I disagree with a lot of what you wrote. Music is all personal opinion of course so no one is wrong, but it's still fun to argue. I love Children of the Damned and Gangland. I don't consider either boring or second rate, far from it. 22 Acacia is the only song I don't really really like or love.
Hallowed is one of the most iconic songs every written by any bands in my eyes and a top 10 song in the history of music according to me. I'd rate this album a 10/10 all day. I believe it's clearly one of the greatest musical achievements in the history of music on this planet and every other planet in the universe.

UP THE IRONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't imagine this album without Children of the Damned and 22 Acacia Avenue.

Overrated indeed.

Prisoner, Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills are the only good songs on this.

Written by [user id=220667] on 16.04.2020 at 04:48

Prisoner, Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills are the only good songs on this.

Hallowed isn't a good song? C'mon that's just dumb to say or you hate Maiden and you should go post some hatred somewhere else., UP THE IRONS OVER YOUR DUMBASS AND DROP THEM.

Written by Maco on 16.04.2020 at 04:31

Overrated indeed.

How is it overrated? Do you even like Maiden or power metal? Let me guess Dragonforce is your favotrite band. Eat a bag of UP THE IRONS AND GO PISS OFF

Written by UPDIRNS on 16.04.2020 at 07:04

Eat a bag of UP THE IRONS AND GO PISS OFF

Written by cubanmetalguy on 16.04.2020 at 01:17

I can't imagine this album without Children of the Damned and 22 Acacia Avenue.

Me neither. I could easily do without Gangland and Invaders though.

I cannot listen to "Invaders" with a straight face and take it seriously.

That said, "Children Of The Damned" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" are one of the best songs ever, so this album is a bit of a mixed bag.

Written by UPDIRNS on 16.04.2020 at 00:29

UP THE IRONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up The Irons indeed. You should have stopped there though, it's not that anyone who doesn't like the album is insulting you personally. One more comment like the ones towards Maco and The Witchfinder and you are getting a very long rest from posting on the site.

Agree with the rating, but not the review. I have no problem discarding Gangland, Invaders or Total Eclipse from this record. The rest - yes please.

Written by qlacs on 16.04.2020 at 11:18

Agree with the rating, but not the review. I have no problem discarding Gangland, Invaders or Total Eclipse from this record. The rest - yes please.

Total Eclipse was not on the original album, I do not know if they used it for some B-side single, but as it says above, it's a remastered bonus.

I disagree with the review and the rating. I can't go lower than an 8 for this album. Yes, Invaders and Gangland are the weak tracks, but they are still listenable. So not even filler.

What's wrong with The Prisoner? Such a fun track if you ask me.

As for Children of the Damned and 22 Acacia Avenue being unmemorable and boring, I LOLed.

Yeah, I'm tired of Run to the Hills, it's been overplayed, still a good song.

Children Of The Damned and Hallowed Be Thy Name are IM classics, heavy songs, even Number has good rytmer, story and lyrics, its decent IM albbu,

Written by UPDIRNS on 16.04.2020 at 07:03

Written by [user id=220667] on 16.04.2020 at 04:48

Prisoner, Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills are the only good songs on this.

Hallowed isn't a good song? C'mon that's just dumb to say or you hate Maiden and you should go post some hatred somewhere else., UP THE IRONS OVER YOUR DUMBASS AND DROP THEM.

Hallowed is overrated. Calm down Mark Chapman.

Written by UPDIRNS on 16.04.2020 at 00:29

I disagree with a lot of what you wrote. Music is all personal opinion of course so no one is wrong, but it's still fun to argue.

Oh without a doubt, I can see that my opinion varies greatly from most here haha. I'm glad others found songs I didn't particularly take to enjoyable, you get to see what a band/album means to someone that way.

Written by John_Doe on 16.04.2020 at 11:53

Written by qlacs on 16.04.2020 at 11:18

Agree with the rating, but not the review. I have no problem discarding Gangland, Invaders or Total Eclipse from this record. The rest - yes please.

Total Eclipse was not on the original album, I do not know if they used it for some B-side single, but as it says above, it's a remastered bonus.

I disagree with the review and the rating. I can't go lower than an 8 for this album. Yes, Invaders and Gangland are the weak tracks, but they are still listenable. So not even filler.

What's wrong with The Prisoner? Such a fun track if you ask me.

As for Children of the Damned and 22 Acacia Avenue being unmemorable and boring, I LOLed.

Yeah, I'm tired of Run to the Hills, it's been overplayed, still a good song.

Yeah, the copy I reviewed didn't contain Total Eclipse so I didn't include it, that said it would of been a good addition.

I think going above 7 for what is a very 50/50 to me would be too generous, the classics are weighted down by the weaker tracks imo. Glad to see you really enjoy the album though.

I Think The Prisoner is one of the bands best songs, I think it's one of the good songs on the album.
I'll be honest, before re-listening to the album before reviewing it, I already knew all the songs like the back of my hand; the chorus to Children... and the tempo change in 22... were the only things I could remember from those tracks before re-listening. I think with so much quality material it gets pushed to the back and forgotten about.

I agree with Invaders and Gangland. These two tracks are forgettable after listening to the album many times. The only reason I might feel the same about Run To The Hills is probably because I heard it so many times on the radio.

