the album ends stronger because you do have that one two punch power slave and then rhyme at the end. So to me, this definitely falls at the very least in A tier, if not heading into an S tier a bit weak in the middle. I know Jai, you're a bit of a connoisseur of Flash of the Blade. I think Flash of the Blade is an awesome song. Everyone I know hates it. I love that song. I love that song. I don't know why. It is corny. The vocals are an interesting choice. The the guitar riff is awesome, but I don't know. It's like they put so much cheese in the song, for me it canceled itself out. But I must be the only one in history that thinks that because I'm the only person that fucking says it. Maybe I'm lactose intolerant and I can't handle the cheese. Yeah.
00:15:04
Speaker
So, are we thinking S or are we thinking A for this one? If we've got a number of the Bs in S, I think Douse lays in S. Cool. Now, do we put a head of a number of the Bs? Let's not get a head ourselves. Let's get to the end let's just get end of the two and then pull our hair out at the end when we've got to put them in order. That's the fun part. Alright, fair enough. So then we're moving to somewhere in time, which... oh S.
00:15:34
Speaker
It's a hundred percent S. Like it just goes next question straight away. This is like literally the top tier album. I think like to me, this goes straight into S. There is not a weak song on this album from start to finish. And there will be a lot of old school fans that have seen that we put killers and I made an ECT here and then gone, why are there synths? That's not an instrument. And I do not care.
00:16:01
Speaker
This album is amazing from start to finish. Absolutely fantastic. Hard smash into the S-tier. The option is awesome. Smash. And if you have an opinion on it, I don't want to hear it. I actually do want to hear it just so I can tell you that you're wrong. If you have an opinion, shut up. So then now we move. The opinions are like assholes. Talk to Drew.
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah, apparently. yeah um So then we move to the seventh album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. And this is, I think they just hit two back-to-back, flawless 10 out of 10 albums. Like, if you asked me to choose between Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and Somewhere in Time, that would be like choosing, do I want to chop off my hands or do I want to chop off my feet? Like, I'm going to suffer out of the way. Both albums are absolutely fantastic.
00:16:50
Speaker
And the album art, like the story behind it, it's sort of kind of loosely a concept album around the whole idea of a seven son of a seven son, then you've got the bangers like Moon Child. I'm not the biggest fan of the evil that man do, but it's still like one of the best songs that they've ever put out. You're not a fan of? You're not a fan? I love that song. I think I've just heard it so much that it's kind of like lost a bit of meaning and it's just become medieval Kathmandu like it sounds like it is.
00:17:19
Speaker
Which I know you can't on here once you hear. What about playing with magnets? Do you like that? That's the first time I've heard that. You've ruined it for me. Playing with magnets.
00:17:30
Speaker
Magnets, how do they work? I think this goes straight into S-tier. Yeah, no, I'd agree. I actually, this was another one I listened to today because I haven't sat down listening to it start to finish in such a long time. I forget how well it flows. Yeah. It just flows extremely well. Start to finish. It is an
Finalizing the Album Tier List
00:17:46
Speaker
absolutely fantastic album, which I think is a bit of a stark contrast to No Prayer for the Dying.
00:17:53
Speaker
No proof. And look, let me just say something. All metal got weird when the 90s came around. I think Metallica were one of the old bands that was successful, but even they had to change their sound a bit to be successful because Grunge came in a bit later. Everyone wanted to be a bit different. Metallica kind of rode that wave. And it's hard. They released all these fantastic albums. And I think Burnout was the biggest place like somewhere in time. Bruce didn't even do any lyrics for it because he was so burned out. Adrian took over some of his songs.
00:18:21
Speaker
um So I think it was just one of those things where a lot of the bands of the 80s and the late 70s in their heyday were just getting tired and people weren't necessarily interested in big bright colors anymore and wanted to look grungy. So a lot of it suffered.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think that's a fair take. Look at that, look. Look at the jackets. We're in the 90s now. I know there's double denim somewhere in there. 100% there is double denim, especially if you've seen the Holy Smoke video, which I think wins the award for the best music video I've made and maiden have ever come out with. It is just fantastic.
00:19:00
Speaker
I thought that photo up of Bruce again did they go hey we're taking the photo and Bruce like queued himself up ready to take that photo 20 seconds too early he looks he looks mad man he looks he looks pissed off he really does is is no prayer for the dying detail Let me have a look at the songs. Let's have a look. Holy Smoke's so good. Okay. I love Holy Smoke. First of all, the album starts with Tail Gunner, which in my mind is one of the worst tracks ever started an album on. Yeah. Ever. Tail Gunner is probably my least favorite I had made in song for good reason. It feels bad. It should show itself out. It's not a good starting song. No, not at all. And that's funny because I hear so many people and in there,
00:19:50
Speaker
Praise Tailgunner has been one of the best songs of that album. And I agree with you guys, especially as a starting song, because it kind of falls flat with just the Tailgunner part. I'm like, compared to like, Ace is High or something like that, where there's so much energy. And I, Maiden, would always open, you know, a new album tour with the opening track. And I can only imagine going to see Maiden and Tailgunner be in the opening. It's falling a bit flat. I don't know. I don't know. It's weird. I feel like it would have lost fans at that point. So to me,
00:20:19
Speaker
Is it DT? Is it CT? What are we thinking? I personally would check it in day because I just feel like this was, it's been two years, we need to get an album out. Yeah. Wow, we got our first DT album.
00:20:35
Speaker
There's a reason I don't think they play any songs off their live, like looking at it. It'd be interesting to see when the last time they played anything off this album live was. It feels like bringing your daughter to the slaughter would be the only one that really kind of gets some p play. um But...
00:20:51
Speaker
Again, I still feel like there are stronger, poppier songs. Cause that was a first sort of real commercial success song as well, I believe. It wasn't that a Bruce Dickinson song he was going to write for his solo album anyway. Yes. Yeah, there you go. I believe it was. Now we move marching on in the nineties to fear of the dark. How we, how are we feeling about this? The last album before Bruce and Adrian dipped. Oh yeah, yeah that's right. Yeah. Hmm.
