Great review. But sorry, no filler on any of the albums you mentioned. If you don't enjoy #otb, POM and PS beginning to end? That sucks for you, seriously. Those albums kick ass and have excellent songs throughout. In spite of how quickly they were churned out.
Very fine reads here on infinite and PS.
Great review. But sorry, no filler on any of the albums you mentioned. If you don't enjoy #otb, POM and PS beginning to end? That sucks for you, seriously. Those albums kick ass and have excellent songs throughout. In spite of how quickly they were churned out.
Very fine reads here on infinite and PS.
Agree on all points. Flash of the Blade & Back in the Village are anthems, Losfer Words is a fun, bouncy track, and The Duelists is a great prog bridge to get us to Side B (I'm old school...I still have PS on cassette so I still think of albums as having sides ).
Agree on all points. Flash of the Blade & Back in the Village are anthems, Losfer Words is a fun, bouncy track, and The Duelists is a great prog bridge to get us to Side B (I'm old school...I still have PS on cassette so I still think of albums as having sides ).
Of course soundwave, you are right on. That isn't filler. Verying degree of awesomeness , maybe. Let's put it this way: sat15 final frontier is a cool tune. But it would be way closer to filler than anything off those three albums.
Great review. But sorry, no filler on any of the albums you mentioned. If you don't enjoy #otb, POM and PS beginning to end? That sucks for you, seriously. Those albums kick ass and have excellent songs throughout. In spite of how quickly they were churned out.
Very fine reads here on infinite and PS.
I didn't say I didn't enjoy them beginning to end - just that they were not perfect beginning to end, something different entirely.
Powerslave and Piece of Mind are the ones I'd call out the most for it; Number Of The Beast less so. I sometimes like making a playlist consisting of the 5 songs I really rate from both albums to make one album that does deserve to be called near perfect:
Side 1:
1 - Aces High
2 - Flash Of The Blade
3 - Revelations
4 - The Trooper
5 - Powerslave
Side 2:
1 - Where Eagles Dare
2 - Die With Your Boots On
3 - 2 Minutes To Midnight
4 - Flight Of Icarus
5 - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
I didn't say I didn't enjoy them beginning to end - just that they were not perfect beginning to end, something different entirely.
Powerslave and Piece of Mind are the ones I'd call out the most for it; Number Of The Beast less so. I sometimes like making a playlist consisting of the 5 songs I really rate from both albums to make one album that does deserve to be called near perfect:
Side 1:
1 - Aces High
2 - Flash Of The Blade
3 - Revelations
4 - The Trooper
5 - Powerslave
Side 2:
1 - Where Eagles Dare
2 - Die With Your Boots On
3 - 2 Minutes To Midnight
4 - Flight Of Icarus
5 - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
And the songs you left out would make an album better than any of the reunion albums:
Side 1:
1. Back in the Village
2. Still Life
3. Losfer Words
4. Sun and Steel
Side 2:
1. The Duellists
2. Quest for Fire
3. To Tame a Land
And the songs you left out would make an album better than any of the reunion albums:
Side 1:
1. Back in the Village
2. Still Life
3. Losfer Words
4. Sun and Steel
Side 2:
1. The Duellists
2. Quest for Fire
3. To Tame a Land
That album would be killer! Too short, but killer!! DOD may be a tie....
Still life and TTAL are far better than anything lately again ( IMO). There just is no filler ( man I hate that word associated with this band) on these albums. The only filler possibilities are maybe from 1990s. But even then all songs have purpose, strengths, and enjoyable parts.
I view filler as songs you just must skip. I usually skip " IESF" off book of souls. But it's not filler. I know it rules. Just don't care for it.
You want filler, go check the off songs from motley crue.. ( love some crue )
That album would be killer! Too short, but killer!! DOD may be a tie....
Still life and TTAL are far better than anything lately again ( IMO). There just is no filler ( man I hate that word associated with this band) on these albums. The only filler possibilities are maybe from 1990s. But even then all songs have purpose, strengths, and enjoyable parts.
I view filler as songs you just must skip. I usually skip " IESF" off book of souls. But it's not filler. I know it rules. Just don't care for it.
You want filler, go check the off songs from motley crue.. ( love some crue )
As for filler I'm not going to persist in arguing whether or not Maiden has it as it seems a tad futile on a board dedicated to the band but going by your definition I would consider almost every song on said album filler.
To tame a land filler? Dude. This song is a masterpiece and one of the Crown Jewels in the Maiden crown. I'm done arguing it too, sorry your thread here is really nice, and has become a daily stop for me.
But the word awful attached to that list of maiden songs is a tad much. Ok done.
DJ, I also wanted to say that I too am really enjoying your write-ups and didn't intend to come across as if I was disparaging you. PoM and Powerslave are my two favorites and was seeking to defend those. I find the reunion albums less good than the 80s stuff, but I do enjoy them. Iron Maiden was a vastly different band in the 80s, when I started listening to them, then they have been over the past 15 years and I generally prefer the songwriting, production, tempo, guitar tones, etc of that era to the current. That being said, we do have may similarities in our respective rankings and I stand and applaud your love for Satellite 15...the Final Frontier. I find this to be among their best songs of the past 20 years.
