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

THESEVENTHMARINER said:
Yeah, I think it was on the A Matter of Life and Death documentary where he said that a song's melody is the most important thing to him as its that grabs a listener's attention.
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Exactly. It's also observable in the way Steve and Bruce write lyrics. Steve will compromise on coherency and even grammar as long as the melody stays as strong as he wants it. Bruce would rather adjust the melody so that he can write and keep the lyrics the way he'd want (though arguably this is happening less the last few years, as Mosh pointed out before).

I remember Steve saying at some point that strong melodies are important, because no matter if you're fluent in English or not, if the melody is strong (and the lyrics aren't a word salad like half of TRATB lol) the whole world will be able to sing along.
 
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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Oh man don’t get me started on that! There are so many clever things they could do with three guitarists, they’ve never once taken advantage of it. I think Steve is terrified to do anything that he doesn’t think sounds like old Iron Maiden, so they basically pretend there’s only two guitars, except for having three pointless solos occasionally.
 
BludBrutha said:
There are so many clever things they could do with three guitarists, they’ve never once taken advantage of it. I think Steve is terrified to do anything that he doesn’t think sounds like old Iron Maiden, so they basically pretend there’s only two guitars, except for having three pointless solos occasionally.
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There are harmonies on every Reunion album (not used as often since 2010) you know. And the band definitely doesn't sound exactly like the old Maiden now. I think they do enough interesting stuff with 3 guitars, it's just that the harmonies could be used more (again) and for more songs. Pointless solos? Yeah, right...
 
Although Senjutsu was still a mess, it still was a massive improvement over the last 30 years worth of albums. At least now I can heαr riffs in some of the songs again, I can hear some harmonies. I think that the main problem is that there is no real control coming from Kevin. The sound is more layered but still the overall sound and mix is a complete mess over the Martin era albums. It shouldn't be that hard to provide a final product that sounds even but still somehow they get worse and worse at it.
So all in all Senjutsu is better that I expected, is more riff oriented but the sound and mix is so bad that makes the depth οf the music lost in the translation. At least this time they only stole from themselves (Steve that is) and not from other bands. Trimming some fat wouldn't harm either. However there are some really great song parts still time around and on many occasions I even get that Maiden euphoric feeling of the old days
 
I absolutely support the approach of sounding more live, more like a human performance, less sterile, but that's not the same as bad production.
In fact, it's not such an impossibility to achieve the former, but not the latter.
 
Kalata said:
There are harmonies on every Reunion album (not used as often since 2010) you know. And the band definitely doesn't sound exactly like the old Maiden now. I think they do enough interesting stuff with 3 guitars, it's just that the harmonies could be used more (again) and for more songs. Pointless solos? Yeah, right...
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There are three part harmonies on the albums when they only had two guitarists!

You’re exhibiting the same narrow thinking as the band. There are more things you can do with three guitars than a three part harmony part.

Have one guy play an acoustic for an entire song to add some texture to the song.

Have all three of them play totally different parts instead of the usual thing of having one part doubled. This is a somewhat ironic comparison as KISS music is so simplistic, but listen to something like 100,000 Years where Ace is playing that wacky syncopated lead part throughout the verse. A lot of clever stuff like that on the first few albums.

Being back the SIT synth guitar and have one of them play that the whole time instead of a conventional guitar part.

Polyrhythmic voicings : we are starting to delve into prog stuff here a bit (Steve thinks they’re a prog band anyway). Have the three guys playing in notably different rhythms for a section or a song.

Different tunings. When Adrian came back he used to play a few songs like TNOTB in drop D to complement the other two guys in standard tuning.

That’s a bunch of ideas just off the top of my head. There’s dozens of clever things they could do with three guitars that go beyond harmony leads.
 
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BludBrutha said:
There are three part harmonies on the albums when they only had two guitarists!

There are more things you can do with three guitars than a three part harmony part.
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Of course.
BludBrutha said:
Have one guy play an acoustic for an entire song to add some texture to the song.
Have all three of them play totally different parts instead of the usual thing of having one part doubled.
Being back the SIT synth guitar and have one of them play that the whole time instead of a conventional guitar part.
Polyrhythmic voicings : we are starting to delve into prog stuff here a bit (Steve thinks they’re a prog band anyway). Have the three guys playing in notably different rhythms for a section or a song.
Different tunings. When Adrian came back he used to play a few songs like TNOTB in drop D to complement the other two guys in standard tuning.
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I agree with these things (but Maiden won't use different tunings and won't bring back the SIT synths), but not for every song on an album. My point was that although Maiden have changed their style a bit, the material is still very interesting to me. Adrian and Steve can bring all these features.

The acoustic idea is cool (a bit like Dream Of Mirrors), but apart from the harmonies - I really want the ''double vocals'' to be featured more and more prominently. Btw, it's curious if Bruce will do them for the solo album.
 
Jer said:
Dear god, no. This “feature” of the reunion albums has single-handedly ruined many songs.
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I think @Kalata was talking about layered vocals(?), not the guitar doubling Bruce... :p

I have to admit that I really like the latter too, when it's done right, like with Hell on Earth. But I agree that it hasn't always turned out so smoothly...

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Jer said:
Not talking about harmonies, I'm talking about dual-lead vocal monstrosities like the verses of "Gates Of Tomorrow" and "The Thin Line Between Love And Hate" where the melodies don't complement each other and they're at equal volume instead of one being primary and the other being secondary.
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Ah okay, apologies, my bad! :)
 
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Vaenyr said:
Nah, vocal harmonies are fantastic, are present in plenty of 80's Maiden songs as well and are sorely missed. Not having any at all makes an album feel unfinished and low effort.
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Not talking about harmonies, I'm talking about dual-lead vocal monstrosities like the verses of "Gates Of Tomorrow" and "The Thin Line Between Love And Hate" where the melodies don't complement each other and they're at equal volume instead of one being primary and the other being secondary.
 
Jer said:
Not talking about harmonies, I'm talking about dual-lead vocal monstrosities like the verses of "Gates Of Tomorrow" and "The Thin Line Between Love And Hate" where the melodies don't complement each other and they're at equal volume instead of one being primary and the other being secondary.
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I love those sections though. Its not a composition issue, but a mixing one
 
Jer said:
Not talking about harmonies, I'm talking about dual-lead vocal monstrosities like the verses of "Gates Of Tomorrow" and "The Thin Line Between Love And Hate" where the melodies don't complement each other and they're at equal volume instead of one being primary and the other being secondary.
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I love the effect achieved on The Thin Line Between Love and Hate, but I cannot say the same about Gates of Tomorrow.
 
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