Bruce Dickinson

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I'm not a huge Judas Priest fan, only own a handful albums, but appreciate and love a few of their songs. The production of their recent releases is how modern heavy metal should sound like, in my opinion.

In a perfect world we'd get Judas Priest's production with the songwriting of Iron Maiden.

On the other hand, hell would be having Priest's songwriting with Maiden's production :D
 
I think I had enough listens to share my rating. I won't give numbers, because for instance I would like to give Shadow a 10. But then there are songs like Powerslave, SSoaSS, or Hallowed, that are obviously 10s but even better, so let's try without math.
I will go - approximately - from best to worst

Best
Shadow Of The Gods - best song of the album, ingenious transition with "one drop", then fucking fantastic riffing in second half, you have no life, world of the dead, world of the dead!!!!!
Also love the nods to TCW and Alchemist!

Great
Fingers In the Wounds - Love the chorus, especially when Bruce goes high in the "and pray that he's god!"
Many Doors To Hell - great chorus, love the guitars and the organs
Face In The Mirror - don't understand the hate. Even though a ballad, it's beautiful and touching. The background high vocals in last choruses are NOT a mistake.
Eternity Has Failed - I love the Maiden version and this one, great music and vocal melodies. Not sure which one I like more now

Awesome but different
Sonata (Immortal Beloved) - a special category of its own, I definitely have it very high, it's just not comparable to usual stuff. It could have less speaking parts, but in the end I accept it. Love the choruses, especially the second high one. Great solo.

Nice to listen to
Afterglow Of Ragnarok - love the chorus, pre-chorus I would rather remove. Riff is great, all in all good song but one of the weaker on the album.
Rain On The Graves - nice little piece of music, but too simple ideas-wise. Still enjoyable.

Kinda nice
Mistress Of Mercy - the riff is nice, verses too. I don't like the chorus. Eastern melodies are cool, but all in all it doesn't work that well.

Feels like filler
Resurrection Men - weakest song on the album, the singing sounds straining and dissonant. I only like the rock and roll part "I rise from slumber"
 
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redandtheblack92 said:
I think Fear of the Dark had good production albeit the album sucked
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Yeah, Fear of the Dark is much better than No Prayer. Imo, this album suffers from huge amount of filler songs.

Great/good songs:
01. Be Quick Or Be Dead
02. From Here To Eternity
03. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
04. Childhoo's End
05. Judas Be My Guide
06. Fear Of The Dark

Not so sure/Meh:
Wasting Love
The Fugitive
Weekend Warrior

Fillers:
Fear is he Key
Chains of Misery
The Apparition
 
redandtheblack92 said:
I think Fear of the Dark had good production albeit the album sucked
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OK, most of songs on 'Fear Of The Dark' are cool and not more, but there are also great tracks on it : "Be Quick Or Be Dead", "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", "Wasting Love", "Chains Of Misery", "Judas Be My Guide", "Fear Of The Dark". ;)
 
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Azas said:
Yeah, Fear of the Dark is much better than No Prayer. Imo, this album suffers from huge amount of filler songs.

Great/good songs:
01. Be Quick Or Be Dead
02. From Here To Eternity
03. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
04. Childhoo's End
05. Judas Be My Guide
06. Fear Of The Dark

Not so sure/Meh:
Wasting Love
The Fugitive
Weekend Warrior

Fillers:
Fear is he Key
Chains of Misery
The Apparition
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Unpopular opinion but it’s my choice. Fear of the Dark is my least favorite title track. That song for me is in the “Meh” category. It’s the song I just can’t fucking stand. I almost never listen to that song unless I’m listening to the entire album.

