ADRIAN SMITH SURVIVOR 2013, PART 2: Results -> The Evil That Men Do wins!

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  • Total voters
    11
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10. Moonchild

Don't vote for more than 3 songs!
 
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The Prisoner
The Wicker Man
Brighter than thousand_suns

This becomes a farce the minute Sea of Madness gets voted out. I don't know where a Foro is but he should do a long post defending SoM.
 
Saapanael said:
The Prisoner
The Wicker Man
Brighter than thousand_suns
Click to expand...
+ These Colours Don't Run

This is probably not going to help because songs that have never been played, or which were released and played aeons ago, are never popular in these kind of games. But I'll give it a shot because I find this the best song Adrian has ever laid his hands on. And when it comes to the whole catalogue, I only like Rime more. Steve Harris is a better songwriter but Sea of Madness beats all his other songs.

For years, on the old Iron Maiden newsgroup, this was my sig:

"Out in the dark there burns a dream"
Adrian Smith, 1986

But this appreciation took a while. Sea of Madness didn't click at first. The rough riffs in the beginning and the rhythm sounded pretty wild compared to other Maiden songs. But that grew. Excellent from the beginning has always been the music and the vocals, especially after the couplets. I really love Bruce in that pre-chorus, and even more in the chorus itself when he does that beautiful harmony. Later on in the calm part he shows a more sensitive side of himself, and Arry's bass is playing an awesome figure underneath.

Nicko delivers some skillful drumming, this little part is almost great melodic progrock, but without being proggy to be proggy. This is catchy, with a melodic brilliance piercing straight through the heart. When the song continues, it gets more intense again and fluently flows into the Sea of Madness again. Adrian's lead work is significant. Divine.
 
I like Sea Of Madness, but I prefer most of the other material on SIT.
 
Sea of Madness is my second favourite song on SiT and it's a one of a kind song from Maiden. The pre-chorus; the chorus; the short but awesomely melodic solo and Bruce's final words before switching back to the beginning riff are so powerful and unique.

PS! If anyone else decides to vote for Sea of Madness, please just listen to it one more time before you do! :)
 
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The Prisoner
Sea of Madness
These Colours Don't Run

Saapanael said:
PS! If anyone else decides to vote for Sea of Madness, please just listen to it one more time before you do! :)
Click to expand...

I did just this right now, and I love the song, but it's up against incredibly stiff competition here.

It's part of only a few Maiden songs that have an odd rhythmic pattern that drive the song, like Childhood's End. I'm sure there's more like these, but I can't quite recall them at the moment. I love when Maiden deviates slightly from the normal style and puts out tunes like these. In this case, unfortunately, H outdoes himself yet again, and twice on the same album!
 
It's been a while since I gave it a thorough listen rather than background music, but that's the same for ALL songs (of all artists). I do remember the first day I got SiT back in 2004 I was listening to it while walking to uni, and Sea of Madness was one of the first tracks that I went back to when I got home. So it was an early catch for the album, but it never really gained appreciation whereas the rest of the album did.

Regardless, it is up against strong opponents here. I felt much worse in voting for Wasted Years, couldn't decide between that and BTATS
 
Paschendale
Colours
Brighter

Wasted Years? Really? Don't knock it out this soon. It deserves to be higher. Though, it appears to be safe now.... but still! Come on! The votes for Wasted Years and Paschendale should be switched... :grumble:
 
Rock in Rio was the first live maiden I saw, I'd only been listening a short time and I knew that Smith/Dickinson came back for BNW, so seeing him come out first for Wicker Man on the DVD I remember thinking "Well it was kinda his return album/song so it makes sense!".

Never managed to shake that association, and with H's "solo" vocal parts on Wasted Years in recent years I would have to agree with Wasted/Wicker being most identifiable with Smith. Paschendale is the other major "incarnation" of H due to reading the descriptions of the band members they had on the IM site following DoD, and Smith being described as sitting around with history books researching for his song.
 
Wasted Years has an advantage. It had a videoclip. It was played live on various tours, also in some recent tours, which we probably have witnessed. It's featured on four different DVD's. It's on best of / compilation albums. It had more exposure. I think it can't be denied that this can play a part in general appreciation.

The same goes for The Wicker Man. Videoclip. 2 DVD's.

People have seen all these songs in great video and/or audio. This is not the case with Sea of Madness. All we have is that track number three on the Somewhere in Time album. Still, just this, it's damn good.
 
I don't think that's fair. We're not casual Maiden fans, we all appreciate Maiden's entire catalog, not just the stuff that gets put on compilations (that many of us probably don't even have). Also, if people are voting based on what gets more exposure, then where is Can I Play With Madness? That song got just as much exposure (if not more) than Wasted Years, yet it was eliminated just a few rounds in. What about Brighter Than A Thousand Suns? It was only played regularly on one tour, it had no video clip, it's not on any compilations. Yet it's still here with only 5 votes, it was even in the top ten for one survivor. Sorry, but I don't see anything to support that claim.
 
We all appreciate the entire catalogue? Well, looking at some people's ratings, I can't really support that statement.
But even if we all give the same attention to these albums, there are still other extra aspects I just mentioned. Other forms of exposure.
Sea of Madness does not have that, apart from a few bad sounding concert bootlegs, recorded in 1986.

In the last year I have seen increasing appreciation for
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
. This is not because that song was played on Saturnus. It's because it was played on earth, on stage in the last two years.

Of course, it doesn't go for all songs. Not all songs have this potention, e.g. Can I Play With Madness. It's a "fun" song, but not exactly mindblowing.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is a fairly recent song. It had extra exposure because Maiden decided to do it live in a London studio. Great camera work, as if you were there. It's on YouTube. This recording was released in the Maiden discography. There are a zillion bootleg video recordings from that song on YouTube. Some of us have even seen it live in 2006, 2007 and a few lucky ones even a few years ago.

And this is, by right also a great song. Just as Sea of Madness. It can be argued it is a better one than Sea of Madness. It also has to do with taste of course.
But it had more exposure. People have seen, have felt the live power of it. That's an advantage.
 
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