Invaders is easily the worst opening track for an otherwise perfect album so I still give it a perfect 100. This is a heavy metal jewel. Epic does not sum up the greatness of this album.

Invaders and Gangland are weak....overated album.

Vintage Maiden, while I may be a bit more partial to Powerslave or Seventh Son, this is their signature album and hast their richest staples to date... The amazing power of their rhytm section and the way they transit from acoustic remnants to thunderous guitar solos (see Children Of The Damned) are impossible to imitate....

Look. If you're going to be in a band, if you insist on ruling the world, you want to do it in the most over the top sheep-and-cows-gone-berserk way possible. Put the posters up bold and bright. Get a mascot, maybe yours can be a vampire. Put on the stage lights and plug in that guitar because we have one of Iron Maiden's best! Bruce Dickinson now onboard, he makes himself heard right off the bat on 'Invaders' this albums history lesson I presume. Everything but 'Children of The Damned' is done in a blaze of thrashing and speedy licks. Anything subtle of this world is considered weak and thrown in the fire. That said... Iron Maiden always wrote much more than parties, sex and drugs. The genocide of the Native American's is dealt with over the thunderous galloping of 'Run To The Hills', the bigun 'The Number of The Beast' deals with an interpretation of Revelations while 'The Prisoner' reminds me of the yet to be released film 'Brazil'. A demented 'Baba O'Riley' of the new youth. This is the statement of the new teenage rebellion in the tail end of another economic depression. Pure escapism in a larger than life group here to stay. This is driven home in the final track 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'. A 7 minutes monster of a song about a man who's life is to end on the gallows pole. And every guitar riff and hit of the skins is spot on and fantastic. A bigger finale than the apocalypse.

There is just something about this album that doesn't connect with me like other Maiden albums. Don't know why. Oh well, it's still enjoyable.

i certainly think this album deserves it's place...tight and anthemic... a notch above all other metal with metallica ,judas priest and motorhead slightly behind...

A beautiful and inspiring album,I didn't expect it to impress me,perhaps because I didn't like Powerslave,but it surely did.

One of the best heavy metal albums ever! Period!

They were good before, thanks to impeccable songwriting by Steve Harris and previously unheard guitar work, but add renaissance man Bruce Dickinson and you have a diamond. A true classic from start to finish, including no less than three tracks that never fail: Run to the Hills, The Number of the Beast and Hallowed Be Thy Name. If you don't have it - get it, if you already have it - worship it.

My brother's a huge fan of this album, but every time I listen to it myself, I walk away feeling like most of the album is "cheesy". Obviously, "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is possibly one of the greatest metal anthems the world has ever known, but the rest of this album is as bit over-the-top for me.