The Iron Maiden thread

[Prowler]

Why? Because they're the GOAT Metal band, that's why!

Favourite songs? Albums?

I'd say Maiden's body of work up until Seventh Son of the Seventh Son is pretty strong. And that you could make a case for ranking any of those albums as their best.
From No Prayer for the Dying on, however, Maiden have had some hit and misses. I'd say the best albums they made after 7th Son were Brave New World(Bruce's return album) and Dance of Death.

My personal rank in order of preference of any of Iron Maiden's albums between their self-titled album and 7th Son changes according to my mood. But I'm gonna say it's either Piece of Mind or Powerslave that's #1 in my heart.

As for my least favourite Maiden albums, well the dead last one would be Virtual XI, easily. Then it'd be either The X Factor or A Matter of Life and Death. I don't even think The X Factor is a lousy album, but the Blaze era wasn't that good overall. Man on the Edge is a kick ass track, however! I also am nota big fan of Fear of the Dark, overall. Rather meh album despite a few good songs in it. I even prefer NPFTD to it since it has one of my all-time favourite songs ever in it and also has Holy Smoke, another song of theirs that I really like.

As for favourite songs? Well, this is a very tough question, because they have so many great songs. Lemme try and make a top 10, in no order:

Rime of the Ancient Mariner
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Number of the Beast
The Trooper
Moonchild
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
The Nomad
Stranger in a Strange Land
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Man on the Edge

...and I'm leaving many other great tracks off the list!

Ever seen Maiden live? Saw them live in May 2013. It was fun, but I can't believe they left out Hallowed Be Thy Name and yet played Afraid to Shoot Strangers of all songs. Like wtf

UP THE IRONS \m/

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Love Iron Maiden. My favorite Metal band (tied with Blind Guardian).

I've seen them twice live. Once on the Book of Souls tour and then again the following year on the Legacy of the Beast tour.

My favorite Maiden song ever since I first heard it is this masterpiece:

[Voltron]

I dunno, there's so much to choose from with Maiden.

I think Hallowed Be Thy Name was the first song I ever heard from them, and that's what really got me hooked. Everything else was pretty wild, too.

But I've always had a soft spot for Fear of the Dark. There's a live version floating around out there that's just unbelievable.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Originally Posted by Voltron

But I've always had a soft spot for Fear of the Dark. There's a live version floating around out there that's just unbelievable.

Seen Maiden live twice, and hearing Fear of the Dark live in person is one of the greatest moments ever

[Voltron]

I'm so jealous. I've never had a chance to see them live. I'll have to fix that some day soon.

[ZariusTwo]

[Leo656]

I seen 'em live once about ten years ago, but I can't remember who they played with. Could have been Megadeth, I don't remember.

Really good. Except they didn't play "The Wicker Man".

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I seen 'em live once about ten years ago, but I can't remember who they played with. Could have been Megadeth, I don't remember.

Really good. Except they didn't play "The Wicker Man".

Could it have been in the Priest Fest tour from 2009? Although, I recall it being Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament when they came here. Plus, Maiden are usually or always headliners, unlike Megadeth and Testament, so I guess it wasn't that...

[Leo656]

Actually I'm almost 100% sure that's what it was. I know we went to that show based on the lineup but Maiden were not the headliners, I don't think. And I don't go to a TON of shows so that's probably it.

I mostly remember Megadeth doing a meet-and-greet that was exorbitantly overpriced and Dave Mustaine was a huge dick. I didn't bother trying to meet him, but my wife and her Mom did, and I watched the whole thing. None of the guys in the band (except their then-new guitar player) bothered talking to anyone or even making eye contact; they just sat at a table signing posters, and as security walked you past them you'd say "Hello" and the guys would maybe nod at you, and that was how you "met" them. I was already really annoyed watching it, but then my wife's Mom - who's a HUGE fan of Megadeth, and Dave especially - made the mistake of actually trying to talk to him and engage him in conversation because she was so excited. And he did actually look up at her for a moment, smiled, nodded... then kinda sideways glanced at the security guard standing behind her and nodded his head towards the Exit line, like signaling "Get her the f*ck out of here." She didn't notice, but I did, and it was a total dick move from a guy who in my opinion ain't famous enough to be "big-timing" people like that.

Then again, I've had dinner with Kevin Nash so my personal experience with many "celebrities" is that they're very down to Earth unless you f*ck with them. Even other musicians were always very cool to me and my wife. But Dave Mustaine was a big douche and that's my biggest memory from that show.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I seen 'em live once about ten years ago, but I can't remember who they played with. Could have been Megadeth, I don't remember.

Really good. Except they didn't play "The Wicker Man".

That was probably the 'Somewhere back in Time Tour', where they only played 80s songs, with the exception of Fear of the Dark.

If you saw them the year after, they mostly played reunion era songs (including Wicker Man)

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Actually I'm almost 100% sure that's what it was. I know we went to that show based on the lineup but Maiden were not the headliners, I don't think. And I don't go to a TON of shows so that's probably it.