00:21:22
Speaker
i it it's is It's definitely a step up from No Prayer from the Dying. Agreed. Yes. yeah There are some, I'm just looking at it again, there are some bad songs on here, but Be Quick or Be Dead, great song. Fear of the Dark, legendary song.
00:21:36
Speaker
like if this ah If this album was a ah complete D tier, you could still have Fear of the Dark possibly save it enough to bring it up to B tier. Like, yeah Fear of the Dark is that strong. But would you just be my guide and, you know. Wasting love. ranges Yeah. I think the songs on here are good. I don't think any of them, other than Fear of the Dark, really hit the strengths of many of their albums in the 80s.
00:22:04
Speaker
Do I have a weird unpopular opinion to say that I really fucking love childhoods in as a song on this album? Does anyone else hear that? I really like childhoods in. I mean, I like it. I don't like it that much. I don't know, just something about it, like the the tempo of it and stuff like, I don't know, I love it. I'm going to have to go back and listen to it, because this is an album where Yeah, I don't listen to it all the time. And I think if I've got it on the background, childhoods end might just kind of slip away because I always know I'm wasting love. I love how wasting love and I'm looking at Spotify at the moment has 97 million streams because people who are casual fans think it's wasted years. And they've actually that is actually a proven statistic that they think they've gone into it. Wait, that's not the song. And it only gets played up until like the first chorus before they're like, ah, wait, I found the other ones wasting years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:57
Speaker
funny it's funny Funny little thing on that one. So do we feel like this is a B tier album? Because as you mentioned, like, Fear of the Dark, I think bumps it up from something like DT, absolutely immediately. And the other songs are all good. They're all well above average songs. Some leaning, I think, even towards the greater side, even though they don't hit the heights of others. So to me, this is floating between C and B.
00:23:24
Speaker
ah so yeah so i'm out in the middle the two I'm happy for you to sit it in C or B at the moment and then we might rearrange it as things go on. Let's chuck it in B tier for now just to sort of sit there and say see how we feel about it as we march on to B for Blaze.
00:23:42
Speaker
but he if for bla blazing with i always get which of these albums like they are confused but then i have to go it's x factor first because x factor is no yeah it is x factor first because that was the x factor yes ah x for 10 x for 10 exactly yeah virtual 11 oh yeah makes sense yeah what virtual 11 came after the album with the x in it is this is this a today i learned yanko dean He finally got past the number 10 and got to number 11. Wow. I may have dropped out of mass. Wow. But what was the third thing you said?
00:24:28
Speaker
How do you guys rate this compared to something like Iron Maiden or Killers? I kind of agreed. The freaking song was so dark. Look, it's one of those ones, man. it's It's got some good songs on it. I just don't necessarily like Blaze singing them. And it's not a shot against Blaze. He had to fill in for Bruce. and Look, I'm normally the guy that gives everyone a bit of a chance, right? But the fact that Bruce came back to the band and I've heard these songs sung by Bruce has kind of ruined my listening experience. You look at something like Sign of the Cross, which is another one of those grand epics. And Bruce just takes it away yeah um amazingly. Yeah.
00:25:04
Speaker
um And I could say Sign On The Cross is one of the better songs. Like that's a top 20 maiden song for me, Sign On The Cross. I don't know where it would sit in the top 20, but for me, I think Sign On The Cross, especially, I think it's live in Rio, where Bruce is doing it. It's just... Oh, yeah, the Rockin' Rock. I guess so many points for me. It is yeah so fantastic. The song as a whole is just amazing. But I don't think it's enough to bring up the rest of the album. No. The rest of the album feels na mid, to me, to be honest. Yeah.
00:25:35
Speaker
Man on the Edge is good. I don't mind the artwork. I like the kind of claymation style that kind of went for this. It's a bit different
Intense Debate: Best Iron Maiden Album
00:25:40
Speaker
to everything else they've done. I don't know why they went that way. I guess, ah, no, actually it makes a lot of sense. If you think about it, bands like Fear Factory and Tool and all that, we're using claymation with machinery in their artwork around this time. This is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, okay, yeah. Yeah, so I think Nine Inch Now is like all the darker kind of like industrial metal bands we're using claymation along with stuff, especially Tool.
00:26:03
Speaker
So I've got to think maybe the record I was like, oh, bit edgier, it's the X factor, you know? and So I think maybe that's what inspired the artwork a little bit on this one. I wouldn't be surprised at all, actually. um go So are we sitting this in D tier? Yeah, but I've got a feeling it's going to be the stronger of the D tier albums, but it's it's I think it's D tier still. because We'll see. We'll see. I do like Man on the Edge as well. Temporarily, we'll put it ahead of No Prayer for the Dying. um Virtual 11.
00:26:33
Speaker
is here. I miss, I didn't see the album artwork properly. And I was like, wait, that's not Brave New World. I thought it was blue in the background. Tells me how much I know about that song, or about that album in general. I have- We take to the future. We are headset. Oh my god.
00:26:55
Speaker
Do I have the patch on this jacket yet? Oh yeah, there it is. Is it on the patch? Yes, it is. Nice.
00:27:04
Speaker
I think virtual 11 is a slightly stronger album than the X Factor, but not by much personally. All right. I want you right now to go put on the Angel and the Gambler twice in a row and tell me that again. S tier Angel and the Gambler. We don't need a list anymore. Where is S plus tier? Because this is going in.
00:27:31
Speaker
Angel and the Gambler aside, I think it's actually a better album. Like Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, I think is a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. You've got the Clansmen on there as well. You've got Future Real, a nice short song that slaps. To me, it's better than X Factor. It's better than X Factor, but is it worthy of D2 or C2? It's funny. I was so stuck in my ways that X Factor was a better album.
00:27:59
Speaker
because it had Simon Cross. I think Simon Cross is the best song of the Blaze era, but the clans fans right behind it. And then you got to look, don't look to the eyes of the stranger and future. Oh, I can never pronounce that word anyway.
00:28:11
Speaker
Um, they're better than, you know, the second and the third best song on X Factor. And as much as shit, I give the angel and the gambler. Um, it's almost a meme at this point. It's so bad. It's good. and love I think it come, I think it's the second best video that they've done.
