Ed Hunter

Iron Maiden's Ed Hunter is a compilation released to support the tour of the same name that saw singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith join the band again. The twenty songs chosen for this compilation are based upon a voting by fans conducted on the band's website. This compilation also includes a video game that honours Iron Maiden's cover artworks and takes about two hours to complete.

The main issue with this compilation is that an excellent greatest hits album had only been published three years earlier with Best of the Beast. Many songs on both compilations are identical and the band had only released one new studio album between the two compilations. While Best of the Beast included an excellent new song with ''Virus'' as well as some forgotten pearls from the early years, Ed Hunter mostly focuses on singles and classics without too many surprises.

However, some choices are rather weird. It's difficult to imagine that fans would chose recent single ''Futureal'' over the band's epic masterpiece ''Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' for instance. It's similarly hard to figure out why fans would prefer rather unsuccessful single ''Man on the Edge'' over the beloved ''Alexander the Great'' that so many people have asked the band to finally play in concert. The impression I get is that the track list has been adapted to the setlist for the tour and that management absolutely wanted every single album to be represented on the compilation instead of really aiming for the most popular songs.

The video game wasn't even great by the standards back in the day. It has multiple bugs and looks like a cheap shoot 'em up from the early nineties. It might have been a curious little gimmick for die-hard fans back in the days but as a video game, Ed Hunter is certainly below average to say the least.

Despite all those negative points, it's needless to say that the song material on this compilation is great and finds an overall solid balance between hit singles like The Trooper, fan favourites such as Fear of the Dark and a few forgotten pearls in the key of Stranger in a Strange Land.

In the end, Ed Hunter might have been an interesting gimmick for die-hard fans back in the days but the fact that the excellent compilation Best of the Beast had only been released three years earlier makes this one rather useless. The compilation hasn't aged particularly well either and is only interesting for avid collectors nowadays. The band should stop releasing so many repetitive compilations, below average video games and even predictable live albums until today to finally offer some new material more than five years after its most recent studio album.

I didn't think it was possible for Iron Maiden to make a compilation worth owning, or thats any good at all. Here we have Ed Hunter, aside from having a great song selection, it comes with (at the time) a great video game with pretty good graphics. It was a smart idea to have the fans vote for their favorite Iron Maiden songs, instead of having Iron Maiden make another compilation that doesn't have the songs the fans want on it. I give them alot of credit for that. This and perhaps Best of The Beast are the only Iron Maiden compilations that are worth owning if you don't have their complete discography. Most Maiden Fans have all their albums so usually Maiden compilations are worthless if they don't have unreleased material on it, in this case a video game. Whats nice is that this little package is between 20-30 dollars in a major chain store like best buy or sam goody, and it comes with a game, most games are like 50 bucks, so the value is unquestionalby good.

The music on this album is also great, having all great Maiden tracks up to Virtual XI, without having to many from one album on this. It has the best version of Iron Maiden, done live by Bruce on vocals. A nice Hidden track with Bruce on vocals for Wrathchild. Plus a bunch of classics like Fear of The Dark, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Run To The Hills, The Trooper, these are essential songs for a compilation. Then the great forgotten tracks like Stranger In A Strange Land and Waster Years, tracks usually left off of Iron Maiden Compilations, see the fans know what they are doing.

I think this is a great Iron Maiden compilation, most Maiden comps suck like 17 Numbers By The Beast and Edward The Great. I would rate this up there with Best Of The Beast. Worth owning if you want a now outdated Iron Maiden themed Dom style game, or if your Iron Maiden albums are only few.