OK so my last post was just me stating that I love this song. Now I'm actually gonna talk about why it's so great and why I love it.
Anti-war songs come in a lot of different shapes and forms. Some of them are just decrying war; some of them pertain to a specific battle, war, or event; and some of the take something specific and yet create a song that's influenced by something but that fits any kind of thing. For The Greater Good Of God fits the first one; The Trooper fits the second. Both of these are good songs, but both of them fall short in creating a truly anti-war statement and feel. Actually, FTGGOG nearly succeeds, the only issue being that fucking repetition. Take out the repetition and you have a truly fantastic song; with it in, it's merely "very good". The Trooper, however, fails on all fronts. The song is one of the least anti-war out of Maiden anti-war songs and yet it's praised the most. I mean, yeah it's great, yeah it deserves the praise, but not as an anti-war song. The Trooper is merely a song about a guy fighting and he dies. Maybe a little more to it but that's what it boils down to.
Now, I myself prefer the third category, and Maiden typically succeed with those kinds of songs. Just look through their discography - The Legacy was initially about a world leader but became instead a mammoth that's less specific and more broad, and in fact doesn't even stick completely to war. Then there's Afraid to Shoot Strangers, written about the Gulf War but still holding up today. And of course there's Paschendale. Paschendale fits both in the specific and specific-with-a-twist category. Yes, it's about a specific battle, but take all mention of the battle out and it still holds up really really well. That's what makes a great anti-war song a great anti-war song.
But when it comes to Maiden's anti-war songs, and you know I've been leading up to this - the one I've gotta go for is this five minute masterpiece called "Como Estais Amigos". Yeah, okay, let's get it over with - Argentina does emphatically not use "estais" and that's more of a Spain thing. The title should be something like "¿Cómo Están Amigos?". And I'm sure many people could gripe about how the biggest metal band in the world should have the time to figure out which countries use "vosotros" and which drop that and solely use "ustedes". I get it. What I don't get is dismissing the song solely on that basis. I also don't get how anyone can dismiss this song after hearing it (why vote 1???) but that's a different story and that delves more into opinion and this is my opinion piece and I don't feel the need currently to attack others'. But yeah; the title is a fail but not drastically. It does not impact the song at all.
Now, title issues aside, the actual song: It starts out quietly with a guitar that's almost reminiscent of the Moog synth on The Beatles' Abbey Road album. It seems a little weird on first listen, but as the listenings increase one finds that it's absolutely integral to the song and you wouldn't want it any other way. Blaze starts quietly: "Como esta amigo / For the death of those we don't know / Shall we kneel and say a prayer / They will never know we care." It's absolutely perfect beginning. You already begin to feel your heart pound, your eyes moisten, preparing for what's next to come.
The chorus is perfection: "No more tears, no more tears / If we live for a hundred years, amigos no more tears." After another bit of verse the song gets heavy - but not so heavy as to lose the beauty. Just heavy enough to remind people this is Iron Maiden.
I wanna say a couple things. Firstly, a criticism: the drums on Virtual XI range from decent to bad. The latter is most apparent during this song's verses. Not enough to bring the song down because literally everything else is utter perfection. Secondly: as much as I love VXI, I think one has to admit that the lyrics took a dive. Luckily the songs are all good enough that the lyrical genius, or rather, lack thereof, isn't as necessary here. That being said, Como Estais Amigos has amazing lyrics. All of it, each verse is beautiful. I hate to say it, but it might be because of lack of Steve. It's the only song on the album he didn't contribute to and instead Blaze and Janick teamed up to pen it, inspired by their trip to Argentina and their wonderment at the Falkland War memorials. Como Estais Amigos proves two things: that despite some of the lackluster lyrics he'd written (When Two Worlds Collide comes to mind), Blaze could actually write a great song; and that it was no false hypothesis, Janick really was becoming a great songwriter.
Now why does Como Estais stack up so well and possibly so much better than many other anti-war songs? After all, it's about the Falkland War. After all, that took place in 1982 during the whole Number of the Beast thing, why bring it up again now? Well, Como Estais is a tribute to all the people who died then, needlessly because of the wickedness of the human heart. Actually, you could extend it to include anyone who's ever died needlessly because of the wickedness of the human heart. That's what I love about Como Estais Amigos and songs in that vain: yes, it's written about a specific thing, but if you take about that thing it still holds up well as an anti-war song. It's someone whose country was once moving against another country and firmly extending an olive branch to them.
How can you say it was written for nothing? How can you say you hate this song? How can you give it a 1 of all things? This song is perfect; it's both Janick and Blaze's best moment and furthermore, the single best moment in Maiden's discography, discounting Empire of the Clouds. It's beautiful. It's a masterpiece. And anyone who thinks otherwise, please go listen to this song again.
In a mere five minutes, Maiden closed the door on the Blaze albums. Yet in that five minutes they put together something that can stand for eternity. While I love what's happened since Bruce's return, there's a major part of me that wishes we could've had a longer period of the separation. Not only would we see how epic Bruce could make his follow-up to The Chemical Wedding, but also - if they could craft this thing in their "down" period, then imagine what could have happened next.
Blaze, Steve, Nicko, Janick, Dave - I love all five. They made two masterpieces: the entire X Factor album, and Como Estais Amigos. Just greatness. Outside of Empire, this song is the best thing Maiden have ever made. 10/10, no sweat.
P.S. It's interesting that song that tells you "no more tears" is the song that will love you with more tears than any other.
), the middle part, the solos, all perfect.