00:28:31
Speaker
I talk so much shit about the Angel and the Gambler. The program we're using to record this kicked me out. So I'm sorry, Angel and the Gambler. Fantastic. The app goes into CT. Yeah. All right. We're putting it into CT. Lord and say Angel and the Gambler. So now, the return. I made it as a six piece, finally. The full current lineup. The 2000s era. You have Brave New World.
00:29:01
Speaker
One of my favorite artworks out of all the main stuff, to be honest with you, I love the aesthetic of that. I'm big into the sci-fi stuff. Brave New World, fantastic book. ah It's a shame the series didn't take off. um But yeah, I don't know. From the artwork, you look at that, you're like, cool. I mean, the back was, the artwork was so different to the last ones. And then it opens with the Wicker Man. Like, oh.
00:29:26
Speaker
Oh, what a track. what i I'd argue that's probably one of the best opening tracks of any Iron Maiden album ever. Yeah. i It just gets you straight away. It like really drives and sets up the rest of the album. yeah And I feel like Brave New World as a whole is one of those albums that doesn't really have a weak song. like It definitely has a sort of peak in value where it starts really high and it takes you in kind of a roller coaster and you go through songs like Blood Brothers, which is just an out of this world song, Brave New World itself. yeah Out of the silent planet is great. The thin line between love and hate, my mum loves that song.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah. it's So ah I think it's a great album. This was the first album I actually purchased of theirs. I think it's the first album I purchased two copies of because we broke the disc of one of them. So I needed ah broke the CD case of one of them. So we needed to get a second copy. You're right. Yeah. and This was the first one I bought. It's good. What are we thinking? It's a good album. A tier or S tier.
00:30:39
Speaker
I think it's definitely A. Like you said, there's no weak song and it's got some phenomenal standout tracks. But do I think they stand out as much as something on Power Slave? Probably not, but this is probably the best comeback album you could ever have.
00:30:54
Speaker
i I agree with that. I think it's... I don't think it quite reaches the heights of interesting something like Power Slave or and our The Number of the Beasts, but I think it's solidly up there and it's going to be an interesting conversation to see if it takes peace of mind. Because I really like Brave New World. like Me personally, I would put it up in S. I really like Brave New World as an album.
00:31:22
Speaker
It's not too late. We're still going to shuffle these around at the end. So look, I'm happy for
Future Podcast Topics
00:31:26
Speaker
you to sit it up in S-tier for now. I definitely am. it might It might shift. We don't know once we actually have push comes to shove. Look, we have the benefit of this being a ranked list. So not everything needs to sit. We don't need to have a balance between tiers because I made an legitimately probably do have like seven or eight S-tier albums.
00:31:47
Speaker
that can sit there. And it will be up for me to decide and tell you all which one's the best. In my opinion is law. oh I'd have to listen to him. he's wearing He's wearing a battle vest folks. You need to listen to him. Moving on to Dance of Death. no blush maid and Moving on to Dance of Death, which 100% has an FT artwork to it. Counter argument to that.
00:32:16
Speaker
The Reaper looks great. Everything around the Reaper looks like shit. and it's Honestly, if you you know what, way if you were to look up on in a dictionary or a fucking Wikipedia about like the first AI-generated image... Like you give AI a prompt. I want the Reaper surrounded by a guy in like a fucking like donkey mask or butt naked in a ritual. that That's what would appear. like We want like the weirdest pale orgy of people.
00:32:50
Speaker
surrounded by a badass looking repo. A shameless plug for these guys, but a lot of these patches from all the plug patches, they just released a Dancer Dev patch where, oh look, they removed all the CGI characters. As they should.
00:33:06
Speaker
How can we make it better? Remove everything. know yeah Art aside, I think it's actually another fantastic album. I don't think it reaches ST Heights quite, and I'd almost hesitate even to put it in A2, but it is at the very least a solid B. I want to know your guy's least favorite song on this album because I have a strong take. Least favorite? Yeah.
00:33:31
Speaker
let's I think I know your guys' favourite. You've talked about it before. It's not my favourite. It's one of my favourites of the hour. What's of my favourite? Passchendaele. Yes. Correct. It is also my favourite. Well, I think I like Dance of Death more. I'm not sure. Or Rainmaker. I love Dance of Death. Rainmaker's so good. I fucking love Rainmaker. Wildest dreams. Fun facts about Rainmaker. No one's going to believe me about this. i so You know exactly what I'm going to say. I think we experienced this. so like This has to go in our conspiracy podcast or something at some point because every time
00:34:09
Speaker
I started listening to Rainmaker. It would rain the next day. Yep. During high school. Same thing happened to me. Like literally every single time we had it on, there was a point where we were traveling to uni on the train together. It was a bright sunny day. And then one of us had Rainmaker come on our our iPods, our good old iPods. And then it was raining by like 11 o'clock. Can you boys do me a favor? On the 11th of September, do not listen to Rainmaker.
00:34:38
Speaker
I'm maintenance on the 12th. I am going to the pub to enjoy the new Trooper Bee and it's an outdoor bar. Do not ruin this for me. All right, we will not listen to Rainmaker in your honor. We're not listening to Rainmaker. But if we're looking at Lee's favorite song. Lee's favorite.
00:34:57
Speaker
I feel like you're going to say your favorite is New Frontier. I do like that and that is up there, but that's not my favorite. Your favorite is so good. It is so good. I feel like the weakest song for me is Age of Innocence. That's my favorite song of the hour.
00:35:14
Speaker
and Your opinion is common. People are like, oh, I don't know. There's just something about that chorus that just hits me a bit differently. I love that. I put it on like three times a day when I was, I was like, it finished. I was like, oh, go back and listen to it. You know, you're never too old to be innocent, are we, fellas? It's ah my lease error. I think is, um, gates of tomorrow, I think.
