Pretty self explanatory! I feel it's gonna be pretty tight, I don't think there's a clear winner! Feel free to do a top 7 too but I'm asking you to choose your favorite album and give some explanations about your choice.

Mine: 7th son. Maiden with a perfect mix of epicness, storytelling, progressiveness with their classic trad sound. From grandiose epic songs like Moonchild and the title track to, no sorry, all the songs are fucking epic!


UP THE IRONS!

I voted Powerslave for pretty much the exact same reasons you've already given. But for me, the clear winner of the album is "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

7th Son. As Tony said, the traditional sound meshing with the progressive themes is just sensational, and the overall atmosphere and flow of the album are both excellent. It strikes me as their most memorable output, and it feels natural since I'm big on progressive stuff as is. It's always been my favorite, most likely to never be toppled.

Dammit, are you kidding me? How could I even choose?

Somewhere in Time here. While I like all 80's albums, I think SIT has the perfect set of songs, making it consistently great from start to finish. Also, Wasted Years, the Loneliness and Alexander The Great are simply flawless pieces of heavy metal.

Sadly, I can't answer all of them.

I don't think any of them, though, have given me as much fun as the s/t. Sanctuary is the only track I don't really care for, but all the others just make up for it so much that I'd probably have to tip it as my personal favourite.

That's the point!

I almost picked the s/t or Powerslave (Rime is truly my favorite Maiden song) but 7th son is my overall favorite, it's so coherent and consistent!

This. Also Sanctuary isn't really apart of the original, despite what re-releases show. Also, Phantom of the Opera has been my favourite Iron Maiden track for as long as I can remember.

I grew up on Killers, so I'm biased towards it and voted for it. That said, my second and third choices would be Number Of The Beast and Powerslave. Number Of The Beast is just fucking catchy, and Powerslave is just...epic, in a sense.

Listening to "The loneliness of the long distance runner" while driving home. Singing along. Notice I'm going 95.

Piece of Mind is my favourite, but Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son are also flawless albums for me. Number of the Beast would be as well if it weren't for Gangland. I do enjoy Powerslave, but I think it would have been better to split up the two opening and two closing songs to make the album seem more balanced. Iron Maiden is killer, but Bruce is a huge part of Maiden for me. Killers has never really done it for me. I enjoy some songs, but it doesn't come close to the other 6 for me.

Also, this is the perfect thread to namedrop a few of my favourite, under appreciated Maiden songs: "Still Life", "To Tame A Land", and "Deja Vu" are painfully unrecognized by fans and especially by the band. I would love to hear all of these songs live!

I picked Seventh Son, despite "Can I Play with Madness." I like many of Iron Maiden's more atypical (for them) albums, and this one is the best of those, on the strength of its blend of moodiness and smooth melody alongside some of the band's more characteristic galloping energy, which makes it one of their most complete albums as a cohesive listening experience. Powerslave, the strongest (most consistent) of the more archetypical Maiden albums, would have been a very, very close second.

Pretty much what Nightgaunt said. It was a really hard choice between the two, though.

I actually don't like the proggy touches of Seventh Son much, it's probably my least favourite 80's maiden outside of Killers actually. So for me it was between Powerslave and Somewhere in Time, but I really hate 2 Minutes to Midnight, so Somewhere in Time wins.

I'm happy TNOTB has no votes yet, it's their worse of the 80s by a large margin.

Damn Tony, this is tough! So..... I'm struggling to choose between the last three from that list, BUT..... I think I gotta go with Somewhere in Time. There's no weak track to be found in there, and every song ranges between "very good" and "timeless classic". But the other two are seriously close, really. It's only because of Back in the Village and Can I Play with Madness that I didn't choose either Powerslave or Seventh Son. Those two songs simply aren't on the same level as the rest of the material from their respective albums.

I heartily agree. Sure, there's the titletrack, Run to the Hills and Hallowed be Thy motherfuckin' Name, but the rest of the material tends be on the average side, for the most part. I like Invaders though

You forgot Children of the Damned. That album deserves a vote for that song alone.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Children of the Damned and Hallowed Be Thy Name, that album would be pretty shitty.

This is a really simple decision. Which Iron Maiden album has the best riffs? The self titled one of course! Therefore the self titled album is their best.

It's really not rocket science.

How could you not pick Killers? Screw the 80s man, it's the best 'Maiden release well, ever.

Saying the best Maiden album is one from the 90s or the 00s is like choosing one of the prequels as your favorite Star Wars.

Metantoine pointing at me with INCREDIBLE SUBTLETY.

Seventh Son for me. A lot of it is personal - the first Maiden song I ever heard was 'Can I Play With Madness' and that experience was crucial to my developing interest in metal. Everything about that song is great. I love the story, and the lyrics coupled with the excellent melodies conjures up some great mental images for me. Aside from that, nothing beats 'The Evil That Men Do', 'Moonchild', and the title track. Each song has a very well done formula, and Iron Maiden executed it with absolute confidence.

I spoke to this one kid who is dead set on saying The Final Frontier is their best. Granted he doesn't listen to much Metal, just radio rock type stuff.

