Worst Iron Maiden Albums

Iron Maiden is known to be extremely solid, but which is your least favourite album?
The Top Ten
1 Virtual Xi

This may not be their worst album, but it is their least inspired. Most of these tracks are extremely dull, boring and dead in the water outside of the half-decent opener Futureal (which would have been far better if Bruce sang it). For me, this album suffers from two major problems. The first is Blaze Bayley, who was always the wrong choice to follow in Dickinson's shoes. I don't hate him, and he has quite a decent voice, but it lacks the range of Dickinson and Di'anno, which is a major problem for the heavy sound Maiden were playing. Instead of the latter front men whose either operatic or punk sound gelled well with the music, Bayley's low register comes across as flat on such songs. While The X Factor worked because Blaze's voice actually worked with the more moody material they worked on, it doesn't work here when they try more energetic songs, as he sucks all the energy out their material, making it tedious to listen to. Even worse, the music utterly sucks. All of the tracks sounds like the band were bored and as such, so is the listener. Hell at on their worst effort (Fear Of The Dark) there were one or two good songs. Here you get nothing. Meanwhile, the production is crap, especially since Harris is given free reign over the Iron Maiden ship. He may be a great musician and songwriter, but he's great when he works with others as opposed to on his own. Here, he lets his indulgence get ahead of him, leading to songs that go on for far too long mainly The Angel & The Gambler, which would have been better if the production was better. To be honest, these songs aren't half bad on their own, but complied together the mediocrity builds and builds, leading to an utter cruddy LP. So a bad album which ended the terribleness that was 90's Maiden on a bum note. Bad vocals, poor songs and utterly boring. Glad Bruce returned with the great Brave New World signifying Maiden's comeback in the noughties. On that note, he even improved some of the songs here with his live... more

2 No Prayer for the Dying

A very mixed bag of an album. While I won't deny there are great songs on here (the title track, Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter & Mother Russia just to name a few) & the production at some points is excellent, there are far too may problems to ignore. Firstly, Dickinson abandons his operatic vocals in place of a grisly snarl, which can work on some songs but for the most part is really annoying. In a similar fashion to how Blaze Bayley's lack of range sucks the energy out of songs, Dickinson's snarly style ruins a lot of great material, as opposed to how his operatic tones elevated it on previous albums. Quite frankly, he is a huge problem as he nearly derails the LP, sounding like a poor tribute to former vocalist Paul Di'anno in the process.

However, there are other flaws too. While for the most part the production is fine, there are occasions where it similarly s up good songs. Whether it be the lame Powerslave rip off Run Silent Run Deep, the cringey 'Better watch out' part of The Assassin and many others, this album's missteps in terms of production messes up whatever was salvageable after Dickinson decided to snarl over it. Meanwhile, lyrically this is one of their weaker efforts, the nadir of which is in Public Emena Number One's 'Your children have more brains than your drug infested remains' which arguably stand as the stupidest thing they've ever written lyrically. Meanwhile, the serious subjects these songs are tackling (religion in Holy Smoke or government corruption in PENO) are undermined by these issues, causing you to care even less.

Overall, a weak effort that at the time was their worst effort. While not their nadir these days, it still stands as a low point in the Maiden discography and an embarrassing reminder of how weak both Maiden & heavy metal were as a whole in the 1990's.

3 The X Factor

How the HELL is The X Factor better than No Prayer for the Dying?! That's IMPOSSIBLE! No Prayer for the Dying at least sounded good. I hate Sign of the Cross there is too much dead time that doesn't need to be there.

This album is cool cause its different. If it didn't come out when it did itd be considered a classic. People hated metal when this came out but loved bands like bush.

Has to be this. The album is too dark and in my opinion terrible. Sign Of The Cross and Man On The Edge are excellent but the rest sucks.

4 The Final Frontier

The NPFTD, Fear, X Factor + Virtual are only at the top of that bad list (worst album) because they were following the best period. At least, they were still Iron Maiden. Yes, ok, bad Iron Maiden but they were I'm... (Mother Russia, Judas be my guide, Man on the edge, clansman). No song on this album is played live, not sounds like I'm. all slow pace with a dull intro a newbie can play. very very bad. thank god for the Book of souls, I would have hate that album to be the last.

