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Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast



9.1 | 2924 votes |
Release date: 22 March 1982
Style: New wave of British heavy metal

Owners:

3825 have it
126 want it
3 trade it


Disc I
01. Invaders
02. Children Of The Damned
03. The Prisoner
04. 22 Acacia Avenue
05. The Number Of The Beast
06. Run To The Hills
07. Gangland
08. Total Eclipse [1998 remastered bonus]
09. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Disc II [1995 remastered release]
01. Total Eclipse
02. Remember Tomorrow [live]

Top 20 albums of 1982: 1
Top 200 albums of all time: 12
Featured in "Getting Into: Iron Maiden"

Additional info
Produced by Martin Birch.
Engineering by Martin Birch & Nigel Hewitt-Green.
Cover art & photography by Derek Riggs & Rod Smallwood.

''The Prisoner'' was inspired by the 1967 TV series of the same name. The spoken intro to the track is directly lifted from an episode intro.

"22 Acacia Avenue" was originally written by Adrian Smith and performed by his pre-Iron Maiden band Urchin .

Guest review by
HS
Rating:
10
At that time, Iron Maiden had already released two studio albums, Iron Maiden and Killers, which had made them known in the British metal scene. However, vocalist Paul Di Anno was fired from the group due to his uncontrolled alcoholic problems. Although this could have been proved a painful strike, Iron Maiden's golden era was about to start. Soon, vocalist Bruce Dickinson joined the group and in 1982 they released the historically important album The Number Of The Beast.

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published 18.09.2003 | Comments (23)

Guest review by
Arian Totalis
Rating:
9.5
The year is 1982, and metal is still a young and developing genre of music. The new wave of British heavy metal is beginning to take its toll on the American populace. We had already had a taste of Priest's British Steel and nine entire studio albums by Black Sabbath. Now it's Maiden's turn to hit the spotlight, and let me tell you, this release did it for them.

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published 18.02.2010 | Comments (24)

Guest review by
omne metallum
Rating:
7.0
Regularly vaunted as one of the best metal albums ever, The Number of The Beast stands tall in history. When you look at the album on closer inspection, it's a case of the classic songs being so strong they overshadow the weak points that come to the fore. Is it a bad album? Far from it, but is it one of their strongest releases? Probably not.

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published 15.04.2020 | Comments (28)

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Comments

Comments: 117   Visited by: 3219 users
20.05.2010 - 00:17
Roro

Definitely one of the best that time
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06.06.2010 - 17:30
Rating: 10
90IRONMAIDEN

On of my fav records by iron maiden up the irons
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KISS ARMY/THRASH METAL FAN'S WILL NEVER DIE!
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14.08.2010 - 18:15
Triumphator

My favorite Iron Maiden album.. It's surley one of the best Maiden album ever..
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11.09.2010 - 14:20
Reza
Account deleted
Good Album but IMO a bit overrated. I personally love Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son more than it.
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11.09.2010 - 22:29
Ellrohir
Heaven Knight
Good album, classics, but i like some others much more
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My rest seems now calm and deep
Finally I got my dead man sleep


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12.01.2011 - 04:14
ErnilEnNaur
Account deleted
Decent, nothing more. Better than Svensson, Oh Svensson, but still nothing to get excited about. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go listen to Holy Diver.
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12.01.2011 - 07:18
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Like all of Maiden's 80's albums with Bruce, I dont find this album overrated at all. The opening track "Invaders" is actually one of the most underrated songs in Maiden's whole catalogue, and gets the album off to a great start! "Total Eclipse" should have been on the album when it was originally released, so it was nice to see it be added to the album proper on the re-release. xD
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24.04.2011 - 04:47
Rating: 8
rise447

I could never particularly get into iron maiden. As I don't really like their other albums. But this is very good.
Definitely their best album by far (their only good album really) as their riffs are too... Popish?
But this is different.
Great album.
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27.04.2011 - 05:23
soadbyob
Account deleted
Written by Guest on 11.09.2010 at 14:20

Good Album but IMO a bit overrated. I personally love Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son more than it.


Agreed, Piece is my favorite but SSOASS is their best
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15.05.2011 - 00:07
pauli2

My favorite!
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30.06.2011 - 19:53
sandra2

ONe of my favoriteS!
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26.07.2011 - 02:37
BeastOfMetal456
Account deleted
Written by Guest on 11.09.2010 at 14:20

Good Album but IMO a bit overrated. I personally love Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son more than it.

Same opinion about it. But still it kicks ass. Seventh is better though.
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17.08.2011 - 06:01
Death_95

Me too, the best Iron Maiden album but still a little overrated. Master Of Puppets is better IMO...
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15.09.2011 - 21:13
Rating: 8
Mountain King
K i K o
Best of Iron Maiden but not anywhere near a 9.1 rating. I would give it an 8 for sure. But i don't get how a crappy album like Somewhere In Time gets a 8.8 rating...
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20.11.2011 - 19:09
Zap
Guest
Written by Death_95 on 17.08.2011 at 06:01

Me too, the best Iron Maiden album but still a little overrated. Master Of Puppets is better IMO...

