Best War-Themed Maiden Songs

[Diesel 11]

Was thinking about this earlier and was curious see how voting would go. The point of this is to vote for the songs you think used the war / anti-war theme most effectively. You have five votes, use them wisely.

I'm personally going for Aces High, The Aftermath, Como Estais Amigos, Paschendale, and Tailgunner.

 

[Brigantium]

The Victor Comic type ones are fun, but MoM does a great job of the train of thought thing.

 

[GhostofCain]

Paschendale, The Longest Day, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, 2 Minutes to Midnight, and The Trooper.

 

[Wogmidget]

ATSS, Where Eagles Dare, Trooper, Clansman and Aces High

 

[Lampwick 43]

Taking everything into account, with the most important factor being how much I like the song, My votes go to:

The Aftermath
The Clansman
The Legacy
Paschendale
The Trooper

 

[Confeos]

Afraid to Shoot Strangers, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, The Clansman, The Longest Day, Paschendale

I've disregarded where the songs place on my all-time Maiden list and simply chosen the ones I think best manage to convey an image of war, musically as well as lyrically.

 

[Number 6]

• "Alexander the Great"
• "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns"
• "The Longest Day"
• "For the Greater Good of God"
• "The Legacy"

 

[Magnus]

Prowler.
Another kind of war, admittedly, but nevertheless.

 

[Diesel 11]

Paschendale is winning thus far, and I support that 100%.

 

[Number 6]

Paschendale is winning thus far, and I support that 100%.

I don't. I mean, it's a brilliant piece of music, but it fails to put the images in my head. "The Longest Day" does that much better.

 

[Diesel 11]

The Longest Day kills itself with the chorus. It's still a good song, but Paschendale sums up and creates the most vivid imagery of war and Maiden have yet to top that.

 

[Magnus]

Easily topped by Motörhead though, all of them:

 

[LooseCannon]

I don't. I mean, it's a brilliant piece of music, but it fails to put the images in my head. "The Longest Day" does that much better.

The Longest Day has a great intro, and utterly fails once you get to the first chorus and becomes surprisingly bland, whereas every single note in Paschendale is designed to evoke the feelings of the Western Front in 1917. Riffs that echo the thunder of artillery, the sound of cymbals echoing shells falling, the tap tap tap of rain on a soldier's helmet. Solos that equal machine guns, a bass that sounds like feet thudding on the ground, a lament, a horrifying lament, of a million lives lost in the mud and wet.

Every. Single. Note. It's Adrian's truest masterpiece.

 

[LooseCannon]

Easily topped by Motörhead though, all of them:

The thing that makes 1916 good is that it's a martial lament. If Maiden tried to do that, it'd sound cheesy, but somehow Lemmy makes it work.

 

[Number 6]

Maiden have yet to top that.

They already did. With "The Longest Day".

 

[Number 6]

Riffs that echo the thunder of artillery, the sound of cymbals echoing shells falling, the tap tap tap of rain on a soldier's helmet. Solos that equal machine guns, a bass that sounds like feet thudding on the ground, a lament, a horrifying lament, of a million lives lost in the mud and wet.

Yeah... I don't get any of that.

 

[LooseCannon]

Yeah... I don't get any of that.

This sounds like a you problem, and not a Paschendale problem - considering that one of the two songs is a nearly-universally held masterpiece, and the other is considered pretty good. Which is fine - you're allowed to prefer what you prefer, of course. But maybe don't hold your opinion as true fact so much.

 

[Mosh]

I don't know if I'd say it's Adrian's masterpiece, but it's definitely Maiden's most successfully cinematic song. Empire comes close at times but it works in a different way. There are moments where Bruce wants to tell the story purely with his words and the music isn't doing as much of the illustration. Paschendale is constant, even down to the guitar solos (a first for Maiden).

 

[Number 6]

But maybe don't hold your opinion as true fact so much.

I never did. There is no "fact" when we're talking personal tastes. "Paschendale" fails to put the images in my head, and when it does, it's only to show me how epic a battlefield can be. With "The Longest Day", I'm stuck with that one soldier on the beach, and I never leave him. "Paschendale" is all shiny and polished (far from what reality actually is), while "The Longest Day" sounds rough, dirty and unsettling (like reality, which is why I prefer it over "Paschendale" in that regard). That is, in my opinion, of course.

 

[LooseCannon]

"Paschendale" is all shiny and polished (far from what reality actually is), while "The Longest Day" sounds rough, dirty and unsettling (like reality, which is why I prefer it over "Paschendale" in that regard).

See, I have the opposite opinion. I'm with you through the opening - fantastic. I feel claustrophobic during the intro of The Longest Day, like steel walls are closing in around me. And then that feeling goes away. The instrumental of the song sounds so damn triumphant, which it shouldn't. It should sound gritty and violent. Paschendale sounds muddy to me, horrific and muddy. I'm genuinely sorry you don't hear it.