The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden

Now if I told you that one of the best albums ever made has three great songs and six other pretty good songs, you would probably think I’m insane. Well insane I am not. This album has three great songs and six other pretty good songs. If you don’t know which of the songs are the great songs then you probably like listening to Slipknot and cutting your wrists. But if you don’t like masochism and shitty metal and still don’t know which three songs are the best then prepare for education (and under rocks is truly a poor place to live). "The Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills", and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" all easily place in the top ten metal songs of all time, with the last one probably taking the top spot. In my book, this album easily gets a “Holy motherfucking shit” as in “Holy motherfucking shit, I can’t believe that a band could make an album as amazing as this one.” Of course that statement doesn’t actually do this album justice.

Let’s be honest, this is Maiden’s best album, period. This becomes obvious given the fact that they have been trying to replicate it ever since its release. Now I know I said that the other songs on this album are just good, but that’s only because they are forced to compare with the holy trinity of metal songs. Of course I love "Children of the Damned" and "22 Acacia Avenue" but no one ever get’s tired of hearing "The Number of the Beast", singing along to the chorus of "Run to the Hills", or trying to sustain the word ‘name’ along with Bruce Dickinson at the end of "Hallowed Be Thy Name" only to come up thirty seconds short. Iron Maiden clearly prayed to Satan, asked him to give them three songs and then said they would come up with six more to make a full album. On any other release all of the other six would probably be the hits but given the shear magnitude of the big three here the others are simply outshined.

The Number of the Beast

Run to the Hills

Hallowed Be Thy Name