Fortunes of War

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date

How good is Fortunes of War on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    11
7/10 Blazing candles flickering.

Fortunes of War starts with a subdued bass pattern, some mournful guitar work, and Blaze’s low baritone. Lyrically it's almost a book end to Afraid to Shoot Strangers from the previous album, telling the story of a soldier returning home from war to find nothing waiting for him. The music is incredibly progressive, alternating dynamics between bass chords with a single drum hit to a rousing guitar melody. It’s one of my favorite musical moments on the entire album and proves that Maiden has embraced being a semi-prog band. Once Blaze rejoins the song, however, it kind of stalls. His limited range restrains this song from greatness, especially during the plodding chorus where he almost sounds bored. An octave jump (a la that other guy who used to sing for Maiden) would have pushed this song to new heights.
 
If you replace the title of this song with I am so bored the chorus still works and that pretty much sums up my opinion of the majority of this song.

Good solo section but otherwise a weak song on a weak album.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gk1
I love the build-up in this one, but there's no real payoff, just 7 minutes of quiet, heavier, quiet, chorus, etc. Speaking of the chorus, it's not bad, but it's not that great at the same token. A lower 7/10.
 
Oh my, I've had a tremendously complicated relationship with this song. When I first heard it, I hated it. I used to consider it one of the worst on the album. However, it eventually started to grow on me, and I now visualize it as a highlight. One of the heaviest songs Maiden's ever recorded, it's another of those long Steve-penned anti-war epics. Magnificent lyrics, great instrumental section, and Blaze really shines here, his performance is quite touching. A 9.
 
Meh. It’s not a terrible song, it’s nice at the start, but then it doesn’t really go very far. Blaze sounds quite boring (and bored) on this one. 5/10
 
Dave draws out a few of his licks in a wonderful fashion. Pure awesome and slightly jammy for a Maiden performance.

Songs that bide their sweet time before the chorus always delight.

Guitar solos are excellent, beautiful ringing tone.
 
Last edited:
A nice, moody musical intro. Unfortunately, Blaze sounds like he's falling asleep in the opening, and there's more of Harris's infamously bad phrasing ("just what this con-FLICT has done to...").

This gives way to a cool back and forth between a ringing bass piece and a march, though the drums aren't always in sync.

Blaze starts singing again, and he's horribly out of key for the rest of the song. The chorus is mind-numbingly boring. This gives way to another by-the-numbers Fear Of The Dark style bridge followed by a couple of OK solos.

Blaze offers up some pathetic, out of key whoah-oh-ohs before falling back into the boring chorus.

The song closes on an intro reprise with the ringing bass added, which actually works well for a change.

The first half of the song is good, but the second half mostly sucks. 4/10.
 
Third best of the album after SOTC and Lord of the flies. Great guitar melody in the mid section. 9
 
1923993_1.jpg
 
Structurally a weird song but the better parts are so good. Dave's rendition of that guitar lick is awesome live, the way he comes in with the first note a bit earlier than on the album. The tempo shifts work well, from slow chorus to fast uplifting guitar lick, etc.
 
A quiet song that's quite far removed from "Man on the Edge", "Fortunes of War" opens with a really nice piece with Blaze singing from the perspective of someone suffering from PTSD. It gradually builds, very, very slowly, but it helps bring up the atmosphere. The heavier verses and chorus are great, and the instrumental section is awesome too. This song is pretty awesome. 9
 
One of those songs I sometimes like a lot, other times it’s just boring.

The intro and buildup that follows are great. Love the parts where Steve’s bass line alternate with the whole band and then Dave’s guitar comes along. To my ears the guitar part sounds a bit like Hendrix in Machine Gun, with the neck pickup and that Marshall lead sound going on.

After that the song is a bit bland, but I like Blaze’s vocals in the verse. The lyrics are quite strong as well. However, once the fast part kicks in the song is very run-of-the-mill, though the solos are quite good.

The wooo-o-ooo part is a bit of an anticlimax. The vocal line just seems too low even for Blaze, and it doesn’t really elevate the song.

7
 
A little repetitive but still one of the songs that best sums up the better aspects of The X Factor (i.e good cocktail of intensity, restraint and darkness). Besides, the solo should be singled out as a typical example of Dave Murray's "style"- and be taught by guitar teachers as an example.

8

Saapanael said:
Dave's rendition of that guitar lick is awesome live, the way he comes in with the first note a bit earlier than on the album.
Click to expand...
What bootleg are you talking about?
 
Last edited:
Great melancholic intro, but it's dragged for too long. Good verses and the chorus is ok. The fast melodic part before the solos is a highlight for me. The ''oh-oh'' part is a nice addition too. 7/10
 
Afraid to Shoot Strangers but with less guitar melodies. The intro and the buildup are great, the distorted verses are nothing special, the chorus is horrible per se and horribly boring. The solos are both good, the "woo-ooh!" part is pointless. 5/10.

Black Bart said:
What bootleg are you talking about?
Click to expand...
He was talking about any live rendition of the song. Dave never rendered the lick like it is on the album. Worsening it, IMHO.
 
Live versions of Fortunes of War are interesting from a Steve Harris bass-playing standpoint.

I don't remember many other instances where he holds two bass guitars at once.

1:54

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top