Every Iron Maiden Album, Ranked
Iron Maiden have put the same mascot on every studio album cover since 1980 while the singers changed around him, so rank the records Eddie fronted. Any studio album credited to Iron Maiden is here, weak ones included, and nothing else: concert records, best-ofs, box sets, EPs and the singers' solo albums are out. The gate settles membership; six rankings set a coarse tier: Kerrang! (2020), Last Rites, Consequence and Stereogum (all 2021), 100% Rock Magazine (2024) and Louder (2026). A record that at least 2 of its eligible rankings put fifth or higher joins the upper tier while the rest make up the lower, and your vote sets the order in both. Rankings only count toward records already out when they went to press, and each item prints its tally over the rankings that could have included it. Links point to Spotify's earliest edition with every original track and nothing documented as edited out, matched on tracklist and timings, never the printed date; where it adds a track or carries a remaster tag, the item says so.
Iron Maiden — Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) is #1 on “Every Iron Maiden Album, Ranked”.
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Iron Maiden — Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
Keyboards turn up on a Maiden record for the first time, though the band never took on a keyboard player for it, and Orson Scott Card's novel Seventh Son gave the record its idea. Infinite Dreams has its narrator pleading with a spiritualist to explain what he keeps dreaming. Kerrang! put it first, Last Rites third and Louder fourth, a top five on 3 of its 6 eligible rankings; the link is Spotify's 1998 remaster.
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Iron Maiden — The Number of the Beast (1982)
Recording and mixing took five weeks, and Dickinson could take no writing credit while his old band Samson's contract trouble went on. The Prisoner opens on dialogue from the TV series, which took a phone call to Patrick McGoohan for permission. Spotify's carrier adds the B-side Total Eclipse, which Steve Harris said would have made the album far better than Gangland did. Stereogum has it first and no ranking lower than third, top five on 6 of 6 eligible.
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Iron Maiden — Powerslave (1984)
Derek Riggs dressed the sleeve in ancient Egypt, and Flash of the Blade ended up in Phenomena, Dario Argento's horror film of 1985. This carrier keeps the 1998 reissue's track breaks, with the title song's intro moved onto Back in the Village, and runs 45 seconds under the published 51:12, with no cut documented. Last Rites, Consequence and Louder have it first and Stereogum third, its lowest, so it is top five on 6 of 6 eligible rankings.
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Iron Maiden — Piece of Mind (1983)
Food for Thought was the working title once the band settled on a lobotomised Eddie for the sleeve, until a pub in Jersey gave them Piece of Mind. To Tame a Land takes on Frank Herbert's Dune; asked for permission, his agents replied that the author didn't like rock bands, heavy ones least of all. Consequence, Stereogum and 100% Rock have it fourth and Kerrang! fifth: that makes a top five on 4 of its 6 eligible rankings.
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Iron Maiden — Somewhere in Time (1986)
Guitar synthesisers arrive, with bass and drums cut in the Bahamas and guitars and vocals in the Netherlands, and the songs Bruce Dickinson brought in were turned down by the others. Adrian Smith wrote three songs, Stranger in a Strange Land among them, about a sailor lost on a North Pole expedition. Louder has it third and Kerrang! and Last Rites fourth, so 3 of 6 eligible rankings put it in their top five.
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Iron Maiden — Killers (1981)
It's Martin Birch's first turn producing them, Adrian Smith's first on guitar and Paul Di'Anno's last. Apart from Prodigal Son and Murders in the Rue Morgue, which borrows its story from Edgar Allan Poe, the songs predate the debut's sessions. Spotify's carrier adds Twilight Zone between Purgatory and Drifter, where the 1998 reissue put it. 100% Rock ranks it first and Last Rites, Consequence and Stereogum fifth, so 4 of the 6 eligible rankings have it top five.
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Iron Maiden — Iron Maiden (1980)
Kingsway Studios in west London in January 1980, with Wil Malone credited as producer while the band did most of the producing themselves. Phantom of the Opera is one of Steve Harris's favourites. Spotify's 1998 edition runs 15 seconds short across that song and the two after it, matching the 1998 reissue's trimmed coda, so the 2015 remaster gets the link. Stereogum has it second, Consequence third and 100% Rock fifth, a top-five finish on 3 of 6 eligible rankings.