Children of the Damn is like the ballad of the album and its good to hear some acoustics or clean tones rather than having the entire album all the same. Both this song and The Prisoner have a slow start but pick up the pace and have epic endings. Do you expect all songs to have high intensity/energy throughout? Or what makes these songs boring to you?

Sorry I was rude. I was drunk and being cooped up too long inside. Everyone's opinion is important to them and I'm sorry I pooped on someone's. I was trying to be funny, but I looked like an ass.

Written by alexf91 on 16.04.2020 at 18:41

I agree with Invaders and Gangland. These two tracks are forgettable after listening to the album many times. The only reason I might feel the same about Run To The Hills is probably because I heard it so many times on the radio.

Children of the Damn is like the ballad of the album and its good to hear some acoustics or clean tones rather than having the entire album all the same. Both this song and The Prisoner have a slow start but pick up the pace and have epic endings. Do you expect all songs to have high intensity/energy throughout? Or what makes these songs boring to you?

No, I do like songs of all tempos and I have no predisposition either way. It's not that they're slower that bores me, I just never really found them to turn my head and pay attention. Children... to me is an uninteresting riff leading to a meh chorus.

I am in disbelief that we are discussing if this album is overrated or not in 2020. Its importance to heavy metal is immense. We are talking about 1982. It is the first IM album with Dickinson, it is a departure from what the band did in the previous two albums, it has at least four songs that anyone who comes even a little bit close to metal knows most of their lyrics: "Hallowed...", "Children...", "Run To The Hills" and the title track. Subjectively, "Hallowed..." is IM's best track ever, objectively it is one of the most iconic heavy metal songs in history. Yes, overall it is lacking compared to everything before it and everything that came after, until No Prayer. But even this doesn't say much, all of Iron Maiden's '80s albums have defined heavy metal forever. It's just that The Number is the least great one.

9 / 7 / 8 / 9 = 7

Written by nikarg on 16.04.2020 at 10:59

Me neither. I could easily do without Gangland and Invaders though.

Agreed! Even as a massive fan of IM, those two songs are not very compelling imo. Some of their weaker 80s songs if you ask me.

Still love the album though. Hallowed and Children are still easily in my personal top 10 of best Iron Maiden tracks.

Leave the album alone. It's perfectly fine.

Maybe it's the Indian in me but I kept on reading gangland as Gangaland (the land beside river Ganges).

The album rips though. Hallowed is the most wholesome heavy metal song I can think of. Also, funny story, I was introduced to Hallowed through Cradle of Filth's cover of it. I think there was a really cool anime video of the song which fit the song perfectly in Dani's vocals. Later I heard the original version, saw multiple live videos of it, went to Bangalore to check out live Maiden. But I still remember in my late teens, Cradle's cover of Maiden's Hallowed was the heaviest shit I have heard till then.

Written by nikarg on 16.04.2020 at 20:17

I am in disbelief that we are discussing if this album is overrated or not in 2020. Its importance to heavy metal is immense. We are talking about 1982. It is the first IM album with Dickinson, it is a departure from what the band did in the previous two albums, it has at least four songs that anyone who comes even a little bit close to metal knows most of their lyrics: "Hallowed...", "Children...", "Run To The Hills" and the title track. Subjectively, "Hallowed..." is IM's best track ever, objectively it is one of the most iconic heavy metal songs in history.

These lines, imo, are effectively sufficient for a top-notch review summing up the key facts about this iconic album.

I think this album's overall quality and impact is pretty fairly assessed in the metal community at large. If it's overrated, only slightly so. I do think though that there are other Maiden albums that are more consistent quality wise, and that are more fun to listen to as a whole front to back, particularly Powerslave and Seventh Son.

I actually agree that it's not one of their top albums, but for me 22 Acacia Avenue and Children of the Damned, are two of the best songs.

The average filler for me are: Invaders, Run to the Hills (yes i know people love it - but i don't), The Prisoner, Gangland.

Written by nikarg on 16.04.2020 at 20:17

I am in disbelief that we are discussing if this album is overrated or not in 2020. Its importance to heavy metal is immense. We are talking about 1982. [...] Yes, overall it is lacking compared to everything before it and everything that came after, until No Prayer. But even this doesn't say much, all of Iron Maiden's '80s albums have defined heavy metal forever. It's just that The Number is the least great one.

It's always important to talk about a record in the context of its release; what was going on around that time, the impact it had and all that. However that's not always possible and I think an equally valid approach is to talk about how well something holds up today. Some things can be immensely influential in the art or genre, but may not do too well when perceived through a modern lens. Not saying this is the case here, not in my opinion, but I totally get why someone may feel underwhelmed if they're, let's say, new to metal and making their way back through some of its major milestones.

Take me for example: I absolutely love some of the songs on this albums, but others are take it or leave it for me. For its influence and for its highest highs, I'd give it near maximum scores. But if I'm honest with myself and how I feel in 2020 about some of the weaker songs, I would say that its current rating on MS, its position relative to how other Iron Maiden albums have scored is... greatly exaggerated. There are 4, maybe 5 other '80s Maiden albums that I would sit down to listen to from start to finish before I'd do the same with this one.