How do you guys feel about the newer Maiden albums?

Do you like Modern Maiden?

  • Total voters
    60
Hallowed be thy Brain

Hallowed be thy Brain

Infinite Dreamer
I've just been wondering, some fans can't get enough of them and think they're better than the classics and some fans don't like anything after Brave New World. Then there's me... That guy that likes them but has no strong opinion either way. I absolutely love Brave New World and A Matter of Life and Death as well as some parts of Dance of Death and a little bit off of the Final Frontier but nothing off of those 2 albums (Aside from Paschendale, Dance of Death, Where the Wild Wind Blows and The Talisman) strikes me as amazing like songs from Brave New World or AMOLAD. Feel free to express your opinion ^^
 
Wrong forum but that probably will be taken care of.

I'm pretty sure you won't find anyone here that doesn't like the post reunion albums. Everyone likes them. I rate AMOLAD 5th, TFF 6th, BNW 7th and DOD 11th out of all Maiden albums. All of them besides Dance of Death are a clear 5/5 in my book.
 
Love AMOLAD and TFF, both in my top 5. Not as crazy about BNW as most people (still a good album) and DoD has its moments but also a lot flaws.
 
BNW > TFF > AMoLaD > DoD

BNW has very nice production, many are against it but it suits my taste, definitely the best reunion era production. The clean guitars have a very beautiful sound and the songs are amazing. Top 2 album for me (after SiT). I feel that on this album they had true power, energy from being united again and blasting those amps again together.
DoD has a headache production and includes some of Maiden's best, but many of their worst songs. Inconsistent and the album cover sucks.
AMoLaD, for me, is almost equal to DoD but is more consistent and has better sound. No extra good songs, no bad songs. Highlights are Different World (Adrian's solo) and Benjamin Breeg (intro and Dave's solo).
TFF is a bit painfully long but shows Maiden's mastery accumulated over the years of experience. It's beautiful and yet again includes a few poor songs but a handful of strong ones.

So yes, on the whole I'm very satisfied with the new Maiden and hope their next album, one day, will be as good as BNW, or better of course.
 
Similar to Saapanel, BNW is also my favorite of the reunion albums. The production on the album is crystal clear and the guitar tone is awesome. The awesome solos and inspired songwriting only just help. DOD on the other hand is poorly produced, and has a few gems surrounded by a lot of crap. That being said, I would buy this album just for the title track and Paschendale, not to mention the tearjerking Journeyman.

But AMOLAD is the most boring album I've ever heard. And before you start saying I have a short attention span and can't appreciate brilliance, I have listened to hour long drone albums that are more interesting than this. The opener is catchy and has a great solo but nothing otherwise remarkable. After that, it all goes downhill with the cliched "war is bad" lyrics and listening to the same chord progressions over and over again. All those great instrumental sections are gone and the songs are pretentiously lengthened with fluff. Remember guys, just because a song is long doesn't mean it's a masterpiece or a prog epic. AMOLAD is not progressive metal; in fact, I would call it retrograde metal.

TFF is similar to its predecessor in the sense that it's a slog and utterly pretentious, but it still has great tracks like Starblind and When the Wild Wind Blows.

So do I like modern Maiden? Kinda. The followups to BNW are pretty disappointing though with some gems few and far between.

BNW > DOD > TFF > AMOLAD
 
Eric Wright said:
Remember guys, just because a song is long doesn't mean it's a masterpiece or a prog epic.
Click to expand...
You know, for as much as this gets thrown around, I never hear people praising the songs on AMOLAD because they're long.
 
Yeah, the solos! BNW was a massive evolving point imo, similar to TFF, they unlocked a new level of mastery.

I loved AMoLaD when I gave it the first listens but now it's boring to me as well.

But damn, compared to other bands, they're still consistent as hell and haven't lost much of their value. And live they are as good as ever! True masters among other Metal musicians.
 
Mosh said:
You know, for as much as this gets thrown around, I never hear people praising the songs on AMOLAD because they're long.
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I don't think it's a phenomenon exclusive to the Maiden album but just certain bands in general. For example, I love Dream Theater and Opeth to bits, but unlike their rabid fanbase I seriously doubt the fact their songs often go past the 10-minute mark makes them progressive.
 
I don't think anybody thinks that. I love both of those bands too.
 
Really? I see it quite often on Facebook pages , talking with friends, forums, etc. The djent and prog fanbases tend to cater to it the most.

Even that aside, look up some reviews of Opeth, Dream Theater, or even Mastodon which are judged as progressive based solely on their song length. Mastodon's Leviathan is really good but long sludge metal, yet somehow they've acquired the progressive label. I'd consider the former two bands progressive due to their innovative song structure, use of synth and acoustic passages, and unique time signatures, while Mastodon I don't consider prog at all.
 
