Stop soloing over Adrian!

I liked some of what Dave was playing on TFF. Coming Home, TFF, and Isle Of Avalon have really good solos.

Based on interviews after TFF I got the impression that Adrian was burnt out. He seemed unhappy with the way some of the album turned out and talked about writing shorter songs on the next album. There was definitely a return to the 80s on Speed Of Light and Death Or Glory (great songs) and a little bit of Accident of Birth on Tears Of a Clown, but there wasn't anything new in his playing or writing.
 
Personally, I feel Maiden hit peak prog on AMOLAD. Adrian probably loved the direction and tried to push it even further on TFF, but it just didn't work. Maiden can't go full prog. You can hear this on songs like IOA, Starblind, and TMWWBK, they've just pushed themselves a little too far out of their wheelhouse. I can imagine that writing and recording process being exhausting.

Mosh said:
I liked some of what Dave was playing on TFF. Coming Home, TFF, and Isle Of Avalon have really good solos.
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Coming Home is nice, but it's a paint-by-numbers emotional blues solo from Davey. TFF is solid and IOA is certainly the most interesting thing Murray does on the album. Sort of like his TOAC sweeping section, it's finest solo of the bunch.
 
Mosh said:
I liked some of what Dave was playing on TFF. Coming Home, TFF, and Isle Of Avalon have really good solos.

Based on interviews after TFF I got the impression that Adrian was burnt out. He seemed unhappy with the way some of the album turned out and talked about writing shorter songs on the next album. There was definitely a return to the 80s on Speed Of Light and Death Or Glory (great songs) and a little bit of Accident of Birth on Tears Of a Clown, but there wasn't anything new in his playing or writing.
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My main criticism of TBoS is that the 2 Smith-Dickinson short rockers (SoL and DoG) were not up to 80s Smith-Dickinson standards. They're good, but sound a little forced to me. Certainly they don't touch the levels of Two Minutes To Midnight or Flight of Icarus. I love TBoS for the epics and longer "filler" songs.
 
Operations666 said:
My main criticism of TBoS is that the 2 Smith-Dickinson short rockers (SoL and DoG) were not up to 80s Smith-Dickinson standards. They're good, but sound a little forced to me. Certainly they don't touch the levels of Two Minutes To Midnight or Flight of Icarus. I love TBoS for the epics and longer "filler" songs.
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One of my central criticisms of post-Seventh Son albums is that the short songs are mostly disposable. SoL and DoG are really strong in my opinion and rekindled the 80s spirit to my ears.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Personally, I feel Maiden hit peak prog on AMOLAD. Adrian probably loved the direction and tried to push it even further on TFF, but it just didn't work. Maiden can't go full prog. You can hear this on songs like IOA, Starblind, and TMWWBK, they've just pushed themselves a little too far out of their wheelhouse. I can imagine that writing and recording process being exhausting.
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Yup. Maiden are not a prog band, no matter how many times they get slapped with that label. I'd love to see Adrian participate in a proggy solo project at some point.
 
soundwave said:
One of my central criticisms of post-Seventh Son albums is that the short songs are mostly disposable. SoL and DoG are really strong in my opinion and rekindled the 80s spirit to my ears.
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Agreed. There hasn't been short rocker material as memorable as SoL or DoG since Wicker Man (or maybe Rainmaker). And total, I'd say there's been less than 7 truly memorable short rockers since the 80's.

Mosh said:
Yup. Maiden are not a prog band, no matter how many times they get slapped with that label. I'd love to see Adrian participate in a proggy solo project at some point.
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Maybe he can get something going with Mike Portnoy? :bigsmile:
 
I was thinking something less Dream Theater and more Marillion. Always thought Rothery had a very similar style to Adrian.
 
I love TFF because it's so overtly prog in places. I was a big prog head. Isle of Avalon and Starblind are 2 of my favorite Maiden songs ever because they're so proggy.

At first I was a bit disappointed in TBoS because it was less proggy than TFF. In any case, I'm glad Maiden experiments with some different styles and sounds. Each album is unique to me.
 
Yea, being a double album and having all those long songs I was expecting the album to be much more proggy than it was. Now that the album has marinated a bit I think I prefer it over TFF. In the end, good songwriting and performance beats out everything else.
 
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