00:35:36
Speaker
I don't, it's okay, I don't really like it, but I'd rather listen to Age of Edisons than Gate to Tomorrow. Fair enough. Gate to Tomorrow is jammed between two good songs, though, so it's an easy, like, palate cleanse when you're, like, paying attention, so it's not bad. This album is very well-paced, actually, I would say. Yeah, I think it's probably one of the best-paced albums. I don't think, again, it reaches the heights of some of the other ones, but I think it's fantastic. I'm actually thinking that, to me, this is A2.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think it is too. F-tier artwork. I think it's, a I do think it's A-tier. It doesn't mean mean it's, it might be an A-minus at the end of the day, yeah but the guitar solos on this one in particular were outstanding. Passion Dial to this date is still probably one of my first guitar solos. And Dance And Dance to Death, yeah. And the riffs, like Rainmaker, do do do do do, there's something different, they never did that. Monster Girl is like one of the heaviest riffs that they've done as well. Like it's,
00:36:34
Speaker
It's a really good mix. And then you have the first time ever using double kick in facing the sand as well. Yeah. So it's, I think, fantastic album. Well-deserving of the AT slot. Yeah. Hey. The AT slot. I just want everyone to know that is what Drew said. So dance to dance. It's your AT slot.
00:36:55
Speaker
I will wear that album out. just say All right. We're going to get merch. Our first merch for this podcast is like, I'm an A tier slut. All right. What are you doing, Matt? It's going to be Drew's face on the Reaper Eddie. That's it. That's our first merch. Surrounded by you as the weird little ghouls.
00:37:15
Speaker
That's cannon that's happening. Speaking of cannons, there is a cannon on the tank on a matter of life or death. This is a, this is probably going to be a controversial opinion to a lot of people, especially y'all old school metal fans. This is a hard 100% SDR album.
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, they, um I don't know what they did. And they're really good at doing stuff in threes. Actually, in the 80s, they did it in five, but they do stuff well in threes. And this album, just every, I'm looking at the playlist right now. Like, for the greater good of so for the greater good of God is my favorite maiden song. I'm not saying it's the best maiden song. It's my favorite maiden song. It just, it has a bit of everything. The the message is fantastic. It's just
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good song. Get your hot and bothered. Get a little hot under the collar there for the greater good of God. it It's just another solid album. Again, I don't think there is a weak song. They do get a bit more experimental with Lord of Light and The Legacy, but yeah, they're still amazing songs. Like Lord of Light is probably one of my favorites off the album. Then you got things like Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, The Pilgrim, The Longest Day, Reincarnation of Benjamin Briggs, Out of the Shadows. Like yeah every song just hits.
00:38:32
Speaker
And I like Different World because it kind of leads you into a false sense of security because it's definitely the poppier song. It's the shortest song in the album. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of like you're hearing some chicken here and you're like, oh, cool. And then you get all these proggy stuff and all these technical things as it goes on. It's like, ah, you gaslit me, you bastard. I think I was just getting really easy to listen to Poppy Maiden now. It is that this issue deceptive.
00:38:54
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Deceptive opening song. i think I think this goes straight in the ass here, and in my opinion it sits above number of the bass, personally. Personally, I think it does too. I think it's just it's just kind of like everything that the old school Maiden fans hate to an extent, because I know a lot of people that don't like Proggy Maiden, yet they like Hallowed Be Thy Name, so it's the Phantom of the Opera, so go figure.
00:39:20
Speaker
But Prog's always kind of been in Ironmane's wheelhouse. I guess this album just had a lot of it, but it didn't come off as wanky either. It came off as like, that was just the place they were. I think right after this, they were doing the Somewhere Back in Time tour. So they're like, cool, we've got all of our new writing energy out in these last three albums. And then they went and did a refresher and then to it for Somewhere Back in Time, which is when we all first saw them as well. Yeah. Yeah. yeah and And that was kind of around the time that I think all of us were getting intimated and like i know i didn't get introduced to them until after a matter of life death came out so it was interesting moving into the next album the final frontier of this is the time where i was intimated and i was anticipating the album coming out so to me there were kind of different expectations on it what are your guys thoughts on this one
00:40:12
Speaker
Let's have a look. I gave it a re-listen to today because it's one of those albums where I think the artwork's really cool. Once again, I'm a big sci-fi guy. I was like, ooh, sci-fi theme stuff. Now, was this the album that came out before Bruce had his tongue cancer or after? Well before. OK, well before. So that was OK. I'm getting ahead of myself. So nothing wrong with Bruce's voice on this. I'm just looking through it all. Like, satellite 15, the final frontier.
00:40:42
Speaker
If you cut that song in half and just have the final frontier, beat the song, that's a good opener. yeah But it takes like four minutes to get into it. So just static. This is where they kind of almost, it feels like they went in the wanky program compared to something like A Matter of Life or Death.
00:40:58
Speaker
And I do like some songs on here. El Dorado Slaps. I will still put El Dorado in a playlist of main songs. El Dorado is good. I like The Talisman. I like Isle of Avalon. like There were quite a few good songs on here. But to me... Yeah, it's not too bad. I was never the biggest fan of Final Frontier.
00:41:19
Speaker
it's it's It's okay. I'm just looking at it now at the tracklist and like honest, I forgot half of the songs existed. And so I looked at the names just now. I'm like, oh yeah, now I remember it sort of things. I remember when I first heard this album, my brothers and I were driving somewhere, I have no idea where, we bought it from a Caltech service station, we put it in.
00:41:41
Speaker
And El Dorado was cool, don't get me wrong. I was like, oh yeah, cool. And then it kept going on. I was like, nothing's kind of sticking to my brain of that's cool. It almost felt like it was, hey, these were the songs we didn't finish for a matter of life and death. Let's try and finish them and get them on an album. Where are we thinking of placing this? Because in my mind, personally, C to B, it feels like.
