DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
Got it - fixed that issue. Thanks for the correction.
DJMayes' Complete Ranking Of Maiden Songs
- Thread starter DJMayes
- Start date
Got it - fixed that issue. Thanks for the correction.
CriedWhenBrucieLeft
Meme Only Account
DJ has it at #151, he doesn't care Foro...
All lists are subjective...and this one is at least interesting.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
I agree with this. Not that I agree with DJ's list. Count me among the folks who love "The Duellists." Great twin guitar work on that one, not filler at all. But DJ and I do see eye to eye on "Fortunes of War," which has easily the worst chorus in Iron Maiden's entire catalog.
I neither love nor despise The Duellists. I rarely seek it out, but I never turn it off when I hear it come on, and I enjoy it when I spin Powerslave.
The Mid-Distance Runner
Educated Fool
I think the shortened solo was because someone forgot to press the record button during the second solo. But this may be wrong.
Good to see no The Apparition yet. Stay alive little FOTD buddy!
Always love fresh opinions.
I personally rank them higher, but it's nice to see the overrated Nomad and Mother Russia taken down a peg
Truth, Blood and Gangland are low on my list too, even if I think the latter gets too much abuse.
Duellists is way too low.
Burn in hell for Virus!
I personally rank them higher, but it's nice to see the overrated Nomad and Mother Russia taken down a peg
Truth, Blood and Gangland are low on my list too, even if I think the latter gets too much abuse.
Duellists is way too low.
Burn in hell for Virus!
DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
#150 - 146:
150 - Innocent Exile
We are at the point now where the songs I list either have sufficient positives to outweigh the negatives, or I view them almost completely neutrally as filler. Innocent Exile is the second kind of song. It's actually the first in a fair few Killers songs that I don't really mind but often need to check which is which and probably wouldn't notice if they went missing.
As far as the song goes, even after re-listening to it there are exactly two points I remember - the "chorus" riff (which would have been more interesting with some lyrics alongside to my view) and the ending "I'm running" yell, which I always enjoy.
149 - Quest For Fire
We return to the programming of songs people expect to be low on the list with Quest For Fire. I do think this is a bad song, but I'm actually quite partial to it on occasion. It sounds silly, but it's enjoyable enough for what it is - fairly harmless filler. I will never forgive the person who told me the lyrics to this song were actually "Drawn by quest for fire", and refuse to sing the correct lyrics to it.
Moreso than any other part of the song, I have always found the opening (and to some extent the closing) riffs somewhat grating. The rest ranges from alright to an enjoyable level of cheese. I can understand why few people rate it highly, but I can't say I understand the abject hate this gets a lot of the time.
148 - The Prophecy
There is one reason Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is not my favourite Maiden album - this song. Apart from this, the album is near perfect to me.
There are three particular gripes I have with this song. First and foremost is Bruce - on this song, I find him completely unintelligible, and it contributes at least 80% of my misheard lyrics. The chorus and first verse are particularly bad for this. Secondly, I have never been overly keen on the chorus itself - not understanding it surely helping but not the only factor. Finally, I have never been keen on the outro to this song.
The rest of the song is good enough. This song probably gets more of a free pass than other songs below it because of the album it is in, and because I feel it is a reasonably important part of that album. Should I listen to SSoaSS (which I do reasonably often) I won't skip this song. But if it ever comes up in shuffle, I tend to avoid it.
(Sorry Angry Metal Guy.)
147 - Back In The Village
This continues in the vein of songs that I never really mind whilst listening to but don't remember a thing about once the song has ended. More than other songs this far down, I think this song is one that still has the opportunity to climb the list.
Whilst writing a review of each song, I take the opportunity to relisten to that song and to make sure that I did it justice. I'm never sure with this. The main riff is good enough, I enjoy the choruses and the solo section, and the verse is decent enough. The final chorus is perhaps unnecessary, but this feels an unfair criticism to level on a song when there are far worse culprits for this I rank much higher.
Powerslave fans, breath a sigh of relief. I think every other song from this album is pretty sweet so you won't be seeing anymore come up in quite a while.
146 - Running Free
I should emphasise here that I don't view myself as an anti-classics Iron Maiden song. If you take a random song from a greatest hits album, there's a high probability it makes the top half of my list. But this is the exception, and it's all down to one thing - that god-awful chorus. Perhaps it is better live (I have not had the opportunity to hear it live) but in the studio album, it is just incredibly weak. The repeated choruses make up a decent chunk of the song which is a real shame, because I enjoy the verses, and more than anything the instrumental section. Said section reminds me a lot of the intro to Killers, which is my favourite song from the first two albums and whose intro I consider one of the strongest Maiden have ever done. Unfortunately it's not strong enough to lift this song any higher.
150 - Innocent Exile
We are at the point now where the songs I list either have sufficient positives to outweigh the negatives, or I view them almost completely neutrally as filler. Innocent Exile is the second kind of song. It's actually the first in a fair few Killers songs that I don't really mind but often need to check which is which and probably wouldn't notice if they went missing.
As far as the song goes, even after re-listening to it there are exactly two points I remember - the "chorus" riff (which would have been more interesting with some lyrics alongside to my view) and the ending "I'm running" yell, which I always enjoy.
149 - Quest For Fire
We return to the programming of songs people expect to be low on the list with Quest For Fire. I do think this is a bad song, but I'm actually quite partial to it on occasion. It sounds silly, but it's enjoyable enough for what it is - fairly harmless filler. I will never forgive the person who told me the lyrics to this song were actually "Drawn by quest for fire", and refuse to sing the correct lyrics to it.
