Poll: Judas Priest or Iron Maiden

Ah, but what was the number of songs you selected from each band? Iron Maiden has much longer songs for the most part.

 

I did it...I went with Priest after thinking about how great Heavy Metal Parking lot is.

 

Love them both, but I have to give a slight edge to JP for a few reasons:

1. Rob Halford is a better Metal singer than Bruce Dickinson. Bruce's vocals have not been consistent. The couple albums before he left Maiden, his voice was ragged. Though, when he came back, his vocals seemed to have improved but not nearly as they were when he first joined Maiden. Even though Halford doesn't sound as good as he did when he was at his peak, he still sounds very good. Besides, Halford has better range with his operatic vocals and can still hit the high-pitched screams without sounding like crap.

2. I look at their albums and JP has more albums that I consider to be amongst my favorites:

JP: Sad Wings Of Destiny (A Top-10 All-Time Favorite Album of mine - this alone would get my vote of JP over IM,) Hell Bent For Leather, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, and Painkiller.

IM: Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, Powerslave . Quite possibly the 3 best consecutive albums released by any band ever. But they haven't come close to this greatness since. I would add Killers too to make it 4 consecutive, but I just don't like Di'Anno. Love the music of that album but I hate the vocals.

3. Twin Guitar Attacks: This one is tough, but Downing and Tipton are the masters at this. When IM had Twin guitars they were very good too (Smith and Murray,) but when they added Gers (after Smith left,) it became a mockery. Then when Smith rejoined, it got a little better. But I still think Gers is a "jester" amongst the trio of Smith/Murray/Gers. Take away Gers and I might reconsider.

4. Replacement Singers: Tim "Ripper" Owens blows away Blaze Bayley. On the X-Factor tour, IM were playing small clubs ( < 1500 capacity) and I got to see them up close next to the stage. Bayley didn't impress me on record or live. Then for the Virtual XI tour, I had tickets to see them but they had to cancel the rest of the tour because Bayley's voice didn't hold up. Then he got fired shortly after and Bruce came back.


Iron Maiden does have few things going for it that I like better than Judas Priest. Songwriting (for the most part, lyrics are less cheesy than JP's,) Steve Harris's Bass playing, Nicko McBrain's drumming and their live shows. I've seen both bands live numerous times and I enjoyed Iron Maiden's theatrical productions and stage shows. Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind Tour with Quiet Riot was the very first Metal concert I attended (I was a Senior in high school.) Lately, Judas Priest's live show have been so-so. They kind of remind me of Black Sabbath/Heaven And Hell when playing live now. They don't move around very much on stage and are stationary for the most part. I guess old age has caught up to them.

 

1. Not true - 'Grunge' was all the rage and he was going for a different style, some songs on thoses albums still used his trademark sound - No Prayers for the Dying for example !! His voice was never 'ragged', your speaking Bollocks my friend his voice is as good as it always has been, although I too consider Halford the better singer at there peak, Halford's voice has gone down hill terribly in recent years and he now plods around on stage , Dickinson still has it and can deliver the goods as well as work the crowd probally better than ever !!

2. Utter Crap - Iron Maiden, Killers, Somewhere In Time, Seventh Son, Brave New World ? ?

3. IMO Murray and Smith in the Eighties were better guitarists than Downing and Tipton, tiny little details and flourishs contain with songs like 'The Duellist' plus Maiden did some pretty spectacular Epics unlike Priest!! The Playing of Harris, McBrain and Gers have just added to the epicness of Maiden!! Priest are seriously lacking in the drumming and bass guitar, boring!!

4. Tim 'Ripper' Owens is a Halford Clone! Blaze is his own man, that speaks volume for credibility and originality IMO, Maiden could have bought a Dickinson Clone in but they care more about there music to do that, they tried a new approach which didn't work!! Blaze is a great live singer, but could not cope with Dickinson's range - fair enough not many singers can - but the guy had balls and kept Maiden going unlike Priest who quit as soon as Halford left!! Then reunited when the money was running out with a Halford Clone - Not good IMO!!

 

I'd have to give the slight edge to Maiden. The last Priest album i loved was "Painkiller" in 1990. Maiden have released several good albums since then.

 

2) His favorites, his opinion. The 'Utter Crap' comment is totally uncalled for, although you certainly have enough posts to get away with it. He's also pointing to albums since Powerslave, the debut and Killers do not quailfy. You might just have your fanboy card revoked.

