Brand new Maiden fan here

P

Phil Underhill

Prowler
So I thought I'd introduce myself :)

I'm 32 and only now have just recently become a huge fan of the band. I've been a metalhead since about 2000 or so when I really became aware of metal (through the usual gateway bands like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit and such). Into all sorts of metal from Groove up to Death and beyond.

I always thought Maiden were an 'introduction to metal' band and despite hearing the obvious tracks like NOTB, CIPWM and RTTH dismissed them out of hand.

How wrong I was! I recently watched the Flight 666 DVD which brought tracks like Aces High, Powerslave, ROTAM, Wasted Years and such like to my ears. I instantly got hooked and couldn't believe how I'd missed out on all this stuff.

I guess I'm able to look at the band from a different point of view as the longer term fans. Not jaded by disappointment of No Prayer, or Bruce leaving the band (etc...) I have to say they're easily the most consistent high-quality band I've heard thus far.

The newer stuff (Final Frontier, Coming Home, Dance Of Death, TROBB, Paschendale, Blood Brothers) to me is some of the finest metal they've ever produced. Lots of absolutely killer tracks and the musicianship is second to none.

So I'm on a real musical journey now and ever day I discover a new track that I can't believe I lived without before-- The most recent ones being MITRM and Revelations.

Anyway, to sum up, I can't believe how I've lived without this music in my life up until now and hope I don't make too many of you jealous that I'm on this voyage of discovery right now. It's all new to me, you see :)

Anyway, up the flippin' Irons!
Phil.
 
Welcome to the world of the best and most exciting band ever! I have to admit that I am indeed a bit jealous... I always get a bit nostalgic when I hear a song like The Clansman or Alexander the Great, which I used to play all night over and over again when I discovered it. I know that back then, I had a CD with random selection of Maiden songs burned on them, anything I could get my hands on. I wonder if I still have it somewhere. You can tell I'm not that old of a fan, I've only been that for the last twelve years or so. But still, I already have my share of memories with almost every song by now.
 
Welcome to the forum! Hope you enjoy your stay. :) I'm newish to Maiden too but mine started about 6 months ago so I'm pretty well established. I'm still learning though.
 
I also am jealous a bit, the level of fascination some songs give to you when you first hear them do not repeat over the time when you get used to it. You still love'em, but those first times are always special.

Glad you joined the company, welcome !
 
Welcome to the fold, as others have said it is great listening to Maiden songs for the first time and discovering tracks that will become your favourites for years to come.
 
Welcome Phil. You and other new members may also appreciate the Iron Maiden Commentary (http://www.ironmaidencommentary.com/) which has encyclopedic information and analysis for each Maiden release and tour. I know it enhanced my enjoyment of this band's work, and it may enhance yours, as well. At least you'll get a theory or two about what songs like "Moonchild" and "Revelations" are supposed to be about, as Bruce's lyrics are occasionally opaque.

Cursed acronyms -- took me a couple seconds to figure out CIPWM (...Madness) and I actually had to look up MITRM (Rue Morgue) and TROBB (B. Breeg).
 
Welcome Phil!

MITRM! Probably the first time this song was ever abbreviated on this forum! :)
And it reminds me of Mithrim, a region in Beleriand (from Tolkien's Silmarillion).

CIPWM is more regular and I also think I saw the ridiculous sounding Breeg abbreviation before, though Breeg is more common. :)
 
Sorry guys :-) Guess I don't know the abbreviated names yet! Glad I could throw a couple of brainteasers out there to pass the time though.

Anyway, I'm off to watch Maiden England. It's the only pro-shot performance left for me to watch. Guess I'll just start again from the top :-)

\m/
 
Do that and try to tell me afterwards that you're not dying to see them on this tour.
 
Always glad to see a new fan! Welcome aboard!

I'll never forget when I was around 12 and my uncle gave me a copy of SIT. I just laid in my bed in total super amazement as I listened to the mighty Maiden for the first time ever. And when ATG came on, I went totally ballistic!
 
Welcome :)

Phil Underhill said:
I guess I'm able to look at the band from a different point of view as the longer term fans. Not jaded by disappointment of No Prayer, or Bruce leaving the band (etc...) I have to say they're easily the most consistent high-quality band I've heard thus far.
Click to expand...

