Guitar Solos - The Book of Souls

This is tricky subject so I don't want to puck it up with my english but here is what I think - Dave is great but now he is background for Adrian and Janick. Adrian is f-king amazing these days. He has talent and balls to experiment and you can feel that he puts his soul into his music. Janick eveloved (is that a word?) so much in all these years and yet at his core he play with emotions, he can make mistake but that is part of who he is. Dave on the other hand for all these years play the same way that always. Yeah, he got one or two tricks but I don't feel spirit in his play, where Adrian and Janick dare to explore he stay in one place.

But that is just my opinion.
 
Sorry to be blunt, but I think there is no basis for thinking one inch of a second that Dave was off on this album. Pure nonsense.

Seriously, what's the next thing to bugger about? Steve played his bass in a funny way, again without the slightest arguments? "Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but it just felt odd to hear him like that on this and this song". How long do we need to hear these wacko interpretations?

Honestly, Dave played some of the most beautiful solos from his entire career. Stunning feel, really original in his build-up.

Really, I know people can have different opinions about liking something, but I really think that some of you are lacking something: the ears to hear such musicality. To recognize brilliance in someone's guitar playing. Just listen to his solos on Sorrows and Tears of a Clown. This is new stuff. It is NOT the same as what he did on other albums.
 
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For me, Adrian is a great guitarist Maiden .always bright, innovative and new techniques.

Dave is almost as bright as, however it plays the same way always.
 
To be honest the only one I hear playing like he always did is Janick. His licks sound the same as on any other Maiden album. As for Dave and H, I tbink they provide some very emotional palying this time around. It is the first album in a long time where the solos are so fitting to the songs.
 
Forostar said:
Sorry to be blunt, but I think there is no basis for thinking one inch of a second that Dave was off on this album. Pure nonsense.

Seriously, what's the next thing to bugger about? Steve played his bass in a funny way, again without the slightest arguments? "Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but it just felt odd to hear him like that on this and this song". How long do we need to hear these wacko interpretations?

Honestly, Dave played sone of the most beautiful solos from his entire career. Stunning feel, really original in his build-up.

Really, I know people can have different opinions about liking something, but I really think that some of you are lacking something: the ears to hear such musicality. To recognize brilliance in someone's guitar playing. Just listen to his solos on Sorrows and Tears of a Clown. This is new stuff. It is NOT the same as what he did on other albums.
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They are not wacko interpretations at all. I just feel that daves solos on this album generally lacked a bit of aggression and imagination. He does try something a bit different on ToAC but in my opinion it doesn't work that well. His playing on man of sorrows is brilliant and he plays a good solo on EoTC and and BoS. Other than that I think his solos are sub par to what he's done in the past.

Listen to his solo on Brave new world. The song called for something quite flashy and aggressive and he delivers perfectly. All his solos on the thin line are amazing as well. I just don't here the same level of brilliance from Dave on this album. His choice of tone and the production does not do him any favours though .
 
I have trouble with taking overall Dave criticism seriously when one of his most beautiful works (ToaC) is not felt by the criticaster. I agree that his solos on the BNW songs you mention are very good, but on BoS he does a great job as well in some places. Now if you would "get" the ToaC solo, the term generally is out of place when about half of his solos are (for the rest) mentioned in a positive manner.
 
Forostar said:
I have trouble with taking overall Dave criticism seriously when one of his most beautiful works (ToaC) is not felt by the criticaster. I agree that his solos on the BNW songs you mention are very good, but on BoS he does a great job as well in some places. Now if you would "get" the ToaC solo, the term generally is out of place when about half of his solos are (for the rest) mentioned in a positive manner.
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From me this is not criticism. As I said, language barrier is a bitch on this one. What I'm trying to say is that for some time (since AMOLAD I believe) I don't "feel" his solos. Yeah, sometimes they are great but then again - H and Janick sound work for me much more and if I count solos that I like by guitarist, Dave is behind Adrian and Janick. Is this something bad? Well - maybe. I just think about emotions and I feel better while Janick and Adrian play. Then again - probably I will like Dave solos more on live shows.
 
That's not bad Meliegree, especially not when you put yourself into the reasoning as well.

Gk1 said:
To be honest the only one I hear playing like he always did is Janick. His licks sound the same as on any other Maiden album. As for Dave and H, I tbink they provide some very emotional palying this time around. It is the first album in a long time where the solos are so fitting to the songs.
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True. Janick regularly walks the same paths in segments of his post-Virtual XI solos, and this album is no exception. What I find cool though, is that he was allowed to play more solos than on the previous record (his number of contributions on TFF are a slap in the face of people who care about all the amigos). Another good thing: he doesn't do the third solo as often as on previous albums. His solos appear in unexpected places.

