S/T and
Killers became my current-day favourites, as my tastes shifted slightly from technical metal to punk-informed rock ala Motorhead/Ramones; they're the most sustained examples of Maiden's hybrid metal grandeur and punk explosiveness. It's not something they ever lost, but it's at its most blazingly apparent there.
Of Bruce's run, I rate
Seventh Son as a near-perfect album; I'm not always in the mood for its power/melodic style, but when I do spin it, it's unfailingly from end to end. Remembering the final rush of
Only The Good Die Young is giving me goosebumps just typing this! Absolutely blazing power and finesse, a masterful five-piece firing hard on all cylinders.
I love bits and bobs of his other 80s records nearly as much, but it'd read more like a mixtape than an albums list.
Somewhere In Time has the most - the title track and "Deja Vu" are scintillating blasts from that OG metal/punk machine, "Sea of Madness" is simultaneously one of their oddest, most melodic, yet hardest-hitting tunes; and "Stranger In A Strange Land" is supremely panoramic and moody, with the interplay of Bruce's yearning choruses and Harris's soldiering bass clank.
No Prayer and FOTD don't score as highly with me, though the latter has scattered gems in "Judas Be My Guide" and the title track, which deservedly became a legendary live track. "Be Quick Or Be Dead..." for all its detonating album-opening power, I've always thought Bruce's Bon Scott impersonation poisoned it a bit. A good if rough listen. Fond memories of moving to England ca 2000, going into a random Subway, and sitting there eating a tuna sammich with it blasting over the in-store radio; absolutely surreal, having grown up in a place that legally couldn't play Maiden by religious decree.
I dig quite a bit of
The X-Factor's heavier tunes, particularly "Blood On The World's Hands" - absolutely crushing riffs. Just as much of it and its followup though, I've no interest in. Not a Blaze hater, he came in at a rough time for them. Of their collective 90s output, I'll rep Bruce's
The Chemical Wedding (with Adrian Smith and the criminally under-loved axeman/producer Roy Z) as the greatest by far. I enjoy quite a bit of the post-reunion stuff, particularly AMOLAD ("Lord of Light" is on my top 10, such dark intensity), but TCW's incendiary shot of Baroque majesty and roaring horsepower gives any Maiden record a hard run.
"ARISE! AWAKE!"
That guttural opening riff, man... like being hit with a ton of chocolate bricks.
Its bookends
Accident of Birth and
Tyranny of Souls feature much of the same personnel, and comparable quality, but TCW's the essential by far.
TDLR: S/T, Killers, Seventh Son, and a whole lot of regret for stopping at three, also sub in TCW if that's allowed.