"A little overrated" and you give it a perfect score?
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20.11.2011 - 23:29
Death_95

Written by Zap on 20.11.2011 at 19:09

Written by Death_95 on 17.08.2011 at 06:01

Me too, the best Iron Maiden album but still a little overrated. Master Of Puppets is better IMO...

"A little overrated" and you give it a perfect score?

Yes. It's almost perfect, yet still overrated.
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20.11.2011 - 23:43
Zap
Guest
Written by Death_95 on 20.11.2011 at 23:29

Written by Zap on 20.11.2011 at 19:09

Written by Death_95 on 17.08.2011 at 06:01

Me too, the best Iron Maiden album but still a little overrated. Master Of Puppets is better IMO...

"A little overrated" and you give it a perfect score?

Yes. It's almost perfect, yet still overrated.

I don't get it
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21.11.2011 - 03:55
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Saying something is overrated, but then giving it a 10, seems like contradicting yourself... lol
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23.11.2011 - 18:23
Death_95

Written by Angelic Storm on 21.11.2011 at 03:55

Saying something is overrated, but then giving it a 10, seems like contradicting yourself... lol

Lol.. I'm sorry guys, my bad.
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14.01.2012 - 19:53
musicalkaratekid

Absolute monster of an album, even though its not actually my favourite IM album. Full of classic material, with only 'Gangland' and 'Total eclipse' seeming to me 'filler' material. If anyone is wondering why, when i said it has 'filler' material and still gave it a 10, its because the remaining tracks more than make up for it.
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16.01.2012 - 08:44
Nemo Atkins

I really like this album. True, there are overplayed songs ("Run To The Hills" and the title track are noticeable offenders) and there are songs which I feel could have been cut without any noticeable change to the album ("Gangland", although more because it is a bit of a dull track than because of quality), but there's just something about this album that keeps me coming back. Why "The Prisoner" isn't on the touring setlists is something I can't fathom, as I find it one of the strongest tracks (although, admittedly, it is my favorite Iron Maiden song, so I would say that). I'd say it's worth an 8 at minimum.
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16.01.2012 - 11:16
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
For me, this album is all killer and no filler. "Invaders" and "Gangland" are often thought of as fillers, even to the band themselves. But I love both songs, particularly "Invaders", which I feel is one of the greatest opening tracks on an album of all time. "Total Eclipse" is an amazing song, even though it wasn't included on the album until it was remastered in the late 90''s. It really should have been on the album all along, and I love it a lot.
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28.01.2012 - 23:15
Pennywise
Account deleted
Second most overrated metal album in history (first being British Steel), half of the tracks are filler.

4 great songs, 4 absolute filler and one decent song doesn't qualifie a album to be called a classic or even top metal album of the 80s.
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11.03.2012 - 17:52
Rating: 10
mrgod

Not too much to say for any Maiden's albums. Up the irons!
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01.06.2012 - 01:26
neiluria

SIX , SIX SIX ! The nuuumber of the beeaaast !
I dream at night
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02.07.2012 - 16:10
IronMaidenThyGod

666!
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02.07.2012 - 16:16
IronMaidenThyGod

Written by Guest on 28.01.2012 at 23:15

Second most overrated metal album in history (first being British Steel), half of the tracks are filler.

4 great songs, 4 absolute filler and one decent song doesn't qualifie a album to be called a classic or even top metal album of the 80s.


Nope, Only Gangland suck
Invaders is okay

The rest is wonderful
Run to the hills/Hallowed/666 are masterpieces
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07.07.2012 - 23:16
Illog1cal
Account deleted
This is overrated for sure. I would not give it any higher than 8 because there are a few weaker songs: Invaders 6/10, The Prisoner 7.8/10, Gangland 6.6/10, Gangland 5/10 and Children of the Damned is a little bit weak in terms of the instruments. For an album to surpass 9 the WHOLE album needs to be strong, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is an example of that.
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08.07.2012 - 07:35
Rating: 9
JÄY
Metal slave
Written by Guest on 07.07.2012 at 23:16

This is overrated for sure. I would not give it any higher than 8.5 because there are a few weaker songs: Invaders 7/10, The Prisoner 7.4/10, Gangland 6.6/10 and Children of the Damned is a little bit weak in terms of the instruments. For an album to surpass 9 the WHOLE album needs to be strong, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is an example of that.

I agree except The Prisoner is classic in my eyes
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08.07.2012 - 07:40
JohnDoe
Account deleted
A very good album, Gangland is indeed the weakest song, but still not a bad one, quite listenable if I may say so. The rest of the songs are excellent.
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