RUN FOR YOUR LIVES 2026

[Azas]

There's nothing wrong with Invaders or Gangland. Call me crazy but I like Chains of Misery. It even could have been played on American radio if the band name wasn't Iron Maiden IMO.

I agree that Invaders and Gangland are passable songs. But judging them against Iron Maiden's classic hits doesn't do them any favors.

As for the more experimental songs on Fear of the Dark, I strongly disagree. To my ears, those tracks are very un-Maiden. They sound like the band trying to be something they never really were.

Regarding Virtual XI, I personally rate only three songs as very good to great: Futureal, The Clansman, and The Angel and the Gambler (the short version). Beyond those, the album comes across to me as rather whiny and depressive. That's simply how I hear it. Sorry.

As for Quest for Fire, yes, the lyrics are questionable, but I think the music is good. So in my previous post, the songs from the '80s were simply the usual suspects—the tracks that aren't particularly loved by a large portion of the fanbase.

 

[Iron Lurker]

As for the more experimental songs on Fear of the Dark, I strongly disagree. To my ears, those tracks are very un-Maiden. They sound like the band trying to be something they never really were.

I've often thought the reason for that is FOTD was perhaps an attempt (directed from the band and/or Label) to become more mainstream acceptable in the USA (MTV was still a thing then. I believe Bruce did multiple appearances on MTV promoting it). Explains songs like Wasting Love and Chains of Misery. If fact Chains was even listed on adverts in the US. Indicates to me that they thought Chains was "hit worthy"

 

[Spaldy]

Will the RaR show be live streamed?

 

[riff]

Will the RaR show be live streamed?

No

 

[dickinson1978]

I agree that Invaders and Gangland are passable songs. But judging them against Iron Maiden's classic hits doesn't do them any favors.

As for the more experimental songs on Fear of the Dark, I strongly disagree. To my ears, those tracks are very un-Maiden. They sound like the band trying to be something they never really were.

Regarding Virtual XI, I personally rate only three songs as very good to great: Futureal, The Clansman, and The Angel and the Gambler (the short version). Beyond those, the album comes across to me as rather whiny and depressive. That's simply how I hear it. Sorry.

As for Quest for Fire, yes, the lyrics are questionable, but I think the music is good. So in my previous post, the songs from the '80s were simply the usual suspects—the tracks that aren't particularly loved by a large portion of the fanbase.

Fear of the dark has songs with classic maiden sound but for sure is maiden aproaching to the 90s sound. But BQOBD ATSS and FOTD made maybe the sound of xfactor and virtual xi

 

[Azas]

Fear of the dark has songs with classic maiden sound but for sure is maiden aproaching to the 90s sound. But BQOBD ATSS and FOTD made maybe the sound of xfactor and virtual xi

I love
Be Quick or Be Dead
From Here to Eternity (many fans don't like it, personally I think it's great)
Afraid to Shoot Strangers
Childhood's End
Judas Be My Guide
Fear of the Dark

And some parts of The Fugitive

 

[onurb]

 

[Vaenyr]

Things are "un-Maiden" until they become Maiden. Rime had several minutes of a quiet interlude, that was unprecedented for early Maiden. CSIT introduced the guitar synths, which was "un-Maiden" at that time. Face In The Sand has the double bass pedal, If Eternity Should Fail is in Drop D, Empire Of The Clouds features the piano. I feel it's a bit silly to focus on what's "Maiden" and what isn't. At the end of the day the result is what matters.

Are songs like Chains Of Misery or From Here To Eternity masterpieces? No, of course not. They're dumb little songs, but they are goddamn fun. Not every song needs to be a historic epic or a treatise on the atrocities of war. The early Maiden records had quite a few light-hearted sounding songs. So, yeah, I'll keep defend songs like COM or FHTE.

The Apparition sucks though.

 

[onurb]

Are songs like Chains Of Misery or From Here To Eternity masterpieces? No, of course not. They're dumb little songs, but they are goddamn fun.