Well I hardly see it, even though I have plenty of friends who listen to prog and I visit several prog forums.

I hate the "what is prog" argument anyway. The word has different meanings to different people; I think Mastodon is progressive but I also think it'd be pointless to sit here and argue about it. Prog to me is a variety of factors, including large variety of atmosphers, large dynamic range, unorthodox structure (which often leads to long songs), and pushing the boundaries of whatever your style is (that's where Maiden and Mastodon come in). Things like odd time signatures and long songs are a common trait but they don't make a band progressive. On the other hand, I don't think the use of synth or acoustic passages makes a band progressive either. But if you think so, that's ok too.
 
I really like "Modern Maiden." Most of the songs from these 4 got me really into Maiden. Thanks From Fear to Eternity!
TFF > AMOLaD > BNW > DoD
 
One simply does not call Brighter Than a Thousand Suns boring. I'm just saying. And oh by the way, AMOLAD has two of Maiden's best lyrical works, aforementioned track and The Longest Day.

Longevity doesn't make anything progressive. Progressive music tries to push boundaries, therefore it often adds lots of pieces together making songs longer. But longevity in itself doesn't do anything.
 
Hallowed be thy Brain said:
Feel free to express your opinion ^^
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A Matter of Life and Death > The Final Frontier > Brave New World > Dance of Death
but sometimes:
A Matter of Life and Death > Brave New World > The Final Frontier > Dance of Death

The following may sound like hard criticism, but instead of only focusing on what is great on the newer albums (e.g. Ghost of the Navigator, Brave New World, Dance of Death, Paschendale, Brighter than a Thousand Suns, Lord of Light, Isle of Avalon) I will also focus on the opposite: the lesser aspects. I am not deaf for these aspects, so I need to take them with me.

I feel that Maiden needs to re-evaluate themselves a bit. Maybe, after all, it is good they are taking so long for a new record. Yes, I am worried that they wait too long because they might not have long (rather two new albums than one), but on the other hand, they need to kick themselves under their asses and focus on fresh, less predictable material.

The second half in Brave New World contains some songs with unoriginality (The Nomad) and repetition (Silent Planet and The Thin Line). Dance of Death suffers from the same but its impact is worse. There's really some tedious sameness and repetitiousness going on (No More Lies: a very predictable song, Face in the Sand; great intro but then.... :yawn:). Add a few uninspired and bad vocal melodies (choruses in Wildest Dreams, Face in the Sand & No More Lies) on top and here you have Maiden's least good album, of about the same level as Virtual XI.

The Final Frontier and A Matter of Life and Death are better but also suffer from unoriginality (Wild Wind) and dragging moments (The Longest Day). And The Final Frontier has The Talisman with its old man (intro) and apeman (couplets and choruses) vocal melodies. I found the vocals so shocking when I first heard it. How on earth could they have approved this, and even played it live, instead of the wonderful, adventurous epic called Isle of Avalon? Maiden did try some new things on the Final Frontier (The Man Who Should Be King) but they were not shockingly good, and a bit too lengthy (Satellite). Starblind had fabulous melodies but the main one is an echo to a segment in Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger. Also important, the song does not have enough musical substance for its length, to be called phenomenal. There are the lyrics of course. But hey, these are songs. Let people get high from Bruce doing an a cappella version in his bathroom, or in the mines of Moria if you like ;-) ....but one of the things I especially like in Maiden is their musical variety and changes in songs of such length. Yes I hear all the textures that Adrian weaves through the song, but I am talking about the bones of the song, the main structure. E.g. there is this constant tempo, and there's constantly the same mood, nine minutes long.

Still, I rank two of these newer albums higher than The Number of the Beast and Fear of the Dark. And that says something. I like Fear of the Dark: an original, atmospherical album and a stylechanger for Maiden (Fear of the Dark and Afraid to Shoot Strangers were blueprints for many works to come).
There are days that I find one of them (AMOLAD) even better than Piece of Mind, Killers and Iron Maiden.

But none of them can top The X-Factor, which is essentially for me the best of the last seven albums (better than its predecessor and better than everything that followed). The X-Factor has brilliant moments, it has a big bunch of strong songs, but it has less moments to be annoyed about, compared to newer Maiden albums. And here we arrive at my whole point.

I feel that the biggest number of moments that are less enjoyable are to be found on the newer Maiden albums. The older albums had the odd bad song (not for me: apart from material from Virtual XI, I don't really have them to be honest), but that could have to do with less principle forms of taste. Maiden can't please anybody, but they can take into account with controllable aspects such as:

Originality:
"Haven't we done this before, Steve?"