3) Agree, Murray and Smith are a tad more talented than Downing and Tipton. Tipton has better riffs though. Harris is a great bassist, that's a no brainer - Hill is solid but, not in the same league, he's a traditional, in the background bassist. Gers is a total side show and a third wheel. I think his whirling and twirling around the stage are an embarassment to the band. Does he think he is a member of Winger? The other guys must really like him, or he has some pictures of them they don't want revealed.

 

I've said this before but I'll say it again, even at the risk of awaking the wrath of my dear Phil: I believe Iron Maiden's live sound deteriorated the minute Janick Gers joined them... Smith and Murray were so tight it was unbelievable, their interplay and meshing together was beautiful back in the 80s and they were flawless on stage... Put that together with that steamroller of a rhythm section and they were devastating, both musical and professional...
Cue Gers and the tightness and precision is gone, and even now with Smith back in the fold there's still this raw and sloppy thing going on, and it's always Janick...

Iron Maiden used to be raw, but never sloppy... and Janick's live playing is way sloppy, always has been, it's just his style...

I like my Maiden tight and precise!

 

Totally agree, but what can you do Janick has been in Maiden for twenty years now so he must be doing something right

 

Judas Priest. I think Iron Maiden are a good band, but not really what I listen for when it comes to Metal. I listen to Metal mostly for chunky riffage, which Priest seems to have a lot more of than Maiden. I'm mainly referring to songs like Beyond The Realms Of Death, Dissident Aggressor, and Victim Of Changes, versus The Trooper or Iron Maiden, two of my favorite Maiden songs.

 

Judas Priest, by a small margin though - check my shirt.

 

Maiden because Eddie at the end of a show is cooler than a Harley.

 

Interesting poll....reminds me of the double bill concert I saw in the early 80's with Maiden opening for Priest. Eddie is cooler than the Harley... I can of more "hit" sounding songs from Judas Priest. Love their cover of "Green Manaleshi"

 

Judas Priest for me. Iron Maiden is too Spinal Tappish, whereas JP has been more groundbreaking and diverse. I saw JP live around 1990.

 

What happened to you when you saw Jugulator cover? I still rate it as the WORST RECORD COVER EVER!

 

And Priest are not Spinal Tapish

 

Terrible cover art but, still better than Born Again.

 

Judas Priest has really closed the gap in this poll. Early on it was Iron Maiden 3:1.

 

Judas Priest by a country mile for me, but of course I like Maiden very much, too.

I'm not surprised, though, that Maiden is far ahead. Priest have something serious in their attitude towards Heavy metal that Maiden don't have, just think of Defenders of the Faith and the studs-and-leather-outfit, and I consider this the reason why Maiden are so much more popular. They're not that serious, much easier appealing to people.

And, Priest layed down the foundation, Maiden could build onto it, which is the easier thing to do. With their 70ies albums from Sad Wings to Killing Machine/Hell bent for leather, Priest kicked open the doors to several different directions or may I say aspects of Heavy Metal, music- and lyric-wise (e.g. lyrics: the Ripper, Sinner, Genocide, music: all the proto-speed-metal stuff like Deceiver, Dissident Agressor, Exciter, Hell bent...).

With Priest and Maiden, it's like a family with two brothers. The older one has to fight for anything he wants to do, has to do all the arguments with the parents if he wants to stay out late, wear strange clothes etc, and when the younger one hits that same age, he doesn't need to fioght as much because the parents are already used to that behaviour from the older brother. In the example, Priest is the older, Maiden the younger brother.

 

I'll throw in my 2c. Judas Priest sound incredibly boring to me after repeated listens through the years. Maybe it's because I only have their original CDs from the 80s, but they sound dark, flat and uninvolving, but I highly doubt the CDs are to blame.

Maiden on the other hand is fast paced, with interesting crescendos in the music. More prog if you will.

This isn't to say I don't like slow and dark metal, in fact I love Black Sabbath. But Black Sabbath have loads of atmosphere, another thing that Judas Priest are sorely lacking.

 

Very well said!

 

Very interesting analogies - I totally agree.

To me, Judas Priest is easily the second most important and influential heavy metal band ever - behind, of course, Black Sabbath.

 

Iron Maiden

 

Iron Maiden. Maiden is my favorite metal band of all time (and I eat at Nicko's BBQ joint in South FL every chance I get) but I do love me some Priest too. For our first anniversary, the wife and I saw them at the Seminole Hard Rock Live doing British Steel live. GREAT show. I could eat my own face.

 

This has to be said. However, due to the relatively mediocre commercial succes when compared to Black Sabbath, Maiden and Metallica, and their not-mass-appealing attitude and outfit, Priest is hardly getting the respect they deserve.