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Iron Maiden — Brave New World (2000)
Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith came back while Janick Gers stayed, so the band recorded as a six-piece, and Kevin Shirley produced them for the first time. The sleeve and the title song both point at Aldous Huxley's novel. Blood Brothers is Steve Harris's song for his late father. Kerrang! slots it sixth and 100% Rock seventh, with Louder down at tenth, which leaves 0 of 6 eligible rankings giving it a top-five place.
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Iron Maiden — A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
Left unmastered on purpose, for something closer to how the band sounds live, and then played in its entirety on the tour that followed. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg went out first, as a single on 14 August 2006, and it was the first Maiden album inside the Billboard 200's top ten. Louder's fifth place is its lone top-five finish, a count of 1 among its 6 eligible rankings.
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Iron Maiden — Senjutsu (2021)
Mark Wilkinson's sleeve dresses Eddie as a samurai holding a katana, and it's the band's second studio double album. The Parchment, written by Steve Harris alone, runs past twelve and a half minutes. Kerrang! in 2020 and Last Rites, a day before the 3 September 2021 release, went to press too soon to place it, and the other 4 rank it eighth at best, top five on 0 of 4.
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Iron Maiden — The Book of Souls (2015)
Release was pushed back to 4 September 2015 while Bruce Dickinson had treatment for a cancerous tumour, and it was the band's first studio album on two CDs. Empire of the Clouds runs eighteen minutes, has Dickinson playing piano, a first for him on a Maiden record, and tells the story of the R101 airship crash of 1930. Louder ranks it ninth and the rest lower still, so 0 of its 6 eligible rankings give it a top-five spot.
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Iron Maiden — Fear of the Dark (1992)
Steve Harris co-produces with Martin Birch, for Birch the last Maiden record, in a building Harris had converted into a studio called Barnyard. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is told by a Gulf War soldier. It's Dickinson's last studio album with the band until his 1999 return. Kerrang! goes to eighth while Stereogum has it fifteenth, and the top-five tally from 6 eligible rankings is 0.
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Iron Maiden — Dance of Death (2003)
David Patchett asked to have his name taken off the credits once the band chose an unfinished version of his cover. Journeyman closes it as the band's first fully acoustic song, Montségur tells of the Cathar stronghold that fell in 1244, and New Frontier gives Nicko McBrain his only writing credit on a Maiden album. Last Rites puts it tenth, its best showing, with 0 of 6 eligible rankings placing it fifth or better.
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Iron Maiden — The Final Frontier (2010)
Recording went back to the Bahamas, where the band hadn't worked since the 1980s, and the record topped the chart in 28 countries. El Dorado was a free download on the band's website on 8 June and later took the Best Metal Performance Grammy. Last Rites is kindest at ninth while Kerrang! and Consequence drop it to fifteenth, for a top-five count that stays at 0 out of 6 eligible rankings.
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Iron Maiden — The X Factor (1995)
Blaze Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane, sings lyrics built around Steve Harris's divorce, and Hugh Syme's sleeve puts Eddie on a machine that vivisects him. Sign of the Cross opens it at over eleven minutes, drawn from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Four weeks on the UK chart was the band's shortest stay for a studio album. Kerrang! and Last Rites both place it thirteenth, and 0 of 6 eligible rankings make it top five.
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Iron Maiden — No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
Janick Gers replaces Adrian Smith, with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio set up at a barn on Steve Harris's land in Essex. Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter began as a Dickinson solo recording for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and became the band's only UK number one single despite a BBC ban. Stereogum, 100% Rock and Louder put it last, 0 of 6 eligible rankings place it top five, and Spotify's tracks carry 1998 remaster tags.
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Iron Maiden — Virtual XI (1998)
Its title ties in with two things outside music, the Ed Hunter video game and the 1998 World Cup, and it's the last of Blaze Bayley's two albums with the band. The Clansman takes its cue from Braveheart, and live recordings with Dickinson singing it have since been released officially. Kerrang!, Last Rites and Consequence all put it at the bottom, and 0 of its 6 eligible rankings put it inside a top five.
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How this list was ranked
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