Paul Di'Anno

Hope Paul is okay! Have seen him live once, that was a fun show with lots of ranting, great music and a wild crowd
 
One of the best Maiden related albums out there, finally in one vid on YouTube, with bonus tracks. Enjoy!

Absolute top drawer album. In fact I'd put this in my top 5 all time favourite albums. Pauls voice is the best I've ever heard it. Those screams rival halford in his prime.

Bought this years ago on cassette when it was released then again on cd. Bought the remastered cd a few years back and it sounds better than ever. Shane about the follow up album as I really hoped at the time the Killers band had legs and would go on to release a few more albums. The follow up is piss poor compared to this. A poor attempt at trying to sound like pantera!
 
Wholeheartly agree Wayne! Although I like a few riffs/rhythms from that follow-up.

But indeed, Murder One is a very strong and varied album with enjoyable guitar work. I'm a bit less over the moon by the third and fourth track but from 5 onwards is a great ride! I also love the first two very much. The Beast Arises is a gigantic headbanger. And what an opener! That scream at the beginning, do you know where it is from?

Paul is in great form and he sounds very dedicated. E.g. take his vocals in the suspenseful verses in Protector: awesome! And beautiful singing in e.g. Takin' No Prisoners and that bloody beautiful ballad Dream Keeper. Awakening has a sublime instrumental mid piece (good build-up), and Marshall Lockjaw is one of the best speed (Painkiller style?) metal songs out there.
 
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Wholeheartly agree Wayne! Although I like a few riffs/rhythms from that follow-up.

But indeed, Murder One is a very strong and varied album with enjoyable guitar work and Paul in great form and he sounds very dedicated (e.g. his vocals in these suspenseful verses in Protector: awesome!). I'm somewhat less over the moon by the third and fourth track but from 5 onwards is a great ride! I also love the first two very much. That scream at the beginning, do you know where it is from?

That scream sounds like it's sampled from an old uk hammer horror film. Maybe the witchfinder General as it reminds me of the scream sampled in the cathedral song Hopkins.

I actually like some of menace to society I just hate how different it is and in my opinion it's such a step down that's it's hard for me to enjoy the bits I like. If murder one never existed I might really like menace to society.

I'm listening to this now on my commute to work. Feel like jumping up from my seat on the train and head banging lol.

My favourite track is the beast arises. I think Pauls voice is just perfect on that track. Melodic yet gruff and some of the screams are superb. It's got a great simple catchy riff with a reall catchy pre chorus section on each verse.

All the tracks are great to be honest, love the cover of children of the revolution too.
 
The scream comes from Frenzy from 1972, Hitchcock's serial killer film. Also British, set in London.

On Menace:
I actually like some of menace to society I just hate how different it is and in my opinion it's such a step down that's it's hard for me to enjoy the bits I like.
I know what you mean. I feel the same indeed. The difference was such a disappointment.
 
It's a real shame how Killers never really took off.

I know some of the reason was down to bad timing as I'm sure I read (although I could be wrong) that around this time Paul spent some time in a US jail accused of beating up his then wife/girlfriend and this put Killers on hold and he wrote menace to society in jail.

It just feels every time Paul gets his act together and creates music that isn't just live albums or compilation albums full of old maiden tracks something happens and he gives up on the project. I thought the architects of Kaos album was very good but since it's been released all I've heard from Paul is him gigging singing old maiden songs again. Maybe there's no call for new music from him and that's all he can do to make ends meet.

It's a shame because after he left maiden he had the potential to forge a really good career for himself and I wish he had. I suppose it's the curse of all ex maiden vocalists really, blaze plays to half empty pubs and clubs and Bruce hardly set the world alight sales wise with his solo stuff which is a shame as they have all released really good solo material. Just seems not many are interested in them outside of maiden.
 
Well, "nowhere near" sounds like a big difference in quality doesn't it? Everyone to their own, but I certainly don't feel that's the case. I can enjoy this album as much. I find that all these albums are strong in their own way. In that regard, this one is indeed not that near the others.

This is certainly different from what Bruce and Blaze did (who also -of course- did different things from each other). Obviously, there's this edgy (sometimes aggressive) twin guitar work and certain use of double bass in certain songs, which would surely have appeal among Priest fans. Now if this something you're into, you can already have a great ride. But there's more.

