El Dorado

How good is El Dorado on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    12
Dave's solo is totally insane, as in mad. Not in a blistering fast shredding way, but mad as in the notes he chooses. Love it and Bruce sings a great story in this one.

9
 
When I first heard this song, I thought: "This is Steve at his best". Then I thought, "Wow, what a riff!". And then, "Those are Bruce's lyrics, for sure". And then, "the three amigos surely dish out!"

In short, the boys at their finest, doing what they do best. Great song. 9/10.
 
I had to get used to this song in the beginning, but now I really dig it. Some great rhythms and galloping beat. Part of the midsection is heavy as fuck.

8
 
Stunning intro, another great bridge and a solid lyrical effort from Bruce, but somehow this one never really comes together for me. It has loads of potential, but falls short of being truly great. Nevertheless, it's better than the opener and gets a 7.
 
9. The apocaliptic intro makes you wonder what will come and it comes crushing with powerful 'Arry bass gallop and H's Lizzyesque riff; at first, it made me think of motorcycle, a Priest kind of vibe, too, but when I started listening to the lyrics, I was amazed by how Bruce wrote about things that were rolling in my head at the time of the song release. Genius lyricism. The weird pre chorus has some unusual pedal point sequence, which makes me see that Adrian is eager with experimentation and new textures for Maiden. The chorus is great and the solos section is crushing, although, Janick's solo is one of his worst. It works great live, too.
 
Good song, this. It works fine live as witnessed last year, it has some nice twists without straying too far from the formula. However, it has nothing to it that really stands out, so another 8/10.
 
I gotta say 9/10! I love the grungy sounds that have a way of transforming all through out. It seemed to me like it was 2010 lyrically but killers sound wise which is awesome.  :shred: :rocker:
 
7.

I really like the verses and the tonality in the prechorus, but the chorus is just a chore to listen to. It's catchy, but Bruce is really stretching.

I gave it an extra point for allowing each guitarist a solo.
 
This is an absolute blockbuster of a song, and easily one of the best cuts on the album. The distortion on the guitars, coupled with the prominent use of palm muted riffing, makes this song sound very much in the style of Bruce's solo works with Roy Z, despite it being in standard E tuning. And this is certainly no bad thing! Bruce's lyrics are amazing, the chorus is custom built for singing along to, and the solo section is absolutely scorching, with Janick's part being particularly intense and memorable. The crashing classic "Maiden ending" ends the whole thing with bombastic flourish and certainly left a lasting impression on me the first time I heard it.

I make no bones about the fact that overall, I find "The Final Frontier" to be an overrated, and patchy album. And definitely a step down from it's awesome predecessor. This song however, is amazing, and one of the album's few standout cuts. Just brilliant!
 
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Agree with everything except the last bit about TFF. El Dorado is an awesome song. One of their best short rockers.
 
I started to listen to Maiden in 2007/2008 so except for Somewhere Back In Time and Flight 666, this was my first new release, which means El Dorado was the first new song I heard. Therefore it has a little special place in my heart.

It is a great rocker, with simple but effective riffs, great melodies and great lyrics. The pre chorus especially sticks out as really cool.
One of the highlights at the show in 2010.

8/10
 
5/10. Instrumentally, it doesn't seems an Iron Maiden song. If wasn't for Bruce this could really mistaken as an Iron Maiden song.
 
This is a pretty average song to me with some good gallop riffing and some other good parts but, it just doesnt go anywhere for me...6/10.
 
This is definitely one that grew on me after a half dozen listens or so. It's one of those songs - in my opinion - that has an "angry" and perhaps "threatening" feel to it, both in lyric and tune. And that's a good thing. When you are the type of person who wants their music to relate to whatever mood they're in, then this is a necessity for my music library.

Though it's fast and powerful, and gets the blood pumping, nothing about this song feels like plain, dumb brute force. It's a smart sort of angry, and I like that.
 
I love El Dorado! It's a contender for favorite short rocker of the reunion era. This is also the true return of the Maiden gallop for me. It's not the first time this lineup has used it, but every time they had used it they were turning it on its head a bit. This is the gallop shamelessly in its original form and I love it. The riff is fun, the energy is there, it's everything the title track isn't. Then there's the instrumental section that could stand up to anything they did in the 80s, with 3 of the best solos on the album from each player.

I vividly remember the day Iron Maiden came to Denver on The Final Frontier tour. It was about a week after El Dorado was released and I spent the entire day listening to it on repeat, loving it more and more with each listen. It was also very awesome live.

The lyrics are great too, some of the most clever Bruce has written. LC's original commentary is in this thread somewhere, I urge the n00bs to check it out. The song has energy, tension, and somehow fuses the best parts of 80s Maiden and 00's Maiden.

10
 
This one worked wonders as a single for the upcoming album!

Usually, Maiden singles aren't my favourite songs on the record, so when they announced the new record and released this single I approached it with caution. But I didn't need to. El Dorado completely blew my mind at the time and still continues to do so.

The bang at the begining worked amazing, which made me question what was the story behind the first song. Later, as an album song this bang doesn't make much sense to me but I still enjoy it due to playfullness of every member that it has. There is a one small second where Steve goes ape-shit on his bass that I absolutely adore (Bruce's chuckle after first bridge also falls into this category). The main riff is really, really heavy; makes me wish I had cabriolet or Harley-Davidson.

What I love about this song is the structure: bang-intro-verse-bridge-verse-bridge-chorus-break(shread those solos)-repeat all. That delayed chorus worked wonders for me because after AMOLAD I was little skeptical about their choruses. But this one just flows! Instead or repeating song title or reinventing the melody in middle of chorus, this one is more like 2 jabs and an upercut! And the bridge before that could stand alone on itself, which can be heard in first part of the song.

Even if the bass galop in intro and after solos isn't anything new for Maiden, this time just seems new; maybe because of the guitar riff, maybe because of the rest of the song itself. Having heard this one live, first time on Europe summer tour in 2010 made me love this song even more - those guitars in the bridge before chorus really "squeled"!

Overall, if I could name best Maiden post-2000 single I would hesitate between this one and Wicker Man (mainly because of the sentimental value that Wicker Man has), but El Dorado just perfectly shows raw energy that Maiden invested into this record.
 
8/10

One of my favourite Maiden lyrics. This song has probably the best solos on the entire album. Each guitarist is on top of his game. The chorus is terrific, and the verses are very cool and laid-back altough I find Bruce's singing to be a little bit uninspired. Maybe a production issue.
 
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