Slartibartfarst42
Trooper
AMOLAD always leaves me a little confused about my feelings towards it, even after all these years. There is nothing at all to dislike here, not even the album cover, which is far from their best but a big improvement on the previous album. All of the songs are strong, there's plenty variety thanks to the diverse writing credits, they're all playing really well and it was another twist in style. This is a much darker album than BNW or DOD, both in the subject matter of the songs and the musical delivery. I remember really liking the thick, heavy riff of Benjamin Breeg and wondering where this came from. I could listen to this album anytime and be perfectly happy, and I could see why they played the whole thing live as the album definitely follows a strong theme, even if it isn't really a concept album. I always feel like it's a shame Paschendale was written for the DOD album as it would have fit much better on AMOLAD. By any stretch of the imagination, this is a great album, so why my confusion?
I think the problem for me is that while I really like every song here, none of them stand out as real classics. I guess this is borne out by the fact that none of them feature in the live set anymore. I could understand why the band played the whole thing live, but I really didn't think the album warranted such a performance. SSOASS was much more of a concept album and I think that should have been played in its entirety on tour, but AMOLAD just isn't as 'special' as an album. Of course, the difficulty for Iron Maiden is that when you've had a career as long as theirs, with as many great albums and great songs as they've had, it's very hard to get an album and individual songs to stand out. Nevertheless, I had been following Iron Maiden for 26 years by this point and as impressive as this album is, it struggles to stand out for me because by this point, there had been so many other albums that were really special. I also think that after the thrill of BNW and the incredible DOD, it was always going to be difficult to make this album stand out. I think that for younger fans, this album is probably going to fare better, because they're not going to bring the same perspective to it as me. They won't have the same emotional ties to previous albums that I have, so I fully understand if someone says this is their favourite album. I think it's great, but it just isn't 'special' to me.
The live show always stands out for me because of one particular incident. At the big ending to one of the songs, Adrian puts his guitar under the caterpillar tracks of the tank on stage to play the strings and it got caught, dragging the guitar out of his hands. It ended up jammed in there and he couldn't get it out, so he was left guitarless and laughing on stage at the end of the song. The whole band had a laugh about it and it really felt like this was a band at ease with itself. The big Rock 'n' Roll moment didn't quite work out for Adrian that time, but I loved it and he remains super cool in my eyes.
I think the problem for me is that while I really like every song here, none of them stand out as real classics. I guess this is borne out by the fact that none of them feature in the live set anymore. I could understand why the band played the whole thing live, but I really didn't think the album warranted such a performance. SSOASS was much more of a concept album and I think that should have been played in its entirety on tour, but AMOLAD just isn't as 'special' as an album. Of course, the difficulty for Iron Maiden is that when you've had a career as long as theirs, with as many great albums and great songs as they've had, it's very hard to get an album and individual songs to stand out. Nevertheless, I had been following Iron Maiden for 26 years by this point and as impressive as this album is, it struggles to stand out for me because by this point, there had been so many other albums that were really special. I also think that after the thrill of BNW and the incredible DOD, it was always going to be difficult to make this album stand out. I think that for younger fans, this album is probably going to fare better, because they're not going to bring the same perspective to it as me. They won't have the same emotional ties to previous albums that I have, so I fully understand if someone says this is their favourite album. I think it's great, but it just isn't 'special' to me.
The live show always stands out for me because of one particular incident. At the big ending to one of the songs, Adrian puts his guitar under the caterpillar tracks of the tank on stage to play the strings and it got caught, dragging the guitar out of his hands. It ended up jammed in there and he couldn't get it out, so he was left guitarless and laughing on stage at the end of the song. The whole band had a laugh about it and it really felt like this was a band at ease with itself. The big Rock 'n' Roll moment didn't quite work out for Adrian that time, but I loved it and he remains super cool in my eyes.