Empire Of The Clouds

How good is Empire of the Clouds on a scale of 1-10?


  • Total voters
    24
Cool song, not one I want to keep coming back to and hearing but when it does come on when playing the album it's a solid song. Although I will like to say that I hope on the next album we go back to traditional album closers, no left feild songs like Journeyman and this one that use instruments out of the ordinary for maiden. Hopefully we get a closer like The Thin Line Between Love and Hate , or The Legacy or even a hard hitter song like Hallowed be thy Name or Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
 
This song is amazing, but not as amazing I thought it would be. I blame my own high expectations.

Now there are lots of good things. The storytelling, the lyrics, the emotion, the flow (it feels half the length of something like The Red and the Black despite being 5 minutes longer) Bruces vocals, the solos. All brilliant.

It's around the 9 minute mark things lose their way. There are only a few negatives, but they are enough to keep this song from being perfect. The overuse of the "The Legacy" riff which doesn't really add anything to the song and the lack of a Janick solo (they should have shaved off some of the repetition and given him a solo just before the "Here lie their dreams..." part) are two. The last one is the... well... predictability of it all. It's not really that unique, although it does use piano it reuses a lot of patterns that Maiden have used a thousand times before and as mentioned half the song is taken up by riff that they used only two albums prior. Again I blame my own expectations, but what we got was a fairly typical Maiden affair, just longer than average and with some piano playing.

It's not enough to completely ruin the song, but I ended up giving it an 8 when I expected it to be off the scale.
 
A simple piano and bass intro leads into a soft piano-driven interlude with string accents. This gives way to a soft, stately verse and pre-chorus with interesting, but sometimes awkward lyrics. Another verse, and then the pre-chorus kicks things up a notch. The heavier approach continues into the next verse and pre-chorus. The tension continues to build with the next verse, raising the melody and adding vocal harmonies, and adding more percussion to the following pre-chorus.

This leads into a pleasant interlude, which soon becomes dissonant before breaking into a bright, uplifting extended interlude. The dissonance returns, and now a driving percussive section heralds the arrival of the storm. A roiling riff that reminds me of "The Legacy" paints the picture of the zeppelin bouncing along the increasing winds.

A nice solo, a flash-forward to the bridge, and then we return to the roiling riff with some synth horn accompaniment. A sudden cut to a more traditional groove greets a sweet aggressive solo which cuts into a soaring, ominous vocal bridge. Bruce unfortunately strains quite a bit here.

A percussive piano and guitar interlude follows, folding back into the bridge and returning to the interlude. More dissonance and a terrified piano part denote the death of the airship, melting into a softer rendition of the verse. A brief interlude and we get the one and only instance of the soaring chorus, announcing the death of the crew. Bruce unfortunately strains through parts of this as well. A final interlude and soft verse bring us to the end of the tale.

This is an extremely ambitious song with some brilliant parts that ultimately bites off a little more than it can chew. Some of the early interludes run a bit longer than necessary, there's probably one too many verses for the purposes of the song (though I realize it was needed for the lyrics' sake), the middle instrumental would have benefitted from a little trimming, and Bruce really strains to hit the notes in some key parts of the song. Also, Bruce's simplistic piano playing doesn't do the song as much justice as a real piano player might have; and if we're being honest with ourselves, this song doesn't really sound like Iron Maiden at all, and would have fit in better on a Bruce solo album.

All of that said, this is still a great and special song that does most things right. I think it's fair to round it up to a 9/10.
 
sometimes awkward lyrics.
Where?

and if we're being honest with ourselves, this song doesn't really sound like Iron Maiden at all, and would have fit in better on a Bruce solo album.
Nah, I think it's best as a Maiden song.

All of that said, this is still a great and special song that does most things right. I think it's fair to round it up to a 9/10.
Given your other ratings, I guess I'll be satisfied with this. :innocent:
 
"The millionth chance," they laughed, "to take down His Majesty’s craft."
“To India,” they say, “magic carpet float away,” an October fateful day

Her fragile outer cover, her Achilles would become
An Achilles yet to come...


Those don't really roll off the tongue.
 
Well, boys and girls, we've finally reached it. 155 songs later, and we've finally arrived at the pinnacle of human creativity, imagination, and artistry - an 18 minute song about a dirigible created by a man suffering from cancer and straining to hit notes, brought to life via a simple piano, a stolen riff, repetitive pieces, and faux orchestration. When it's phrased like that, it suddenly becomes hard to see why this song is so popular, but then, that statement would be selling "Empire of the Clouds" short.

"Empire" begins the most different way possible - piano. A simple piece of piano opens the epic song up, but its simplicity is what makes it so effective. It's surprisingly emotional, painting a picture better than a thousand words could, and as it slowly builds up on itself, it only gets better. I dare you not to start tearing up - I certainly can't. The whole thing last for two minutes before anything really happens and already it's just so good. And then Bruce comes in...

To ride the storm, to an empire of the clouds
To ride the storm, they climbed aboard their silver ghost
To ride the storm, to a kingdom that will come
To ride the storm, and damn the rest, oblivion

It's the perfect prologue to what's to come. The opening lines bring forth imagery which only grows with the next stanza:

Royalty and dignitaries, brandy and cigars
Grey lady giant of the skies, you hold them in your arms
The millionth chance they laughed, to take down his majesty's craft
To India they say, magic carpet float away
An October fateful day...