I can't believe this. I have been a fan since 1984 (and of course ran to the store to buy the first albums as soon as I got POwerslave). How can there be some positive reviews of this album. Maybe one song with a beat. All starting slow (same intro). Come on, the Blaze era sucked but this is horrible. Maybe I am getting too old...

Even though this isn't their worst album (That honor definitely belongs to "X-Factor"), I feel this needs to be higher on the list. No matter how many times I listen to this album I get bored and start skipping. You'd think Iron Maiden exploring space themes would be the coolest, most original thing ever. Instead it sounds like a band playing prog metal for the first time and continuously doing the same pointless thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over... you get the point.

It felt like they were just randomly experimenting with songs and decided "This is good enough" and released an album. I mean when your album opener is a repetitive drum beat with some synthy noise for 2 and a half minutes before you hear any lyrics, and then another 2 minutes before it becomes a real song. Well... they're just asking for way too much from the listener in my opinion. And for crying out loud, not every song needs to be the exact same formula! Slow, long intro instrumental, followed by repetitive chords or lyrics with rarely any payoff. Is this the worst Maiden album? No, it's got some good songs like "When the Wild Wind Blows", but it's also their most frustrating album. Luckily Book of Souls delivered big time and is pretty much what this album should have been!

5 Fear of the Dark

I understand that many assume that since this album contains the classic title track, it should be a great album. But it's NOT. This and Virtual XI are the only true mistakes in Iron Maiden's career; VXI is indeed their weakest effort but this is too far down. No Prayer and X Factor are certainly not classics but aren't without their hidden gems that make them memorable enough, however, while the solid songs on FotD rock such as the title track and Be Quick of Be Dead, it's also home to some of Maiden's most nauseating moments, (I'm looking at you, Weekend Warrior). It also disgusts me to see classic albums such as Somewhere in Time, Iron Maiden, and Killers on this list (Bruce is a great singer, but he's not the ONLY key member of Iron Maiden).

While many fans would disagree, this is Maiden's worst album. While albums like NPFTD & Virtual XI are cruddy in their own ways, this is album is far worse, as not only is it far more disappointing, it is also more lazy. Iron Maiden have never been good at prog metal (speed & thrash metal is their expertise) but here, they don't even try. Songs go on and on without much reward for the listener, creating repetitive, boring and monotonous tracks as a result. Outside of the first two tunes ("Be Quick or Be Dead" & "From Here To Eternity"), there is nothing to write home about with this album. Even the title track is as dead in the water (and as poorly written) as the rest of the album, and how it has become a live staple is something which I'll never know. Overall, Fear Of The Dark is a terrible album, and was Maiden's nadir during their dreadful 90's run. No wonder Bruce left at this point.

6 Killers

People on this list are just mindlessly defending the old and attacking the new for invalid reasons. Opinions, but... don't start acting like Metallica fans about this "only first X albums were great" thing

This is their best album boys and girls. Sorry but their best wasnt with bruce. Smoke weed and listen to this and you'll see that pauls vocals are way cooler then bruces 80s metal . Must be the newbees who think dance of death is great who hate this.

Yo gotta dance with who brought ya! This is not the Iron Maiden we know and love. Stop loving this album!

7 A Matter Of Life And Death

Since Dickinson left the band before X-Factor the band is not the same anymore. Till Virtual XI I bought everything they released, but when I heard that dance of death I decided that I was done with Iron Maiden. Perhaps I'm too old, who knows? By the way, what would we expect from a list in which people complain about Killers and Iron Maiden? They don't know what Iron Maiden is, but that's ok, because the band doesn't know what they are anymore, anyways.