Production wise, probably the best produced 90s album by Maiden
 
TheMercenary said:
OK, most of songs on 'Fear Of The Dark' suck a lot, but there are also great tracks on it : "Be Quick Or Be Dead", "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", "Wasting Love", "Chains Of Misery", "Judas Be My Guide", "Fear Of The Dark". ;)
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Well for me it’ll be Afraid to Shoot Strangers, Fear is the Key, Childhoods End, Wasting Love, The Fugitive, Judas Be My Guide.
Besides wasn’t wasting love supposed to be a part of Tattooed Millionaire
 
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TheMercenary said:
Well, you're right. I didn't want to tell they suck, but there are not so great compared to the other songs that I've quoted on my previous post. ;)
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I respect that, but I love every song on that album. It's a top 3 Maiden album for me. I understand why people don't like it because it's not a pure metal album; it's a hybrid hard rock-metal album, but it worked for me.
 
The Red and the Black said:
I respect that, but I love every song on that album.
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I respect a lot that too. :)

I don't hate this album. It's a very good one with some classics, with some greats songs and with some less great songs. The artwork is simple and fantastic, but this album was for me at the time like Maiden's swansong, seeing what happened after that : Bruce leaving the band and the band turning around without knowing what to do next with its iconic singer outside the machine. So, that's why it's not one of my favorite records. ;)
 
TheMercenary said:
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Some interesting bits:

Bruce: ''I’m pretty proud of everything I’ve done with Z.''

Bruce: ''And the first thing we did, Roy and myself, was write two brand-new songs, which actually open the record. And what that did is that gave us a new lease on life to look at all the other songs again. Now the other stuff didn’t feel stale. It was like, OK, we’re going to reinvent the songs that we already invented once already, but let’s look at them with fresh eyes and fresh ears and see where we go with it.''

Bruce: ''Face in the Mirror’ is kind of folky.''
Roy: ''He did the solo on it in one take. It’s interesting for somebody that doesn’t play guitar all the time for them to do a solo, especially as a singer, because he was singing through the guitar and I really like that—he’s vocalizing on that solo. It’s a nicely composed solo and it’s fresh.''

Roy: ''The music reflects our ages, I suppose. But it’s a constant progression of moving into other realms of things that we like. There are also a lot of ‘firsts.''

Roy: ''Oddly enough, it’s all in there. I used the same tools that I used before, on, say Chemical and Tyranny, but I used them in a different way. Production-wise, I wanted to keep our brand and sound. I wanted to make sure we had our sound and so that’s always there. The odd thing is this is the first time that I was the only bass player on the record.''

Roy: ''It’s one of the last two songs that made this record, along with ‘Many Doors to Hell.’ I just felt that we were missing those elements. It was just a gut feeling that we needed those two extra, newer songs. Because we were covering so much other ground on the other songs, as a producer, I just wanted to give it a fresh coat of paint. ‘Afterglow of Ragnarok’ was, to me, a nod to the Chemical Wedding sound, because I’m using the same tunings and a lot of the same sounds that I used on that record. I thought that was needed. I have my bag or my bucket of tricks and sounds that I use exclusively for the Bruce solo situation, and I thought some of that was missing.''

Ragnarok uses TCW sounds. Cool to know.

Roy: ''No, 2012 was really concentrated, and then, as I say, unfortunately our plans got derailed a bit. I was really looking forward to having Uli Jon Roth play with us because he was keen on being on the album back in 2012. And so, he said, ‘Leave some space for me.’ You know, that’s Uli. And then I left some space. That’s why there’s not that much guitar on there, to be honest. But then I filled in what was needed.''

^So the album was supposed to be with 2 guitars? I don't think that's an excuse of some sort, though. Sorry. A hard rock/metal album with not that much guitar on it?
 
TheMercenary said:
I respect a lot that too. :)

I don't hate this album. It's a very good one with some classics, with some greats songs and with some less great songs. The artwork is simple and fantastic, but this album was for me at the time like Maiden's swansong, seeing what happened after that : Bruce leaving the band and the band turning around without knowing what to do next with its iconic singer outside the machine. So, that's why it's not one of my favorite records. ;)
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For me it was a comeback album. I was thrown off by No Prayer for the Dying after the great epic 80s albums. (No Prayer has grown on me over the years.) With Fear, I felt this new line-up was coming into its own and had found its own sound and identity, which resonated with me. And then suddenly Bruce left, and it was over. And then the dark days began..
 
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