Iron Maiden album covers ranked
Iron Maiden are the one band who built an entire visual universe around a single character: Eddie, the decaying mascot who has been reincarnated as a soldier, a pharaoh, a cyborg and a prophet across forty years. Their sleeves aren't covers — they're instalments in a horror comic.
Here are all 8 Iron Maiden album covers we have in the game, ranked from the most recognisable to the least.
1. The Number of the Beast (1982)
The Number of the BeastIron Maiden · 1982
Eddie as a grinning puppet-master devil, pulling the strings of a smaller, panicking devil — while the band look on from the flames. Derek Riggs's most famous painting, and the sleeve that made Eddie a household face. It caused a minor moral panic in the US, which only sold more copies.
2. Powerslave (1984)
PowerslaveIron Maiden · 1984
Eddie as a stone pharaoh, seated on a throne in an Egyptian tomb, the band's mascot carved into ancient history. Riggs outdid himself on the detail — every hieroglyph tells a joke — and it remains the most visually rich cover Maiden ever produced.
3. Somewhere in Time (1986)
Somewhere in TimeIron Maiden · 1986
Eddie as a chrome-plated cyborg, rebuilt for the future in a Blade Runner cityscape. It's the most ambitious sleeve of the run, packed with hundreds of tiny in-jokes and references hidden in the background — fans still find new ones decades on.
4. Killers (1981)
KillersIron Maiden · 1981
Eddie clutching a bloodied axe, grinning in a back alley. It's the mascot at his most slasher-movie, and the cover that cemented Eddie as the band's permanent face — the point where Maiden stopped being a band with a drawing and became a band with a character.
5. Piece of Mind (1983)
Piece of MindIron Maiden · 1983
Eddie chained in a padded cell, the top of his skull missing, his brain exposed. A cover about lobotomy and madness that somehow became one of the band's most beloved — and the first to give Eddie a proper "story" to act out.
6. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
Seventh Son of a Seventh SonIron Maiden · 1988
Eddie as a mystical prophet, floating above a frozen landscape with a burning figure in his hand. It's the mascot at his most mythic — all prophecy and ice — wrapping the band's only full concept album in appropriately epic artwork.
7. Iron Maiden (1980)
Iron MaidenIron Maiden · 1980
The original Eddie, a pale, wild-haired figure looming out of the darkness — a scrappier, more punk version of the character he'd become. The debut sleeve is rougher than what followed, but it's the birth of an icon, and it still has a raw menace the polished covers lack.
8. Fear of the Dark (1992)
Fear of the DarkIron Maiden · 1992
Eddie as a twisted tree-creature, hanging in a dark wood. It's a fine piece of work, but by 1992 the formula had settled — and this Eddie, for all his branches and menace, feels more like a variation on a theme than a reinvention.
The albums we're missing
Maiden have released seventeen studio albums, so we're only partway there — we're missing the later chapters of Eddie's story, including No Prayer for the Dying (1990), Brave New World (2000), Dance of Death (2003), A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier, The Book of Souls and Senjutsu, plus the rest of the Blaze Bayley era. We'll keep adding them.
That's the beauty of Eddie — every cover is a single, unforgettable image, which is exactly what makes him perfect quiz material. See how few tiles it takes to name The Number of the Beast in today's VinylPeek, or browse every metal cover in the archive. If you liked this, rank Nirvana's sleeves next.