album themes

chaosapiant

chaosapiant

Ancient Marinade
This entirely subjective (and probably a horse beaten to death by now) but I think it's interesting how most Maiden albums, whether concept or not, are thematic.

The new album speaks to me about great journey's, and having to say goodbye.  Almost every song ties in with the theme of traveling, or saying bye (or both) and the effect is both epic and majestic in the way that only Maiden know how to do.

AMOLAD and X Factor are both Maiden's "war" albums, and are both bleak and foreboding.

Dance of Death seems to be about Death, and making the most of your life.  Or both in the same song.

There are others, i'm just getting the ball rolling.

Not every song or album fits this template, but when it comes to having an album as an overall package with an inadvertent theme, artwork, and musical direction, Maiden are second to none.  What do you guys think?
 
^ I like this post.

I was thinking this the other day - Maiden have the uncanny ability to nail the theme they are aiming for every single time.
 
Maybe I'm a bit wrong here, but I never really saw the X Factor as a war album. They DEFINITELY touch on it, but I always considered The X Factor to be about the realization of the darkness in humanity, and not just in the traditional evil sense, but in the sense that we are all culpable.


Let's talk about the themes of No Prayer for the Dying, guys! Sex swings, picking up young ladies, and pilots!
 
Cap Maronis said:
Maybe I'm a bit wrong here, but I never really saw the X Factor as a war album. They DEFINITELY touch on it, but I always considered The X Factor to be about the realization of the darkness in humanity, and not just in the traditional evil sense, but in the sense that we are all culpable.


Let's talk about the themes of No Prayer for the Dying, guys! Sex swings, picking up young ladies, and pilots!
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True, perhaps it would be better to say that X Factor is about the evil in man, with war a BIG theme running througout.  No Prayer is an album that I really have a hard time pinning down, but if I had to summarize it in as few words as possible, i'd say "social commentary."
 
I think the war songs on TXF show the change of perception a human being has to its fellow man. One turns into a antisocial vegetable (FOW) and he just lost all the trust on people. The Aftermath, all his dreams and plans for a life were destroyed by releasing the fight hasn't nothing to do with his aims in life and why should the war pigs decide it for him, on TEOD, the carachter discovers that darkness isn't in hell, but that hell is darkness withing every human heart.

The rest is Steve reflecting his own beliefs and life, and also, putting himself in the shoes of what could've happened in his life had he not achieved what he loves with Iron Maiden.

Maiden's albums are thematic, not conceptual, except for, of course, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.
 
Steve was definitely in a dark place when he recorded X Factor, and channeled his creativity into one beast of a Maiden album.
 
This is an interesting topic. I imagine that if someone tried, you could find a certain theme running through each album. Although you would have to be as vague and general as possible.  By that I mean if you start with a real general term, like say "conflict", it can probably somehow be applied to every song in an album.
 
Well the first two albums are more "nightmare" and "street" to me.  Not Nightmare on Elm Street mind you.  But they are both a lot more about death, killing, resurrection, and woman.  Definitely woman.  The Number of the Beast is hard for me to pin down.  Piece of Mind and Powerslave seem to be more about history and fiction than anything else.  Somewhere in Time is easy...it's time.  Seventh Son is also easy because it's a concept album.  I'd reckon No Prayer and Fear of the Dark would both fall under my "social commentary" tag that I gave NPFTD earlier in the thread. 
 
I always thought Fear of the Dark actually explored fear in most of its songs. Although I don't think it was ever deliberate to have album themes, it seems more likely that there were certain topics on the boy's minds at that time and the songs ended up revolving around that.
 
I wasn't aware that Different World, These Colours Don't Run, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, The Longest Day, and The Legacy were about religion.
 
Religion is definitely in a few of the songs, but I wouldn't call it as a religiously themed album.  War and conflict are definitely the prevelant theme.  Maybe Number of the Beast is more about religion?  That's a stretch, but the best fit I can see.
 
There's really no theme for The Number of the Beast. Steve and H (and uncreditedly Bruce) wrote about basically anything they wanted.
 
Well, Maiden actually started using themes for the albums on Somewhere In Time. From the debut up to Powerslave is a mix of real life situation the guys experienced, movies, books, human history and mythology, and that's right to say they are not thematic, they cover several things and situations, but randomly.
 
Jeffmetal said:
Well, Maiden actually started using themes for the albums on Somewhere In Time. From the debut up to Powerslave is a mix of real life situation the guys experienced, movies, books, human history and mythology, and that's right to say they are not thematic, they cover random and several things, but randomly.
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I do thinkt he first two albums are themed, but unintentionally.  They are both very much about "street matters" for lack of a better word.  Outlaws, flashers, murderers, and whores.  Definitely East End themes there.
 
I get your point. All the things that happened ended up becoming a theme for the albums. That's quite right, too.
 
Well, there's a really good reason why: generally, for most albums, one person wrote the majority of them. Steve wrote the majority of The X Factor; it reflected where he was personally at the time.
 
But Bayley lyrics captured quite well the mood Steve was into. I guess it's one of those cases where the magic was all over the making of The X Factor.
 
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