Holy smoke in the same category imo.

 

[Vaenyr]

Holy smoke in the same category imo.

Definitely! I also really love some of the lyrics:

They're saving the souls by taking your money
Flies around shit, bees around honey

I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the shit you're in

Maiden's writing on NPFTD has gotten a lot of criticisms over the years, some of them I can agree with. But these lines are perfect for that type of song.

 

[dickinson1978]

Things are "un-Maiden" until they become Maiden. Rime had several minutes of a quiet interlude, that was unprecedented for early Maiden. CSIT introduced the guitar synths, which was "un-Maiden" at that time. Face In The Sand has the double bass pedal, If Eternity Should Fail is in Drop D, Empire Of The Clouds features the piano. I feel it's a bit silly to focus on what's "Maiden" and what isn't. At the end of the day the result is what matters.

Are songs like Chains Of Misery or From Here To Eternity masterpieces? No, of course not. They're dumb little songs, but they are goddamn fun. Not every song needs to be a historic epic or a treatise on the atrocities of war. The early Maiden records had quite a few light-hearted sounding songs. So, yeah, I'll keep defend songs like COM or FHTE.

The Apparition sucks though.

I mean that they wanted to sound maiden double guitars intro but they sounded like a bad copy of themselves during virtual xi.

 

[Vaenyr]

I mean that they wanted to sound maiden double guitars intro but they sounded like a bad copy of themselves during virtual xi.

I'm obviously biased, since VXI is my favorite album, but I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Trying to be as objective as possible, to me no other pair of albums (with the obvious exception of Iron Maiden/Killers) is as similar songwriting wise as VXI and BNW are. Which shouldn't be too surprising, since four of BNW's 10 songs started out as VXI leftovers.
But even beyond that, both albums feature quite a bit of repetition. TWM, BNW and BB have choruses where the same line is chanted over and over again. Other songs like The Mercenary or OOTSP have essentially two choruses, which both gegt repeated multiple times. Generally, both albums focus quite a bit on the choruses of the songs.

BNW obviously has a much better production and much better performances. Wouldn't ever doubt that. But I'm absolutely convinced that if the VXI songs ended up on BNW instead, many of them would've been a lot more popular with the general fandom than they ended up being.

 

[TheTalisman]

BNW obviously has a much better production and much better performances. Wouldn't ever doubt that. But I'm absolutely convinced that if the VXI songs ended up on BNW instead, many of them would've been a lot more popular with the general fandom than they ended up being.

Blood Brothers rock mix (without any of Jeff Bova's orchestration, just the band playing) sounds very Virtual XI, some Educated Fool vibes. But with a much better production, and stronger vocals, of course.

 

[JayIto]

I think a lot of the wierdness is definitely due to seeing Eddie & Boys start the "final lap" of it all. I think the loss of time due to COVID shifted them more into the very sterile/corporate/this is a production kind of feel to things. Then as the band picks back up and rolls with trying to claw back on track, everything goes down with Nicko and his health (Add in the extra drama of that one dude Lazarus? That is a pretty damn good Nicko copycat, was at least in some way on retainer for the band to mark off legal needs due to Nicko's age). No doubt all of that combined into a shitty-soup of stress, concerns, and questions about the future.

Naturally, those sort of conditions often result in a retro-active shift towards structure, rigidness, and a very sterialized/squeeky clean business. Its no secret the boy's twilight years have been squandered by things, and its amazing we can all still go see them. I doubt I'll ever see them all goofing around with that "free" feeling like I saw on TBOS tour, but Im happy they're still up there playing real music

Care to elaborate on this?
I can't see any difference in that regard compared to the years 2000-2019. They famously.mixed thematic greatest hits tours, often extending iver the years, then tours for new albums and so on. You would get more or less the same show and production at every gig, same setlists, similar script from Bruce in between songs. The LOTB tour 2018 was accompanied by a shitty mobile game, yet that tour (especially 2018) was a great return to form.

