Heard the album... [Thread contains spoilers]

One year later i finally listened to the album from the beginning to the end (first time in 2007). It´s the best album of the "reunion" era; there are no fillers. The music combines the best of the X-Factor (long intros, but especially the dark atmosphere), with great solos, but the most evident thing is that the three guitars finally are better combined (in the past, only Paschendale shows the potencial; there are great music, but something was lacking, imo).

The lyrics are far better than the last six albums. This is their best effort since 7th Son. I think Dickinson is  in way better shape than in DOD. Of course, he don´t have the 666 power anymore, but the talent is still there.
 
Resurrecting a 5 year thread, here we go! :D

Anyway, I decided to just let my car stereo run through all the folders (i.e. albums) on the USB stick, and after a while it got to Iron Maiden albums. I hadn't listened to AMOLAD for a very long time, and I was surprised how weak the album seemed to me because I was expecting it to be better than DOD, which in fact it is not. Right from the first song we have Different World which is a mandatory fast rock opener, but is a clone of Wildest Dreams, which by itself isn't a stellar song. It's followed by These Colours Don't Run, a good-but-not-great song with a hawkish topic, which makes me not like it that much. Finally, we come to a great Maiden classic standing strong after six and a half years since being released, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, truly representing the best of modern Maiden. Then another generic piece of filler, The Pilgrim. The Longest Day, good song. Then a 13-minute bore-fest featuring Out of the Shadows (let's make a power ballad for the sake of it) and Benjamin Breeg (let's not waste any studio time refining the arrangement or creating an interesting melody - at certain moments, Bruce sounds like he's making it up as he goes along, reminiscent of "Pass the Jam"). The last interesting song on the album is For the Greater Good of God, followed by Lord of Light and The Legacy which have never managed to capture my interest, despite a few good musical moments in them.

Bottom line, I think AMOLAD is the weakest album in the "reunion era". It's pretty bleak and contains a lot of filler, and its cover represents its tone perfectly - grey and dull. Too bad the band came to the idea to play it in its entirety instead of TFF or even DOD. (Montsegur live? Starblind live? The Alchemist live? Hell yeah!)
 
:blink:

I listen to the album about twice every month by average, and if anything, my opinion of it has improved - I think it is the or one of the best albums released in the 2000s. Then again, maybe I should give it (and all Maiden stuff) a break for a while for renewed impact.
 
I've always liked this one, I felt it had a certain maturity and gravity about it, although I tend to listen to the full album, rather than pick out one or two tracks. It's the album I'm most likely to get the BF listening to without complaining, too <_<
 
Yeah, it is :D It seemed dull as hell to me the first time I heard it, and it still does. Reeks of an unfinished product, the vocal melody ("I'm able to seeeeee things, things I don't want to seeeeee, the weight of a thousand souls, weighing down on meeeeeee") makes me cringe, the lyrics make me cringe. It's god-awful. It's based on the same repetitive riff; Nicko tried to save it by inserting tom-tom and hi-hat fills all over the place, but it somehow made it even worse. I honestly can't say one positive thing about the song. Even the solos are uninspired.
 
The "solos" (plural) --are one solo, by Dave. (Either that was a slip, or you hate this track so much you can't remember how many guitar solos there actually are! :p) Personally, I think this is one of Dave's strongest post-2000 leads. In fact I had it as my #1 "favourite" lead (of Dave's)... period. I'm honestly astounded that you can label this as uninspired. It's a lovely, lovely guitar lead.
 
No, I'm serious. It has nothing to do with who composed the song, I just don't like it. ;)
 
But that lead is a piece of Davey magic. I'll accept the lyrics being poor, if you feel they are. And (lyrics included) it's certainly pretty repetitive. But, come one! --seriously, that lead is a fine, fine piece of guitar work.
 
Indeed. It's certainly one of my favourite tracks from the last four (studio) albums. Overall? Never really given an ultimate song order much serious thought --but it would probably have a fighting chance of making it into my top 10... if I had one.

