News 18th Studio Album discussion

dickinson1978 said:
Just listened SJ again for the 1000 time but this time just skipping darkest hour and listening the parchement. Great melodies i wish bruce singed like the end of thr song during the whole song and not following the melodies so plain and predectible?

And now,again if BNW,AMOLAD and SJ would had been recorded during 80s we would be talking about POM powerslave and SIT.

BNW 9/10
AMOLAD 8.5/10
SJ 8.5/10

I can see by steve is not up for recording because SJ is a very good way to finish their discography.
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I still think Senjutsu is, by far, their worst post-reunion album. Bloated, plodding, derivative... Not bad, but way below in terms of quality from what they had done since 2000.
 
AncientMariner_Essex said:
I’ll be honest with no new Maiden album I could be done with seeing them live to be honest.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen them a lot over the last 3 decades since my first time in 1995 and at this stage I have no interest in seeing them touring the same old songs over and over again.

Unless they come up with some awesome theme for the next tour with a load of rare songs I’m out.

I understand they are getting older and Steve has lost his urge to write new music but you can’t expect the fans to keep turning out for the same old songs just because all you want to do is tour.

They don’t even release live albums anymore let alone studio albums so I’d rather keep my memories of the great gigs in the past than just watch them slowly decline on stage hearing run to the hills and the trooper for the 1,000,000th time.
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I agree. As someone pointed out a few months back, this tour was clearly aimed at big markets and stadiums. It seems to have been successful. This won’t please everyone though.

The next tour will be make or break for me as well. It already felt different at London a stadium. I enjoyed the show, but it was not the same without Nicko.
 
GhostofCain said:
I still think Senjutsu is, by far, their worst post-reunion album. Bloated, plodding, derivative... Not bad, but way below in terms of quality from what they had done since 2000.
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There are two ways to judge Senjutsu now:

In a fantasy world that I also love slipping into, where Senjutsu exists in its own vacuum and the strongest songs stand out in their own right.

In the real world, as the sixth in a run of reunion albums against which it feels derivative (I agree somewhat with you here).

I was reading Christer Andresen's Maiden Revelations commentary covering 2005-2014. He has a similar view to me, that Final Frontier marked the first niggling issues with the quality of the post-1999 recorded material. He hasn't written an article on 2015-2024 yet but I stand by my very general view that the last three studio albums are showing the limits of the reunion-era songwriting style.

https://maidenrevelations.com/2022/11/27/maiden-history-a-second-golden-age-2005-2014/
 
I hope that simply having Simon Dawson in the studio changes the feel and remove some complacency. The last revolutionary things Maiden and Steve did for their sound was expanding to three guitars and bringing in Kevin Shirley in 1999. Arguably, the recruitment of Simon in 2025 is the first thing to shake things up since then.

Won't be anything like richie faulkner's impact on Priest (and Priest as a band is managed so badly compared to Maiden, as Ripper recently opined!). But I have hope it is the closest Maiden gets to a minor reinvention. Even if Bruce just imagines Simon sounds more like Clive and reacts to this in his writing, for example, that's all we need to shake it up a bit.

It is my hope album 18 breaks the reunion-era songwriting stylistic rut.

[And then we get 5 songs with long intros in the normal style and I'm wrong! :rolleyes:]

By the way I'm not knocking the reunion era. As much as I love Infinite Dreams, its return made me realise how much more basic the older mini epics were compared to say songs like No More Lies or Book of Souls. Maiden routinely write far more intricate songs now that I don't think they could have done so earlier.
 
GhostofCain said:
I still think Senjutsu is, by far, their worst post-reunion album. Bloated, plodding, derivative... Not bad, but way below in terms of quality from what they had done since 2000.
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Everyone have their own tastes of course. I mean that for me i can listen almost the whole album. Bos or ff i usually skip songs. I can understand why you say because it has some 90s maiden vibe in many songs. But i love that sound or estructures.
 
My suspicion that Steve is reluctant to create new material with a specifically new drummer is only growing stronger.

I think Steve realizes that Simon would bring something very different to the table than Nicko did, and perhaps that uncertainty makes him uneasy. The results might turn out to be underwhelming - or they might not.

But there's only one way to know for sure: you have to give it a try.
 
Azas said:
My suspicion that Steve is reluctant to create new material with a specifically new drummer is only growing stronger.

I think Steve realizes that Simon would bring something very different to the table than Nicko did, and perhaps that uncertainty makes him uneasy. The results might turn out to be underwhelming - or they might not.

But there's only one way to know for sure: you have to give it a try.
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And bring back nicko for some songs. Btw theres some videosnñ of other bands that shows simon playing really heavy stuff.
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
I hope that simply having Simon Dawson in the studio changes the feel and remove some complacency. The last revolutionary things Maiden and Steve did for their sound was expanding to three guitars and bringing in Kevin Shirley in 1999. Arguably, the recruitment of Simon in 2025 is the first thing to shake things up since then.