Repetition and monotony:
"Steve, we've talked about this before. This is a song of 8 or even 9 minutes. I feel it needs a change in tone or speed or else it starts dragging too much."

I admit that after 15 albums it's difficult to stay original. I just hope they find a way to be sharp, with a renewed critical look, also on their past.
Paying attention to repetition in songs is certainly possible.
 
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I'll never get your bashing of songs staying in the same mood, Foro. Sometimes it works. I mean I don't like repetitiveness in general either but I feel like you're taking it too far sometimes, flatly opposing any repetitiveness. Starblind has only one mood change (Dave Murray's solo) and it's the worst part of the song. It don't hear the Don't Look thing either.
 
Saw your reply coming because it is your favourite song. ;)
You're right that Dave's solo is indeed one mood change, and I agree that it isn't the best change indeed. I'll stay by the opinion that I am used to better from Maiden when songs are so lengthy.
 
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Yes, I like Modern Maiden. Not every single thing they've done, but in general, I do like it a lot. I like the fact they're a living, breathing band, who have continued to write music since the reunion, and developed in their own way, not tried to reinvent the 80s.

This probably isn't the thread to discuss The Talisman any further, so I might go over to the relevant thread to do that. ;)
 
I think most of the criticisms are valid.
I also think each of Maiden's four reunion albums are among my favourite albums produced in this century.
 
BNW was pretty solid, was easily the best album since FOTD, but by each subsequent album they have got 'progressively' (pun intended) weaker. I blame Bruce's short hair.
 
I'll just break it down album by album.

Brave New World was the album that got me into Maiden. It wasn't the first one I heard, but the first one I heard new, and the one that convinced me that the band has got what I want. I associate many good things with the music, and I also have the feeling that many Maiden and heavy metal fans consider this one a classic. Mind you, it's 13 years old now, and certainly no longer 'recent'. Contrary to many people, I think it has a good production and sounds great.
All things considered, you can tell that songwriting-wise, it is more of a continuation of the avenue Virtual XI went than a return to the eighties. It's got some long songs that do kind of enjoy repeating their choruses a lot, and it's not terribly averse to repetion in general. However, I don't mind that, I accept that as a stylistic device, and I think it's fine. What I really love about the album is that it does extensive instrumental sections. The instrumental in Thin Line Between Love and Hate is one of my favourite passages in Maiden history. That's not to say I think everything on it is good. The Fallen Angel feels like a filler to me, and The Mercenary is a very weak standalone song, although it does work within the mood and atmosphere of the album.

Dance of Death is a step down, in general. The production is pretty awful, although I have said time and again that I attribute this to a poor business decision, because the album was marketed as a 5.1 DVD-A at the time. I never heard the DVD mix, but I was told it sounds a lot better. Anyway, there is some lacklustre song writing on the album. Wildest Dreams, New Frontier and Age of Innocence really don't cut it, Montségur and Journeyman also aren't the classics they were written to be. I like Gates of Tomorrow, but that's because it is a clone of Lord of the Flies, and that is my favourite song from the nineties. Other than that, however, the album still contains a bunch of great songs, some of which will always be among my favourites - Rainmaker, No More Lies, Paschendale. The song writing is more diverse than on Brave New World, for better or worse. Not everything that is different is automatically good, obviously.

A Matter of Life and Death is one of my three favourite Maiden albums ever, together with Piece of Mind and The X Factor. I have never felt so enthusiastic about an album before, while and after it came out. There is so much connected with it to me, including the first Maiden gigs I visited, and the friends I made thanks to it. The songs are simply amazing, and I am grateful to them for playing it live in its entirety. Maybe The Pilgrim isn't up to par with the rest, but other than that... I never get tired of this album, it has some of the most amazing moments of their discography on it... the mega-solo on Out of the Shadows, the intro to For the Greater Good of God, the chills from The Legacy, and all of The Longest Day. I love this album with heart and soul.

The Final Frontier was a bit of a let-down for me, because I wanted so badly to revisit the AMOLAD experience with it, and it just didn't do it that way. The album is not nearly as good in general, and even the live shows seemed to lack a bit of the magic from the previous tour- although the difference may be that I saw them in Paris in 2006 for the first time, and in Berlin in 2011 for the tenth time. There are a few songs that I hold to be among their very best, Starblind, When the Wild Wind Blows and probably Isle of Avalon. The rest ranges from very good (Coming Home, The Talisman) to it isn't what it could have been (El Dorado, Man Who Would be King) to failure (The Alchemist, Mother of Mercy). That probably sounds harsher than intended, but yeah, I guess you could say I feel a bit disappointed by the album. Again, the song writing is more diverse than on the predecessor, but at the same time, it lacks the atmosphere and thematic density that made AMOLAD so special.

I guess all this tells you very little of genuine interest.
 
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