Seventh Son!!! both mine and my wife's favorite.

Personally I'm kind of surprised that Somewhere in Time is getting the amount of votes it has. Not like I'm really complaining though, as it is a great album.

Every 80's Maiden album has lots to offer me, and I actually quite enjoy Number of the Beast, lots of great songs on there. It comes down to 7th Son vs. Somewhere in Time, and the sheer ass-kickingness of Somewhere in Time gives it a slight edge of the mystic story-telling sensibilities of 7th Son. But only slightly. I do think that every 80's Maiden album has at least one or two lame song though. I'd probably say that Piece of Mind is my least favorite.

Somewhere in Time no question.

My gosh, this this THIS!

Also, I 100% with everything the mods have contributed to the thread up until this point, so much so, in fact, that I have nothing to add other than to say that I voted for SSoaSS.

SIT is a 100% from me. One of the rare few that I'd give such. You guys can't convince me otherwise.

It would have to be either Somewhere in Time or 7th Son... The former feels like the most fulfilling Maiden-album to me, with hooks galore and with everyone in the band being simply at the top of their games.. It sounds inspiring, refreshing, never getting dull. As for 7th Son, it is something of a mood album moreso than other 80s Maiden-albums to me, but whenever I listen to it, boy do I love it. It is very versatile, featuring some of their best songs all-around. Hard to say, but in the end, I voted for 7th Son regardless..

It seems to be a tie between the self-titled, Powerslave, and Seventh Son for me but I went with Powerslave. It was one of the first albums that I truly loved of theirs and Back To The Village is the only track that is less than perfect in my eyes.

Also, Brave New World and The X Factor are among my top five favorite Maiden albums.

Was torn between choosing Powerslave and Seventh Son, but went for Seventh Son. Love the progressive style that the band incorporated, and I think it was too great an album to top after that.

Killers. The Harris/Burr rhythm section was at its peak there, the Murray/Smith partnership had just been born and immediately into something glorious, and they don't have any other albums as aggressive.

Seventh Son is easily their weakest of the 80's. The only thing it really has going is regarding musicianship and a vague progressive leaning. Otherwise, half of it is pretty standard pop-Maiden with only the repeating of the word "seven" to add any kind of cohesion. The other half can be pretty damn good, though.

Am I the only mod who didn't vote Seventh Son? I like that album a lot, obviously (every 80s Maiden album is extraordinarily good), but man there's something about Powerslave I just can't get enough of. There are like, six songs that rank among their best ("Flash of the Blade" is so hideously underrated). Really only "Losfer Words" is the only one I would disagree with showing up on a "best of" compilation of the band. Somewhere in Time is a close second for me as well, based almost entirely on the strength of the title track and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (which is a top 3 song for the band for me).

EDIT: Also, interesting tidbit. A few years ago we did an elimination/point giving game to determine Maiden's top 30 songs. Piece of Mind had either six or seven of its nine songs make the list, and yet here it's currently tied for last. Is "Quest for Fire" really that bad?

Yes. Yes it is.

Piece of Mind, it just has the best combination of songs they ever had, and the best riffs, too, I think - so fucking heavy and relentlessly metal. Some of their most creative arrangements on there too; what else even sounds close to the structure of "Where Eagles Dare" or "To Tame a Land," or "Revelations"? I dunno, just an album that clicks with me every time. It's a pretty close call though. SiT and Seventh Son are right on its tail and the s/t is amazing too.

Number of the Beast though, I don't really see why there are people down on it here. It's a good solid album and sure it's got a few fillers, but their fillers are never really unpleasant to listen to or anything...same goes for "Quest for Fire," which would be a fine song if it came from some nobody band with no mega-hits like "The Trooper" or "Powerslave." A filler, yes, but not bad for that.

The Final Frontier and AMOLAD are awesome too. They'll never be as good as the heyday but they're still great albums.

Somewhere in time. Powerslave is good as well, everything else does absolutely nothing for me.

I voted Powerslave! Heavy from start to finish with no ballady type tracks on it (admittedly, not a bad thing). I agree what someone else said, in that the tracks could have been rearranged slightly better, as the best songs are the first 2 and last 2. There's a slight dip in quality in the middle. And having 2 songs on the subject of sword fighting, AND placed next to each other, is a no no. To be honest, most of their albums have at least one 'not as good as the others' type song... Running Free, Invaders, Gangland, Quest for Fire, Sun and Steel, Losfer Words, The Duellists, Heaven Can Wait, Alexander the Great, Can I Play With Madness... All are fairly enjoyable, they just don't cut it like the remainder of the tracks do on the albums.

Anything but Somewhere in Time! Seriously, though, I can't decide this morning: maybe the S/T, maybe Piece of Mind, maybe Powerslave, maybe Seventh Son.... But seriously, Somewhere in Time is the weakest 1980s Maiden album by some distance: there's plenty of fun tracks, but it's too heavy on fillers (especially the closing 'epic' which is a massive let-down) and the lack of Bruce Bruce songs is a problem.