The first two albums are really great as they were one of the first ever metal bands to get punk and integrate it as a reasonable influence.

Di'anno was a really great vocalist, and they went seriously downhill after he left. Dickinson was nothing but a Halford wanna-be and pushed them into the prog-metal zone that most people who don't like them associate them with. Not that there weren't prog elements to Iron Maiden and Killers, but the were tempered by the shorter songs and Di'anno's growling and snarling as opposed to Dickinson's ball-in-a-vice metal cliche vocals. Of course most people don't even know they existed before Number of the Beast, but that's just a shame.

I like Iron Maiden and Killers a lot. I've also got Ed Hunter (I bought it for the music, not crappy video game) and Rock In Rio. I have a friend who loves Iron Maiden (not really the stuff I like though) and he always goes on about them. He'll be playing his guitar and say "do you know what song I'm playing? How could you not know it's Fear of the Dark/The Trooper/Dance of Death etc?"

killers is my fave. theres no reason to hate a band like that, theyre just a fun power metal band, driving around drunk with your friends and singing 'run to the hills' is always fun.

my exact thoughts on the matter.

i still love powerslave though.

Powerslave is their best progish album by far, I must admit. It came out at the same time as Ride the Lightening and I think they and Metallica must have been listening to each other around then. I still don't think it holds a candle to the first two records though.

i don't know...ride the lightning was ambitious for metallica at that point in their career but it's hardly as ambitious as powerslave.

while some osrt of sophistication must have gone through both bands' heads at the time, i think metallica's growth had more to do with what was going to come within the thrash metal scene while maiden were just pushing their shit to the limit.

Iron Maiden are great... Bruce Dickinson solo album... not so much.

Very effective torture device.

while you may be right, 'ride the lightning' is superior to 'powerslave'. in fact, nothing iron maiden ever did was as good as metallica's first four records. best metal band ever at that juncture, one of the best bands ever for that matter.


ironnicaly, im wearing an iron maiden shirt right now.

Their new best of, despite being from 1980-1989, completely ignores the Paul Di'Anno years. It has Iron Maiden, Phantom of the Opera and Wrathchild, but they're live versions with Bruce Dickinson.

i didn't talk about quality or comparing any of the two in my post, i simply commented on their level of ambitiousness.

ride the lightning was ambitious compared to kill 'em all, but it definitely has no "rhyme of the ancient mariner" in it. if i were to compare powerslave to any metallica albums in terms of ambition, i would say it's close to ...and justice for all.

and while we're at it, as much as i love metallica's 80's heyday, a few weeks ago i was listening to all my megadeth albums and, give or take an "anarchy in the uk" cover, megadeth were side by side in terms of musical quality with metallica. and they weren't the only ones to give them competition playing amazing thrash shit.

that's nice: