Ever notice how Steve doesn’t write “riffs” anymore?

Palpy said:
But he even wrote and co-wrote some of the worst songs in Iron Maiden's repertoire according to the official maidenfans rankings: The Apparition, Weekend Warrior, The Angel and the Gambler...
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Don’t ever trust
Don’t ever trust the rankings!
They liiiieeee!
 
srfc said:
drop d is for nu-metal monkies who can only play with one finger
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Almost. I do think some fantastic riffs have been written in the tuning... But it's a terribly limiting tuning which only works for one thing makes everything else rather hard/impossible.
 
I dunno, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains (Drop C# but same difference) made pretty damn good use of Drop tunings.
 
frus said:
That must mean that:

a) HTBN is not a Maiden song
or
b) FOTD is not metal/rock

I guess a) is even settled in a court of law, I'll go with that
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:D

Seriously though, I can see the point @Kalata is making here. Hallowed is not the most emotionally evoking Maiden song for me, but at the same time I can definitely agree with all the praise of it being structurally one of the best if not the best Maiden songs ever written.
 
Maturin said:
Almost. I do think some fantastic riffs have been written in the tuning... But it's a terribly limiting tuning which only works for one thing makes everything else rather hard/impossible.
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Yeah I was just being facetious to stir up a bit of trouble (which didn't work :facepalm:) but ultimately if you want to play in D just tune all the strings down
 
matic22 said:
You had a song composed in drop D on TBOS. IESF. But that's as far as Maiden will dive in Drop-D at the moment.

H is even playing less and less old songs in drop D that he used to nowadays. Only the obvious ones are still in that tuning.
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Fewer!
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Interesting thread. To be honest, historically Maiden has never been a particularly riff heavy band compared to other metal acts. Of course there have been some classic riffs here and there and Steve certainly writes fewer and fewer of them. Generally there are plenty of songs, often in the choruses, where the guitars are just chugging along with the necessary power chords while Bruce sings and a guitar doubles him. Other bands tend to feature more rhythmically complex non-lead guitar playing, while Steve (nowadays) tends to go for simplified rhythms.

Another thing that plays a role, in my opinion, is the way they write and record music nowadays. The live feel leads to semi-improvised performances. Maiden used to, and most bands do it this way, to write specific riffs for specific parts. The chorus is ought to played one way, the verse has its own riff with its intricacies, the melodic interludes as well, and so on. The Evil That Men Do has a specific chorus riff. Stratego on the other hand has the chords that should be played, but the performances are semi-improvised, featuring a gallop in the second chorus that starts halfway through the first part until halfway through the second part. Almost as if the guitarist forgot to change in time and just played around a bit. I shudder to think how messy and sloppy the intricate instrumentals of songs like Rime would've been if it was written today.
 
Maiden never really were a riff-based band (although albums like '83, '84 or '92 suggest otherwise). Writing riffs is usually a guitarist's job, but Steve changed his writing style in the late 90's - more power chords (especially on the epics) instead of different riffs for different parts like in the 80's (''Caught Somewhere In Time'' is a good example). It's not like he doesn't write riffs since the Reunion (actually they all have, some can't be heard clearly enough because of the production or because they're not up front), but he puts more emphasis on the melodies - which is great, because he is a master at that. Maiden have Adrian for the riffs. Bruce too. Next is Janick and after that is Dave. Actually, Steve only prefers to write more melody-oriented songs on his own, for his songs co-written with one of the guitarists is different. But then again, songs like ''Parchment'' and ''Lost World'' from the latest album are not like that. TBOS album too. I think it's because Steve just likes melodies better. And iirc, Adrian said in 2006 that the band always tries to put a lot of melodies into their songs, no matter what. For a band is great to have such songwriters.

In the end, I want the most melodies and bass fills (like for Celts or TBOS album) from Steve. He will always write riffs, with Adrian and Janick too.

That being said, I have no problem with that -> but I want the harmonies back. That's like Maiden's thing.
 
Some great Steve Harris riffs:
The Parchment - 1:10
Death of the Celts - 4:58
The Red and the Black - :30
When the Wild Wind Blows - 6:43

I agree that they are no Black Sabbath when it comes to riffing, but I don’t really think the riff writing has changed that much since the 80s. Total riff-fests like Rime are more the exception imo. Steve still has some great riffs in him and also an endless amount of singalong e minor melodies.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I miss guitar harmonies the most. We have three fecking players, why have they abandoned harmonies?!

Steve was never a riff guy, it’s just that he used to cram his melody lines into shorter songs. Adrian was always the riff guy and still is.
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Definitely agreed, especially on Adrian. The most recent example being Days Of Future Past with a verse riff that gets the spotlight for a bit before going to the verse proper. Same thing happens with The Wicker Man or Lord Of Light. Steve tends to put melodies in the spotlight instead.
 
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