If Eternity Should Fail

How good is If Eternity Should Fail on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    23
The last album featured the worst opening track on any Maiden album, yet this one is amongst their very best opening numbers. It feels much shorter than it's 8+ minutes, and is an awesome mix of metal magic and searing melodrama. Mid-paced songs don't usually work well as openers, but it's this track's dyanmic verve which makes it perfect for that slot on this album. I'm not surprised in the least that this was originally intended for a Bruce solo album, as guitar tuning aside, it's very reminscent of the rich soundscapes featured on the likes of "The Chemical Wedding". Perhaps the final chorus could have been devoid of vocals, with H's lead guitar taking centre stage, but that really is a minor gripe for what is essentially, a divine piece of songwriting from Bruce. No wonder Steve nabbed it for Maiden!
 
clanowy said:
Steve "stole" only one of Bruce's songs in the past... One of the best in IM history that made it to the SoL video.

This one is the second.

That sums it up.
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Glad to see someone else who views BYDTTS as being one of the truly great Maiden songs. I know it's not a view shared by most, but for me, it is one of the band's classic tracks. Bruce should really write more songs, as he is a great songwriter.
 
Sara said:
Glad to see someone else who views BYDTTS as being one of the truly great Maiden songs. I know it's not a view shared by most, but for me, it is one of the band's classic tracks. Bruce should really write more songs, as he is a great songwriter.
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C'mon ya! BYDTTS is the best IM single ever:)
 
More love for Slaughter from me. Also anyone wanna take a stab at the meaning of...

the spoken outro? It's a bit over my head but that last line is spine chillingly good.
 
Good,solid,melodic song.Nice! Maybe could benefit from a heavier production. At points the guitars sound artificial.
 
This song really puts the tone of the whole album: it's very serious and sincere. It's like Bruce is pointing the finger at you and says "listen up, I'm talking to you, I have something to say and you better pay attention!".
 
The spoken outro is awesome, and another aspect of the song which conjures up thoughts of "The Chemical Wedding". One negative of Bruce rejoining Maiden, was it put his solo career on hold, which at the time was blossoming into something very special. So it's nice to have a touch of that flavour actually finding it's way onto a Maiden album. :)
 
cyanopsis said:
This song really puts the tone of the whole album: it's very serious and sincere. It's like Bruce is pointing the finger at you and says "listen up, I'm talking to you, I have something to say and you better pay attention!".
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and after that ultra-dramatic speech it follows with SoL which is not serious at all :bigsmile:
like it says "lighten up people!"
 
UpTheIrons said:
Absolutely immense song, only time will tell but this could be my favourite Maiden opener yet. Dark and heavy, a swirling maelstrom that hits you like a force of nature when the riff kicks in and the chorus has been stuck in my head since the very first listen.

You can tell that it was written for Bruce's solo work, it wouldn't sound an inch out of place on Chemical Wedding or Tyranny of Souls, but its been Maiden-ised and charged with raw energy, I can't wait to inevitably see it opening the concert on next year's tour.

Lyrics (as I can hear them at least):

Here is the soul of a man
Here in this place for the taking
Clothen in white
Stand in the light
Here is the soul of a man

Time to speak with the shaman again
Conjure the jester again
Black dog in the ruins is howling my name
So here is the soul of a man

When the world was virgin
Before the coming of man
Just a solemn witness
The beginning of the end

From a world of magma
To a cold rock face
The ascent of madness
And the Human Race

We are strange believers
All of us
There are stranger truths
In molten rust

We rise from slumber
It calls our name
Recalls our number
????????????????

CHORUS:

Reefing a sail on the edge of the world
If eternity should fail
Waiting in line for the ending of time
If eternity should fail
x2

To God's illusion
Which I recall
Was our delusion
Before the fall

The angels come
And angels go
But the Lord of Light
Shining below

Eternal blackness
Beyond the stars
We think our wisdom
Will get that far

At the Master's table
The table's bare
No line of plenty
Devastation, despair

CHORUS

Instrumental Section

CHORUS

Good Day,
My name is Necropolis
I am formed of the dead
I am the harvester of the soul
And I suck the lives from my bed
I own two sons, I gave them breath
And I fill their living corpses with my bile
What humanity I knew I have long forgotten
For me, eternity is nothing but a short while...
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Thanks for posting these uptheirons. As I'm still holding out on hearing the album until Friday, this is great to read. Soo happy Maiden are creating tunes with this kind of ancient/demonic/harvesty imagery again. :devil2:
 
shadowpants said:
Thanks for posting these uptheirons. As I'm still holding out on hearing the album until Friday, this is great to read. Soo happy Maiden are creating tunes with this kind of ancient/demonic/harvesty imagery again. :devil2:
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Me too! It immediately reminded me of something like The Tower or The Book of Thel.
 
This is my favorite album opener next to The Wicker Man - Disregarding the intro, which I'd preferred being a track of its one, like "Satellite 15".
 
Sara said:
For me, this song blows away "The Wicker Man". It is the best opener since "Sign Of The Cross" hands down.
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Sign of The Cross is a great song, although I never felt it was that great an opener. Man on the Edge, Lord of the Flies or Judgement of Heaven would fit better in my view. Not that a "long" song by definition is less suitable to open an album than a shorter rocker but it always felt like middle of the album track or closer to me.

But that's a discussion for the SoTC thread. :p
 
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