I think Ranko is just being a mischievous rascal! :p
 
I love AMOLAD. My 2nd favorite Maiden album. I feel like they once again captured the dark mood of X Factor but mixed it in with that new 2000's sound and of course the influence of Bruce and H.

Dave's solo in Breeg is one of his best in recent years.
 
I love AMOLAD. But there is a germ of truth in many of Ranko's criticisms, as long as they are taken in the context of "great albums that are a tad overrated."
One thing AMOLAD does really well is tie together thematically; as an album it just fits together.
But I think that also helps to disguise the fact it is not quite so strong when considered simply as a collection of songs.
Certainly the songs aren't any better than the songs on TFF. But TFF suffers somewhat from lack of theme and poor track order.

If you break them down by song type (really, only * is a bad parallel) and face them off as song versus song, I prefer TFF

Witness:
Different World < Final Frontier
These Colours Don't Run > El Dorado
Thousand Suns = Avalon
Pilgrim < Alchemist
Longest Day > Mother of Mercy*
Out of the Shadows < Coming Home
Benjamin Breeg > The Man Would Be King
Greater Good < Wild Wind
Lord of Light < Starblind
Legacy = The Talisman

At the very least they are comparable, yet AMOLAD gets more acclaim

Or try the universally more hated Dance of Death:
Different World > Wildest Dreams
These Colours Don't Run = Rainmaker
Thousand Suns = Dance of Death
Pilgrim < Montsegur
Longest Day < Paschendale
Out of the Shadows < Journeyman
Benjamin Breeg > New Frontier*
Greater Good < No More Lies
Lord of Light > Face in the Sand*
Legacy > Age of Innocence*

It's a tougher comparison because there aren't as many parallels, but it's not the wipeout one would expect.
AMOLAD's edge comes from the bottom half of the album; it has more depth. But the top half of DoD stands up against it very well.
 
You know, I actually feel the opposite. I think TFF has a great track order and while there isn't a major theme, they tie together well imo. I like how the first 5 songs are of a shorter structure and the final 5 are longer. But when taking the songs out individually, it doesn't hold up, where AMOLAD does.
 
Why does DoD get so much hate? It's a fantastic Maiden album IMO. How was Death on the Road? It doesnt seem like a very great live DVD.
 
Dance of Death is a transitional album. They've proved themselves to be still relevant and not a nostalgia act with the modern metal classic Brave New World and now it's time to do some real experimentation. It's a very unique album because of this. We get epics that are unlike anything Maiden has done before with Paschendale and Dance of Death, writing credits from Nicko, and a completely acoustic song. That said, experimentation often leads to some not so good results and DoD is no exception to this. While some of it is really good, there are also a lot of weak spots and moments that just don't sit right. It's probably Maiden's most inconsistent record. By the time they make the next two albums, they are still trying new things but at this point they have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. They're both stronger and Brave New World is a worthy companion to the classic 80's albums anyway. So DoD kinda gets lost in the dust.

It's still an extremely important album though. It lays the groundwork for a lot of the best songs on AMOLAD and TFF. Like there'd be no Legacy or Talisman if it weren't for Dance Of Death, or Out Of The Shadows wouldn't have been written without Journeyman. Or any of the recent H penned epics without Paschendale. And so on and so forth.
 
Like there'd be no Legacy or Talisman if it weren't for Dance Of Death, or Out Of The Shadows wouldn't have been written without Journeyman. Or any of the recent H penned epics without Paschendale. And so on and so forth.
I don't really see what these songs have in common. E.g. Journeyman doesn't sound a bit like Out of the Shadows. Yes, they are both calm songs, but so are Strange World and Prodigal Son.

I'd say this is more correct: There would be no Talisman if it weren't for The Legacy. These intros are the most alike elements from all the songs you mentioned.
 
I'd say this is more correct: There would be no Talisman if it weren't for The Legacy. These intros are the most alike elements from all the songs you mentioned.

So how come that 'The Talisman' is an amazing song whereas 'The Legacy' is...utter crap?
 
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