Days Of Future Past

[Kalata]

Does this feel like a half finished song to anyone? I get vibes of the unfinished solo from Gangland from the empty midsection. It feels like there should be something there.

I think it's intentional. I'm not a big fan of the empty midsection, but I appreciate them giving us something straightforward and different. It fits the song, it's a nice feature in an album full of ideas and one you won't expect. I prefer the song to have a triple-lead guitar harmony there though.

 

[Kalata]

The inspiration for this song, according to Adrian (the info is from this interview):

''I remember at the time all artists regularly released great, catchy and especially short singles. You can tell your story in three or four minutes at most. Earlier in our career, we did the same thing with Maiden, but over the years we've lost that a little bit. Our sound became more progressive and the songs became naturally longer. I've never had a problem with that because it's part of the way the band has grown and developed. But I started to miss these short songs more and more. This inspired me to make a short and powerful song, along with Bruce. And that's what Days Of Future Past has become. It also sounds like a great song to play live''.

^ Maybe that's the reason for the empty midsection, @Spaldy , although a 30 seconds long melodic interlude was totally possible (btw, the harmony in Psycho Motel's song ''No Loss To Me'' would have been a great fit for this song imo). The melody in the intro & outro can be viewed as the melodic interlude of this song, I suppose.

And maybe that's also the reason why the song is without a pre-chorus - great decision imo (like in ''The Trooper'').

 

[Gk1]

It has been a very long time since I had no issue with a Maiden song. Well, this is one of them. Even if the mid section sounds a bit empty, Nicko's playing makes up for it!

 

[Mosh]

And now we have the classic rocker we've been waiting for. A lot of the shorter songs on Senjutsu and TBOS, while good, often show the band's age. Here's one where the pace and energy rivals that of the band on Brave New World with songs like Mercenary and The Fallen Angel. I also hear a lot of late 90s solo Dickinson which makes sense since it's the classic Smith/Dickinson partnership. Love the soaring vocals and the riffing that happens throughout. Classic Adrian riff. To me, the Smith/Dickinson rockers on TBOS which are pretty solid were warmups for something like this. A modern classic. 10

 

[Edington]

Was just watching the video below and realised something after all this time In the above interview Adrian talks about the Days of Future Past riff, saying "It uses the E position on the seventh fret and then you use one finger to play a C bass note, then down to the A".

I always assumed he meant take one finger onto the C (eighth fret) on the low E, then stay on the low E to move to the A note, so it'd be a bit of a stretch with the index on the 5th fret low E, middle on the 7th fret A, and I'd use my pinky to hold the 9th fret on the D string. I'd seen a few cover videos where people would play the A note on the open A string and assumed they were not playing it as Adrian does, but looking at this video he actually does play it using the open A:

I wonder if he changed it to make it a little easier live, or I simply misinterpreted him.

 

[Kalata]

So catchy and classic sounding song. Nice intro melody. Adrian brought the riff again, awesome melodic verses and a fantastic soaring chorus. The changed riff after the first verses is so cool. Moments like this are special. Adrian's solo is nice, but too short. Nicko's change of pace should be mentioned. The outro could have been different, methinks. I wish I could say only positive things about this great short rocker, but the ''hollow'' middle part is unexpected (as in, kind of nice), but with a triple-lead harmony the song would have been on a different level. A unique part, but feels half-finished. Jut because of that - 9/10