News 18th Studio Album discussion

[Helmuth Von Moltke]

It’s not just Steve. Metallica have suffered from even worse lack of studio perspective for decades now. I’d suggest Metallica are so leaden with awful production decisions like Death Magnetic and St Anger; over long songs; b-side material making albums like on ReLoad and Hardwired disc 2; and by LuLu and St Anger in general - that we have it really good by comparison!

Some loss of perspective is probably inevitable over the decades of being told you are brilliant and being adulated by fans.

I also don’t begrudge Steve for Barnyard studios in the 90s. Do us fans ever think that Steve literally just needed to stay home to stay sane and have some family life, after the onslaught of the 90s?

That said, no excuse for not hiring a producer for TXF of course.

 

[Ascendingthethrone]

It’s not just Steve. Metallica have suffered from even worse lack of studio perspective for decades now. I’d suggest Metallica are so leaden with awful production decisions like Death Magnetic and St Anger; over long songs; b-side material making albums like on ReLoad and Hardwired disc 2; and by LuLu and St Anger in general - that we have it really good by comparison!

Some loss of perspective is probably inevitable over the decades of being told you are brilliant and being adulated by fans.

I also don’t begrudge Steve for Barnyard studios in the 90s. Do us fans ever think that Steve literally just needed to stay home to stay sane and have some family life, after the onslaught of the 90s?

That said, no excuse for not hiring a producer for TXF of course.

This may come across as controversial, but Metallica have never populated many of their albums with songs that have little to no redeeming qualities. I love Load and ReLoad but some of the songs are so generic. I would argue that Maiden have not done this.

 

[dickinson1978]

It’s not just Steve. Metallica have suffered from even worse lack of studio perspective for decades now. I’d suggest Metallica are so leaden with awful production decisions like Death Magnetic and St Anger; over long songs; b-side material making albums like on ReLoad and Hardwired disc 2; and by LuLu and St Anger in general - that we have it really good by comparison!

Some loss of perspective is probably inevitable over the decades of being told you are brilliant and being adulated by fans.

I also don’t begrudge Steve for Barnyard studios in the 90s. Do us fans ever think that Steve literally just needed to stay home to stay sane and have some family life, after the onslaught of the 90s?

That said, no excuse for not hiring a producer for TXF of course.

Load and reload are very soft, death magnetic its like they tried to sound classic metallica again some good songs there. St anger imposible to listen weird riffs rithm changes weird and anoying sound. They tried to write songs in a different way but its a really bad album. And hardwired its not even close to death magnetic. Yes,if we try to find the last great metallica album. Its the black album in 1992?

 

[Azas]

I agree about Metallica, and this part is especially spot on:

"Some loss of perspective is probably inevitable over the decades of being told you are brilliant and being dilated by fans."

At the beginning of their careers, they were all ambitious young musicians—apprentices, eager to learn. Once they achieved enormous success, it's only natural to want to become your own boss and say, "From now on, we'll do things our own way." There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I think you also need a few people around you who aren't afraid to say "no" and tell you things you may not want to hear.

I also think the other band members should be much more willing to question the band leader's decisions when they believe the band is heading in the wrong direction. My guess is that Bruce nowadays simply wants to enjoy what is arguably the greatest job in the world and isn't particularly interested in arguing with Steve over production choices or the band's sonic direction.

He could have sided with Adrian over the sound of The Final Frontier, but why create unnecessary conflict when the overall Maiden machine is still running smoothly? Better to relax and enjoy the ride. At least that's how I imagine it.