I mostly remember Megadeth doing a meet-and-greet that was exorbitantly overpriced and Dave Mustaine was a huge dick. I didn't bother trying to meet him, but my wife and her Mom did, and I watched the whole thing. None of the guys in the band (except their then-new guitar player) bothered talking to anyone or even making eye contact; they just sat at a table signing posters, and as security walked you past them you'd say "Hello" and the guys would maybe nod at you, and that was how you "met" them. I was already really annoyed watching it, but then my wife's Mom - who's a HUGE fan of Megadeth, and Dave especially - made the mistake of actually trying to talk to him and engage him in conversation because she was so excited. And he did actually look up at her for a moment, smiled, nodded... then kinda sideways glanced at the security guard standing behind her and nodded his head towards the Exit line, like signaling "Get her the f*ck out of here." She didn't notice, but I did, and it was a total dick move from a guy who in my opinion ain't famous enough to be "big-timing" people like that.

Then again, I've had dinner with Kevin Nash so my personal experience with many "celebrities" is that they're very down to Earth unless you f*ck with them. Even other musicians were always very cool to me and my wife. But Dave Mustaine was a big douche and that's my biggest memory from that show.

Not surprised. Mustaine is well-known for being a temperamental asshole. Why do you think Megadeth gets called MegaDave by many and has had too many different line-ups to count by now? Plus, he built his career out of a desire for revenge against Metallica. How petty can you be?

Don'r get me wrong, Megadeth were a very important thrash band and all and Mustaine is a good musician overall, but I cannot ignore the facts. Also, apparently Dimebag Darrell's brother was this close to joining Megadeth as a drummer but Mustaine ended up not hiring him since he wanted his brother Dimebag to join the band as well. Funny to think how different history would have been if both had joined the band, don't ya think?

I know a couple of guys who went to see Priest, Testament and Megadeth in February/March 2009. They said Mustaine sounded bad and it was hard to understand him, while testament were surprisingly pretty good.

You make an interesting point about Mustaine's fame there. Megadeth are the biggest thrash band after Metallica, but they're quite below them in the totem pole. They don't headline as many shows as other top bands do. It's one of those bands that's not so well-known by the general audience outside its scene. It's mostly metalheads who know Megadeth. Not that it's an irrelevant band by any means, but go ask your average person who knows nothing about metal or go ask a grandma who Megadeth and Dave Mustaine are. They probably won't know. But they'll definitely have heard of Metallica and the Iron Maiden.

Originally Posted by Whatswiththeheadbands?

That was probably the 'Somewhere back in Time Tour', where they only played 80s songs, with the exception of Fear of the Dark.

If you saw them the year after, they mostly played reunion era songs (including Wicker Man)

I don't care much for The Wicker Man, but it makes for a good entrance theme song since it's a quite straightforward song.

[Leo656]

Yeah, I like it a lot for when I work babyface. I'm currently a Mega Heel, though, so I've been using "Zero" by Smashing Pumpkins.

I like a lot of Megadeth and other stuff barely registers. It's weird. I much prefer the earlier stuff, although I like their 90s stuff more than most people. I liked a lot of the stuff on "Risk" because it was something different; then I read a really condescending interview Dave did where he said it was terrible and that everyone who liked it was an idiot, and that really annoyed me too. Like no, it wasn't their best stuff but some of the songs were very good all the same, so telling me I'm dumb for liking what I liked made me roll my eyes pretty hard. Then their next record was "back to basics" but it sounded so much like everything else that it wasn't even memorable, to me.

And every time he starts whining about sh*t that happened before I was even born I just want to punch him in the mouth. Like dude, you're a millionaire, grow the f*ck up.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Mustaine has definitely mellowed over the years. He's still a bit difficult, but compared to late 80s - mid 90s, he's almost like a different person.

He's currently going through a thing at the moment where he'll meet up with different people who he mistreated back in the day, and attempt to reconcile.

I love Megadeth. Some of their current stuff isn't entirely my tastes, but put on any 'deth record from 1985 - 1994 and I'll be all over it. The way Dave can do vocals while playing fast and technical guitar parts at the same time will never fail to impress me

[Leo656]

Well, he has been a huge heroin addict off-and-on, and behavior such as you've described is generally included in the "Steps Of Recovery" for people with addiction problems.

That said, nobody ever gets 100% "clean" from heroin, so he's going to be battling some demon or other for the rest of his life because that's just plain how that sh*t works.

Great guitar player, kind of a moron as a human being. As is anyone who goes around sticking needles in their f*ckin' arm.

[Prowler]

Anyway, back to Maiden.

What about some underrated tracks? I really like Weekend Warrior.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Cool thread! Saw them on the Maiden England World Tour USA, I think it was in 2013 (if memory serves), and we are planning on going to see them again this year, when they hit Dallas in September. Fun fact- the date for their Dallas show this year is also my little duckling's birthday! So we will be rocking out while my little dancer celebrates her 12th. Hubby and I both have teeshirts from the last one we saw, and hope to get something at this one too. He's the big Maiden fan, but I've grown to like them a lot, too. My favorite song, oddly enough, is Empire of the Clouds. Love that song. Run to the Hills, Aces High, and The Mercenary are also some of my faves.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Anyway, back to Maiden.

What about some underrated tracks? I really like Weekend Warrior.

Most tracks from the 90s and 2000 onwards