Best of the Beast was Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

's first "best of" album, released in 1996 in three formats: a 34 track (four disc) vinyl

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

, a 27 track (two disc) CD, a 16 track (single disc) CD and MiniDisc

MiniDisc

The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...

 (MD).

Background

The track listings are mainly made up of the band's greatest hits (singles) and most well-known songs from their 1980-1995 albums, but they also include a new single, entitled "Virus", and an unreleased live version of "Afraid to Shoot Strangers". Both songs had promotional music videos, the latter of which was filmed during The X Factour

The X Factour

The X Factour was a concert tour by the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 28 September 1995, to 7 September 1996. It was the first tour to feature Blaze Bayley as the lead singer...

 and originally featured the band's previous lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson is an English singer, songwriter, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, screenwriter, actor and marketing director, best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden....

.

The two-CD version contained two songs from the band's 1979 demo tape The Soundhouse Tapes

The Soundhouse Tapes

- Credits :*Paul Di'Anno - vocals*Dave Murray - guitar*Steve Harris - bass guitar*Doug Sampson - drums...

("Iron Maiden" and "Strange World," of which the latter one was previously unreleased). The 4-disc vinyl pressing is quite rare and has increased in value steadily over the years in music stores and on online auction sites. The standard edition's value has not changed much although the Japanese pressings continue to rise in value. The Best Of The Beast has long since been out of print and has been "replaced" by Edward the Great

Edward the Great

Edward the Great is Iron Maiden's third "best-of album", originally released on 5 November 2002.In 2005, a revised edition was released in Europe, Asia and South-America with an updated track-listing...

in most countries as a 'best of' for the band.

The cover art was designed by Derek Riggs, known for having created most of Iron Maiden's early album covers. It is an amalgamation of his most famous works with the band, featuring Eddies

Eddie the Head

Eddie, also known as Eddie The Head, is the mascot for the British heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. He is a perennial fixture of the group's artwork, appearing in all of their record covers and in their merchandise, which includes t-shirts, posters and action figures...

 from the Piece of Mind

Piece of Mind (Iron Maiden album)

Piece of Mind is the fourth studio album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was originally released in 1983 on EMI, and on Capitol in the US; it was reissued later on Sanctuary/Columbia Records...

, Powerslave

Powerslave (album)

Powerslave is the fifth studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 3 September 1984 on EMI in Europe and its sister label Capitol Records in the US ....

, Somewhere in Time and No Prayer for the Dying

No Prayer for the Dying

Reviews for the album were generally poor, with Allmusic commenting that "the songwriting wasn't up to snuff when compared to such classics as Killers or Number of the Beast" and "as a whole doesn't measure up to the hits." Sputnikmusic were equally negative, stating that "No Prayer for the Dying...

eras, as well as those from "The Trooper

The Trooper

"The Trooper" is a song written by Iron Maiden bass player Steve Harris. It is Iron Maiden's ninth single, and the second from their 1983 album Piece of Mind. The single was released on 20 June 1983...

", Live After Death

Live After Death

Live After Death was well received by the music press, with Kerrang! describing it as "possibly the greatest live album of all time." Allmusic shared this sentiment, describing Live After Death as "easily one of heavy metal's best live albums."...

and a redesign of the Killers

Killers (Iron Maiden album)

Killers is the second album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 2 February 1981 in the UK, and 6 June 1981 in the US. The album was their first with guitarist Adrian Smith and their last with vocalist Paul Di'Anno, who was sacked after problems with his stage performance arose due...

album cover.

Standard edition CD

Limited edition CD

Limited edition vinyl

MD Edition (Europe only)

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1996	Austrian Albums Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...	41
	Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...	28
	Dutch Albums Chart	25
	Finnish Albums Chart	8
	German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	42
	Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...	26
	New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	37
	Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	11
	UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	16

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1996	"Virus"	Dutch Singles Chart Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	48
		Finnish Singles Chart	3
		Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	31
		UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	16