Empire Of The Clouds

How good is Empire of the Clouds on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    30
One of the best songs that has ever been created! Beautiful piano intro, amazing lyrics and Bruce's golden voice is on top here. The riff along with piano under it is a special combination - not to mention the triple-lead melodies which (of course) are fantastic as always. The whole instrumental section with the two solos is great - the changing of the riff and tempo - real pleasure. Dave's solo is great and Adrian's solo is so brutal. The part that starts with ''Fighting the wind as it rolls you'' is epic. But that part is golden:

''Here lie their dreams as I stand in the sun
On the ground where they built, and the engines did run
To the moon and the stars, now what have we done?
Oh the dreamers may die, but the dreams live on

Dreams live on
Dreams live on''

I wished Janick also to have a solo on the song.....! I don't have words to describe this masterpiece of a song - I agree with @Diesel 11 about his statement: ''we've finally arrived at the pinnacle of human creativity, imagination, and artistry'' :applause: Only Maiden, no, only Bruce can write such a phenomenal song. It is a epic, epic ballad.... the whole song is a beautiful journey (though the theme of it is one of world's most tragic events). I'm very happy that Bruce wrote about that and the strenght of the song, its epicness shows that Bruce was on top of his game. This song it's up there with ROTAM and HBTN.../ ''Empire Of The Clouds'' is one of the best songs titles ever.

Hands down and a deep bow!!!! 10/10. :notworthy:
 
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srfc said:
As soon as you hear the first piano notes you know your listening to a classic. I can see music shops having a sign in the piano section in the future "No Empire of the Clouds"
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srfc said:
spot on. the phrasing of the lyrics is brilliant as well it's like something a folk band would do. I can see a bearded old man in the corner of a dark boozer, with a few pints of guinness on board, bellowing out the verses unaccompanied
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srfc said:
Early in the thread people were arguing about the climax of the track etc.

if it's not "to the moon and the stars, now what have we done, oh the dreamers may die, but the dreams live on" then I don't know what it is.
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Very obviously the best song and highlight of the album, and one of the very, very top Maiden songs ever. I stand over all the earlier quotes I have in this thread. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the whole 6 minutes plus instrumental section starting from the SOS call, that completely paints a picture of the storm and crash of the airship without uttering a single word. 10/10 obviously.
 
The possibility of playing this song live with an orchestra was mentioned yesterday in Budapest. Bruce explained that someone "who has an orchestra" asked him recently if he'd be interested in singing with his orchestra. In return, Bruce asked if playing EOTC would be possible and the other guy agreed. Bruce explained that he'd like to do an longer version of the song, "maybe with addtional spoken words". He also told that the studio version lacks orchestrations but they ran out of time.
 
Austrogoth said:
The possibility of playing this song live with an orchestra was mentioned yesterday in Budapest. Bruce explained that someone "who has an orchestra" asked him recently if he'd be interested in singing with his orchestra. In return, Bruce asked if playing EOTC would be possible and the other guy agreed. Bruce explained that he'd like to do an longer version of the song, "maybe with addtional spoken words". He also told that the studio version lacks orchestrations but they ran out of time.
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Thanks for letting us know about this. However, as with anything that Bruce says about his solo activities these days, I’ll believe him when it actually happens.
 
Barely 6/10 to me.

The thing is: the first section works, the final section (kinda) works, the middle section doesn't. At all. And it's most of the song.
Good lyrics, but poor arrangement and writing (especially when the variations-on-The Legacy-solo-riff start).
To add the piano was an interesting idea, but it should have been played by a proper pianist.
The solos are sloppy.

Failed experiment.
 
srfc said:
Very obviously the best song and highlight of the album, and one of the very, very top Maiden songs ever. I stand over all the earlier quotes I have in this thread. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the whole 6 minutes plus instrumental section starting from the SOS call, that completely paints a picture of the storm and crash of the airship without uttering a single word. 10/10 obviously.
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I wholeheartedly agree mate!
 
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