Fear is the Key

How good is Fear is the Key on a scale of 1-10?


  • Total voters
    9
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

Taste is a funny thing. Most of you panned Eternity for obvious flaws. I can’t really argue. It piles on elements I would typically dismiss as schlock. Yet I embrace that song as a glorious bit of guilty fun. Then there’s this one. It’s got things I typically like: a boatload of tempo shifts and melodies; songwriters and performers attempting new things while still being true to themselves; a lyric that tries to be topical and relevant. And…yuck. The main riff has all the melodic appeal of a rusty gate creaking intermittently in the wind. The tempo changes don’t swoop and explode; they plod and lurch. And those times when it almost starts to get going — the pre-chorus and the instrumental part at 3:09 — it stubs its toe again. When it shifts gears at 3:26, I hit fast-forward. It’s not that it fails to stimulate my emotions like most of Maiden’s lesser tracks. On the contrary, it tests my patience like a redneck uncle at a family gathering. In all likelihood, my least favourite Maiden track. Four.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

mckindog said:
The main riff has all the melodic appeal of a rusty gate creaking intermittently in the wind.

Have a praise!  :ok:

This song was one of the of most difficult ones to get into, especially that faster acoustic "lies" part.
I like that arabic flavour in the opening riff (not sure if that's the main riff) and that "I remember a time" part.

Also the last part isn't that bad. A bit of a strange style -and topic!- for Maiden, but now I am used to it.

A 6,5 -> 7.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

The music is worthy of about a four. It's nice, the main riff is a bit dark and it's cool, the other parts? Not so much.

The vocals bring it down to a 3.
The lyrics bring it down to a -5.
Seriously, the topic is really cringe worthy. What the hell?
1.

It's the best of the three songs that I'm going to give a 1 to, that I can give it.

And of course it's listenable. It's not that I hate it, it's just that.. C'mon guys, what were you thinking?
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

This is where the album Fear of the Dark went the way of the pear. I've never been impressed by this track and probably never will be. 3/10.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

Hooks In You
Gates Of Tomorrow (Bruce sings the chorus like he's on crack)
The Apparition (just... poor)

1's are/will be urged to these.

Not TAATG - it just needs to be shortened 4 minutes or so.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

One morning about a year ago, I was sitting in the tube. It was a dull, grey Monday morning, neither the day nor the entire week was nothing to look forward to. A few seats away from me sat a bum, looking at his bottle of booze, rambling on and on. The entire tube was in stitches. I vividly remember the last few lines of his rambling: "45 per cent. That broadens your horizon. For the earth was never a disk - it has always been round. Galileo already said that, and they branded him a heretic for that." That's easily one of my favourite quotes ever. And that is the thing with bums: They either offer the greatest entertainment available, or they keep repeating ramblings like, "I remember a time when we used and abused, but it's just lies and lies andliesandliesandliesandliesandlies

Musically, this song goes absolutely nowhere. It is just completely uninspired, I can't hear a single spark of passion in the playing. Maybe, if the band actually put something into it, it wouldn't be all that bad, but you can tell: They wrote it as a filler, they knew it was a filler, they played it like it was a filler. This is B-Side material, maybe. 3/10.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

I dunno, AIDS and having to put on a condom is annoying? Not really worth a song I think.

Fear of the dark is cool, fear of shooting strangers is okay, fear of sex is a big no.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

Wow, and I thought I disliked this album.  I just listened to Fear is the Key, and it was better than I remembered.  It's got a few interesting ideas but badly developed, and if it wasn't for Bruce's annoying singing I would give it a low 7.  As it is, it barely gets a 6. 
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

The singing is horrible, the verses are built in a way I don't like much, but the guitar melodies underneath are not half bad. There are good parts here and there, but overall the song sounds like a lot of stuff thrown together without a unifying idea. And did I mention that Bruce sounds horrible on this one?

It's one of my least favourite songs by Maiden and gets the same grade as The Assassin - a 4.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

I actually enjoy this song. I really dig the opening riff and even though Bruce gives a weak vocal performance, I do enjoy it as well. 7/10
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

7. I dig the trance like groove of the song, the lyrics are simple, nothing to scratch you head about; the melody in the middle section I really, really like; the part where Bruce sings in that desperate manner should've been made different.
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

if they cut 4 songs off this album then it would have been a truely great album but i still dont know why the packed it with filler.

Be quick or be dead
Afraid to shoot strangers
Wasting love
Childhoods end
The fugitive
Chains of misery
Judas be my guide
Fear of the dark


That album could beat off a lot of albums.


This track is just just boring and uninspired

5/10
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

6 out of 10... Bruce's vocal really brings the rating down on this one for me, but there is a cool groove to the song. Never played it much though...
 
Re: Daily Song: Fear is the Key

Mega said:
I dunno, AIDS and having to put on a condom is annoying? Not really worth a song I think.

Dude, AIDS was really, really BAD back in the day. Nobody knew what it was, and people who did assumed it was just gay men who got it. Then Freddie Mercury died of AIDS.

People thought they could just fuck without responsibility. AIDS killed people. It killed everyone who got it for a very long time. It still does, but it used to do it quick and brutal. It scared people, and acknowledging that fear was very important in the early 1990s. What do you think the last ever song by Queen is about?
 
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