00:42:07
Speaker
I was going to say D. Really? Yeah, D or C for me. Wow. Okay. yeah I think this is the first time we've actually had a disagreement because to me, being a guitarist, I think this is more a guitar-y album because there was a lot of cool riffs and I remember that. I don't remember the songs necessarily. So I personally would put it in C, but if you guys are saying D,
00:42:31
Speaker
but If you want to put it at the front of D for now when we could talk about a bit later But yeah, I just don't know I just kind of like hmm even when I was put it on today I got up to I was about long and I was like I'm gonna go listen to another album now like Mm-hmm. It couldn't hold my attention to listen to it the whole way through. All right, okay We're getting towards the end of it. We go to album number 16 book of souls sold Now this is one that Before I get into it, this is one that a lot of people on tier lists and ranking lists have in the bottom five albums that I made. Interesting. Yeah, I don't understand that.
00:43:14
Speaker
It feels like it's top five for me to be honest. I absolutely love this album. I adore it. I think it's fantastic. Maybe I'm looking at tracklist now and I'm like, you know what? There are some tracks here that I don't listen to anymore, but there are some tracks I put on all the time. If eternity should fail. I love Speed of Light. Speed of Light is great. The Red and the Black, The Book of Souls, Def or Glory is one of my favorite boppy Iron Man songs.
00:43:41
Speaker
I wish I saw the book of souls tour. I miss that one. Cause I wanted to climb like a monkey and now I'll never get that chance. I can climb like a monkey. It's, I think it's fantastic album. We were making the argument earlier that the Wicker Man may be the strongest opening track of an Iron Maiden album. Now thinking about it, if eternity should fail is probably a stronger track. I love both don't get me wrong, but There's just something special about If Atoning Should Fail, and especially just the operaticness and the stage presence of it. Here is the soul of a man. It really sets the tone for the entire album from not only a musical perspective, but a story perspective as well. It really just gets you into that album. And then you have a song like Empire of the Clouds, which goes,
00:44:36
Speaker
way above anything else I've ever done, 18 minutes long. Fantastic. Honestly, just like, just a dream to see that played live with like an orchestra and stuff yeah backing in them up. It's just like already getting goosebumps, just thinking about it. Just imagine like a huge stadium, them playing that song, the last song you ever hear them play live with a fucking massive orchestra and everything going. oh Man.
00:45:05
Speaker
I think it's a fantastic album. I think it, I don't know why people, maybe it was a bit too long for some people being a double album. I'm saying that the next album is also a double album. Yeah, there are some, I like Tease of a Clown. It's a pretty weak song, but, you know, close connection to Robin Williams. So, yeah you know, I like it. Yeah, I quite like it. Yeah. The guitar work on this is fantastic as well. Like you said, if Eterna Chafal is so good that Bruce even redid it again on his latest solo album. True.
00:45:33
Speaker
It's just, I personally think this album does not deserve the hate it gets. I've seen people put front or front tier above it. I've seen people put the X factor above it before. To me, this is S2. This really is like, maybe you could make an argument for it being an A tier, but to me, it's S tier and I'm gonna. Yeah, it's a safe spot, S tier. Look at us sitting here with seven S tier hand-made albums.
00:46:04
Speaker
Well, I think that might be the last one. but i I feel like that too. Send it to thoughts. You guys go first because I've been listening to this album a lot late recently and I'm the only one to who have seen some of these songs live out of us. So I'll go last.
00:46:22
Speaker
I think it's better than Final Frontier, 100% better than Final Frontier. I'd say it's better than, I personally like it more than something like Killers or Virtual 11.
00:46:36
Speaker
Yep. I reckon it's even better than fear of the dark as well. But to me, it feels like it is a bit of a B tier album. I think on the first listen, I was like, yeah, this is cool. But nothing really, really hooked me other than the time machine. The time machine just, it was an earworm for me and it just got into me. Yep. I feel like you hear hell on earth live. You're going to be blown away. Okay.
00:47:04
Speaker
Yeah, and you haven't heard live and definitely counts is great too. The follow up to you know, the clansmen Days of Huge Fast is a fun little bobby one. The writing on the wall, the more I listen to that song, the more I dig it because it's so different. same song I really like writing on the wall. like I'll like pump that in the car. It's it's a good song in the car. Like I do enjoy that song. I think the album opener Sinjitsu, which is a cool name. I like the the kind of tribal drums they had, but it felt flat as an opener. and Yeah. Why wouldn't riding on the wall wear the opener? I think I would have made a better opener. I think even stra Shatigo would have made a better opener.
00:47:44
Speaker
the time machine would have made a better opener. Like there's a lot of ones I'm just looking at here. I don't know, Sinjitsu, it's got the long detro. Sinjitsu is probably the weakest song on the album for me. Like I appreciate that they tried to do something different and something cool. But to me, it just felt kind of flat and dampened my enthusiasm for the album a bit. And I mean, obviously it picks up a lot later with things like Hell on Earth, Death of the Kelts, Time Machine, Days of Future Past.
00:48:14
Speaker
What's in the Lost World I love as well, writing on the wall. Interesting, you skip parchment and I really fucking love the parchment. Really? has a song I fucking love the parchment as a song. it just because It's just got a vibe that it starts, like it's you get the story vibe from it and it just doesn't end. It just goes through the whole song. it just The whole song has that whole vibe and story to it, which I really enjoy and it keeps me hooked into it. I don't know, I really like the parchment.
00:48:41
Speaker
And when you like listen to it, you get like a mad story mode out of it. And I just really like it. I might have to, honestly, like after the first couple of listens of this album, and I mean, it's come on here and there. I kind of put it down and went back to my old standbys. And I don't think I've given it another chance these days. And maybe with the tour coming up this week, that's probably a good idea to do as well. Same that as well. And maybe this is why I have a bit of memory of it.
00:49:09
Speaker
I remember we talked about it briefly when this album first came out. We thought the keyboards and the synths felt like they weren't properly produced. They sounded a bit cheap in some certain songs. yeah They don't sound like their life.
00:49:23
Speaker
So it's almost like a you know a Metallica with the injustice for all like you can't hear the bass and that really hurts. I will listen to those songs live from the 1988 live version of that album because they kill. ah The lack of bass is noticeable and it dampens that out for me and that's a lot of people's favorite album.