Won't be anything like richie faulkner's impact on Priest (and Priest as a band is managed so badly compared to Maiden, as Ripper recently opined!). But I have hope it is the closest Maiden gets to a minor reinvention. Even if Bruce just imagines Simon sounds more like Clive and reacts to this in his writing, for example, that's all we need to shake it up a bit.

It is my hope album 18 breaks the reunion-era songwriting stylistic rut.

[And then we get 5 songs with long intros in the normal style and I'm wrong! :rolleyes:]

By the way I'm not knocking the reunion era. As much as I love Infinite Dreams, its return made me realise how much more basic the older mini epics were compared to say songs like No More Lies or Book of Souls. Maiden routinely write far more intricate songs now that I don't think they could have done so earlier.
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You make some very valid points, but you clearly lost the plot when claiming that Infinite Dreams is more basic than that repetitive turd that is No More Lies!
 
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I just google and tony newton was the bass player of dirty deeds? Steve friend

He also produced the book of souls live chapter. Btw i like both live albums ,yes,nights of the dead too LOL. You can kill me now.
 
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GhostofCain said:
You make some very valid pointe, but you clearly lost the plot when claiming that Infinite Dreams is more basic than that repetitive turd that is No More Lies!
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If anything Infinite Dreams highlights the difference between Steve Harris in the 80s and now. It would take him three songs to come up with all the ideas he crammed into Infinite Dreams. And I love a lot of the recent material.

And I really like No More Lies!
 
Azas said:
My suspicion that Steve is reluctant to create new material with a specifically new drummer is only growing stronger.

I think Steve realizes that Simon would bring something very different to the table than Nicko did, and perhaps that uncertainty makes him uneasy. The results might turn out to be underwhelming - or they might not.

But there's only one way to know for sure: you have to give it a try.
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Worst case is Steve reluctantly replaced Simon with the expectation this line up simply tours till retirement. And that Maiden is done as a studio entity in his mind, not only because of Nicko's absence but also the other obvious pair of reasons (records don't earn $$ anymore + its harder to create new music in the Maiden style after five decades)
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
Worst case is Steve reluctantly replaced Simon with the expectation this line up simply tours till retirement. And that Maiden is done as a studio entity in his mind, not only because of Nicko's absence but also the other obvious pair of reasons (records don't earn $$ anymore + its harder to create new music in the Maiden style after five decades)
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My thought about it.
Steve knows retirement is closer, they have changed nicko and apart of the oficial statnent simon is drummer for tours.
Now we know that for him is stressfull record and album or writting new material. As we have seen simon has a different sound and maybe he doesnt want to try and make a bad record that could be their last. And he wants to play live as many of rarities he can before retire and thats official by bruce and him. And record and album theme tour is 2 years

On the other hand if 1 year off is thr other option of not touring and bruce and others want to record something he preffers to do one more album than 1 year off.
 
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dickinson1978 said:
I can see by steve is not up for recording because SJ is a very good way to finish their discography.
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Yeah, but he's said many times that he likes challenges, and this is one.
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
...but I stand by my very general view that the last three studio albums are showing the limits of the reunion-era songwriting style.
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Now it's the perfect time to change it up a bit with a new drummer.
Azas said:
I think Steve realizes that Simon would bring something very different to the table than Nicko did, and perhaps that uncertainty makes him uneasy. The results might turn out to be underwhelming - or they might not.
But there's only one way to know for sure: you have to give it a try.
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Good call, but Simon should suit his writing style with Maiden, too. And after he did 1 tour with classics. Versatile drummer.
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
Worst case is Steve reluctantly replaced Simon with the expectation this line up simply tours till retirement. And that Maiden is done as a studio entity in his mind...
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It could be possible.
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
its harder to create new music in the Maiden style after five decades
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I wouldn't say that for them.
 
Kalata said:
Yeah, but he's said many times that he likes challenges, and this is one.

Now it's the perfect time to change it up a bit with a new drummer.

Good call, but Simon should suit his writing style with Maiden, too. And after he did 1 tour with classics. Versatile drummer.

It could be possible.

I wouldn't say that for them.
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The onky thing is steve its up to record if staying 1 year off is thr other option.
 
I`ll take a new album if everyone is really in to making it. Any doubt from the band whether on the writing side or the recording with Simon side and i`d say don`t bother as it will likely underwhelm us all .

As anyone who`s seen them on this tour and the 2026 leg in particular can confirm Maiden are still a force to be reckoned with live so dig in to the back catalogue a bit and find some rarely or never played stuff and the 2028 tour will be a success i have no doubt.
 
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