The amount of merch and collaborations have gotten out of hand the last years but I was pleasantly surprised by last years RFYL performance, including the live sound. Nicko was great, but before the stroke a lot of songs were rushed IMO, which could make songs loose their groove and impact as well as make Bruce's job more difficult.

 

[dickinson1978]

I'm obviously biased, since VXI is my favorite album, but I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Trying to be as objective as possible, to me no other pair of albums (with the obvious exception of Iron Maiden/Killers) is as similar songwriting wise as VXI and BNW are. Which shouldn't be too surprising, since four of BNW's 10 songs started out as VXI leftovers.
But even beyond that, both albums feature quite a bit of repetition. TWM, BNW and BB have choruses where the same line is chanted over and over again. Other songs like The Mercenary or OOTSP have essentially two choruses, which both gegt repeated multiple times. Generally, both albums focus quite a bit on the choruses of the songs.

BNW obviously has a much better production and much better performances. Wouldn't ever doubt that. But I'm absolutely convinced that if the VXI songs ended up on BNW instead, many of them would've been a lot more popular with the general fandom than they ended up being.

Blood brothers,nomad,mercenary and wich one? I can see them as classic 90s maiden. As i said before.

 

[Revelationer]

Blood brothers,nomad,mercenary and wich one? I can see them as classic 90s maiden. As i said before.

Dream of mirrors

 

[Helmuth Von Moltke]

Things are "un-Maiden" until they become Maiden. Rime had several minutes of a quiet interlude, that was unprecedented for early Maiden. CSIT introduced the guitar synths, which was "un-Maiden" at that time. Face In The Sand has the double bass pedal, If Eternity Should Fail is in Drop D, Empire Of The Clouds features the piano. I feel it's a bit silly to focus on what's "Maiden" and what isn't. At the end of the day the result is what matters.

Are songs like Chains Of Misery or From Here To Eternity masterpieces? No, of course not. They're dumb little songs, but they are goddamn fun. Not every song needs to be a historic epic or a treatise on the atrocities of war. The early Maiden records had quite a few light-hearted sounding songs. So, yeah, I'll keep defend songs like COM or FHTE.

The Apparition sucks though.

With you here except for the Apparition - yes, it sucks musically but I like the lyrics and their message. One of the few Maiden songs where the lyrics keep me coming back and not the music. More examples of it being the other way round.

 

[Vaenyr]

Blood brothers,nomad,mercenary and wich one? I can see them as classic 90s maiden. As i said before.

As @Revelationer mentioned, Dream Of Mirrors. The lyrics were (at least in part?) written by Blaze. They bought the writing credits off him.

With you here except for the Apparition - yes, it sucks musically but I like the lyrics and their message. One of the few Maiden songs where the lyrics keep me coming back and not the music. More examples of it being the other way round.

True! The concept is pretty cool. Some of the music ideas in that song are somewhat interesting as well, unfortunately the whole disappoints.

 

[dickinson1978]

As @Revelationer mentioned, Dream Of Mirrors. The lyrics were (at least in part?) written by Blaze. They bought the writing credits off him.


True! The concept is pretty cool. Some of the music ideas in that song are somewhat interesting as well, unfortunately the whole disappoints.

Yes,that songs sound like that era

 

[Blood On The World´s Hand]

Definitely! I also really love some of the lyrics:

They're saving the souls by taking your money
Flies around shit, bees around honey

I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the shit you're in

Maiden's writing on NPFTD has gotten a lot of criticisms over the years, some of them I can agree with. But these lines are perfect for that type of song.

Something I've intended to write for a while and seems to be appropriate moment:

Bruce could've teased Holy Smoke during his first solo tour during the intro of No Lies:

Holy Smoke, Holy Smoke, plenty bad preachers for the devil to stoke, feed em at feet first this is no joke, this is thirsty work, this is No Lies... no angels... No Lies... no angels...