I put it far above Number of the beast. Blasphemy I know ;)
Honestly I think my favorite is Brave New World. It has none of the classics but something about it just does it for me as a whole. I don’t really mind Blaze more like a side project than “Iron Maiden”.
For me probably:
1: BNW
2: Killers
3: Live after Death/or Rock in Rio
4: Somewhere in Time
5: NOTB
I was too young for the 80s scene (I’m 33) but I’ve always been into the classics.
I’ll get in on this....
My personal fave albums are:
1) Powerslave
2) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
3) Live After Death
And that’s as far as I’ll go on that, since I only own eight Maiden albums, all of which include Bruce and Adrian.