Yeap, that's the thing. Big time.
Though as far as I can remember, Somewhere in Time was a silent disappointment too and Seventh Son was by no means regarded like the masterpiece that is today. The first huge -nearly absolute- excitement was the first listening of Brave New World for me. May 29th, 2000. An orgasm :D
 
Loved "rock" in elementary school days, like Metallica, G'n'R, The Offspring, and a few domestic bands. But somehow ended up as a hip-hop / hardcore kid in high school, mainly by being exposed to Beastie Boys on VIVA 2. It lasted for a year or so. A metalhead buddy from school, who knew about my previous affections for hard rock, and we both play guitar, asked me if I ever listened to Iron Maiden. I knew that album known as "Best Of The Beast" was extremely popular among kids, and that was my whole response. So he recorded a mixed tape with 3-4 songs off Powerslave, Somewhere In Time, Seventh Son, and No Prayer For The Dying.

Never going to forget that moment. Came from school, nobody home, got the tape out of the bag, into the big Hi-Fi in the living room, and pressed play...behold, Aces High.
That's it, song hasn't reached the first verse yet, and I was already trapped in fandom for life. So I got copied tapes of those four albums, and listened them over and over for a couple of months.

After filling myself in with some facts about the band (lineup changes and recent activities, mostly), I ran into Man On The Edge video on VIVA 2's Virus show, and loved it.

Then Maiden released Virtual XI, which was first release after becoming a fan. Not good. It lacked powerful drumming and powerful guitar sound. It felt dull, because of thought that Maiden are a band of the past.
And a bit after that, I find myself watching tape of last night's Virus show recording. A song starts. A catchy bass line and some weird video to go along. Very strange guitar riff starts. This dude seems famili...Adrian Smith! Right a microsecond after his name rang in my head, song info appears. The Tower, by Bruce Dickinson?! Verse riff kicks in, I still can't believe what I've accidentally captured on video tape. It was heavy, it was dark, and it had '80s Maiden screaming from it. Bruce singing better than ever, killer riff with a killer groove, with a killer solo by Adrian Smith, going straight into a simply un-fucking-believable guitar harmony.

Now I completely didn't care about Virtual XI or the current state of Maiden (as I perceived it then), I had to dig this Bruce Dickinson stuff up. Deploy 12 meters of telephone cable, and dial Internet. 14.4 kbps (1.8 kilobytes per second), at a price per minute so high, that it makes Apple look like a charity company. Fortunately finding his discography listing was not hard. Marked down Chemical Wedding, followed by Accident Of Birth. Others didn't seem like these two; lineup, cover, song names. Lower priority.

Chemical Wedding is one of the best metal albums ever. Book Of Thel can challenge any Maiden track. My opinion then, my opinion now. And as far as I recall, got the copy only 2-3 months after the album release, and I count it together with anticipated Maiden releases. Afterwards got Accident Of Birth, again superb stuff. More similar to classic Maiden in composition compared to TCW.

And a bit after that, one sunny morning, my computer screen told me that Smith and Dickinson are returning to Maiden. They are to embark on a hits tour, and then record a new album. Fast forward a year or so, again VIVA 2, and The Wickerman. Great track, powerful, Nicko is playing like Nicko again, everything is just great, but there's no wow factor. That's exactly my opinion of Brave New World. For me it's the thing that came out after Chemical Wedding, and it fell damn short.

Dance Of Death - didn't like when it came out. Paschendale was spectacular, I just didn't like the sound and the themes and the general album feel. Even thought they were sailing away towards orchestration, a totally unnecessary metal cliché. In next few years I lost interest in keeping in track with releases, tours, and such. I was on extensive Somewhere In Time trip and I thought they'd never reach that level again. I haven't waited for AMOLAD, knew it came out because of three posted songs (BTATS, Breeg, Different World) as an album teaser on official site. BTATS was too damn weird, Breeg was boring, and Different World kept failing to download. AMOLAD - fail. A year passes. Cellphone, headphones, shuffle throws out Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, the last song I'd think of. Didn't even recall copying it to phone. Seems like the universe pulled one from the hat, because this time the song clicked with me. It clicked fucking big time. Immediately played Breeg afterwards, and after hearing Dave's intro, I was already sold on running back home to download AMOLAD. It was pure bliss. Gave a few more shots to Dance Of Death, got into it.

I placed AMOLAD in my top 3 albums, together with SiT and SSoASS. Best three. No competition between them.

There are moments on SiT and SSoASS that are unmatchable. But there are average ones too. AMOLAD keeps a very high standard all the time, and doesn't fall off a bit. I'm pointing this out, because latest anticipated Maiden album, The Final Frontier, had damn high expectations from me, because of AMOLAD's consistency, and because of them band being on top of their game, on peak even higher than 1980s. What came out? AMOLAD-class album with it's own unique structure, themes and moods. However, this one has a counterpart to those few unmatchable metal moments of the late 1980s; Starblind. Expectations surpassed. So I extend my "best three" to "ultimate four". Final two albums of each glorious decade of Iron Maiden.
 
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