Iron Maiden
The Essential

The latest "Best of" from the world's most beloved and famous heavy metal band is one of the best released by the group; the previous "Edward The Great" had many flaws, including the omission of the Di'Anno period and the lack of important songs that did not make it a worthy "greatest hits." This "The Essential" can only be surpassed by the old "Best of The Beast," a substantial collection that also had unreleased songs ("Virus") or remakes with Blaze Bailey ("Afraid To Shoot Stranger"), although it stopped at the album "The X Factor."

This double CD traces the entire glorious career of Maiden backwards, from the recent "Dance Of Death" to their eponymous debut, with each album represented by two tracks, and the debut being honored with three. The track list is utterly predictable:

"Dance Of Death": from the penultimate album of the Irons comes the best song of the batch, "Paschendale," and the lively and catchy "Rainmaker," a good choice.

"Brave New World": it's too banal to pick "The Wicker Man" and the title track; "Blood Brothers," the masterpiece of that album, would have been much better.

"Virtual XI": of course, there are "Futureal" and the legendary "The Clansman," necessarily, as the rest is not worthy of their distinguished name.

"The X Factor": here too, the most decent songs, "Sign Of The Cross" and "Man On The Edge," are an obvious choice.

"Fear of The Dark": another mistake, obviously the title track, but then they include "Be Quick Or Be Dead" when there's "Afraid To Shoot Stranger?"

"No Prayer For The Dying": another forced choice for another not impeccable Maiden album, indeed here are "Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter" and the rocking "Holy Smoke."

"Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son": one of the greatest Maiden albums is represented with the legendary "The Clairvoyant" (which closes the first CD) and with "The Evil That Men Do," even though the title track was just as worthy.

"Somewhere In Time": from this compact and rough Maiden album come the usual "Wasted Years" and "Heaven Can Wait", even though I would have greatly preferred the opener "Caught Somewhere in Time."

"Powerslave": bad choice, agreed on "Aces High," but "2 Minutes To Midnight" (which everyone knows was copied from an Accept riff, also copied from Ronnie James Dio) could have easily been replaced with the title track.

"Piece of Mind": too little importance is given to the opener of this album, "Where Eagles Dare", a true masterpiece of the CD, however for the record, "The Trooper" (how could it be missing?) and "Flight of Icarus" are included instead.

"The Number of The Beast": they still rely on the great classics and rightly the famous "Run To The Hills" and the devilish title track.

"Killers": The title track could have been replaced with "Murders In The Rue Morgue" but there is also "Wratchild."

"Iron Maiden": rightly, the incredible "Phantom Of The Opera," one of the best pieces of the album, and two live renditions with Dickinson of the ever-present "Running Free" and "Iron Maiden," which if I'm not mistaken should be taken from the "Powerslave" tour.

All in all, it was obvious that Maiden (or whoever on their behalf) would focus on the most impactful and famous songs, leaving aside the true compositional peaks of the albums (the already mentioned "Afraid to Shoot Stranger", "Where Eagles Dare", "Blood Brothers", etc.), however, for those delving into heavy metal today, this double CD can be very useful to get an idea of the importance of this immortal band.