00:49:41
Speaker
and I think the maybe the keys just because they're kind of like they're not good they're not bad they're mid they're midi and it feels like they could have just been if they were a bit warmer and a bit brighter yeah maybe that would have made the world a difference instead of would have bought this warmth and kind of atmosphere to it yeah hands it kind of took me out of it a little little bit it was just kind of feels like that's the keyboards they put in to replace later when they got the guy to come in Yeah, that's what it felt like a bit like they're not horrible and then obviously a past but there's certain songs where I'm kind of like Sanjetsu is one of them where it's like
00:50:20
Speaker
Oh, like, what's, what's going on? There's a couple of times on the song Syngetso too, where it sounds like Bruce is recording in a different room, but he left his mic in this room. You can still hear him, but it sounds like he's battling through a wall. And it's only really on that song and maybe one other. So maybe just, you know, the recording that day, they were just kind of like, ah, well, we're not going to fucking redo it. So. Yeah, quite possibly. I'm thinking.
00:50:48
Speaker
This feels like CT to me, to be honest. Maybe B tier, because like you mentioned, the last three tracks are super strong, and there is some good stuff on there, but I don't find myself- I like it better than everything we've got CT. How about we put in B tier? Yeah, I think B is a good spot for it, yeah. All right, cool. All right, so there we have the list of S tier to D tier.
00:51:16
Speaker
Now we rank and this, this is probably going to be the hard part. Okay. Can we go from bottom to top? and I don't want to go, this is the best. I want to build up to that. Cause that's when the arguments start. We can all just go, yeah, that sucks. You've got to go from there. yeah What is the worst iron made now? Is it no prayer for the dying? I feel like I would take no prayer for the dying over the X factor personally. Yeah.
00:51:44
Speaker
If you had to delete all the songs, they no longer existed on main songs, would you live with yourself with not having a sign of the cross as a song in their discography? No. No. Yeah, when you put it that way. Yeah. Yeah, when you put it that way. Like, Holy Smoke is there for the video, but... That's it. And I like the song Don't Get Me Wrong, yeah but to never hear a song like Sign of the Cross,
00:52:11
Speaker
I just, I just, I can't do it. I can't have that be on the worst time later now. Yeah. All right. So is our D tier staying pretty solid? Like, would you take Final Frontier over X Factor?
00:52:26
Speaker
If X Factor had Bruce's vocals, no. Okay. But it doesn't. X just having a quick look at the track list again. um Do I man on the edge? I don't know, I'm just trying to weigh it up. Man on the edge. It's not on the world's hands, I'm too good. Yeah. Fortunately. I actually like a lot of the flies, so yeah. Look, majority rules in this case. I was not expecting Final Frontier to get that low, personally, but but here we are. Hell's a Ride is still good.
00:53:06
Speaker
Eldorado is still good, and I have a soft spot for Isle of Avalon. I don't know why. I think it's just the probably 7-4 bit that I really love. um So is our D tier saying solid? Are we moving anything in C tier down to D tier? Well, I guess they're not in tiers anymore. They're from 17 to 1 now. This is just our base form.
00:53:25
Speaker
um
00:53:29
Speaker
Yeah, probably virtual 11 is probably next in line. Virtual 11. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Yeah, if if if anything were going to move, it'd be virtual 11. If it was going to move down to T tier. Yeah. I ah think it belongs. I think it's strong enough that it can stay in C tier, to be honest.
00:53:55
Speaker
um But I still think it being the number 17, 16, 15, 14 slot, I think it being the number 14 slot is is the correct choice. Yeah. And it also does have Angel of the Gambler on it. That's enough for it to... I love Angel of the Gambler.
00:54:19
Speaker
yeah i don't think i'm still here you dry am i still here um yeah leave it in c all right so then next killers killers verse iron maiden i think i made is more memorable for me oh say purely on the idea of phantom of the opera i think iron maiden is the stronger album so then that becomes ironadeen first send its What do you guys pick over that? Because to me... I might even bump Iron Maiden up to Above Fear of the Dark too. Because it does have Iron Maiden on it. I do like Remember Tomorrow.
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah, actually... Not like Wrathchild actually. Oh yeah, Wrathchild. Wrathchild's on Killers. Yeah, Killers. Because I think that's the only saving grace for Killers for me because I don't call the artwork. I know a lot of people love it, but that's that raw 70s made in that didn't exist after those two albums. So Iron Man and Killers staying where they are, we're bumping anything down.
00:55:33
Speaker
Does Iron Maiden go above Fear of the Dark? Iron Maiden above Fear of the Dark. That feels wrong to say to me. I'm sure a lot of people would be agreeing. I'm just... I love... Fear of the Dark has got the best song. Fan of the Opera's great. Iron Maiden's great. It'd be weird going to see Iron Maiden without the playing Iron Maiden. Yeah. This is true. Yeah, like I said, I like Remember Tomorrow.
00:56:04
Speaker
Does Iron Maiden go above Senjetsu?
00:56:10
Speaker
I don't think so, no. I don't think so, no. So does Fear of the Dark fall behind? I think so. I think we argued that there were enough strong songs on Senjetsu, like Riding on the Wall, Death of the Celts, Hell on Earth, Time Machine. They're all good songs. Yeah. All right. I think we are solid in the BT here then. yeah So then moving to the AT, Dance of Death vs. Peace of Mind. Dance of Death vs. Peace of Mind, eh? I have a slight argument that Dance of Death is better than Peace of Mind. Yes. Peace of Mind has the trooper.
00:56:50
Speaker
Dense of Death has a whole lot of the good stuff on it. thats deaf here has a fashion though it' like I would put it above it too. like i said i Troop is the best song across the board there. I really do like Die of Your Boots on. I think that's a fun little bop. Revelations Great, Flight of Icarus, We're Eagles Dead. They're all great songs.
00:57:11
Speaker
But I don't necessarily think they're better than Rainmaker or Wildest Dreams or Dance of Death or Passiondale, either. Besides the Trooper. But then they've got Quest of Fire. And like I said, I like Age of Innocence. So, I don't know. My opinion might not be valid anymore. No, I think I agree. I think Dance of Death is above peace of mind. And that's another one that's probably going to piss off the old school fans. Yeah. ah Yeah. i'm glad i think yeah yeah um yeah yeah So now we have the Unenviable task of rank ranking the seven albums we have in S tier. How do we start? It's the question. Does anything move down to A?
