Have Maiden Ever REALLY Made A Bad Song?

Diesel 11

As you scream into the web of silence...
Something I've been thinking about for a while now, looking over posts in the commentary threads and elsewhere, there seem to be a handful of songs that people dislike. The Apparition, TAATG, Weekend Warrior, and the like come to mind. But what I'm wondering is - have Maiden ever really made a bad song? Is The Apparition truly a terrible track or just compared to the rest of the band's discography?

To my way of thinking, there is not a single song released on a Maiden album or single that could be considered 'bad'. Yes, there are weaker songs and moments - the chorus in The Educated Fool, everything except the chorus and solo in Dream of Mirrors, and Quest For Fire as a whole - they're what I would consider weaker, but not outright bad. Even the lesser songs are enjoyable in their own way, just not so much within Maiden's stellar catalogue.

So have Maiden ever really made a bad song? I would say no, but you might beg to differ. Curious on hearing your thoughts on this.
 
There are some songs that get ruined by a certain element in the song.... whether it's the vocals, chorus, melodies, riffs or drumming... some songs have an element that is awful
 
I consider anything I rate lower than a 5 to be a bad song. The number of bad Maiden songs is pretty low for me, but they've definitely had some major missteps.
Is The Apparition truly a terrible track or just compared to the rest of the band's discography?
i don't think The Apparition is a bad song, but replace that with a song like Weekend Warrior and the answer is yes it's truly a bad song imo. They were going for that straightforward Hard Rock sound and Weekend Warrior wouldn't even make the cut on an AC/DC album.

However, I will say nearly every Maiden song (Weekend Warrior included) has some redeeming qualities. The one exception is Don't Look To the Eyes of a Stranger, which is why I consider it the worst Maiden song.
 
There are some songs that get ruined by a certain element in the song.... whether it's the vocals, chorus, melodies, riffs or drumming... some songs have an element that is awful
What ruins TNOTB for you BTW?
I consider anything I rate lower than a 5 to be a bad song.
I mean, personally, when I give something a 5 it doesn't mean it's a bad song, just that it's a weak and mediocre one that doesn't stand out. Charlotte The Harlot, for example, is a 5, but it's not a truly bad song, just weak.
However, I will say nearly every Maiden song (Weekend Warrior included) has some redeeming qualities. The one exception is Don't Look To the Eyes of a Stranger, which is why I consider it the worst Maiden song.
I agree with the first statement, hence why I'd never call a Maiden song straight-out 'bad'. Disagree with the second statement because I happen to enjoy it quite a lot. ;)
 
I wouldn't say they've made any songs that I would deem to be unlistenable, but I'm here commenting on a fan forum for the band.

Go to your average Blabbermouth article about the band and you'll find plenty who don't believe they've released a song that isn't bad in the past 20-30 years.
 
What ruins TNOTB for you BTW? ;)

I really hate Bruce's vocals on it. I guess part of it is hearing Bruce's voice mature and get deeper... He sounds better on POM, Powerslave, SIT, ect. Maybe the production of that album just sucked because there's hardly anything on it I like and Hallowed has always worked better live for me than the studio. COTD, 22AA and Prisoner are the 3 solid studio versions of that album....
 
I think when we're talking about bad Iron Maiden songs we are judging them against the good Iron Maiden songs, of which there are many. For example, 'The Assassin' and the 'The Apparition' are (in my opinion) dreadful songs, by Iron Maiden's lofty standards. However, compared to any song by, for example, Justin Bieber they're pretty damn good as things go. We don't have a truly objective scale for judging the quality of a song (e.g. some people prefer Cannibal Corpse to Wagner) as it's all in the ear of the beholder. What I consider to be a bad song is a masterpiece to someone else, and some of my favourite songs sound like shit to many other people. I've seen many people say that their music tastes are "anything but Metal" - but those people are wrong of course. ;)
 
I really hate Bruce's vocals on it. I guess part of it is hearing Bruce's voice mature and get deeper... He sounds better on POM, Powerslave, SIT, ect. Maybe the production of that album just sucked because there's hardly anything on it I like and Hallowed has always worked better live for me than the studio. COTD, 22AA and Prisoner are the 3 solid studio versions of that album....
I disagree, but oh well. Is Bruce's scream on TNOTB bad too?

