Dance Of Death aged very well

Everything on DOD is miles better than the Mercenary, Dream of Mirrors, The Fallen Angel and The Nomad.

Everything you listed is flawed apart from the Fallen Angel. Chemical Wedding level song.

hey were supposed to surpass or at least rival what they had done with Brave New World, but the rejuvenated Maiden were nowhere to be found on album #2 with Bruce and Adrian back. Sophomore slump?

I have an impression they shifted into lower pace after Brave New World. It may be my gut feeling but around 2005 Maiden started getting serious.

3 out of these songs do not contain A SINGLE FREAKING DRUM FILL for God's sake!!!! Damn I hate BNW!

All three are VXI leftovers hence the simpler drum approach.

You know, I remember seeing Wicker Man video for the first time. I thought oh my fucking god, Nicko has a single tom drum, please no Virtual XI drums, then as the song went on I heard toms in the sound and I was relieved.
 
Honestly, it's not always needed. Nicko is usually rather generous with them anyway, so a few songs without tom fills? I'm okay with that. In the case of The Mercenary, I definitely think the song's better off without them.
Having the drums so high in the mix, while playing just simple rythms can drive me crazy. I do think that the dynamics of Maiden have to do with the rythm section...which for the better part of BNW seems like tis is a cut and paste thing.
 
One can say you're putting your Ears In The Sand.

Maiden, are you hearing this? A follow up song. We've got the title and lyrical theme right here.
Or you could say I´m at an age (of Innocence) I´d rather stop at a high high.
 
You know, I remember seeing Wicker Man video for the first time. I thought oh my fucking god, Nicko has a single tom drum, please no Virtual XI drums, then as the song went on I heard toms in the sound and I was relieved.

My thought exactly!!! I was however put off by the drums being too high in the mix and the oversimplistic riffs and awful chorus of the song
 
There are ways to improve DOD.

A better mix for starters, allegedly a reaction to the high-in-the-mix drum sound of BNW. Personally I've never had an issue with the mix on BNW and consider it second only to SSOASS in terms of production quality. And the drums in BNW are nowhere near as high as they are on TXF where on some songs they literally drown out the guitars. I bring this up because I've seen TXF defenders attacking BNW for the same reason and I find this hypocritical. DOD sounds flat and muddy, like a thick soup. it's heavier yes but at the expense of a brighter, cleaner EQ which Maiden are usually known for.

I'd also remove a few questionable songs. Firstly Age of Innocence, with it's cringe Daily Mail headline lyrics. No Steve, criminals do not get free holidays as punishment FFS. I'd also cut New Frontier for simply being filler. Like a rejected VXI track.

Finally, I'd burn every copy of that horrid cover and start fresh. There's plenty of superior fan made covers out there. What the hell were they thinking?

DOD remains a crucial album because of Paschendale, to this day their best post-reunion song (even if they did go cheap and used keyboards instead of an orchestra) and because it showed that even a lacklustre album couldn't slow Maiden's climb back to the top. They still had a lot of goodwill left over from BNW and I believe that more than anything helped sustain them.
 
There are ways to improve DOD.

A better mix for starters, allegedly a reaction to the high-in-the-mix drum sound of BNW. Personally I've never had an issue with the mix on BNW and consider it second only to SSOASS in terms of production quality. And the drums in BNW are nowhere near as high as they are on TXF where on some songs they literally drown out the guitars. I bring this up because I've seen TXF defenders attacking BNW for the same reason and I find this hypocritical. DOD sounds flat and muddy, like a thick soup. it's heavier yes but at the expense of a brighter, cleaner EQ which Maiden are usually known for.

I'd also remove a few questionable songs. Firstly Age of Innocence, with it's cringe Daily Mail headline lyrics. No Steve, criminals do not get free holidays as punishment FFS. I'd also cut New Frontier for simply being filler. Like a rejected VXI track.

Finally, I'd burn every copy of that horrid cover and start fresh. There's plenty of superior fan made covers out there. What the hell were they thinking?

DOD remains a crucial album because of Paschendale, to this day their best post-reunion song (even if they did go cheap and used keyboards instead of an orchestra) and because it showed that even a lacklustre album couldn't slow Maiden's climb back to the top. They still had a lot of goodwill left over from BNW and I believe that more than anything helped sustain them.
You can get a better mix , here's my attempt https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1d_PnA6p9d6VZFrWc2etULEeH4U7zY6zz?usp=sharing

You know on other maiden albums there are songs I dont like but could be improved easily with small changes if a good producer existed, on this one there are just too many beyond saving. Gates of tommorrow, age of innocence, new frontier from the top of my head.

The cover is abysmal, Id like a new one but changing it now wont do much.

There exists an official orchestra version
Tbh I really dont get the craze of Paschendale, it sounds boring to me as if it was from AMOLAD
 
That orcastrated version of Paschendale never did it for me. It was a clear case of "too much". Like putting more cream on an allready perfectly creamed birthday cake or putting too much topping on your favourite pizza. Sometimes less is more.
 
That orcastrated version of Paschendale never did it for me. It was a clear case of "too much". Like putting more cream on an allready perfectly creamed birthday cake or putting too much topping on your favourite pizza. Sometimes less is more.
It was a bside afterall
 
Yes from the No More Lies EP. I knew that. :)
Yeah what I mean is none of these B Side were anything special.

PS:Listened to paschendale again, its not a bad song, definately not an AMOLAD song which is good, within these 9 minutes there is a good song, I dont like intro and outro but the BOOODIES FALLING LIKE THA RAIIIN part is very good. One of the good songs on DOD
 
That orcastrated version of Paschendale never did it for me. It was a clear case of "too much". Like putting more cream on an allready perfectly creamed birthday cake or putting too much topping on your favourite pizza. Sometimes less is more.
Personally it reinforces my opinion that Maiden should do a Metallica S&M style live album one day. With the LSO at the Albert Hall and Bear McCreary as orchestrator/conductor. That would be incredible (in my dreams).
 
I am a big fan of this album. It may very well be my favorite post reunion. Dance Of Death is probably a Maiden top 5 for me, and I only really see GoT, NW and AoI as “fillers” - but better ones at that than most of the other albums.
 
Never ceases to surprise me how varied the musical tastes are among the maiden fans. Everyone seems to have wildly different favorites and least favorites. I love Fallen Angel, Mercenary and Journeyman.
 
Never ceases to surprise me how varied the musical tastes are among the maiden fans. Everyone seems to have wildly different favorites and least favorites. I love Fallen Angel, Mercenary and Journeyman.
If you waste enough time you can convince yourself to like any of the Maiden songs. I'm a genuine fan of The Apparition these days...
 
If you waste enough time you can convince yourself to like any of the Maiden songs. I'm a genuine fan of The Apparition these days...
I would call it time well spent. I could get behind anything in the Maiden catalogue apart from (90% of) the Virtual XI stuff
 
If you waste enough time you can convince yourself to like any of the Maiden songs. I'm a genuine fan of The Apparition these days...
No joke, I always loved The Apparition on release back in the days! LOL I still regard FOTD as one of their most ambitious album in a strange era. I loved the sound and everything about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jcv
No joke, I always loved The Apparition on release back in the days! LOL I still regard FOTD as one of their most ambitious album in a strange era. I loved the sound and everything about it.
ME TOO!
 
Back on topic, DOD has aged much better to me than say BNW. Even though, it's an inconsistent album in my book as for the songs. Some songs like Age of Innocence, Face in the Sand are simply not interesting enough. While say Montsegur, Rainmaker or the title song are top notch. Out of all the reunion albums, AMOLAD aged quite well.
 
Back
Top