You guys are complete fools if you vote for this one. This is easily their most musical, lyrical, conceptual, and dense album to date! And if you can only listen to easy songs like the Trooper, or wont give it a chance because its new, you are a simple minded and impatient person. This is by far Iron Maidens best album, the band thinks so, I think so, so listen to it carefully with your ears and not your butts.
10/10 Their Dark Side of the Moon

8 Dance of Death

All Maiden albums are extremely good to listen to, so is this one but it just has more cheesy and boring moments than all the others.

I like the album, but the cover art is horrible.

9 Piece of Mind

Overrated in my opinion. Not bad, but definitely not among Maiden's best albums. Yes, The Trooper is one of their best songs ever but the rest is pretty unremarkable to me...

Seriously? This album is tops! This is one of their best. Revelations, die with your boots on? If you can't see the majesty, load the gun and end it. Jesus Christ.

What? I... seriously? Are you joking? Die With Your Boots On, Where Eagles Dare, The Trooper, etc.? Those are all Iron Maiden's greatest songs.

10 Iron Maiden

What, if you think this is the worst then you have no idea, this album is the best!

The Contenders
11 The Book of Souls

For me this is the worst. It has very good moments, but what I hated on it is the parts that are totally taken from old Maiden songs, and there are many. Why to do this? This ruined the songs even when most of another parts of same songs are very good. So, beside this is the most avarage and generic Maiden album, a bit like a parody of themselves. By the way, songs like Death or Glory, Tears of a clown, and Empire of Clouds are very good. All Maiden albums are great, but this is the most disappointed album to me. The Blaze Bayley era is much better, creative,spontaneous fresh and organic than this. I love the X Factor and Virtual XI. Also No Prayer For The Dying is a awesome album. But stupid people always follow the pack.

I can already see the crowd yelling "whoaa" in the red and the black, a song that will be a live classic. The last 4 minutes of the song is the best I've heard of maiden in a very, very long time (not that what they've made in the recent years has been poor though)

The first disc is just excellent, with the great unknown just about taking the prize as "the very least good song", whereas the 2nd disc is a little bit more of an endurance test, but then comes "empire of the clouds" what an incredible song

12 Brave New World

Vastly overrated record. Maybe Maiden got a free pass with the reunion momentum, but this is just not a good record. Maybe people were just elated because the singer was on key this time around.

Nothing original here with a minus that it doesn't sound Iron Maiden to me, it could be Bruce Dickinson band, not Maiden.

WHAT!? Final Frontier is much worse than this. This is the best album released after 1990

13 Somewhere in Time

It sickens me that the common gospel nowadays is that Dickinson had lost the plot during this period. Why don't any fingers point to Mr. Harris - the band's driving force who couldn't come up with a single song that's even halfway decent? Just overblown and wretched epics that try so hard to rival his previous offerings but fall flat on their face.

Smith's songs were the saving grace on this one. Harris' writing should be consigned to the scrap heap of history.

I don't hear the Maiden in this album. Indeed, it was a pinnacle of experimentation, especially for Adrian, but it was not done good.

Overlong, uninspired and workmanlike. Worst eighties Maiden record and some of the worst songwriting ever by mr. Harris.

14 Number of the Beast

It's a little overrated but kicks ass. Especially children of the damned, the prisoner, title track, and I guess run to the hills. And it has their best song hallowed be thy name. This doesn't deserve to be here. Hell this whole list should never exist because all maiden album rules ( and blaze bayley era rules too ) can't wait for book of souls

Overrated doesn't mean bad. This is still a great album while being overrated.

So great album the first with a new Singer houw can this be wrong? I think you are a kid or so and you don't real know this band

15 A Real Live One
16 A Real Dead One
17 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Why is this album on the list, is one of the best masterpieces, not just from Iron Maiden discogaphy, but also in heavy metal history

18 En Vivo!
19 The Book of Souls: Live Chapter
20 Powerslave

Who decided to put this beautiful albatross on this list, and shoot it down with a bow and arrow? Wow... Every song is just brilliant here.

I just want to cry when I see this on the list.

This needs to be at the bottom! Best album ever!

21 Rock In Rio
22 Live After Death
23 Senjutsu
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