Moreso than any other part of the song, I have always found the opening (and to some extent the closing) riffs somewhat grating. The rest ranges from alright to an enjoyable level of cheese. I can understand why few people rate it highly, but I can't say I understand the abject hate this gets a lot of the time.
148 - The Prophecy
There is one reason Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is not my favourite Maiden album - this song. Apart from this, the album is near perfect to me.
There are three particular gripes I have with this song. First and foremost is Bruce - on this song, I find him completely unintelligible, and it contributes at least 80% of my misheard lyrics. The chorus and first verse are particularly bad for this. Secondly, I have never been overly keen on the chorus itself - not understanding it surely helping but not the only factor. Finally, I have never been keen on the outro to this song.
The rest of the song is good enough. This song probably gets more of a free pass than other songs below it because of the album it is in, and because I feel it is a reasonably important part of that album. Should I listen to SSoaSS (which I do reasonably often) I won't skip this song. But if it ever comes up in shuffle, I tend to avoid it.
(Sorry Angry Metal Guy.)
147 - Back In The Village
This continues in the vein of songs that I never really mind whilst listening to but don't remember a thing about once the song has ended. More than other songs this far down, I think this song is one that still has the opportunity to climb the list.
Whilst writing a review of each song, I take the opportunity to relisten to that song and to make sure that I did it justice. I'm never sure with this. The main riff is good enough, I enjoy the choruses and the solo section, and the verse is decent enough. The final chorus is perhaps unnecessary, but this feels an unfair criticism to level on a song when there are far worse culprits for this I rank much higher.
Powerslave fans, breath a sigh of relief. I think every other song from this album is pretty sweet so you won't be seeing anymore come up in quite a while.
146 - Running Free
I should emphasise here that I don't view myself as an anti-classics Iron Maiden song. If you take a random song from a greatest hits album, there's a high probability it makes the top half of my list. But this is the exception, and it's all down to one thing - that god-awful chorus. Perhaps it is better live (I have not had the opportunity to hear it live) but in the studio album, it is just incredibly weak. The repeated choruses make up a decent chunk of the song which is a real shame, because I enjoy the verses, and more than anything the instrumental section. Said section reminds me a lot of the intro to Killers, which is my favourite song from the first two albums and whose intro I consider one of the strongest Maiden have ever done. Unfortunately it's not strong enough to lift this song any higher.
Getting back into the classically poorly ranked songs here...but then tossing in a surprise song, The Prophecy, which usually goes middle of the pack.
DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
Keeps it interesting, I suppose. Still, nothing thus far is going to be quite as controversial as the couple of fan favourite forum epics coming under the axe in the next 10 songs.
I'm quite fond of QFF, fun little song.
You should carefully review my personal top ten. I have a banhammer.
RTC
Libera et impera!
I'd put Prophecy near the back of the pack too. By far the most forgettable song on Seventh Son, although that's because I've grown a new appreciation for OTGDY recently.
Also, your sentiments on Running Free are basically mine too
Spambot
Meme Lord
This seems like an interesting list. Few surprises but you explained it nicely how they sound from your point of view, so their placement makes sense.
However, I would never know how to make this list ie. rank them by order. How do you do this? Did you listen the whole discography in one sitting and then made notes?!
I was thinking of reviewing albums by songs but in "Songs and Album Commentaries" and after writing few thoughts on TFF and it's first 3 songs I realized this could end as a short novel. And TFF isn't even my favourite album.
Putting all Maiden songs in my favourite order would be impossible job for me, so you keep going - some of my favourites probably lurk behind a corner, I'm looking forward to get pissed.
However, I would never know how to make this list ie. rank them by order. How do you do this? Did you listen the whole discography in one sitting and then made notes?!
I was thinking of reviewing albums by songs but in "Songs and Album Commentaries" and after writing few thoughts on TFF and it's first 3 songs I realized this could end as a short novel. And TFF isn't even my favourite album.
Putting all Maiden songs in my favourite order would be impossible job for me, so you keep going - some of my favourites probably lurk behind a corner, I'm looking forward to get pissed.
DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
I will carefully review them - it's just a question of whether you agree with the review...
I'd put Prophecy near the back of the pack too. By far the most forgettable song on Seventh Son, although that's because I've grown a new appreciation for OTGDY recently.
Also, your sentiments on Running Free are basically mine too
The biggest grower for me on SSoaSS has absolutely got to be Moonchild - it took a fairly long time for the chorus to "click" which put me off it despite having a fantastic intro and verses.
Good question! It wasn't easy. I think you can do a top 20 or so just by picking your favourite, 2nd favourite and so on quite easily but there does reach a point where there are lots of songs of relatively similar quality and it becomes very difficult to do it like that.
What I found best was to start by ranking each album individually. Once I'd done that, I slowly began collating them together from there. Their positions from then on get fine tuned from listening to the list again but movements tend to be reasonably small because the songs are bound between adjacent ones from the same album.
As for the notes, they happen as I write this list. I have listened to Maiden's discography enough to have some preliminary ideas of what I want to say, and I cement this by listening to the songs again.
That's how I feel about all the songs I say I dislike. I never skip any tracks, and on a good day, I can even find something to enjoy in The Apparition. There's a reason Maiden is my favourite band, after all.