Iron Maiden

[Avaitor]

Apparently, they were some progish band from the 60's or something. I think they were also named after some kind of torturing device.

I dunno. That's the only thing I can think of when I hear about iron maidens.

[Commode]

Holy smoke!  Run to the hills!

[SSJ Jake]

I have a Fear of the Dark.

But yeah Iron Maiden is fucking awesome.

[Avaitor]

I'm taking some time to listen to fan remixes of various Maiden songs now, and I want to share this one with you.

"Where the Wild Wind Blows" from the new album in an acoustic folk cover.

The original starts off rather folksy, so the guy here attempts to add that effect to the entire song, and doesn't lose the construction of it's power. Even without the lyrics, which I think are some of Maiden's most thematic.

I'll share some more favorites later.

[Avaitor]

The fuck? I haven't bumped this thread in a while.

First things first, concert review was posted here. Best experience of my life, and I'll never tire of referencing it.

Second



For an early birthday gift, one of my best friends bought me a year's membership into the Iron Maiden Fanclub. Besides this collectable image, I got three posters (one of Nicko behind his drum kit, one of the rest of the band performing, and one of Eddie with the IMFC logo), a folder with my fanclub card in it, one of three yearly magazines that I get, and a bumper sticker. I also get a 20% discount on purchases from the band's official store, as well as access to member-exclusive merch, first opportunity to buy tickets for their shows, and the potential to enter raffles where various members can make it to concert meetings together. The magazine had an article describing one that a group made for the Tampa show I went to, as well as tons of other great stories.

All in all, not a bad haul. I wouldn't join a fan club like this for any other band, but I'll gladly renew my membership next year.

[Avaitor]

Lately I've been playing through their entire discography in order, because I can. The last time I did this was the day before I went to the concert. This time, I'm taking my sweet time, so I can take time to examine each album all the way through before going to the next one.

I started a couple of days ago, listen to one album, do something else for a few hours, then play another, and I'm on Fear of the Dark now. I think I've written before that I feel like this and their previous album, No Prayer for the Dying, are the band's weakest albums, and I still stand by that, even though both have a few highlights. Why?

1- No Adrian. I really like Janick, and think that he was a good replacement for him and a great guitarist, but he and Dave had insane chemistry together that few twin lead shredders have. Janick's tone in the albums, when you can notice it, is distinctive and crazy, but I don't think that Dave really started to gel with him until around the tour for Fear of the Dark.
2- And speaking of no Adrian, the songwriting really dropped down in quality with these. There's actually an Adrian leftover in No Prayer though, "Hooks in You". And it sucks.

But seriously, the gang really seemed to be running out of ideas on both of these albums. There are few history-themed songs, but to be fair, Steve has used his history degree to his full extent during their previous albums. They tried songs about religion and politics instead, which they weren't quite able to handle writing about yet. And besides that, there's a leftover from Bruce's solo career, an unnecessary end to the Charlotte the Harlot saga, TAILGUNNAS, a big focus on fear in FOTD, and even a song about fucking football.

Seriously. "Weekend Warrior" is far and away one of Maiden's worst songs, but I feel compelled to call "Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter" their absolute worst, if only since it's their most unworthy hit. Out of all their songs to top the UK charts, why this one? And "Tailgunner" would crack that list, too, along with a couple of others from these two albums. And I'll spare you from links to these songs for now. You can find them yourself if you want to.

It really seemed like the guys were just throwing darts at potential song ideas during the writing process and used what stuck. The actual musicianship is fine, some exceptions aside, like the weak-as-hell solo in "Fear is the Key". But the lyrics were all over the place.

3- Bruce just wasn't into it anymore. I think after trying out a solo career, he seemed more keen on working with that than Maiden, and only stuck around for the paychecks at this point. His voice sounds very raspy and uninterested during most of the songs on here. Live, he sounded better, and he was fine on his solo albums after he left the band, but it's strange to hear Bruce weak on here, than go back to the earlier or more recent albums and hear him nail it as well as he does. Actually, I think it's outright disheartening.
4- Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Martin Birch went on autopilot here. The production seems a little weaker on these than on the earlier Maiden albums, obviously excluding the first. He retired right after finishing Fear, so I'm guessing that he just stuck it out for the paychecks and stopped caring after Seventh Son, just like Bruce.