00:57:52
Speaker
If I had to pick one to move down to A, honestly, Number of the Beast. It's funny, I was thinking, and you'll hate me for it, I was thinking Book of Souls.
00:58:05
Speaker
not because those songs are bad just there's a couple of tracks on there i just don't put on at all there's songs on number of the beats i don't put on but there's it's got hallowed be like hey oh it's a tough one um the song itself i think is another one of those quintessential iron maiden songs that you could show to somebody to get them into iron maiden yeah how did i don't think you're wrong I think Hallowed Be The Name is the strongest song of the two. I think, personally to me, Book of Souls as an album, I like
00:58:40
Speaker
more i do too because i'm in that part of my life and i like the way it flows i like to change it's got the boppy song like speed of light um it's got the big epic at the end i personally think they did something really special on this album that a lot of people shunned to an extent because yeah nostalgia comes into it as well yeah that's one thing i guess we've got the benefit of raking these amazon a lot of people don't have is we do have nostalgia um but we've also been nostalgic about these albums for so long now that we're kind of willing to accept when new stuff comes out because we were in them at Iron Maiden already when book sales came out so we could have easily have shunned that but yeah, I remember when I first was still going ah That's a big step up from front to front to you because I was worried and maybe Final Frontier was purposely there to fucking set the bar low yeah i don't mean know Quite possibly like I
00:59:31
Speaker
yeah of the true i feel like do you like more than brave new world or do you like brave new i like brand new world better than book of souls i think i like book of souls more than brave new world comes down to me you have the power jack see i like to enter death more than brave new world but not by much so that doesn't matter so i'm happy um i can make peace with that
01:00:02
Speaker
their best song. I don't know, you got The Wicker Man and Brave New World and Blood Brothers. If Terny should fail, oh, death or glory though. I'd probably listen to Book of Souls more.
01:00:17
Speaker
Fair point. But it's so close. It's ridiculous to close. yeah there was ah If there was a hey where I was just like, what has better album art? Brave New World. If that was the tier least way we were doing, or the ranking we were doing, 100% that would be it.
01:00:33
Speaker
um So then we've got Power Slave, first Book of Souls. To me, I love Book of Souls. I think Power Slaves is the better one. Yeah, i so I was gonna have an aneurysm if you said that. was like but but But Ace is high in Power Slave and Rotten Age of Mariner in two minutes to midnight in Flash of the Blade. You'll never get me in Flash of the Blade. I think that that belongs there. I think it belongs above Number of the Beast.
01:01:03
Speaker
We're already debating in pushing Number of the Beasts down. I think Power Slave was a step up. Number of the Beasts. Does Number of the Beasts sit at the end of S tier or does it go into A tier? ah
01:01:16
Speaker
No, I think with the impact it had, but don't forget, you're probably sick of listening to it, but a lot of people love Run to the Hills and numbers of these. This is true. I really like The Prisoner and Children of the Damned. I think we've skipped over that the whole time we've talked. I love Children of the Damned. It's a fantastic song. Absolutely amazing song. Yeah, Worthy. It's an S here, for sure. But I think there's a lot of nostalgia to it because it was what it was.
01:01:44
Speaker
Power slave, first time I'm allowed. I know what I want to say, but I will surrender my time over to Yanko to go first. Power slave versus a matter of life or death. Let's have a look. I just need to refresh myself.
01:02:02
Speaker
um
01:02:04
Speaker
I don't know, I think.
01:02:12
Speaker
A couple of songs I like on AMOLED that I enjoy, but there's something about Power Slave. Yeah, yeah even even with For the Greater Good of God, i can't you can't have Ace's High in Power Slave on the same album and go...
01:02:29
Speaker
AMOLAD's better, unfortunately. I think both are fantastic, 10 out of 10 albums. I think Power Slave reaches slightly higher heights with its best songs than AMOLAD does. I'd argue AMOLAD is the better overall album of the two, but Power Slave just, it has another level to it.
01:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, it really kind of changed. It kind of changed Main's direction because the number of the beast was half what they were going to do in the future and half what they were doing beforehand. And Peace of Mind was still kind of in that. They kind of dropped the epics a bit. You're like, Revelations, I guess, but it wasn't as good as Hello. But then they came back with Power of Slave and you had Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and you had Power of Slave and they're like, hey, we can do these big fucking cool songs and them rock. So yeah, you have to put Power of Slave.
01:03:19
Speaker
Power Slave might keep moving up I don't know. So we've got our top three. Top three. Top three and I think we're all in agreement that these three albums belong in the top three. They're good albums. They're Power Slave, Seven Son of a Seven Son and Somewhere in Time. How do we place these? I think this is probably the hardest choice because I think each album, especially Somewhere in Time and Seven Son,
01:03:49
Speaker
flawless albums. Each album looks like their artwork. Yeah, yeah. True, yeah. It's this weird association thing where it's like, that is 100% Power Slave. It has that aesthetic, musically, for each of them. Power and Slave, yeah.
01:04:07
Speaker
Um, I don't know. It's hard. Like I love seven son to seven son and you got some awesome songs like Allie loves can I play with madness? You know if for the evil that man do they're two of the hey these are a bit more for the casual radio play type things Yeah, you got stuff like moon child. Uh, um, Bloody blank and what else is on there almost said heaven can wait but it's somewhere in time um Well, in the good day, the prophecy, of the clairvoyant, the evil, the men do infinite infinite dreams. Yeah, infinite dreams is the one I was thinking of. But I don't, I still don't know if it's better than power slave. I don't know if it has a power slave or a rhyme in the ancient mariner and it certainly doesn't have an ace as high.
01:04:52
Speaker
Nah, me personally, I'd put power slave above. See, coming into this, I thought Somewhere in Time and Seven Son and Seven Son were gonna be the top two, like, bar none. I think, I mean, agreements with the, again, the highs of Power Slave just overtake.
