Disco de Iron Maiden: “The Essential Iron Maiden”

Well,here we have another Maiden "Best of" collection. So what makes this one superior to the others? Best of the Beast was a good collection, but Maiden has come out with some new material ever since and there are no longer any copies of Best of the Beast in stores. Edward the Great was a descent collection that was missing out on a lot and had a poor tracklist.

So know we have "The Essential Maiden" released. This is a very good "Best of" collection that has all the best hits from every album.

I have only one complain about the tracklist, where the heck is Hallowed be thy Name? In my opinion (and many other maiden fans), Hallowed be they Name is the best Maiden track. Maybe the song is too long to be in a Greates Hits CD because it runs a little over 7 minutes, but yet, they put in Paschendale which is way over 7 minutes (8:28 to be exact).

To conclude, this is without a doubt the best "Best of" collection from Maiden. If your already an established Maiden fan, your only real reason to buy "The Essential Maiden" is for collection purposes. However, if you have only heard a little bit of Maiden, or nothing at all, you need to switch your computer off and go buy this right now! Oh, and one other note, this release has made me believe that Maiden will be calling it quits soon. I just hope Maiden can release one more killer album (or at least a single) to go out in style.

There is some terrific material here. But there is a mindbogglingly large amount of filler. For a band with so many great songs, this is inexcusable.

The Blaze Bayley songs should not be on here, end of story. 4 bletcherous scabs taking up space that could go to good songs. Really, Hallowed Be Thy Name is not on this, but Sign Of The Cross is? Why Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter? That has got to be the worst Iron Maiden song not sung by Bayley.

I really don't care for Paul Di'anno, but appreciate the contribution he made.

Also missing is Dance of Death, and Stranger In A Strange Land.

The best track on this CD is Fear of the Dark, which really shows how great they are live.

All and all this is not bad, if you don't have many(or any) Maiden albums, this is a good place start.

This is The BEST of The Best of Records from Iron Maiden!!!

UP THE IRONS!!!!

Unfortunately, the best Iron Maiden compilation was the 2CD Best of the Beast, which is no longer available and costs an arm and a leg on eBay.

If you are new to Iron Maiden, this is a good buy. If you are a bit more than new, but at the same time don't want to buy every album and want a full featured compilation, download the tracks from Best of the Beast 2CD [...] then grab the few extra songs that missed the cut on Edward the Great. Then to top it off, add in the more recent songs from the Essential Iron Maiden and you have the ultimate Iron Maiden compilation...

At least until those record execs FINALLY release a multidisc box set or an enhanced version of the 2CD Best of the Beast.

Seeing so many yobs with Maiden shirts might make you question whether the band is all hype or whether something real underlies its appeal. This compilation does a swell job at demonstrating the evolution of this veritable heavy metal instituion.

Rather that going in chronological order, this set opts to go for the reverse order method. Other compilations that do this usually do it to prevent a band from looking like it's backsliding. With this set, the effect that it creates is that the first disc appears to be a scattershot compendium of a band whose best days have passed, while it makes disc 2 look like a vastly superior treasure trove.

Disc 1 begins with Bruce Dickinson back on vocals. Those tracks present a band that can rock out, but the solos aren't particularly memorable and are frequently hidden among calmer sections and extended vocal sections. After that, we go back to the mid-90s Blaze era. Two overlong tracks from that era present us with the utterly vacous soundscapes and vocals that lack any real range. However, we are compensated for this by the inclusion of two fast-paced rockers ("Man on the Edge" and "Futureal"). The immediacy of these tracks stands in stark constrast with the overbearing nature of the epics. Afterwards, we go back to when Dickinson was still the vocalist. Early 90s Maiden has a rather homogenous sound that pushes the glass-shattering guitar and vocals into 11 in order to hide unimaginative lyrics and melodies. The last track on the disc, 1988's "The Clairvoyant," is the light at the end of the first rather mediocre tunel.

Disc 2 begins with a bang and it doesn't let up. "The Evil That Men Do" boasts a fine chorus, and the third track ("Heaven Can Wait") melds fast tempos with semi-goofy chanting and an overly reptitive chorus. Great stuff. Then we go from 1984 to 1982; that stuff is all gold. Afterwards, we say goodbye to Dickinson and meet the band's first vocalist, Paul DiAnno. His songs are substantially more punkish and bass-centered, and can be brief and punchy ("Wrathchild") or epic but fast and hard ("Phantom of the Opera). And then, at the end, Dickinson comes back yet again in order to do some songs in a live context. Given that Maiden has a few hundred live albums, this makes sense. But why is Dickinson singing DiAnno-era tracks? Oh well.

And thus the journey is complete. We went from the patchy 90s and 00s and plunged headfirst into the cream of the crop of the band's 80s days only to finish with some solid live tracks. The listener gets a fine idea of the directions that Maiden took over the years. The early days were more frantic, the late 80s were a bit proggy and after that, quality could vary vastly. The reverse chronological order isn't too effective, but at least it prevents you from seeing a steep decline over the years.

All in all, however, this collection does its job at painting a picture of a band that has received much fanfare from metal fans. If you want to see what they're all about, this is a great place to start.