Are you pleased with Maiden's direction?

Maiden's new direction?

I'd call it a natural progression. Iron Maiden now are not the same young men from the east end of London who crafted their art playing in smoky pubs and clubs across England in the late 70's and early 80's. They arent the same band as the one that recruited a Worksop born foghorn singer and became the most dominant metal band in the world when they performed their World Slavery Tour.

What you have now got are 6 men who have grown together, had many life experiences, with band members who have gone and returned bringing new aspects to their musicality.

We cant expect these men to produce the same style of music they were doing 30 years ago. They have said themselves they dont want to be a cabaret act, churning over the same songs tour after tour. So the songs have changed, have evolved into more complex creations. Seriously if Maiden produced another album that sounded like Beast or Powerslave wouldnt they be getting criticism for following the same formula, for not being original or creative.

Every one is allowed their own opinion however. Having thought BNW, DOD, and AMOLAD were all fantastic albums in their own right i couldnt wait to listen to TFF for the first time. In order to have no distraction I bought the CD and played it in the car and went for a long drive, with the volume up high. I wasnt disappointed. No song sounds quite like anything they've done before. It sounds heavier in places, beautiful in others, complex, Bruce sounds better than ever IMO, the solos are great. To me this album isnt a grower it's afucking instant hit
 
I love the "2000's Maiden", to me they're as good now as they were in the 80's! In fact i prefer this new version.
One of the main reasons of this is because they now write more longer and epic songs, showing their progressive side, and since my favourite Maiden songs are these( love all the twists and tempo changes on their long songs), I'm more than happy.
We probably won't have another Aces High and The Trooper part II (which many people want, I can't believe how many "fans" are stuck in the 80's btw), but we now have the likes of Paschendale, For The Greater Good of God and the new cd (which is their top in terms of epic longs songs imo) and I don't think we lost with this changes since musically they're better than ever!
 
I think they're better now. I've always preferred the "deeper" Maiden. Give me Hallowed and Mariner over Aces and Trooper any day. So I'm LOVING all these epic tracks. I hardly ever listen to it now but it is great to be able to dip back into the 80's stuff whenever we like too.
 
snake plissken said:
I think they're better now. I've always preferred the "deeper" Maiden. Give me Hallowed and Mariner over Aces and Trooper any day. So I'm LOVING all these epic tracks. I hardly ever listen to it now but it is great to be able to dip back into the 80's stuff whenever we like too.
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This point of view mirrors mine exactly. 
 
I really enjoy all 4 "reunion" albums. I am just glad that they are still around and plan on enjoying it while it lasts.
 
Ardius said:
Sarcasm never carries in text form without a bit more obvious indicators. What you read in your words, someone else might not and vice versa. I always wonder why people expect others to "get" sarcasm like that - the whole point of sarcasm is the facial expression or delivery of the sarcasm, i.e. how you say it like exaggerating words and so on. Text on the internet carries none of this - so the words seem literal.
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I agree.

Freeze said:
I guess that it's the final step
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Read: the final frontier.
 
Overall, I'm pleased. I will be honest though, and as much as I dislike beginning my posting history here with negativity I thought AMOLAD was abysmal. Nothing about it "clicked" with me, the production got to me....well actually thats pretty much it  :p
I was stoked when I completed my first listen of TFF as a whole. Great album start to finish, with the When The Wild Wind Blows being in my opinion one of the best songs they've written in years. Then again, I thought DOD was a brilliant album also that didn't deserve a shred of the crap being thrown at it...love Gates of Tomorrow infact.
 
Man On The Edge said:
Overall, I'm pleased. I will be honest though, and as much as I dislike beginning my posting history here with negativity I thought AMOLAD was abysmal. Nothing about it "clicked" with me, the production got to me....well actually thats pretty much it  :p
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I agree about the production.... it almost sounds unmastered, or at least mixed oddly, especially Bruce's vocals. I thought I had read that was intentional but I'd prefer the vocals up front a bit more.
 
Machiventa said:
I agree about the production.... it almost sounds unmastered, or at least mixed oddly, especially Bruce's vocals. I thought I had read that was intentional but I'd prefer the vocals up front a bit more.
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it wasnt mastered (on Steve's orders) - although it might not sound as clean and polished as mastered tracks it was done to give a "live" feel to it.
 
Mastering isn't significant with digital media, but very necessary with analog - like vinyl. In terms of dynamic range, vinyl doesn't have the range of CD, and music (especially metal!) must be mastered. That's the whole point. Mastering isn't just another kind of mixing, it is preparation of the music for transfer to physical media.

Perhaps the main CD / digital version are unmastered, but the vinyl can't be that way. It would be interesting to hear the vinyl, and how close it is to the CD.
 
pilau said:
What about TFF? Is it not mastered as well? (I did not listen to it yet).
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There's a mastering credit listed, so I'm assuming it was.  It feels fuller than AMOLAD for sure.
 
snake plissken said:
I think they're better now. I've always preferred the "deeper" Maiden. Give me Hallowed and Mariner over Aces and Trooper any day. So I'm LOVING all these epic tracks.
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Ditto. Also, have a praise LC for some first class troll-bashing. :)
 
I do not care what is the direction as long as I like the result. And with AMOLAD in my top two along with TXF, I have no problems with the current direction obviously. I understand and accept that they are no longer young musicians producing the kind of material as on the first albums. They grew up as did and still does their music. Do we want them to sound the same on every album? I do not think so. Why copy Powerslave when we already have one? In fact, on the new album, I'm most happy for Satellite 15, damn, that is something new! At least, in IM catalogue.

And I have no problems with songs requiring multiple listens. I find it natural for a complex music being more demanding for the listener. Actually, it sometimes happens to me that when some song catches me instantly, it starts to be boring later. Funny, faster to be liked, but also faster to be forgotten. Of course, not a rule, just shows, that instant catchiness is not that important, I think.

(umm... I have a feeling I'm babbling obvious things...)
 
I love the new MAiden approach. My favourite bands are Genesis, Rush etc and i love the long interesting compositions. I read a long time ago that Harris favourite album was Genesis- Foxtrot, so i think thats one of the reasons Harris has always written interesting lenghty songs  :shred:
 
Since my other favorite bands are Rush, Yes, and Bela Fleck, I enjoy Maiden's proggy/technical side and the last few albums have all had a lot of interesting music. 

None of TFF tracks stood out after the first couple listens, and I started thinking that this might be a downward path from AMOLAD (a great album that I enjoyed right away). 

But dense music like this sometimes doesn't make a positive first impression, and the album is growing on me with each listen.  Now that I've heard it over 20 times, my take is that tracks 1-3 are mediocre, 4 sucks, 5 is good (similar to, but better than, The Mercenary), and 6-10 are awesome.  The last two tracks especially kick ass.  When the Wild Wind Blows has a different feel than previous Harris epics and at first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but it's currently my favorite song on the album.

The vocal arrangements are better than on their recent albums, but unfortunately Dickinson sounds strained on much of it (not surprising since he also was struggling on the last couple tours).  Thankfully it doesn't ruin the music.

It's premature to rank it yet, but I'm expecting it to be up there with AMOLAD, if not higher.
 
Ah well. Bruce vocals are ten times as powerful as Yes vocals. Geddy Lee doesn't reach his high notes either anymore.
 
Geddy's voice has never been better!!! I'm loving his tone and how he uses his voice. Actually, I love his vocals since Counterparts.
 
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