I noticed that he does not play a solo in a song (co-)written by Bruce. I also remember Bruce being negative about one of his solos, in the Kevin Shirley TFF diaries, but maybe I'm drawing some parallels that aren't there, but these two facts certainly come to my mind.
 
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Forostar said:
That's not bad Meliegree, especially not when you put yourself into the reasoning as well.


True. Janick regularly walks the same paths in segments of his post-Virtual XI solos, and this album is no exception. What I find cool though, is that he was allowed to play more solos than on the previous record. Another good thing: he doesn't do the third solo as often as on previous albums. His solos appear in unexpected places.

I noticed that he does not play a solo in a song (co-)written by Bruce. I also remember Bruce being negative about one of his solos, in the Kevin Shirley TFF diaries, but maybe I'm drawing some parallels that aren't there.
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Well, Janick has a style that is fitting to the more aggresive nature of the album. All in all I am quite pleased with the solos.
 
Best solos since Seventh Son in my opinion. I just can't believe for few solos. Like Dave's on Clown, Adrian's on Red/Black, Dave's Empire... Holy Shiet!
 
Most of daves solos nowadays sound improvised. Don't know if they are or not but some do sound it. It isn't a problem in it self but it could be why some of them lack confidence to my ears.

I am starting to enjoy his ToAC solo a bit more now. I think it's his tone that is bugging me
 
Babo 91 said:
Most of daves solos nowadays sound improvised. Don't know if they are or not but some do sound it. It isn't a problem in it self but it could be why some of them lack confidence to my ears.
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I guess the majority if not all he has ever done has been improvisation, so his approach to soloing hasn't changed - but his tone has, as already noted. The tone he had on Brave New World and Dance of Death and even on The Final Frontier (title track especially) does have more authority, being more up front and smoother due to more gain and effects.

George Lynch use to call himself tone-dependent, and by that meaning that his playing is very affected by the tone he gets, and I guess that would apply to Dave to. There's no way he could do those smooth legato runs like the "Brave New World"-solo with this tone. It would sound much, much weaker. He sounds more like he did on "The Trooper" or other tracks from that time.

But this is common among musicians, as they evolve and get older they often start to appreciate subtlety more - and if there's something Dave lost with that more modern high gain tone with lots of ambience effects, it's subtlety. I just wish he would find a middle way, and use both types of tones.

Babo 91 said:
SIT is where Adrian peaks at that repeated lick style of playing. Wasted years, CSIT and ATG are the best examples. His solos were brilliant but the structure very predictable, you would get a melodic phrase then a repeated lick, melodic phrase, repeated lick and so on. His solos nowadays are very unprectiable.

Adrian has improved massively over the years. Just compare his BOS or EOTC solo to his basic pentatatonic lick solos off ides of March for example.
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Brilliant analysis of Adrian's early playing. Agree fully. Less obvious blues-licks, more interesting structure. He definitely has improved by trying to break out of the box. Dave or Janick never were in the box in the first place, so they didn't have that problem... By which I mean, their soloing has always had more of a free-form, floating, spur-of-the-moment-feel than Adrian's.

MrKnickerbocker said:
Yeah, I honestly wish they had distinct panning for each guitarist. It sure would make figuring out the solos easier.
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Yes, but when there are three of them, it would sort of mean that one was more up front in the mix than the other two, all of the time. Switching around, we have three guitarists who share about equal time in the spotlight.

My favourite album for guitar solos is Dance of Death by the way. I think all three of them were at the top of their game on that record.
 
In the BoS I like many solos from different guys, but I think my top would be the three solos in the title track, the Adrian solo in WTRRD (and that's for someone who has always prefered Dave) and Dave's solo in EOTC. Though I quite dig most of the album's solos. Specially, I think that Janick has improved a lot, I can hear he went more melodic in his playing, more outside the usual licks (though there are songs were his licks work wonderfully, such as The Alchemist.) At the end of the day, I think the 3 of them did an amazing job, specially in title track. Such a good song.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Improvised nowadays? o_O

Improvised solos is what Dave has done throughout his career with Maiden. Talk sense man.
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I'm talking about studio recordings. Listen to solos such as brave new world, rainmaker. The final frontier, from here to eternity, run to the hills, fear of the dark, powerslave. No way are those solos improvised, they have clear structure and he went in knowing what he was going to play. Some of the solos on this album sound at least partially improvised
 
Who plays the first solo at 4:46 on Shadows Of The Valley? I just love how it sounds like the guitar is singing. And is it the same person who plays the first solo in Coming Home? The guitar also sings in that one.
 
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