Albie said:
Another question. Why do we think Iron Maiden keeps their fan-base pretty much more loyal than any other band? This may have been discussed a million times before, but I don't recall much talk on here (excuse me if there actually is a separate thread on this). Is it down to pure loyalty, consistency in their work, or something else? I can think of few bands that can command such a solid fan-base, it has almost become the way of a football team for Maiden, supported by the fans no matter what.
Maybe it's because Maiden offer their fans something to identify with. Better said, Maiden has its own identity, be it Eddie, Steve's agressive stage behaviour, Bruce reliably shouting 'scream for me' at fixed positions within the gig; some of those trademarks may have been on and off during the years (most obviously Bruce's stage antics- when he wasn't with the band, he wasn't there
), but in general, you know what to expect from Maiden and from a Maiden gig, and, despite all variations, they give it to you. To use a very simple image, compare what Maiden give to you with a ball: The ball may be a football, a basketball, it may be blue, red, green, it may be big or small, but it will always be a ball.
Despite all experimentation and variation during the years -Bruce replacing Paul, the 'poppy' approach with Powerslave, the addition of synths, stripping down everything with No Prayer, replacing Bruce with Blaze, replacing Blaze with Bruce, going progressive... name it- you could always tell the band playing was Maiden. They kept Eddie, they kept twin guitar solos, they always had fast rockers and epic pieces on the albums... whatever. If you compare it to Judas Priest, they lost a lot of fans during the Ripper era. The funny thing is, many Priest fans will say that Ripper was a good singer- but it was the way the band went that turned them off. They changed logos, lyrical themes, and the entire music. If you listen to 'Demolition', you can't even
tell it's Priest. The only track on the album I felt had something of a Priest feel was 'Lost And Found'... which under other circumstances would have been the most unlikely Priest song. Moreover, the band dropped their spikes and leather image which many fans loved them for. While Maiden was offering their fans a different-sized ball, Priest put out a box.
At least that's how I see it.
Most of you know by now I'm a Power Metal feind, but recently I've gotten into death and doom and Amorphis has me mesmerized. I went with Therion because in the musical technicality category I place them above Helloween... my true second love, but they haven't been as consistent as Maiden or Therion.