01:05:16
Speaker
yeah Would I take Power Slave as Seven Son or Seven Son? The song looks alone. They're both fantastic songs, but think I think I'd take Power Slave, so. Power slave's moving up. Yeah. Yeah. I'd, I'd listen to power slave over seven ton as a song. A real like power slave. We reach the final decision lads. Yeah. passion next question it Do we think power slave is better than somewhere in time? I know Jaya, you and I have talked about this before where somewhere in time is
01:05:54
Speaker
I think by far the most flawless album Iron Maiden have ever done. But is that enough to keep it above the strength of PowerSlave?
01:06:07
Speaker
It has Alexander the Great, and I think that got looked over for so long. Because when you talk about epics, closing the album, yeah at least Summer and Time has the epic that can rival the end of Power of Slate, where these other albums didn't, Halo Bear, by name being the last song on, you know, number, yeah, different story.
01:06:26
Speaker
when it comes to the end, and they come in with Alexander the Great, yeah and that guitar solo, everything about it. And actually, the guitar solo is galore in this album, Caught Summer in Time. yeah The bass in Strangers with Strangeland is so different. yeah It feels sci-fi. Like I said, Power Slave feels like it's based around this old, like, mythology, or old tales like the ancient mariner is, and Power Slave, the Egyptians, and the power sh struggle. With Summer in Time,
01:06:53
Speaker
does feel like an 80s sci-fi or like even wasted years feels like it could be in a horny action sci-fi film from the end. I think Sea of Madness is one of the most underrated I song series. I absolutely love that song. hey um And I'd argue that's where the cows come home. I think I love both albums dearly, but I feel like it's somewhere in time has it.
01:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too, because I'm thinking about it right now. And I'm like, what earworms do I instantly have? Because this whole time we've been doing this power playlist, I've been going, tell me why I have to be a power slave. But now net we're talking about go somewhere. Somewhere. Oh, it's not even that. I'm sitting here going, far from the east.
01:07:41
Speaker
like There's so many earworms in these good tracks. Both of them are so good. And I think it has to be somewhere in time because they didn't do anything, and not that they really did it again with Power Slave either, but both, actually both these albums feel like they're these albums, those songs you're not, you're not mistaken.
01:08:02
Speaker
and say it anything else ah yeah mistake like I look at, say something like, let's go. ah Some songs on AMOLED could have been on Book of Souls. Some songs on Senjitsu could have been, you know, on Book of Souls as well. Dance Death and Brave World, you probably could have just chopped them back and forth to each other to make a different album.
01:08:22
Speaker
yeah yeah But with Power, so and them being back to back too, that's a huge point. Back to back, even 7 to 7, they're all very different to each other, and I think that's why they stand out so well, because it was like 10 out of 10 hours, 10 out of 10 hours, 10 out of 10 hours, and that all felt like Iron Maiden, and they all sounded different.
01:08:40
Speaker
Yes, they all had their own, like, uniqueness, their own story, their own flow and everything. So, yeah, you like you were saying before, you know, you wouldn't expect Alex... In a way, Alex sounds a great, quite a fit power slave, because, like, you know, there's an ancient history. Ancient history. Ancient history might kind of could go into somewhere in time as well on that flip side. But they also don't feel out of place, though, either. Yeah. Yeah.
01:09:07
Speaker
Did you think that? I think Summer in Time has it, so... ah we Summer in Time is just so good. We think it's the best Iron Maiden. Yeah. I think that Summer in Time is the best Iron Maiden album. Yes. This is a cheeky way of just us plugging the Days of Future Past tour. We're actually sponsored by Iron Maiden. We're not sponsored by Iron Maiden. We're not sponsored by Iron Maiden. We don't have any sponsors, but if you do want to reach out, especially if you have a Raid Shadow Legend sponsorship, we would love to hear it. We want all the sponsorships.
01:09:38
Speaker
I think we've come up with a good list here. yeah I know there's going to be some controversy around it, especially with some of the older albums. But yeah that's the whole point. This is an opinion base. This is what we think. And we'd love to hear what other people think as well. If you have any hot takes on any of these albums, anything that you think should have been higher or lower, we'd love to hear it. So there will be comments section in the YouTube video. Subscribe to the podcast, do all the cool things that you normally do, to things online that you like. And we'd love to hear your opinions.
01:10:06
Speaker
A lot of the things online I like, I have to put it in a secret tab. But anyway, that's neither here or there. Elite browser history. You don't use incognito mode, Yoko? What the hell is wrong with you? Incognito mode? He still uses best and less catalogs. It's the easiest catalog. That has been us for the first episode of the Nerdflow. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, we'd love all kinds of feedback for this. We'll be back every week with other topics.
01:10:36
Speaker
covering a whole range of shit, not just metal. I think next week it's possibly something to do with games or maybe even a snack key list of iconic Australian snacks. There's a whole lot of stuff that we're going to cover because we're a bunch of idiots who love a whole lot of different stuff and we love talking about it and debating it. So and get a little more of that guys, so closing remarks.
01:10:55
Speaker
Well, hopefully one day my secret websites will make a T-list because I can't wait to get down to that. That is going to be fun. um I would like to do that one alone, please. And we will do that. If you want to see that one, you comment down below. We'll have a secret Patreon or a site that is only for fans, potentially. to um And we can upload many vids to it.
01:11:21
Speaker
Oh, the uncensored versions. Yes. Got to subscribe to our Patreon for the uncensored podcast, Wig Wig. Yanko closing remarks. ah That was fun. I enjoyed it. Hope you guys had fun too. So definitely look forward to our ah next podcast and discussion that we do. So, hope you guys enjoyed it as well.
01:11:45
Speaker
And look, this is the first one as well. So it's going to get better over time. It's going to get better over time. At least that's what I kept telling myself when it came to the secret websites type of stuff. It will get better over time. The more we do it, the more we do it. so ah yeah And if you want an A tier slot shirt, let us know because we will make it and we will happily shell out and sell you things straight away. i I'm not above commercialism. why not Give me money. Give us money. Help us do this thing that we love.
01:12:14
Speaker
All right, until next time guys, that was fun. You have watched the nerd flow. horr like