For each band, I am mainly looking for a place to start thats not a greatest hits album. I am mainly looking at 80's era Bruce Dickinson Maiden. For Yes I am mainly looking at "Fragil" "Close to the Edge" and "Tales from Topographic Oceans". For Genesis I mainly am looking at "Foxtrot", "Selling England by the Pound" and "The Lamb that Lies Down on Broadway".

As you can probably tell, for each band I am looking for the more progressive and longer passages over shorter singles.

For Iron Maiden, pick up The Number of the Beast, Powerslave, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The Number of the Beast, while not as progressive, has some of the tightest songs over six minutes that Maiden ever did. Powerslave was by far their most progressive album, with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner being their longest song at 17 minutes. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son has less individual progressive songs, but it's an epic concept album and has probably their best song, "Infinite Dreams."

For Yes, The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, and Fragile are all great. Tales From Topographic Oceans is a good album, but it doesn't feel as organic as those three. The Yes Album was their first album with Steve Howe and his presence allowed them to really stretch out. Fragile had the introduction of Rick Wakeman who made the keyboards do stuff that didn't even seem possible. And Close To The Edge was their last album with Bill Bruford, probably the best drummer in all of rock. There's only three songs on it and each one is amazing. Also worth picking up is their live album Yessongs. The version of "Siberian Khatru" on that album is worth the purchase price alone.

Get all three of those Genesis albums you listed ASAP. They're some of the best progressive rock ever by any band anywhere.

You might also enjoy some albums by Jethro Tull and King Crimson, as well.

Jethro Tull is the band with the flute right?
I was thinking of picking up Into Eternaty's latest album, since they're touring with Dream theater, but when i saw them on headbangers ball, they seemed more like a screamo band (although, there is nothing wrong with that) with somewhat progressive elements. I can see Dream Theater fans complaining.

Iron Maiden : Piece of Mind, Number Of The Beast, Self titled (I know its not Bruce but it has so many classics and is just a great album)

Yeah I was going to suggest "Piece of Mind" for Maiden too. Awesome album with very interesting songs with great lyrics....and come on, it has a song about DUNE.

1. Where Eagles Dare
2. Revelations
3. Flight of Icarus
4. Die With Your Boots On
5. Trooper
6. Still Life
7. Quest for Fire
8. Sun and Steel
9. To Tame a Land <- DUNE song

My Iron Maiden recommendations would be The Number of the Beast and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Those always have and always will be my favorite Maiden releases.

I'd buy them in this order:
1. Number of the Beast
2. Piece of Mind
3. Powerslave
4. Killers
5. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (as much as it pains me to put this great album in fifth place)

Start with "Close to the Edge", then get "Fragile". I'm not a big "Tales..." fan, get "Yessongs" first. Then get their first album "The Yes Album"...then move on to King Crimson.

Get "Lamb..." first, then 'Selling England..." then maybe "Abacab". Then I'd get some of the Peter Gabriel solo stuff, particularly his first five albums.

For Maiden I suggest starting at the very beginning, as each album has its own unique prog elements. This way you can fully appreciate their evolution as a band, and it is quite a worthwhile evolution to experience. IMO if you follow them all the way to Somewhere in Time/Seventh Son era you've experienced the best they have to offer.

I actually think the latest 2 Maiden albums are their most progressive. I'm not really into that stuff so those 2 don't do much for me, but you may like them. The best Maiden stuff is the 5 album run starting with Number of The Beast and ending with Seventh Son.

My most favorite Genesis album from that era is "Live". Granted I've always been partial to live stuff, it also has a great version of "The Knife". Of the ones you listed, I'd pick "Foxtrot".

as suggested above, just start at the beginnig with Maiden, the earliest stuff is the best.

Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind - all pretty much perfect albums in my opinion (the 1st 2 w/ Dianno are so great but often overlooked)

Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - all excellent albums but a notch or 2 below the 1st 4.

No Prayer For The Dying , Fear of The Dark - both good but not great albums with a few classic tracks

X factor, Virtual 11 - Blaze got a bad wrap, X factor was Maidens worst album but Virtual 11 was better than the last 2 Bruce albums

Brave New Word - Great comback with Bruce, just a tad below Poweslave, SWIN & 7th son

Dance Of Death - Dickinson's worst album with the band

A Matter Of Life and Death - huge improvement over the last album but is in same league as NPFTD and FOTD

For Genesis, Selling England by the Pound is where I would start. A classic album. Foxtrot is great but Supper's Ready is half the album and not easy to digest quickly. Listen to it repeatedly and it's one of the best long songs of the 70's. THe Lamb is great but disc 2 really peters out (pun intended). Other than that, Nursery Cryme, Live, Seconds Out, Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering. After that Phil Collins became... Phil Collins.

Rypro, I am getting rid of the first 5 Collins-era Genesis cds as I am planning on buying the box set that comes out this month. E-mail me if you are interested. I will sell them cheap.

13 Minutes

I agree with that. But I’d also pick up the three since the Bruce/Adrian reunion.

I agree that their last two are the most progressive sounding. I do like them both a lot. Dance of Death took a long time to grow on me but it has. It has 4 of the best Maiden songs on it: Face in the Sand (my favorite right now), Dance of Death, Paschendale, Rainmaker are all great songs.

The 1st two albums are great and overlooked.

I think Powerslave, SIT, 7th Son are as good as the 1st four. (They are all great…buy them all).

I think Piece of Mind is slightly overrated. Sun and Steel and Quest for Fire are mediocre at best. Die with their Boots on is okay. The Trooper is good, but has been overplayed on all the live albums. Revelations and Still Life are two of their best. The rest are all good.

I’d probably stay away from Prayer & Fear as well. They have some pretty good songs, but a lot of bad (for Maiden) songs. I didn’t like the growling-thing Bruce was doing with his voice. You should download Run Silent, Run Deep though.

X-Factor is a great album. I’d put it up near anything they did with Di’Anno or Bruce. Virtual 11 was okay – no bad songs, but no classic songs either.

Brave New World – great cd, “Blood Brothers” is a classic and makes it worth the price alone.

Dance of Death – took a while to grow on me, but it has so many stand out songs (Rainmaker, Paschendale, Face in the Sand, Dance of Death).

Matter of Life and Death – Pretty good cd. It’s starting to grow on me as well.

I strongly recommend some of Bruce’s solo works in particular the Chemical Wedding. And also Accident of Birth, Tyranny of Souls, and Balls to Picasso 2CD.


And if you’re into 80’s Maiden I’d also check out the Helloween “Keeper of the Seven Keys” Parts 1 & 2. They have a lot of great songs and two 13+ minute epics.

I stand corrected.

Also guys, remember this is supposed to be an introduction for a newbie. While I enjoy Dance of Death, I wouldn't suggest it for a newcomer over Powerslave or The Number of the Beast.

Iron Maiden - if you're looking for the progressive influences...

Piece of Mind
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
A Matter of Life and Death

Those are three of their best albums, and probably three with the most progressive styles ("Where Eagles Dare" and "Revelations" are amazing from Piece of Mind).

Iron Maiden : Piece of Mind