Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of Iron Maiden‘s The Number of the Beast being released. Besides the first four Black Sabbath albums and the biggest albums by thrash’s Big 4, you would be hard-pressed to find a heavy metal album more iconic, beloved, and influential than this one. The fact that we can still put it on and lose our minds to it four decades later speaks to the record’s staying power and artistic integrity. Simply put, this is one of the load-bearing pillars on which all of this — metal, metal culture, MetalSucks — rests.
It is hard to determine which track on The Number of the Beast is the best. Every song is memorable, from the massive singles to the strange, self-involved B-sides. So rather than do the hard work and make the Sophie’s Choices ourselves, we’re gonna make you do it!
Vote below for the best song on Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast. We’ll rank the songs according to reader tally on Tuesday, to honor its 40th anniversary.