More important (in what I like so much) about Murder One is that it has a dark, sinister colour. A more evil, more dangerous kind of darkness. But its atmosphere can also be moody, haunting, threatening and sometimes I feel some sadness as well even. Blaze's albums are also moody, or gloomy. When I hear his work I enjoy the depth of his voice and I imagine this man who's so committed and connected to what he sings about. There's this strong personal aura, a focus on this individual and his strength. I kind of dive in Blaze's internal world, his emotions and (scientific) interest in the human being and its mental state, its psychology. On Blaze albums there's (urge for) inner strength and willpower written all over it. I associate it with inner strength, going outwards (having effect on life, climbing up, taking control etc.)

On this particular Di'Anno album I feel a lesser direct connection with (the internal mind of) the person Di'Anno. And the focus is rather drawn on the surroundings: enthralling impressions from the outside, having an inward effect. I envision gritty streets. A bleak desolate film noir kind of area, in which it is not safe. And I haven't even focused that well on the content of the lyrics! The atmosphere, the music and the voice(!) envoke all this! And within this uncertain cityscape there are different scenes. E.g. in Protector there's movement, crossing of distance (e.g. from one neighbourhood to another), awareness, a "watch your back" atmosphere. In Takin' No Prisoners it rather feels as if it takes place in a building, or some alley. The calmer parts are so strong: where Di'Anno sings but also in the instrumental bit before the solos start. These beautiful three chords themselves are already so melancholic and desperate(!) sounding. I feel that very much. Just so haunting. And then, with the bass underneath, it slowly builds up getting more intense, with additions of that neat little riff and more action on the drums. Also in Dream Keeper, there's this fragile and vulnerable side. It starts like that, with a very calm guitar melody and then it develops into an incredibly suspenseful and haunting song. I am very sensitive to this, so yeah, that certainly helps in my appreciation! :)

It truly is a varied album. Some songs come directly to the point and keep you at the edge of your seat with a constant level of intensity (Impaler, Marshall Lockjaw) but other songs have built in calmer passages. I like how in some songs the patience is taken in the middle of the songs, to build something up again.

Is it all that interesting and perfect? No, I don't find Children of the Revolution that spectacular. By the way, I remember its video debuting on Headbanger's Ball in the same Faro-episode about Bruce leaving the band(!). The Remember Tomorrow cover was somewhat unnecessary. Perhaps the album would be better without it. Still, it remains a gem that deserves to be heard by more people.

 
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The other members of former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno’s current band, Architects of Chaoz, say they’re finding a new frontman — and it’s a decision he insists they’ll regret.

As previously reported, Di’Anno suffered a health scare earlier this summer when doctors discovered what he described as “a massive big black shadow” on his lungs. Although it turned out to be a “rugby ball”-sized abscess instead of the cancer they initially feared, the resultant procedure and recovery time forced him to miss a series of tour dates — and this setback, along with the other issues he’s faced during a long period of ill health, have left the band ready to move on without him.


Calling the decision “maybe the hardest thing imaginable for us” and insisting it’s for Di’Anno’s “own health and dignity,” the group posted a Facebook update explaining to fans that the situation had simply become too difficult to continue.


“Many of you have seen Paul suffering on and off stage during our last tours,” reads the post. “His health got even worse during the last months and as much as we hoped that there will be a surgery that gets him back on his feet, we had to find out that it is not going to happen. Trust us, nobody shed more tears over this than we did, because the five of us have spent the last eleven years together and if there ever were brothers from different mothers, it was us.”

That sentiment doesn’t seem to be shared by Di’Anno, who’s posted a rebuttal on his own Facebook page. Referring to the rest of the Architects of Chaoz as “my so-called German bandmates,” he vowed to block them from using the band name and said he’d be putting a new lineup together soon. “I hope my new AOC will debut next year with new members and an even heavier sound and energy. I’m looking at my bros in Brazil for this. Goodbye traitors!”


Whatever happens next, it seems likely to happen soon, and with plenty of exclamation points. The remaining members of Architects of Chaoz have told fans that their next album, the follow-up to 2015’s League of Shadows, is “already written” and they intend to enter the studio this fall to “start a new chapter and find a new singer who can transport the energy!!!”


 
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