A Matter of Life and Death Dissection

Liveone said:
The cover art is pretty cool...
I think it was done by a famous artist (Tim Bradstreet)??
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Yep. Would have preferred if he became the new Riggs. But anyways..BOS is looking good.
Honestly though...as soon as the digital age came in and Riggs got his hand on a computer...he lost it.
Looking through his website...his digital work is pretty awful I'm sad to say. Lacking in atmosphere...direction, composition, sense of color.
I could go on.
 
Here's a good question..,

What was the last Maiden release cover art done by Riggs?

It was probably in the 90s.

I'm going for A Real Dead One..

No cheating btw. I mean using the internet.
 
It was actually the top half (eddie in the sky) of Brave New World. But that was a bit of cheat.
He took the cloudy demon creatures from the poster for Fright Night and Eddied up the centre
 
When looking back at this album, I first dismissed it as being one amazing song (Brighter Than A Thousand Suns) and the rest being mediocre. I then tried and tried to get the same appeal and love as everybody else. It didn't work.

So, yeah, nothing has changed, pretty much.
 
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Stardust said:
When looking back at this album, I first dismissed it as being one amazing song (Brighter Than A Thousand Suns) and the rest being mediocre. I then tried and tried to get the same appeal and love as everybody else. It didn't work.

So, yeah, nothing has changed, pretty much.
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Did none of it ever grow on you, Dusty? I don't have as much love for it as some forum members, it must be said, but I did go through a spell of liking it intensely. BTATS is the song I listen to most, though. ;)
 
Nope, nothing ever grew on me. I've listened to this album more than any other album by Iron Maiden because I know that everyone loves this album and I felt bad for not liking it as much as everybody else.

But no, I quickly grow bored listening to any song on the album...that isn't BTATS. Perhaps, I'm too young to get that same appeal. It's probably that.
 
Stardust said:
Nope, nothing ever grew on me. I've listened to this album more than any other album by Iron Maiden because I know that everyone loves this album and I felt bad for not liking it as much as everybody else.

But no, I quickly grow bored listening to any song on the album...that isn't BTATS. Perhaps, I'm too young to get that same appeal. It's probably that.
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Fair 'nuff. Everyone has different tastes. ;) I said the other day that I don't often listen to it because it's a case of listening to the whole album or nothing at all. I can't just pick out individual songs from it for some reason.
 
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The album is an intense experience. It's so loud and powerful. The emotional melodies and lyrics of These Colours Dont Run and For the Greater Good of God might bring tears in your eyes if you're an emotional person. Maiden is on fire here and every song has a 'complex' feel. Save for Different World, it all seems very progressive. Nothing that reminds you of a classic song set up.

The first time I listened to this album was with headphones. I listened to it from start to finish without doing anything else, just only listening to it. I was left with a silent 'wow...' after multiple songs and when the album was over again I was in complete awe. It was so heavy and powerful in every possible meaning. This might be the album to which I say 'that's my favorite album' based on the sheer number of songs that I like on one album.
 
AMOLAD is just incredible. The riffs, melodies, solos, and especially lyrics are all easily among Maiden's best. The songs fit together perfectly on a thematic and musical level. The arrangements are also quite complex for Maiden, with many instances of beautifully layered guitars. Listening with headphones is necessary to truly comprehend this album. The production perfectly suits these tracks too, giving a raw, dark atmosphere. Bruce is at his best as well, giving a spirited and emotional performance. Finally, the album ends with FTGGOG, Lord of Light, and The Legacy, the best 1-2-3 punch in the IM catalog in my opinion.
 
AMOLAD is the anti-TNotB.

AMOLAD's strength is its consistency. Songs that would be regarded as weak on other albums (Pilgrim, OOTS) work here. They fit in the flow right. But if you take these songs individually, out of AMOLAD context, most of them aren't quite as good. FTGGOG works in the album but seems repetitive alone.

Compare to TNotB, which is stocked full of classic songs (Hallowed, title track, Children, 22) and yet doesn't give the same "complete organic album" feel.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
AMOLAD is the anti-TNotB.

AMOLAD's strength is its consistency. Songs that would be regarded as weak on other albums (Pilgrim, OOTS) work here. They fit in the flow right. But if you take these songs individually, out of AMOLAD context, most of them aren't quite as good. FTGGOG works in the album but seems repetitive alone.

Compare to TNotB, which is stocked full of classic songs (Hallowed, title track, Children, 22) and yet doesn't give the same "complete organic album" feel.
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OK, so...Like being the antithesis of one of the most legendary metal albums of all time would be a good thing? AMOLAD isn't worthy even of cleaning The Mighty Beast's cloven hooves with it's tounge!

To me AMOLAD is exceptionally weak and boring, but I do have a theory of why it's popular: THE HYPE! The band really Went out of their way to praise this album, even playing all of it live. And of course, fanboys jumped on it and said it was the best album they'd ever done. Because if they play all of it live, it must be, riiiiight? Then it just snowballed from there. Average Joe listens to the album and Thinks : "Uhhm, not too good". T hen Average Joe goes on the web and sees all the praise for the album and average Joe Thinks "Uuhm...maybe I missed something here?" And so he listens again, but he still doesn't Think it's very good. However, since Average Joe wants to be like everyone else, he Thinks the fault is with him, not with the album. So he listens again and again, and somewhere along the way Average Joe starts to Think he loves the album too, and goes back on the web and writes his own HEARTFELT opinion about how this album is a masterpiece, a modern Classic, better than 80's Maiden, etc etc... and then ANOTHER Average Joe reads the Review of the first Average Joe, and the process repeats...
 
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