Iron Maiden - Best of the Beast (2CD, 1996)

Best of the Beast was Iron Maiden's first "best of" album, released in 1996 in three formats: a 34 track (four disc) vinyl, a 27 track (two disc) CD and a 16 track (single disc) CD and MD. The songlist is mainly Maiden's greatest hits (singles) and most well-known songs from 1980-1995 albums, but it also includes a new single (entitled Virus). A new version of "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" was also on this album. A Live video filmed during The X Factour (world tour to promote The X Factor album) - originally this song featured the band's previous vocalist Bruce Dickinson. The two-CD version contained two songs from the band's 1979 demo tape The Soundhouse Tapes ("Iron Maiden" and "Strange World," of which the latter one was previously unreleased). The cover art was by Derek Riggs, who designed most of Iron Maiden's album covers. It is an amalgimation of his most famous works with the band - it features Eddie from the Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and No Prayer for the Dying eras as well as "The Trooper", Live After Death and a redesign of the Killers album cover.

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Iron Maiden - Best of the Beast (2CD, 1996)

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Although Iron Maiden is known primarily in the U.S. as an album-oriented band, in their native England the band racked up many a hit single, most of which are featured on the 1996 greatest-hits collection, The Best of the Beast. It's available in two formats, either as a 16-track single disc (geared more toward the casual fan) or as a far more extensive 27-track double-disc set, complete with unreleased demos and aimed at the longtime fan. While the single disc contains many of Maiden's best-known songs – "The Number of the Beast", "The Trooper", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Running Free", "Wasted Years", "Can I Play With Madness?" – several prime cuts are left off in favor of subpar Blaze Bayley-era material. It's incomprehensible that such fan favorites as "Flight of Icarus" and "Wrathchild" are left off in favor of "Virus" and "Man on the Edge", but more importantly, the single disc doesn't contain one track that features original vocalist Paul Di'Anno. The double disc is the better of the two, since it includes such non-single classics as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Phantom of the Opera," "Strange World", and "Where Eagles Dare".

~ Greg Prato, all media guide

Disc 1:

01. Virus
02. Sign Of The Cross
03. Man On The Edge
04. Afraid To Shoot Strangers (live)
05. Be Quick Or Be Dead
06. Fear Of The Dark (live)
07. Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter
08. Holy Smoke
09. The Clairvoyant
10. Can I Play With Madness
11. The Evil That Men Do
12. Heaven Can Wait
13. Wasted Years



Disc 2:

01. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (live)
02. Running Free (live)
03. 2 Minutes To Midnight
04. Aces High
05. Where Eagles Dare
06. The Trooper
07. The Number Of The Beast
08. Run To The Hills
09. Hallowed Be Thy Name
10. Wrathchild
11. Phantom Of The Opera
12. Sanctuary
13. Strange World
14. Iron Maiden (unreleased outtake)




Recording information: December 1978 - 1996
Remastered by Simon Heyworth & Murray Harris at Chop Em Out

Huge thanks to frafra64

Release Date: September 24, 1996
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Label: EMI Records Int'l (1st Italian pressing)
Catalog No.: 853192-2