Best song contest - Round 1, Part 15

[Boroking]

Starblind as there’s nothing else quite like it.

 

[Eli]

Coming Home
Isle Of Avalon
Starblind
The Talisman
When The Wild Wind Blows

... some of the band's best Reunion era songs, without a doubt.

all agreed, though I'd say " ... some of the band's best Reunion era songs, without a doubt".

 

[MindlessPieces]

I know this album was more experimental, but I think that was a mistake - TMWWBK should have been a fast short rocker, although the song is not slow. At the end of the day it's a matter of whether you like the song or not, but 5 epics in Disc 2 are a bit too much for me.

I love longer songs. I love indulgent guitar playing, lots of solos etc, and I like songs that have lots of parts and sections. So, yeah, i'm not bothered about not have many short songs.

 

[Dick Brucinson]

also voted for The Talisman, but I really think Mother Of Mercy is pretty cool too.

 

[Diesel 11]

Starblind must be one of the hardest Maiden songs to get into. It took me quite a lot of listens to appreciate it.

I hate to pull a Jer but… the vocal melody is just all over the place. I get that they were going for a proggy feel but it doesn’t flow at all. Bruce really needed to go back and do a second take to smooth it out. Plus the post-chorus (I consider “Starblind with sun” to be the chorus and “the preacher loses face with Christ” to be the post-chorus) recycles the key change from “Infinite Dreams” and that hurts it further IMO. There are some cool moments, the lyrics are very strong, and I like what the band was going for, but to me it isn’t the transcendent masterpiece a lot of people seem to think it is. I’ll definitely take “The Final Frontier”, “El Dorado”, “Coming Home”, “Isle of Avalon”, “The Talisman”, and “When the Wild Wind Blows” over it any day. Jury’s out on whether it’s better than “The Alchemist” or not.

Meanwhile, “Mother of Mercy” is Exhibit A when anyone says lyrics don’t matter. They 100% do. The song is really interesting and well put together and then Bruce starts singing all this faux nonsense about war and religion that is so half assed it makes me depressed. One of Iron Maiden’s whole shticks is writing about war and they have multiple amazing songs critiquing it, plus you have “For the Greater Good of God” on the previous album and “Starblind” on this one that do a way better job critiquing religion; why the fuck do you need to smoosh the two together awkwardly on this song? Literally, just write about a soldier seeing an angel on the battlefield.

Fuck it, I’ll rewrite it myself.

Sitting, waiting in the falling rain
Getting ready to begin again
The wounded writhing, crying
Bodies moving, dying
All around there is the smell of death and fire
Here the planes are coming
Hear the soldiers running
Killing on a scale you can’t comprehend

Why are we here
In this place, here to kill
Please, God, forgive us for what we have done

I always thought I was doing right
As of now, I’m not feeling so sure
My final race in this bloody wasteland
I’m a soldier of war!

I move slowly with loaded gun in hand
Ready to kill again when they give command
I have turned my back upon my inner faith
Too many sins I’ve done, no room for me in Heaven’s gate

The sounds of all the gunning and the screams of men’s despair
I brace myself for the carnage, as the smoke clouds the air
Suddenly I see a bright light shining in the gloom
An angel’s voice calls out to me, is this my hour of doom?

Is that the mother of mercy
Angel of death, desire
Mother of mercy
To take my last breath of fire
Mother of mercy
Angel of pain
Mother of mercy
Come for my last breath

She seems to stand still as she’s fired upon
Maybe it’s my eyes playing tricks on my vision
But I walk towards her to see what she may be
An angel stripping me of life for eternity

The river overflows with blood as the men fail to hold the line
The other side moves in to cull those left behind
I just keep looking forward at the angel that I see
Reach out my hand, let her say a prayer for me

Suddenly she disappears, and I am left alone
Was she a vision or mirage, I’ll never know
Maybe the merciful one is the gun about to fire at me
Taking me away to a place where I can rest in peace

Mother of mercy
Angel of death, desire
Mother of mercy
Taking my last breath of fire
Mother of mercy
Angel of pain
Mother of mercy
Drawing my last breath

I’m just a lonely soldier fighting in a bloody hopeless war
Don’t know what I’m doing, who I’m fighting, and what it’s all for
As the noise surrounds me, I give up myself and howl into the wind
Seem to just have lost my way

There, that’s not perfect, but I think it’s way better than what we got. It removes the meh shit and actually tells a little story.

And “The Man Who Would Be King” has really interesting melodies but it doesn’t come together, especially since the verses are so stock. Weird album for Maiden and the worst of the reunion era, but not without some great songs and great moments.

 

[el diablo]

I like the first half of the album and love the last 5 songs. Of those Isle of Avalon & Starblind are my 2 favorites (in that order).

 

[Azas]

On this album I hear too much of Bruce's straining. Not good.
Voted WTWWB.

 

[MindlessPieces]

Meanwhile, “Mother of Mercy” is Exhibit A when anyone says lyrics don’t matter. They 100% do.

I very rarely read song lyrics. I have no idea what Mother of Mercy is about.

However, in saying that, I recently looked up the lyrics to Bruce Dickinson's Inside the Machine.
I love that song, and wow, the lyrics are great too, and it makes my appreciation for that song greater.
Maybe there are some other songs I should actually read the lyrics too. Don't know, I'm a bit lazy that way.

 

[MindRuler]

I very rarely read song lyrics. I have no idea what Mother of Mercy is about.

About Andrew Eldritch´s mom