The Official Maidenfans.com Rankings results (2004-2016)

LooseCannon said:
Everyone has a different book - the purpose of these rankings was to put everyone's books together and see what the aggregate is, not to tell people what to think or feel. I might think someone's crazy if they say their favourite Iron Maiden song, is, say, The Assassin, but they have every right to give it a 10 and tell people how epic they think it is. They just can't be surprised when they are in the - ahem - minority.
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unless they tell you the best track is The Angel and the Gambler..... it is epic, but not for the right reasons.... lol
 
I disagree. Mother Russia, to me, feels like an epic, despite its shorter length. If you wanna say a song is an epic if it's some minutes or longer, I would go with 8. Eight minutes to me are epics if you wanna go down that route, sorry Hallowed and Phantom. Otherwise if you wanna leave it open, then Mother Russia definitely deserves a spot in that list as much as Empire, Paschendale, or Rime.

EDIT: This was addressed to @SirRobbins 's post btw...
 
What a load of bull. Epic isn't a category or a format, it's a feeling. Trooper is epic, TRATB is not. It's just long. Infinite dreams is epic, TAATG isn't. It just a long rocker. The song has typical rock'n'roll themes, I feel no epic out of it.

You can use "short song" to describe The Trooper, and a "long song" to describe ROTAM. You don't need to classify in between, like the b.s. I've seen here quoting "little epic" - cause that's where most songs fit. El Dorado is still a short song, because newer Maiden is longer, slower and more repetitive overall than "old" Maiden.

Y'all are trying to find a rationale for arbitrary, subjective feelings. How do you classify "grim" Maiden songs, about 4:30 to 6:00 of length?
 
Zare said:
pic isn't a category or a format, it's a feeling. Trooper is epic, TRATB is not. It's just long. Infinite dreams is epic, TAATG isn't. It just a long rocker. The song has typical rock'n'roll themes, I feel no epic out of it.
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I don't know. While I agree that The Trooper has an epic feel, you can also categorize certain songs as "epics", same how a poem might feel epic when you read it, but it may not fall in the genre of epic poetry.
 
LooseCannon said:
I don't know. While I agree that The Trooper has an epic feel, you can also categorize certain songs as "epics", same how a poem might feel epic when you read it, but it may not fall in the genre of epic poetry.
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Well in my understanding of classical terminology, epic could be used for a highly developed work of art commemorating an important event, and it tries to evoke a feel like listener (or viewer) is in the happening itself. The important event itself tho, may be a work of fiction.

Therefore, intention of the artist is definitely important, to make a grand production that should place you in the spot. I definitely feel that intention with Paschendale and The Longest Day, for instance, albeit the former somewhat not evoking the feels for me. On the other hand, the 'grand production' for Mother Russia comes to using one fucking scale that's characteristic to a particular region song's thematically about. Happy love songs in a major scale, want to evoke Eastern euro feel, go for harmonic minor. So if Mother Russia is epic, so is Deep Purple's Anya.
 
Zare said:
Well in my understanding of classical terminology, epic could be used for a highly developed work of art commemorating an important event, and it tries to evoke a feel like listener (or viewer) is in the happening itself. The important event itself tho, may be a work of fiction.

Therefore, intention of the artist is definitely important, to make a grand production that should place you in the spot. I definitely feel that intention with Paschendale and The Longest Day, for instance, albeit the former somewhat not evoking the feels for me. On the other hand, the 'grand production' for Mother Russia comes to using one fucking scale that's characteristic to a particular region song's thematically about. Happy love songs in a major scale, want to evoke Eastern euro feel, go for harmonic minor. So if Mother Russia is epic, so is Deep Purple's Anya.
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I absolutely agree with everything you're saying. I think that is the difference with The Trooper - while it is certainly a great song, I don't think it's meant to give more than what it is, similar to Aces High, which sure tells a story with the words and music, but not a grand story. Or I should say - a more simple story. I think it takes a lot more than that basic song structure.
 
Zare said:
And a lot more than track length ;)
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True, but the longer the song, the more chance it gives an epic song to develop. I'm certainly not saying track length is a requirement - a song like Fear of the Dark isn't quite an epic, even though it certainly an epic live experience (if you can appreciate the difference), and the nail was hit on the head earlier about a track like The Angel and the Gambler, a track in which Steve added length to give that particular illusion, but again, didn't work.
 
Question for a noob... if these rankings are done yearly, are the polls reset each year, or should we go and revote? Or are they based on something different entirely?
 
DJMayes said:
Question for a noob... if these rankings are done yearly, are the polls reset each year, or should we go and revote? Or are they based on something different entirely?
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I don't reset the polls. Since you can edit your own votes, I recommend you consider a yearly Iron Maiden catalog re-listen, and then adjust as you think appropriate.

These rankings were based on several collated votes from the forum, yes.
 
Ok that all ranks diverges a lot from one's personal taste, but I can't stand Starblind as the best TFF song. For me, TFF is the album with the largest gap between the top songs and the worse ones (i.e, should have the largest "deviance"). It has two groups of 5 songs which I would label the first one as potential greatest hits (Wind Blows, Talisman, Coming Home, El Dorado, Final Frontier). The other group - featuring Starblind - brought the album's level down severely.

Despite that, the rank is awesome. Loved "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" in the top 20.
 
I personally think Starblind is brilliant, but I don't know what's going to happen to songs off The Final Frontier over the years. I have a suspicion they are going to sink slowly down the rankings. Starblind simply sunk slower.
 
The lyrics to Starblind are great, but they don't fit the music as well as some of their other songs. Personally, I love TFF, and I'm hoping the songs don't sink so much lower. It's a good album.
 
Mosh said:
TFF will be the "cult classic" of the reunion era. Prog fans will continue to love it, but casuals and more straightforward Metal fans will point to BNW and TBOS as peak reunion Maiden.
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I think you've said this earlier on in this thread, and I tend to agree with it. I really like The Final Frontier even if I feel like the last couple tracks are a bit weaker. Overall a really fun album, engaging to listen to, and not for the casual Iron Maiden fan, for sure.
 
I thought I might've been repeating myself! :facepalm:

I like the album but I don't think it's aging very well. A big part of it is the fact that Bruce has proved since then that it's not peak performance for his age.
 
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