Bruce's voice during the years

MindRuler said:
Is there a reason why he wanted a raspier voice? Was it Bruce´s own choice to try something different or Arry´s?
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I'd be inclined to think metal was in a transition period then and he was struggling to fit in. Maiden were themselves on NPFTD and FOTD, self conscious and stuggling to fit in. I think he was just trying new things to try and stay relevant.
 
GhostofCain said:
My personal opinion is that Bruce’s voice was fried by the end of the SSOASS tour, so he probably tried to change his singing style to either sound more aggressive or find it less challenging to hit the high notes than with a “clean” voice.
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Also: Guns 'N Roses (I mean, TM...).
 
I’m going to posit that the LotB tour was one of his finest tours vocally, ever. However, the caveat is that this occurred when his health wasn’t affected by sickness and a torn ankle. He was sick and injured for large parts of the N and S American tour legs. However, on the 2018 clips I’ve seen he sounds fantastic.

Another note: He didn’t undergo treatment for his throat cancer until after Book of Souls was recorded. So on that album, Bruce isn’t singing post-recovery, he’s singing while he still had tumors in his throat. Then he got treated, and then the album was released with the subsequent tours, which showed his age vocally.

However; he still sounds way better on the majority of the LotB shows than on the BoS shows, since it had been a longer time since his recovery and he was fully healed by that point.
 
Bruce's vocal peak was almost certainly 2005. He was absolutely on fire throughout that whole tour, and it's a total crying shame they didn't trot out Flight of Icarus on that tour.

e: And yeah yeah, I know, the "first four albums only" was just an excuse to do a proper Early Days tour with most of the set from the debut and Killers, filled out with the NOTB staples and mostly the same PoM tracks they played in 2003 plus one extra as a fun surprise. I know. Still sucks.
 
Ruflux said:
Bruce's vocal peak was almost certainly 2005. He was absolutely on fire throughout that whole tour, and it's a total crying shame they didn't trot out Flight of Icarus on that tour.

e: And yeah yeah, I know, the "first four albums only" was just an excuse to do a proper Early Days tour with most of the set from the debut and Killers, filled out with the NOTB staples and mostly the same PoM tracks they played in 2003 plus one extra as a fun surprise. I know. Still sucks.
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I thought it was a great tour. I’m glad I got to see lots of the songs from IM and Killers. They’ve played most of the previously played live material from those first four albums since 1999. The only exceptions I can think of are To Tame a Land and Still Life. That’s pretty good going.
 
Ruflux said:
e: And yeah yeah, I know, the "first four albums only" was just an excuse to do a proper Early Days tour with most of the set from the debut and Killers, filled out with the NOTB staples and mostly the same PoM tracks they played in 2003 plus one extra as a fun surprise. I know. Still sucks.
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What exactly is your problem with that set?

Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Prowler, Remember Tomorrow and Drifter will never be played again and most of them hadn't been at that time in over 20 years, bar RT and Prowler on a 3 month tour and MITRM on a couple of dates.

Where Eagles Dare at the time hadn't been played since 1993 (which again was a short tour), 1986 before that. Revelations at that time had only been played on 1 tour since the 80's, Phantom only played on 1 tour since the 80's at that time. Fear of the Dark dropped for the only time ever.

I was like a pig in shit for that tour. I imagine that if Maiden played a set consisting of every track from every album someone would be on here saying it sucked because it didn't have Black Bart Blues and Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be on it.
 
I don't exactly have a problem with the set (apart from Killers being a no-show) but I feel like it was the last chance we had for Still Life for example, and it likely wasn't even in consideration since the setlist is very heavily focused on the first two albums. Revelations and DWYBO were both already played in '03 and although WED was definitely a nice surprise, I really would've wanted to hear Bruce at his vocal peak do Flight of Icarus.
 
srfc said:
What exactly is your problem with that set?

Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Prowler, Remember Tomorrow and Drifter will never be played again and most of them hadn't been at that time in over 20 years, bar RT and Prowler on a 3 month tour and MITRM on a couple of dates.

Where Eagles Dare at the time hadn't been played since 1993 (which again was a short tour), 1986 before that. Revelations at that time had only been played on 1 tour since the 80's, Phantom only played on 1 tour since the 80's at that time. Fear of the Dark dropped for the only time ever.

I was like a pig in shit for that tour. I imagine that if Maiden played a set consisting of every track from every album someone would be on here saying it sucked because it didn't have Black Bart Blues and Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be on it.
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The shows were pretty short (roughly 90 minutes at Bospop festival) as they were playing shorter songs. I would have been much happier if Children of the Damned, 22 Acacia Avenue and Flight of Icarus had been added to the set. All three were classic tracks from the era being covered.
 
GhostofCain said:
The shows were pretty short (roughly 90 minutes at Bospop festival) as they were playing shorter songs. I would have been much happier if Children of the Damned, 22 Acacia Avenue and Flight of Icarus had been added to the set. All three were classic tracks from the era being covered.
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My first Maiden gig was Reading 2005. It was a great set to see them for the first time. It had so much energy and they were all on form.

Flight of Icarus has such a funny history.Am I right in thinking that they have never been able to agree on a tempo?
 
I think it's really interesting to hear the new Iron Maiden album (whenever that will be out, Bruce's solo-album might take some time eventhough he's talked about it on the recent book-tours) because that's the first actual new recording of Bruce's voice after the cancer, and for I heard on the 2 shows I witnessed in 2018 LOTB first leg (both Helsinkin shows which were night #2 and #3 on that tour) he did sound amazing, it was among his finest performances in the later era of the career. No doubt at all.
Also one other cool bit that has to be mentioned is this:
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
Flight of Icarus has such a funny history.Am I right in thinking that they have never been able to agree on a tempo?
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You are right. However in last 8 years or so Maiden isn't pumping up the tempos anymore live (age, I guess), so LOTB was the right time to bring it back.

And to reply to thread's matter, I think his best years were 2000-2007, with 2005 being the absolute peak.
 
srfc said:
I'd be inclined to think metal was in a transition period then and he was struggling to fit in. Maiden were themselves on NPFTD and FOTD, self conscious and stuggling to fit in. I think he was just trying new things to try and stay relevant.
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I feel like the style started on Seventh Son.

That album is more disjoint than people perceive it to be. If you take out the concept glue (Prophecy, Only The Good Die Young), what you're left with is a combination of almost thrash heavy metal and almost glam hard rock. Afterwards, only Smith wanted to pursue the latter. Rest of them didn't.

What was an error in my book, was the attitude that the next is just another Maiden record and let's just go to Steve's demo studio and bash it out like we're 20 years old. They should've been more analytic and foresee that it is the heavy stuff they want to do, and then do it with proper production.
 
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I'd probably take this guy over Bruce's voice in the 80's


For me it's "Mature Bruce" all the way, but IRYO y'all...
 
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