10 Perfect Metal Albums With No Bad Songs
4. The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
By the time we reached the '80s, metal was finally starting to grow up. In the wake of the pioneers paving the way for heavy music, the next generation was coming up with even more cool ways to twist the genre on its head. Though we got thrown for a loop with the hair metal scene later in the decade, we found the definition of metal by upping the Irons.
After being kings of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast confirmed their status as the world's favorite metal band. Being the first album with Bruce Dickinson behind the mic, every note on this album is absolutely immaculate, from the galloping swagger of Run to the Hills to eventually going on a wild ride at the end of Hallowed Be Thy Name.
This is also where metal started to get a lot more sophisticated as well, talking about real life issues like the unjust sentence on the Prisoner or the down on her luck prostitute on 22 Acacia Avenue. And no matter how many times parents wanted to discount it for Satanism, the title track is one of the pivotal tracks in the entire rock canon. While you can call Maiden's act a bit tried and true for the genre nowadays, whenever you think of the definition of a heavy metal, you're going to end up describing this album.