Iron Maiden's Reviews

Best Of The Beast

Fills up the disc well, but still lacking

[NOTE: THIS REVIEW COVERS THE SINGLE-DISC COMPILATION SPECIFICALLY]

Ever since the early 80s, Iron Maiden rose up and became a permanent staple in heavy metal music. They played stunning melodies, catchy hooks, and dexteritous riffs to many anthems and built up a solid fanbase by the late 80s. Consisting of guitar duo Adrian Smith & Dave Murray, vocalist Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris, and drummer Nicko McBrain, Iron Maiden stand out as one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time. My favorite classic heavy metal band is actually Judas Priest, but I certainly always give my props to Iron Maiden as they are some of the greatest musicians to ever grace the heavy metal scene. They do play with more precision and showcase more complex songwriting than virtually ANY other heavy metal band of their time. They managed to create an amazing streak of excellent albums throughout the 80s, until they started getting worse in the early 90s. For most of that decade, Iron Maiden were flopping around like fish in a barrel until the late 90s when all the classic bandmembers reunited. Around that time, they released Best Of The Beast, the first (but not the last) compilation featuring their main key hits between the bandmembers and the fans. The double-disc collection covers a decent amount of material, but this single disc version is quite lacking. Read on for an in-depth look at the tracks included from their corresponding albums:

IRON MAIDEN(1980)
KILLERS(1981)
TRACKS: none from either album (but does contain Running Free from Live After Death)
COMMENTS: How could there be no tracks from these two albums?? They were the foundation on which Iron Maiden became a metal force! This means that there is no Wrathchild, Sanctuary, Phantom Of The Opera, or Prowler (Some of these songs are included on the double-disc version however).As good as Live After Death is, Running Free should've been the original version with Di'Anno on the vocals. No Di'Anno era songs brings this compilation's rating way down.

NUMBER OF THE BEAST(1982)
TRACKS: Number of the Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, and Run To The Hills
COMMENTS: These three songs have certainly become fan-favorites, and represent the album well. I also liked Prisoner and 22 Acacia Avenue, but these picks are sufficient.

PIECE OF MIND(1983)
TRACKS: The Trooper
COMMENTS: The Trooper is an excellent song which rightfully deserves its place on here, but WHY IS IT THE ONLY TRACK INCLUDED?? Where are Flight Of Icarus and Where Eagles Dare (my all-time favorite Maiden song)? This is disappointing because POM contains many tracks which deserve recognition (NOTE: Where Eagles Dare is on the double-disc set).

POWERSLAVE(1984)
TRACKS: Aces High and Two Minutes To Midnight
COMMENTS: Aces High is an excellent song and certainly one of my favorite early Maiden tracks. Two Minutes To Midnight on the other hand, is an okay song, but one of the most overrated Maiden songs of all time. I was never really a big fan of it. Flash Of The Blade would have been a better choice.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME(1986)
TRACKS: Wasted Years
COMMENTS: Glad they included the band's best commercial anthem rocker, BUT THIS ALBUM HAS SO MANY FORGOTTEN MASTERPIECES!! SIT is my favorite Maiden album overall, and the absence of such songs like the title track, Heaven Can Wait, and Deja Vu is simply unexcusable.

SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON(1988)
TRACKS: Can I Play With Madness, The Evil That Men Do, and The Clairvoyant
COMMENTS: For the most part SSOASS has decent representation. CIPWM serves as another great commercial rocker in the vein of Wasted Years, and TETMD is sort of a fan favorite. But The Clairvoyant was a perfect choice! Best song on the album. Moonchild would've been nice, but no big deal.

NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING(1990)
TRACKS: Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter
COMMENTS: Three words- TERRIBLE SONG CHOICE. BYDTTS has to be one of the cheeziest songs Maiden has ever made. This was where the band started to wane in quality. Run Silent Run Deep and Tailgunner were still good though and could have been MUCH BETTER song picks.

FEAR OF THE DARK(1992)
TRACKS: Be Quick Or Be Dead (and a live version of Fear Of The Dark from Live At Donnington)
COMMENTS: The album's not much better than the last one, but BQOBD is actually a very good song, probably Maiden's most aggressive to date. I haven't heard the original version of FOTD, but the live version is well performed. Still, I would've liked to hear the original though. Right on. I probably would'nt have picked any others for this compilation.

THE X-FACTOR
TRACKS: Man On The Edge
COMMENTS: hmm... a good song for the Blaze Baily era, but not quite "Maiden". Still, I'm glad some part of Blaze's era was covered.

There is also a bonus Blaze track, Virus. Fairly bland for the first 3 minutes, and then turns into a decent rocker, but in the end, the boring portions dominate the song.

OVERALL: If you are new to Iron Maiden and you want an overview of their key songs, BUY THE DOUBLE-DISC SET, NOT THIS ONE. Otherwise, just buy the albums. Maiden fanatics who own all the albums have no need to buy this at all, unless you REALLY want the bonus track Virus, but believe me IT'S NOT WORTH IT. Still, this is the best Maiden compilation though, so if you must go with one, make it this one.

Buy this album on Amazon at $16.98