Favorite Maiden Guitarist (2010 Edition, voting closed)

Who is your favorite Iron Maiden guitarist?

  • Dave Murray

    Votes: 47 32.2%

  • Adrian Smith

    Votes: 82 56.2%

  • Janick Gers

    Votes: 17 11.6%
  • Total voters
    146
  • Poll closed .
Perun said:
*sigh*

This is very hard to answer. I like all three, and I think all three are outstanding guitarists.

Janick is a master at songwriting, and I think that in the last ten years, he has really evolved to a masterfully skilled guitarist, too. I'm not overly fond of some of his 90's guitar work, but nowadays, I would say he is world-class. And I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I think that he is also a supreme live guitarist. He is responsible for two of the three moments when I was actually 'blindsided' by a guitar solo during a gig - Powerslave in 2008, and something during the last tour (maybe Blood Brothers, but I'm not totally sure anymore). The only other moment when I had similar feelings was when H kicked off his Rime of the Ancient Mariner solo in 2008.

But I would propbably have named Dave my definite favourite before the release of The Final Frontier, simply because of his laconic and yet involving guitar work in Out of the Shadows - but now H has his Out of the Shadows moment during Coming Home. But he adds on that during Starblind, and his guitarwork there is my favourite moment on the new album in total. So currently, I would say H is my favourite of the three, but it's a very close call.
Click to expand...

Janick didn't play a solo on Powerslave in 2008. Thank God!
 
Janick.

Iron Maiden is one of my favourite bands, and all three current guitarists are inspiring my own guitarplaying to a great extent. If you listened to me playing, you would certainly hear all of them in there somewhere. But Janick... it is just something about his vibrato, and the way he plays. Some say he is sloppy, and while I really see how you could have that against him, I find that his fast runs sounds cool, in a way no-one will be able to imitate. He rarely plays the same thing twice, and I like that approach. I like what he has contributed with, both in writing and playing existing material.

Adrian has a structured way of playing, applies a very wide vibrato that sometimes make harmonies sound out of tune when he is not holding it back. I like his way of structuring solos, but sometimes I find them a bit predictable. A big fan of his rhythm work. For good and for bad, he often takes over the pieces he plays on and makes them go in a certain direction. Maiden has increasingly become better since 1999 with this however, and he blends better with the others now than he did a couple of years ago. Mostly due to way the divide the parts among the guitarists.

Dave has that smooth legato style that everyone seems to think of first when mentioning Maiden. I do sometimes find that his solos doesn't follow the rhythm well, and that make him the least favourite of the three. Notable example to this is Brave New World. His tone is something I like sometimes, sometimes not. But when he does play good, he is great. Solos in Lord of Light and Rainmaker is two favourites.
 
Maturin said:
existing material.
Click to expand...
Would be interesting to see him playing non-existing material, if that's possible. :D

But that was a great post, even though I can't agree with your take on the Dave's solo in Brave New World. Imo Janick does the best solo of the album on Ghost of the Navigator, but Dave plays the best solo on the title track. What a take over. When he starts, Janick's solo is instantly forgotten.
 
Adrian Smith and Dave Murray are very match with together and a really excellent team.
Smith' solos drives on songs intelligently and Murray's solos are nice and protean properly.
and Janick Gers plays mysterious and cleverly.

I think top Smith's solos are:
1. Stranger In A Strange Land
2. Alexander The Great
3. 2 Minutes To Midnight
4. Revelations
5. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
6. Wasted Years
7. The Prisioner
8. Drifter
9. Different World
10. The Evil That Men Do

top Murray's solos:
1. Powerslave
2. Alexander The Great
3. Where Eagles Dare
4. Killers
5. The Thin Line Between Love And Hate
6. 2 Minutes To Midnight
7. Mother Russia
8. Still Life
9. The Man Who Would Be King
10. No Prayer For The Dying

top Gers's solos:
1. Holy Smoke
2. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
3. Out Of The Silent Planet
4. Mother Russia
5. From Here To Eternity

and furthermore Dennis Stratton's solo in Transylvania is amazing.
 
I personally would say Adrian Smith overall, however I adore Janick's solo in the song "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", it's gold.
 