And the songs you left out would make an album better than any of the reunion albums:
Side 1:
1. Back in the Village
2. Still Life
3. Losfer Words
4. Sun and Steel
Side 2:
1. The Duellists
2. Quest for Fire
3. To Tame a Land
DJ, I also wanted to say that I too am really enjoying your write-ups and didn't intend to come across as if I was disparaging you. PoM and Powerslave are my two favorites and was seeking to defend those. I find the reunion albums less good than the 80s stuff, but I do enjoy them. Iron Maiden was a vastly different band in the 80s, when I started listening to them, then they have been over the past 15 years and I generally prefer the songwriting, production, tempo, guitar tones, etc of that era to the current. That being said, we do have may similarities in our respective rankings and I stand and applaud your love for Satellite 15...the Final Frontier. I find this to be among their best songs of the past 20 years.
I've had a lot of internal debate about the ranking of this one. It's one of my absolute most played Maiden songs, is an obvious masterpiece and has occupied every positions varying from #5 to #2 at various times. The song is very strong throughout, and book-ended by two absolutely stellar sections. But such is every song left, in my opinion, and something had to go first.
The intro to this is one of the greatest moments in Maiden's entire catalogue for me. The bell is obviously hugely atmospheric, as is the wonderful riff underneath, but it can only be Bruce that's the true MVP here. The vocals are absolutely stunning, slowly building up to the "running low" section. The introduction of the guitars alongside Bruce here is absolutely euphoric, and the transition to the main riff alongside Bruce's "yeah" is spectacular. For me, the magic here is in singing along, and in particular singing along to the "running low" and holding it as long as Bruce does. The result is some wonderfully breathless headbanging to the main riff that I don't associate with any other song.
The verses are stunning affairs - a beautiful mix of silence and wonderfully tense riffage punctuated by Bruce's piercing vocals, alongside some absolutely wonderful lyrics and iconic guitar melodies. The musical interlude between the two verses is very nice too. The second verse sees some more vocal highlights ("if there's a God, why does he let me go?") and an extremely tense guitar melody before we head towards the main instrumental passage of the song.
This section is obviously great, with a pair of wonderful solos followed by the iconic riff Bruce uses to get the crowd fired up when it's played live.
The ending vocal section that follows gets close to as good as the intro, with more stunning vocals by Bruce, with the final "Hallowed Be Thy Name" a spectacular moment accompanied by those wonderfully tense guitars and followed by his final "yeah". This is another section you have to sing along to for best effect, for a literally breathtaking conclusion.
This feels a bit short but there's very little to say about this song that I'm not sure hasn't been said a thousand times more eloquently already. However, there is one controversial opinion I'd like to throw out there: I think Hallowed is much better in studio than it is live. It's an odd one because this song works very well live and has plenty of great crowd interaction. However, what it doesn't have is Bruce singing anywhere near as well as in studio. I feel that the intro loses most of his magic when Bruce isn't holding the note as long, but more annoyingly there's several changes to the phrasing during the second verse that I flat out dislike. Both of these work against that breathless excitement I feel whenever I sing along to the studio version, and whilst I'm glad to have seen it live I actually thought it was one of the worse parts of said show.
Top 25:
25 -Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 24 - The Edge Of Darkness
23 - Revelations
22 - Judas Be My Guide
21 - Lord Of Light
20 - Judgement Of Heaven
19 - The Red And The Black
18 - Blood Brothers
17 - Wasted Years
16 - Face In The Sand
15 - The Number Of The Beast
14 - The Talisman
13 - Shadows Of The Valley
12 - Killers
11 - Aces High
10 - Paschendale
9 - Flight Of Icarus
8 - Satellite 15...The Final Frontier
7 - Infinite Dreams
6 - Powerslave
5 - Hallowed Be Thy Name
4
3
2
1
Songs Remaining:
Run To The Hills Fear Of The Dark Dance of Death
Empire of the Clouds
"Oh boy" is right. For the record, I affirmatively dislike "Empire of the Clouds." I skip it every time. Too Andrew Lloyd Webber for me. It would be in my bottom 30.
No disagreement here. They've pretty much butchered it live, too fast in some places, too slow in others. But the live version on "Beast Over Hammersmith" is quite good, with the appropriate tempo.
It has become too robotic for me. They play it so much that at this point it feels like they're going through the motions. Same with Iron Maiden and (to a lesser extent) Number of the Beast. Fear of the Dark really depends on how the crowd is that night.
No disagreement here. They've pretty much butchered it live, too fast in some places, too slow in others. But the live version on "Beast Over Hammersmith" is quite good, with the appropriate tempo.
It has become too robotic for me. They play it so much that at this point it feels like they're going through the motions. Same with Iron Maiden and (to a lesser extent) Number of the Beast. Fear of the Dark really depends on how the crowd is that night.
I mostly feel that Bruce deliberately makes it easier to sing, which is perhaps a good thing in the context of the entire concert but does leave this song wanting more somehow.
The other three were great for me live. Fear of the Dark is almost a religious experience.
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