Rate the studio albums....after back in the day (1990-present)

Iron Maiden vs  Saxon
 
Maiden
 
No Prayer For The Dying
Fear Of The Dark
The X Factor
Virtual XI
Brave New World
Dance Of Death
A Matter Of Life And Death
The Final Frontier
 
Saxon
 
Solid Ball Of Rock
Forever Free
Dogs Of War
Unleash The Beast
Metalhead
Killing Ground
Lionheart
The Inner Sanctum
Call To Arms
Sacrafice
 
In your opinion, which is better overall

Maiden! While the 90's output was not their best work (their are some great songs csattered among those releases, you could get two good albums out of the 4 they released), the post-reunion albums are every bit as good as the first seven classics.

I only own a couple of Saxon's latter-era albums... not enough to base a vote on, so I'll just say that I've always preferred Maiden overall.

Saxon. They have been releasing consistenly good to great albums since 1990. That run of albums is probably better than their classic material.

Maiden's output in that period consists of 2 tired sounding Bruce albums, the Blaze abominations and post-reunion borefests, chock full of old man prog wankery. Lame.

X-Factor is much better than most people say.  Even Virtual XI had a few really good songs.

But I agree about the reunion albums.  They stink. (Maybe because Adrian wrote most of them?)

I voted.

Iron Maiden by default. I only have Metalhead and Killing Ground (both are excellent) but that's not enough to base a vote. Iron Maiden on the other hand, I own everything but the Blaze albums so with more material to go by, I'll give them the nod.

Both are damn good in my opinion. I give it to Iron Maiden though but much love to Saxon as well.

I'll just say that I'd count the "back in the day" period up to '92-3 or so. But then, I'm a dumb youngster, so what do I know.

Anyway, I'll go with Maiden here, although Saxon are not too far away. Might as well be the only two NWOBHM bands to have had both quality and quantity since the movement faded out.

Like 'em both. Went with Saxon as I think their newer catalog overall is stronger.

No comparison, especially from the new century onward.    Saxon

I went with Iron Maiden, mainly because I loved their later day reunion albums so much, but I have to say Saxon has been on a hot streak since the early 90's.

I voted Maiden: it's a fairly close call, but I think nostalgia for the first time I heard the opening three tracks on Brave New World make my decision.

What Joker said.

Maiden. I don't like Saxon much at all.

Temple of Blood wrote:

(Maybe because Adrian wrote most of them?)

For what it's worth, here are the number of writing credits for each of the post-reunion albums

Brave New World (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 4
Gers: 4
Murray: 3
Smith: 2

Dance of Death (11 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 6
Smith: 5
Gers: 3
Murray: 2
McBrain: 1

A Matter of Life and Death (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 5
Smith: 5
Gers: 2
Murray: 1

The Final Frontier (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Smith: 6
Dickinson: 4
Gers: 2
Murray: 1

Maiden. Never really got into Saxon.

Wow, some strong words regarding the post reunion iron maiden albums. I think they've all been excellent and I thought that was also the general opinion as maiden seem bigger than ever these days. This was a tough choice as I love saxon and their recent output gas been excellent. Went with Maiden simply because I listen to the last few Maiden albums a lit more than the saxon ones.

ultmetal wrote:

Like 'em both. Went with Saxon as I think their newer catalog overall is stronger.

Same here. Recent saxon releases are simply awesome.

Saxon. I count four perfect 10/10 albums (Unleash the Beast, Lionheart, Inner Sanctum, Sacrifice), and  a bunch of other real good ones. Maiden is kind of all over the place in this time period ('No Prayer' and the Virtual XI being the biggest failures), but they have some true highlights here too like A Matter of Life and Death. Still, not enough quantity or quality to match the incredible streak Saxon has been on.

Citanul wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

(Maybe because Adrian wrote most of them?)

For what it's worth, here are the number of writing credits for each of the post-reunion albums

Brave New World (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 4
Gers: 4
Murray: 3
Smith: 2

Dance of Death (11 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 6
Smith: 5
Gers: 3
Murray: 2
McBrain: 1

A Matter of Life and Death (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Dickinson: 5
Smith: 5
Gers: 2
Murray: 1

The Final Frontier (10 songs)
Harris: 10
Smith: 6
Dickinson: 4
Gers: 2
Murray: 1

So it's all Harris' fault. That explains British Lion.

As much as I love Maiden I have to go with Saxon. I think they've just been on a more consistent streak overall.

I voted Saxon, they have better overall albums, whereas Iron Maiden have lost my liking since after Dance of the Death. Though Iron Maiden have stronger early albums, they cease to be consistent of late.

Maiden
 
No Prayer For The Dying   
Fear Of The Dark   
The X Factor   
Virtual XI   
Brave New World   
Dance Of Death   
A Matter Of Life And Death   
The Final Frontier     
 
Saxon   
 
Solid Ball Of Rock
Forever Free
Dogs Of War
Unleash The Beast
Metalhead
Killing Ground
Lionheart
The Inner Sanctum
Call To Arms
Sacrafice