The Number of the Beast

Iron Maiden at their best (almost) without it being their best album .

Still in transition from Bruce joining and finding their feet and maturing from early punk metal to the NWoBHM behemoths they would become.

It's not noodling, it's foolish & humorless, but what do you expect from the group that could almost be a great indie band but decided to go all out on camp and the polished technicalities of eighties metal, i.e., generic pop-rock from the nineties. I don't know if it's run its course or if it ever really had one, but I do know that it's not only not for me but it oughtn't be for any of us who appreciate a changing/daring art form. Iron Maiden's notion of the sublime is to front their songs w/ thirty secs of soft & introspective licks, & then to return to their redundancies. It's almost inexplicable that people still dig this shit - it's not hard & heavy, it's neat & refined, soulless & witless, something I'd never return to even for the joke of it. A baffling eyesore.

My cat seemed to really like it.

Favourite growing up and played huge part in me discovering metal music. Don't really listen to Maiden much anymore but number of the beast still stands for me as on the greatest metal albums ever, 5 stars

I was a little scared because this is not at ALL my type of music but ya know what, it's got a nice beat

Classic metal that doesn't exceed my metal tolerance.

I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I thought I would.

This album gave us "The Number Of The Beast" and "Run To The Hills" which are both genre classics. I'd classify this as Hard Rock except the suggestion of the title track makes it feel real edgy for the early 80s. If this is Metal, it's gateway metal almost purpose built to appeal to young teens. It's well made and easy to listen to, as long as you can stomach the screeching vocals. Hard to get very worked up on this one either way.

Classic metal, with screaming falsetto vocals, shredding guitar solos and plenty of drum fills, with themes of Satan, the Occult, prisoners and gangsters. And then the classic ‘Run To The Hills’ detailing conflict between native Americans and Europeans. Whatever, it’s a cracker tune that has stood the test of time. And the rest ain’t bad either. Just don’t listen too hard to the lyrics, turn it up, bang your head and have a ball

I’m a new Maiden fan, this was brilliant

Ik zat wat te mopperen op kleurloze platen. Dus schotelt het algoritme mij Iron Maiden voor. Nee, dat is verre van kleurloos. En dan doelt ik niet eens op Eddie en de rest van het 'artwork' (waar de kamer van het eerdergenoemde vriendje vol mee hing'). Ik doel vooral op de muziek zelf. Want ook die is toch vrij creatief. Met een lekker tempo wordt je door de attractie geslingerd. Waarbij ik net als bij het eerdere album merk, dat juist de stukken zonder zang het prettigst voelen, bijvoorbeeld bij 'The number of the beast'.

At first, I wasn't too into this, but then it picked up. I think this is a really good album and would absolutely come back to it. It's not my first Iron Maiden album, so I can confidently say that I like the band. The guitars and drums on this album are amazing.

I don’t think I’ve listened to this since I was 13. It’s very silly. Is the humour intentional? Is Bruce self-aware? His phrasing doesn’t always match the music - does he know; does he care? At least he seems to be on the side of the consistently on the side of the underdog. Guitars better than expected. 2.5 maybe?

Surprisingly, a solid 8 for me. I'd listen again.

Took a couple tracks to get into it but it was fun, although there is admittedly a lack of variety, and I enjoyed it

Legendär

This is not my flavour of metal. The music doesn't do much for me - its played very well though. My main issue is the vocals. Too damn showy. Too much wailing. It's like a musical stage show. I can't get into it at all.

I liked it

Iron Maiden instrumentals > 👍🏾
Iron Maiden vocals > 👎🏾
Not that they were bad but his voice kinda got annoying there for a while. Some songs were pretty alright. The album as a whole was better than I expected.

My knee jerk reaction on my first listen of The Number of the Beast was, “damn, this is some corny as hell 80s metal”. I was ready to give it a 2, maybe 3, but I was convinced to give it another listen. Turns out it’s actually a damn good time! The guitar playing, the bass playing, and the drumming are all great! I even started to appreciate the singing by the end. I kind of wish I grew up as a metal head in the 80s now.