EDWARD THE GREAT

ack when I was first getting into music in high school, the first band I ever set out to get any albums for was Metallica. What does this have to do with an Iron Maiden best of? That was as close as I ever came to being a fan of metal. I put out my feelers and picked up some other albums just to see if the genre was right for me. Edward the Great was one of those albums. Metal and I were simply not to be. While there are certainly things I can appreciate in small doses at the right time (like say the movie Heavy Metal), I could not get into it like Metallica. Eventually that love faded to when I came across Rush then was given a link to PA found Yes and never looked back.

Edward the Great has a lot of well known songs by Iron Maiden. Some of them really do a good job of showing how cool a band Maiden could be, like Run to the Hills and the Number of the Beast. The album as a whole though I found pretty boring. So much of what I heard simply sounded the same. I think that is the great weakness of compilations, you really aren't hearing the work as the artists themselves intended. Rather, just what some record exec felt were some well received tracks. PA has a lot of well reviewed albums by Iron Maiden, and I think I will check them out some day. Edward the Great has however turned me off of Maiden and it'll take some time to recover from that. There is so much else out there that is worth my time and yours. I don't think anyone should waste their time with Edward the Great. I wouldn't even suggest it to a completionist, because they'd have no use for a best of comprised entirely of singles.