I think when we're talking about bad Iron Maiden songs we are judging them against the good Iron Maiden songs, of which there are many. For example, 'The Assassin' and the 'The Apparition' are (in my opinion) dreadful songs, by Iron Maiden's lofty standards. However, compared to any song by, for example, Justin Bieber they're pretty damn good as things go. We don't have a truly objective scale for judging the quality of a song (e.g. some people prefer Cannibal Corpse to Wagner) as it's all in the ear of the beholder. What I consider to be a bad song is a masterpiece to someone else, and some of my favourite songs sound like shit to many other people. I've seen many people say that their music tastes are "anything but Metal" - but those people are wrong of course. ;)
True. A mean, most of you know that I'm one of the self-appointed heads in charge of The Apparition Fan Club (open to all!) so I don't hate the song. Using comparisons, take the said The Apparition and compare it to Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Here you have what is arguably the worst Maiden song and what is arguably the best. And yet I give both of them 10/10. Compared to Rime, The Apparition is certainly a weaker song, it's almost four minutes of the most lyrics on FOTD (and many other Maiden songs) over some of the band's weirdest music, whereas Rime is some of their best lyrics on some of their best music. Yet I find both of them enjoyable songs. One of them is a masterpiece that transcends all of music itself. The other is a weird-ass tune that's clunky and flawed and yet it works. I don't know if I'm making any sense but all told, just because they're two complete opposites in the catalogue doesn't mean that both Rime and The Apparition aren't good songs.
 
Weekend Warrior is not a bad song, a very good song...about football hoogalism.

The Appartition is not a bad song, I find the lyric interesting and like the tune.

Common misconception.

Actually at the time, I thought the title track was slightly wimpish, my favourite band who once sang about the devil, now singing about being afraid of the dark? Really?

Same isssue I had about Metallica having a major hit about being afraid to fall asleep.
 
I think Maiden are a victim of their own success considering that they have half a dozen albums that are generally considered to be classics of the genre. If one of my mates said "Hey, I wrote this cool song called the Angel and the Gambler" - I would think it's a really well crafted tribute to the Who (that's in desperate a need of an edit), but I would be really impressed....of course I wouldn't put anywhere remotely close to anything off of the first 7 Maiden albums, but it's not really a "bad" song per se...it's just completely weak compared to what they previously did. It's all relative I suppose.
 
I can definitely understand when you put it in perspective like that, but Iron Maiden is my favorite band because I hold them to a higher standard. I'm not sure if in this hypothetical you'd tell your buddy to record the song and send it out to radio stations either. But what if he wrote Number of the Beast?

It goes both ways too. I've probably given Weekend Warrior way more chances than it deserves because it's an Iron Maiden song. I've found things to like about it over the years where if I heard it on FM radio I'd make sure never to subject myself to that again. And I don't know how impressed I'd be if I heard it from, say, a bar band either. There are times where a bad song is just a bad song.
 
I think there are quite a few subpar songs in their discography but The Angel and The Gambler is the only one that is truly horrible.
 
The Angel And The Gambler - Badly arranged song with some good parts
Weekend Warrior - Bad song with disgusting (not just bad) performance from Bruce, good solo from Dave though.

The Apparition is a song that used to be below those (last) in my rankings... It's not anymore. Listened to to those 3 and Weekend Warrior is easily worst thing that Maiden has ever done and probably worst studio performance of Bruce in studio ever. Apart from the solos, anything else is bad.
 
I wouldn't have dared submit "No More Lies" to a band whose raison d'être would be to parody the music of Iron Maiden.
 
There are no "bad" Maiden songs, just lesser ones. Weekend Warrior is actually a good song. You can't help but sing along with it and rock out to it, and it leads perfectly into Fear of the Dark.

Don't Look in the Eyea of a Stranger and Como.. whatever on Virtual XI are probably the worst songs, but even they still can't be called "bad". TAatG is not s bad as people pretend it is. It's too repetitive, but it kind of rocks at the same time.
 
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