They are all a tie for me. Adrian for songwriting and beautiful, pure, melodic masterpieces. Dave for his style (that's it, I just really like his legato technique). Janick for his energetic performances and guitar tricks.
 
H, because he is the strongest songwriter of the three and has possibly the best ear for melody in the whole band.

That said, if this poll was specifically called, "Favorite Maiden Guitar Player Based on Style and Not Songwriting Ability", I'd go Murray.
 
Adrian. I like the other two sometimes (more so Dave) but as far as the solos are concerned neither of them even come close to Adrian. The guy just knows how to craft melodic and tasteful solos incredibly well, especially in more recent years. I've never been a huge fan of the improvised style that the other two guitarists seem to live by, either.

As far as the songwriting is concerned, Adrian again.

For tone? You guessed it. Adrian.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Adrian. I like the other two sometimes (more so Dave) but as far as the solos are concerned neither of them even come close to Adrian. The guy just knows how to craft melodic and tasteful solos incredibly well, especially in more recent years. I've never been a huge fan of the improvised style that the other two guitarists seem to live by, either.

As far as the songwriting is concerned, Adrian again.

For tone? You guessed it. Adrian.
Click to expand...

Adrian improvise quite a lot of solos live today. Saw them in Stockholm a little over a week ago and was surprised that so many solos were improvised.

Murray was improvising to a greater extent than ever - I guess they eventually grow tired of playing the same stuff every night. Their playing has overall become a lot looser in recent years. Recorded versions aren't definite.

I'm a bit divided on the subject. I like improvised solos - as a guitarplayer myself I find it inspiring. But on the other hand Iron Maiden's recorded solos are often great - and the improvisations are rarely comparable quality wise.
 
As far as improvisation, I think it should be kept to a minimum depending on the solo. The beginnings and endings of a solo are generally the most memorable, so I always hope that they'll be played note for note. If you want to noodle around in the middle, no worries, that's fun and interesting.

The first thing that comes to my mind is "The Wicker Man". The recorded solo is so incredibly perfect, but H changes it when he plays it live and it's just not the same. Still good, but not as good.

Murray and Janick improvise all the time, and their recorded solos often sound improvised as well. With Murray it's rarely an issue, but Janick's live improvisations tend to be full of sloppy transitions and whammy bar theatrics, which I don't care for.
 
It depends entirely on the solo at hand. The Wicker Man is so tightly composed that you can't really improvise much around it. Much of Maiden's material is written this way, and that's why it doesn't work well to improvise around. It isn't exactly the blues.

I am a big fan of Janick's style, so I don't really care about the sloppier improvisations. It's just noise - and not without taste. Many guitarists can play melodic solos, but Janick is one of few that is able to apply a bit of sloppiness/dirt without loosing control completely. I admire this ability greatly. Note that he rarely does miss a note in the melodies, neither in solos or harmonies.
 
That is true, and I admire grittiness in playing, but some of his improv simply sounds sloppy. I love the raw sound, I'm alright with a couple of gritty effects, but sloppiness is a whole other story. The fact that it is intentional is what bugs me.
 
Janick is a great songwriter, but his solos aren't usually something I care for. There are some exceptions -- such as Brave New World and Blood Brothers -- which are incredible. Then you've got solos like Pilgrim, Ghost of the Navigator, and Talisman, which aren't necessarily works of art but fit their respective songs very well. But the majority are just patented Gers slopfests that make me shake my head and say "Well, they could've left that part out of the song..." One of my favorite aspects of AMOLAD is that Janick's solos are kept to a minimum.

Strangely, though, Brave New World is my favorite album overall -- an album which contains no more than four Adrian solos. Does anyone else find it strange that Janick co-wrote Mercenary but didn't solo on it?
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Strangely, though, Brave New World is my favorite album overall -- an album which contains no more than four Adrian solos. Does anyone else find it strange that Janick co-wrote Mercenary but didn't solo on it?
Click to expand...

Is that the only instance of this happening (a writer doesn't take a solo)? Adrian wrote "Sun and Steel", but he only has a unison, whereas Davey has the solo. That's the only one I can think of. And, if so, yes: it's quite strange.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top