Number of the Beast Iron Maiden's most overhyped album.

007 wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

The Longest Day

Yes. One of my favorites off the newer albums.

Thirded!

I love it. Truly a great album from top to bottom. That being said - I like Somewhere In Time the most.

Overhyped? Eh, not really, it's just the populist choice and the go to for people who aren't really into Maiden. An essential album, but not my favorite or their best. It was written in a bit of a rush, and doesn't flow 100% in some places. The only song I actually dislike on the record is Invaders though, the rest is great.

number of the beast is the only maiden album still missing from my collection. simply because the only few songs I like are already on one of the maiden compilations I got.

S.D. wrote:

 Go back and listen to the self-titled and Killers and you'll find lots of little moments.  

This! They lost that slightly proggy element when Bruce came on board and I think that's a shame. I haven't listened to the new stuff enough to have any real opinion, but I thinkthat you would be hard pressed to find anything with as much prog in it as this.




One of my favorite Maiden songs of all time

Boris2008 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

 Go back and listen to the self-titled and Killers and you'll find lots of little moments.  

This! They lost that slightly proggy element when Bruce came on board and I think that's a shame. I haven't listened to the new stuff enough to have any real opinion, but I thinkthat you would be hard pressed to find anything with as much prog in it as this.




One of my favorite Maiden songs of all time

Since you aren't as familiar with the newer stuff, here's a lesson with proggy elements:

Number of the beast is a stone classic that should be part of anyones metal collection. All opinions i know but to me there will always be some albums that are just so good that they define metal and beast is one of them alongside albums like rust in peace, painkiller, paranoid, master of puppets, reign in blood and many others.

The most over rated maiden album in my opinion is somewhere in time. That gets a lot of love on this board and whilst its a very good album i will never understand when people claim its their favourite maiden album. It came about at a time when a lot of british bands were chasing the american dollar and bands like priest and saxon and one or two others were going through their most commercial phase. Ironic when american bands were getting heavier and bands like slayer, metallica and megadeth and a host of others were releasing some of their best stuff.

Yeah, I agree that SiT is overrated as well. Not to say it doesn't have some great songs on it though. And perhaps their greatest album cover?

Somewhere In Time is my favorite Maiden album...

Somewhere In Time is probably the 80s Iron Maiden album (with Bruce) I listen to the most these days. It's not quite as overplayed as some of the others and I think the songwriting stands up well. The synth sound is a little dated but it's mostly just atmospheric background so doesn't have much of a negative impact. I think it's packed with good songs, my personal favorite being The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.

damn I just realized that I do not own the self titled debut

will pick it up tomorrow for sure.

I love Somewhere In Time.

Somewhere In Time is excellent. They were touring for that album when I saw them in concert (with Yngwie Malmsteen opening). Great show !

SiT is a fun album, full of memorable moments.

Deja Vu is one of the worst songs they ever recorded.

Love Somewhere in Time - great album cover too!

I've had to stay away from Seventh Son recently.... Mostly from seeing the Maiden England tour 15 times....

I love number of the beast..also really love somewhere in time and seventh son of the seventh son...The latest album..Final Frontier is one I also enjoyed alot...

Not overrated or overplayed. It was their breakthrough album. It is the album, many remember and refer to. Why, well because of the videos for run to the hills and number of the beast. Mtv played them quite a bit and radio followed suit. The same could be said about Van Helen's 1984. Casual fans and recognition play a big part. Most Maiden fans rank number of the beast differently than mainstream. There really isn't much I don't like from Maiden and consider the album great, but I rarely listen to it and when I do it usually skip to the less popular tracks.

Powerslave is my absolute favorite.
Great tracks throughout and saw them on tour for this album which helps, lol.
Anyone that can put Rime of the Ancient Mariner to music deserves praise
Absolute favorite song has to be Hallowed Be Thy Name, but this is almost like someone handing me 3 cases of microbrews and asking me to pick a favorite…
Did I get offtrack?
No, Number of the Beast isn't overhyped
Invaders
The Number of the Beast
Run to the Hills
Gangland
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Nope, not overhyped at all….
Personally I think there are better Maiden albums, but the reason it gets mentioned is the title and album art. Controversial art and title get it mentioned more(and hyped), but there are some solid classics on it.
Up the irons

onrypt wrote:

Up the irons

Gaaaaahhhh!!!! I HATE that phrase! Especially when used by Maiden fans who don't know what it means (I know that some of you will know)

Nah! Come to think of it, I hate it when West Ham fans say it too!  

Sorry onrypt, it's just a pet hate. (mostly football related)

Should I say "Up the Ham-mers?"

(It's all good and no offense taken )

onrypt wrote:

Should I say "Up the Ham-mers?"

(It's all good and no offense taken  )

Up the Hammers, Up the Irons is all cool if you like West Ham, however, why anyone would like West Ham is beyond me!

Okay, I'll bite...what exactly does "Up the Irons" mean? Inquiring yanks want to know.

West Ham football club, while now a big Premiership football club had their roots as Thames Ironworks FC (East End works team) and the nickname has stuck with West Ham fans to this day. So when Steve puts 'Up the Irons' all over Iron Maiden's stuff, it's because he's a massive fan of that team, nothing to do with the band really

Cool. Thanks. Back in the 80s I always thought it was a stupid expression, makes more sense knowing the context.