Best Paul Di'Anno (outside of Maiden)

What do you think is the best Di'Anno albums, outside the two he recorded with Iron Maiden?

Paul d'ianno's Battlezone by far IMO were the best material he recorded after Iron Maiden, sadly since this time, he has turned into a tribute act to his own Iron Maiden past.

I owned Menace to Society at one time, but didn't think much of it. From what I can recall, he was trying to sound all hardcore tough guy and it came off sounding rather silly.

Never heard anything else outside of Maiden.

I will also chime in his Battlezone material. The first two at least, as I never got around to hearing the third. I thought the stuff they came up with was very solid and I remember playing my tapes to death.
I own a live "Killers" double cd called New Live Rare that I bought for like under 10 bucks years ago, but cannot remember much about it as I have not played it in over 10 years and at the moment am not very sure where it is. Perhaps telling me how much I liked it.

I'd go with Battlezone's Children Of Madness. Those first two Battlezone's are very good. The third I thought was just okay. Didn't love it or hate it. It was like Metalguy said about Menace, "trying to sound all hardcore tough guy".

jstate wrote:

Those first two Battlezone's are very good.

I'd have to say the Battlezone stuff. The Nomad album he did a couple years back is pretty good. As far as his Killers band Murder One is pretty good. While the Menace To Society disc is Paul trying to sound like Pantera.

Fighting Back and Children Of Madness are the best along with the first Killers album. When he started to sound "modern" I lost interest though. I love his voice, but the music just wasn't there.

I really enjoy the Battlezone stuff myself, especially "Children Of Madness", I still listen to that one quite a bit. Believe I will crank that one on the way to work in the morning.

The Land God Gave To Cain I am trying to get both Battlezone albums.

"The Land God Gave to Cain" is a really good song.

I haven't heard all of his post-Maiden albums, but I have Battlezone's Fighting Back and Killers - Murder One. I like Murder One the better of the two. I've sampled some of his other albums and nothing really grabs me. A shame because I really love his voice and his time in Maiden.

When he was in jail......

I don't think I've ever actually heard much of Paul's non-Maiden stuff. Maybe one or two tracks here and there but never enough to form an opinion.

The only "post-Maiden" disc I've owned of his was still Maiden related -- it was a horribly cheap Maiden Tribute album called THE NUMBER ONE BEAST, in which Paul and a bunch of other NWOBHM leftovers covered Maiden songs. It was like Paul decided to throw an Iron Maiden karaoke party and invited all of his unemployed friends over to help out. Awful!

Fat Freddy wrote:

I don't think I've ever actually heard much of Paul's non-Maiden stuff. Maybe one or two tracks here and there but never enough to form an opinion.

You've heard more than I have.

The Gogmagog EP is pretty cool too. If nothing else, its lineup is a bit ironic.

Absolutely love Murder one by Killers, thought that was a great slice of Maiden/Priest tinged metal and Pauls voice was in great shape. Shame he ruined all the good will with the follow up menace to society, rubbish album with none of the charm of it's predecessor.

I also picked up an album a few years back called the living dead by DIANNO. Not a bad album, think it was released around 2006 ish I'll check. The title song living dead is superb and I think theirs a couple of re recorded versions of songs from the old DIANNO days. I believe this was the name of Pauls band after maiden and before battlezone.

I've got a live album with him covering maiden songs which sounds pretty good.

Always liked his voice and one of my prized musical possessions amongst the mountains of maiden stuff I have is the Japanese release of maiden Japan. We get an EP with about 4 tracks on they get a full live concert and to my ears it's the best live recording I've ever found of maiden with di'anno.

Children of Madness

Saw a copy of Murder One by Killers in the used bins the other night. Worth picking up?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Saw a copy of Murder One by Killers in the used bins the other night. Worth picking up?

It's worth it.

If I get back to the mall and it's still there, I'll probably grab it. I previewed a few tracks on YouTube. And it's not an album that shows up in the used section very often these days. I think it was only $3 or $4 bucks.

I've not heard much but Children of Madness was pretty good in parts.

Unfortunately, none. Gogmagog was honestly the worst idea ever conceived at that time.

Painkiller wrote:

Unfortunately, none. Gogmagog was honestly the worst idea ever conceived at that time.

The idea was great! The execution sucked!

Agreed. The grouping of the musicians made the project seem interesting, but everything else was just bad. I'm glad that EP never went anywhere.

The Gogmagog EP is quite good, actually. Maybe a silly idea on paper, but those three tunes are good. The only other pre/post-Maiden Di'Anno album I have is Killers' Menace to Society, which I also think is very good.