But like I said, not everything on these albums were bad. The title tracks for both are great. I'm pretty sure you all know FOTD, since they've played it at virtually every show since the album's release, The Early Days tour aside, which focused entirely on the first 4 albums. And NPFTD is a sweet, intense number that Bruce was able to nail on tour.

To show you other favorites from these albums, here's one from No Prayer and one from Fear. The latter is in my top 5 Maiden songs.

It seems like a lot of people lost interest in the band after Seventh Son. Adrian left, Bruce wanted out, and they were losing valuable members from the crew every day. Not to mention that the grunge age and rise in popularity of thrash was coming, but even then, Maiden didn't suffer as badly from that as most other bands did. At least they didn't until Bruce left. Steve and Nicko were still really into it though, and they could still pull off some great shows. But still, NPFTD and FOTD are downgrades in every way and hard to listen to in full.

Next up are the Blaze albums, which I'll probably come back to comment on. I'll also comment on the post-revival albums, and maybe even Bruce's solo stuff too, if there's any interest. I didn't bother talking about the first 7 albums, since those are what everyone instantly think of when they think of Iron Maiden, and I tend to think about everything they've done as whole.

[Avaitor]

Alright, Virtual XI is wrapping up, so back to Maiden I go.

I honestly like these albums. Not love, but quite enjoy. I think Blaze is a better singer than Paul, and held his own fine during this part of their history. He's not Bruce, and didn't try to be. And the band acknowledged this, as they rewrote their music style a little to make it fit his deeper voice more. They even dropped songs with really high notes that he couldn't pull off on their setlists, like "Run to the Hills". And this somewhat darker sound worked for the band. It still sounds like Steve and the gang are playing, and Dave and Janick have much tighter chemistry in the albums.

The songwriting has also improved a little. There's still a few duds, like "The Angel and the Gambler" and "Lord of the Flies", but the band is trying things like history and science fiction again, and it seems like Steve hasn't lost a hitch. "The Clansman" could have easily fit into the classic albums, and could possibly make it among their best, while "The Sign of the Cross" was a great opener, and one of their most powerful epics.

Blaze was also a very good songwriter, and added some gems to his run. He added a human touch to most of his songs, as opposed to the fiction-lead narratives in most of Maiden's other songs. I'd add this to my favorite songs by the band.

There's still a couple of problems with both albums, like the occasionally weak songwriting, and the darker tone not always fitting in. Steve was a little too busy with problems in his own life to handle more of the writing in Virtual XI, which I think makes it suffer a little.

It's the weaker of the two Blaze albums, but still has classics. I already linked to my favorite from, and it also has "The Clansman", among a few other good tracks. But The X Factor was stronger on the whole.

Even then, as much as I like both albums, they really rebounded after Bruce and Adrian returned with Brave New World. I'll get to those soon.

Also, both albums have some of the band's best liner notes ever in them. I gotta screencap these later.

[Commode]

Fucking listened to the whole Somewhere In Time album like three times over while playing Dead Rising 2 earlier today.  It was pretty awesome.

Just felt like sharing that with the class.

[Avaitor]

Wanna know why I love Bruce? Watch this.

[Commode]

"Run to the store, bring us some more... turkeys!  Canned food! Cereal!..."

An ad that I just heard on a local rock station for their Thanksgiving food drive.  I thought it was pretty cute.

[Avaitor]

So I've been playing Brave New World on a loop on and off today, which has been making me want to do full Maiden album reviews. Not like my tz talkbacks, which I should probably pick up, but with a somewhat similar idea to them I guess, with a different execution.

Before I do though, this year was Number's 30th anniversary. Discuss that while I set some things up.

[Rynnec]

So yeah, this is pretty neat.

[Avaitor]

I'm buying Powerslave for sure. I still have an unremastered version of it.

Killers too, since my copy skips a little during the title track.

Eh, I'll probably end up buying them all.

[Avaitor]

Wanna hear how Maiden sounded when I went to see them?

This isn't the same show I went to, but the same tour. And you don't need to me talk about how great I think the performers and song are again, do you?

[Avaitor]

Welp, Clive Burr passed away. It was only a matter of time, honestly. He's been suffering with Multiple Sclerosis for a long time now, and it' only become worse in the past few years. The band even did a rerelase single of "Run to the Hills" a few years ago to help obtain some charity money for his cause.

It's awful to lose him, though. His work in the first 3 albums was great, and he always did seem like a good person.