The Number of the Beast (1982) vs Piece of Mind (1983)

[Vehicle]

Hallowed Be Thy Name dusts any song on Piece Of Mind (and most any Maiden album, really) but I chose Piece Of Mind overall.

It just has a more punch-you-in-the-face galloping powerchord quality. And Nicko is absolutely sick on every track.



*EDIT*

And the real satan worshipper isn't Maiden, it's stargazer916, for making us have to choose one over the other.

 

[Scotty Baboon]

The Number Of The Beast

 

[stepcousin]

I love # Of The Beast but everybody and their brother goes on and on about it. I understand how important of and album it is, IM breaking away from the NWOBHM and getting Bruce on vox. Clive Burr was a great drummer but I chose PoM soley on the tremendous drumming of Nicko McBrain. Blows Clive away. The songs on PoM are a step more in the prog metal direction that they would move toward and never look back again.
I love both albums but on a desert island, I'd rather have Piece Of Mind.

 

[Riff Raff]

I love # Of The Beast but everybody and their brother goes on and on about it. I understand how important of and album it is, IM breaking away from the NWOBHM and getting Bruce on vox. Clive Burr was a great drummer but I chose PoM soley on the tremendous drumming of Nicko McBrain. Blows Clive away. The songs on PoM are a step more in the prog metal direction that they would move toward and never look back again.
I love both albums but on a desert island, I'd rather have Piece Of Mind.

I agree, Number of the Beast is a great album but they got far better on the albums following it in my opinion. Also agreed on Nicko, fantastic drummer.

 

[Khor1255]

I couldn't disagree with the above two posts more if I tried. I greatly prefer DiAnno Maiden over anything with Dickenson but Number at least had some of the feel of those early two albums while POM but them squarely on the road to a more commercial sound.

Not that there is anything wrong with that in and of itself it's just that the farther away they got from a genuine late Saturday night horror movie feel (something a lot of us looked forward to all week) the less special of a band they were to me. They were one of the few (along with Sabbath) tha truly captured this dynamic and as soon as Dickenson hit the scene it was almost completely gone.
However, Number some of this and it had a far better drummer in the presence of Clive Burr. Nicko was much more heavy on the rudiments and flash drumming and I love that but Clive actually had a lot of swing and even borderline Jazz to his playing and had a solid meter like Bonham as well. Clive Burr is Maiden's drummer to me as solidly as Nick Mason is to Pink Floyd. He was an essential part of their sound and every time I hear Nicko doing one of the songs Clive wrote it stands out like a sore thumb.


Number of the Beast all the way but I do really like POM. Still Life and Dune are great tunes as s the rest of the album but this wasn't a hard choice for me at all.

 

[Riff Raff]

Interesting though the different things we each prefer. Funny enough Killers is my favourite Maiden release but when it comes to the Dickinson eras I find NOTB to be really good but I like the other albums more because it sounded less like the Di'Anno stuff.

 

[Hydrazoic Acid]

The Number Of The Beast, although, I like both.

 

[METALPRIEST]

SOOO HARD!!!


But I had to go with The Number Of The Beast

 

[Sweaty]

Number of the beast is just awesome