These are some incredibly vivid scenes spun before the listener's eyes. You can see all the people as described, laughing and joking about the maiden voyage of the zeppelin, not yet aware of all that will soon take place.

Mist is in the trees, stone sweats with the dew
The morning sunrise, red before the blue
Hanging at the mast, waiting for command
His majesty's airship, the R101...

And there she is, the "grey lady giant of the skies" herself. Awaiting her time to shine. But watch closely here - "red before the blue" is more sinister than you may at first suspect if you glance over it. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight - red sky at morning, sailors take warning." But who has time for that when we've got the biggest aircraft ever built on our hands? Indeed:

She's the biggest vessel built by man, a giant of the skies
For all you unbelievers, the
Titanic fits inside
Drum roll tight, her canvas skin, silvered in the sun
Never tested with the fury, with the beating yet to come
The fury yet to come...

This thing is huge. It's massive. It's impressive. It's a symbol of British might and power. Yet again, no one is ready for all that will come.

In the gathering gloom, the storm rising in the west
The coxswain stared into the plunging weather glass
"We must go now, we must take our chance with fate.
We must go now, for a politician, he can't be late!"

This scene almost reminds me a bit of the tunnel disaster in Atlas Shrugged, where all the warnings have been given but "a politician, he can't be late!" Yes, it's a stretch. Still, they knew of all that could go wrong but were under great pressure to push forward. Meanwhile...

The airship crew, awake for thirty hours at full stretch
But the ship is in their backbone, every sinew, every inch
She never flew at full speed, a trial never done
Her fragile outer cover, her Achilles would become
An Achilles yet to come...

The men aboard the airships were a staunch and ready crew, but the ship itself could often be its undoing. Conditions had to be just right for things to go perfectly, and oftentimes if the wind got too strong, the thing could be tossed up and down like a balloon. On occasion, an airship could survive that, but usually it ended in disaster.

Sailors of the sky, a hardened breed
Loyal to the king and an airship creed
The engines drum, the telegraph sounds
Release the cords that bind us to the ground!

Said the coxswain, "Sir, she's heavy; she'll never make this flight."
Said the captain, "Damn the cargo! We'll be on our way tonight!"
Groundlings cheered in wonder as she backed up from the mast
Baptizing them her water from the ballast fore and aft
Now she slips into our past...
More incredibly vivid scenes from Bruce as we watch the R101 launch and sail away into the distance. The opening piano piece returns again, only this time on guitar, before we suddenly reach a piece tapping out the SOS signal in musical form. This moves through and builds on itself until it changes into a fairly bright piece to show the ship sailing along, but in the distance the cloud is ever growing. The SOS bit returns quickly and moves into another piece as we see the storm cloud overtaking the ship, before the SOS bit returns again and ushers in a riff taken blatantly from "The Legacy"... but it shockingly works even better, showing the ship starting to lose itself in the flurry.

Suddenly the song gets faster as we see the ship being tossed and turned in the wind, before we return to "The Legacy" riff and get a great solo from it. Then the heaviness returns, this time with Bruce's vocals:

Fighting the wind as it rolls you
Feeling the diesels that push you along
Watching the channel below you
Lower and lower into the night
Lights are passing below you
Northern France asleep in their beds
Storm is raging around you
A million to one, that's what he said

The ship is being conquered by the storm. Another piece leads us into the next verse.

Reaper standing beside her
With his scythe cuts to the bone
Panic to make a decision
Experienced men asleep in their graves
Her cover is ripped and she's drowning
Rain is flooding into the hull
Bleeding to death and she's falling
Lifting gas is draining away
Oh my god, what imagery is presented in these lyrics! Such utter poetry, showing the tragic death of the airship and all those aboard her. The song changes-up in a simple but effective piece signifying the crash, before Bruce returns with:

"We're down, lads!" came the cry, bow plunging from the sky
Three thousand horses silent as the ship began to die
The flares to guide her path, ignited at the last
The Empire of the Clouds, just ashes in our past
Just ashes at the last...
The opening piano bit returns again and builds into a rushing climax:

Here lie their dreams as I stand in the sun
Over grounds where they built, and the engines did run
To the moon and the stars, now what have we done?
Oh the dreamers may die, but the dream live on!
Such passion. The culmination of all we've been building up to. Utter perfection. And then, as an epilogue:

Now a shadow on a hill, the angel of the east
The Empire of the Clouds may rest in peace
And in a country churchyard, laid head to the mast
Eight and forty souls, who came to die in France...
What can I possibly say about this song that can properly express how much I love it? What "Paschendale" is to LooseCannon, what "Rime" is to Foro and Number 6, and what "Hallowed" is to so many fans of Iron Maiden, so to is "Empire" to me - a work of art that transcends music as a whole and is, for lack of a better word, perfection. It's the culmination of a career that, despite its ups and downs, is still as strong today as it was back in the day, if not more so.

I'd love to give this song higher than a ten if I could, because it deserves it. I don't know how Maiden could possibly top this song, but I'd love to see them try. 10
 
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