Playing a lot of great live shows around England. I enjoy listening to those bootlegs sometimes; some of Rob's high notes were phenomenal.

I've been pumping out "Powerslave" today & I'm going to have to admit that I'd like to change my answer. "Painkiller" has gone back to being my favourite heavy metal album again.

Yeah, I have to agree with Stat. British Steel was probably their breakthrough over here.

Anyway, Powerslave gets it for me

British Steel was definitely their breakthrough, yes. They always got more attention in the US than they did in the UK; Sin After Sin did considerably better than Sad Wings upon release because of the US interest, as far as I know.

With the help from MTV, it really kicked in for them with Point of Entry.

And with Screaming For Vengeance they went massive Stateside, by the mid 80s they were at arena level.

I've always thought there's a great documentary to be made on how JP conquered America in the way they did, since they managed to do it far more effectively than most other British bands outside of the really huge names like Zep and Floyd, but outside of North America I don't think people really understand just how successful they were in that respect.

Iron Maiden and Def Leppard were (far) more successful than Priest in the states. Way I know it, it's Living After Midnight that was their breakthrough song on the US radio.

Iron Maiden were not more successful in the states than Priest in the 80's Vic. Maiden never had an album that went double platinum in America. The only time they were far ahead of Priest in terms of sales was when Priest released Turbo, which turned off many fans resulting in lower sales.

Maiden are more popular in the U.S than Priest now of course, but I think that has a lot to do with a number of different factors such as Priest's lack of recording output in the 90's, perceptions of trend following and Halford moving from band to band. It just diluted the brand, and by the time they came back with Angel of Retribution there was a whiff of desperation about it, even if it was good. They should have acted more decisively in the late 90's/early 00's and got Halford back then.

Maiden were much bigger in Europe though, and that's kind of where Priest fucked up from a long term strategic standpoint. They focused too much on the U.S market, and that was especially true of their output after Screaming For Vengeance. They also failed to make a huge dent in Asia, particularly in the emerging markets of India etc, which Maiden have completely capitalized on, especially since their reunion with Bruce.

So after Jugulator then. Was he up for rejoining at that stage? I remember his leaving all seemed pretty final when the split happened initially and on into the 90s.

No epic songs on PK! PS had 2! Case closed.

Combined top ten:

1. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
2. Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny
3. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
4. Judas Priest - Stained Class
5. Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith
6. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
7. Judas Priest - Painkiller
8. Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
9. Judas Priest - Sin After Sin
10. Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

These things are highly subjective so let's bare that in my if the pitchforks come out

Project Pitchfork!

Fork Off & Die! (Broken Bones) or Darkthrone!

That's some pretty vicious ass forking!

I'd like to know how this happened.