Iron Maiden among Top Albums for Riffs (according to Burrn! magazine)

Forostar

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
Leading Japanese rock magazine Burrn! has published an article titled "Think About The Riffs" in which it cites DIAMOND HEAD's "Lightning To The Nations" album as the third greatest album for riffs following BLACK SABBATH's "Master Of Reality" and SLAYER's "Reign In Blood". The article goes on to say that "Brian's [Tatler, DIAMOND HEAD guitarist] riff-making ability was outstanding in the NWOBHM bands and the riffs in 'Lightning To The Nations' album were create new era of hard rock/heavy metal music!"

Top 20 "riff" albums, according to Burrn! magazine:

01. BLACK SABBATH - Master Of Reality
02. SLAYER - Reign In Blood
03. DIAMOND HEAD - Lightning To The Nations
04. IRON MAIDEN - Iron Maiden
05. EXODUS - Bonded By Blood
06. METALLICA - Master Of Puppets
07. MEGADETH - Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying?
08. MOTÖRHEAD - Ace Of Spades
09. AC/DC - Highway To Hell
10. DEEP PURPLE - In Rock
11. LED ZEPPELIN - II
12. SCORPIONS - Blackout
13. VAN HALEN - Van Halen
14. RAVEN - Rock Until You Drop
15. SAXON - Denim And Leather
16. JUDAS PRIEST - British Steel
17. S.O.D. - Speak English Or Die
18. VENOM - Welcome To Hell
19. PANTERA - Vulgar Display Of Power
20. CARCASS - Necroticism - Descanting The Insalbrious

View the entire Top 50 at this location.
 
No, i don't think they should be first, because listing is about riffage.

Which is a great part of Maiden music style, but the main part are harmonies. The only thing i can complain is the choice of the Maiden album...i think that Powerslave, Piece Of Mind, or The Number Of The Beast should have been better choice for best Maiden riffs collection.

Especially Powerslave.
 
Powergirl81 said:
Then crank up Flash Of the Blade off of Powerslave and tell me that's not mindboggling. Come on! H did the whole goddamn thing!!! *According to that Martin Popoff interview, so he should have gotten credit for that song! Not just Bruce!*
Click to expand...

Would you please give us more info about this interview, or even better: a link, if it exists??
Was Adrian interviewed by Popoff, or did someone interview Popoff?

Popoff with Butthead voice:

"Uhh, yeah, uhuhh, the story goes like this. My friend told me that his cousin's son-in-law had a twin brother working in the studio where Maiden recorded Powerslave. It was said that Bruce was listening to Adrian when he was jamming about, in the dark, after some beers, at night. Bruce recorded the whole thing (like he did with Mission from ‘Arry), told Adrian that the stuff sucked. Later he presented the ideas to Steve and the rest of the band who were blown away, after hearing the first opening tones! Bruce said he created it,  all by himself. Adrian, as polite as he was, didn’t say anything about it. But  when the band session was over, Adrian told Bruce: ”Listen you fool! I’ll give you this credit, but I will see to it that you’re name won’t be on the next album!!!” Bruce laughed but later he regretted the whole thing. I heard from my uncle’s plumber who cleaned the toilets in the studios in 1984, that Bruce actually had a black eye and a broken tooth. Adrian’s fist was in bandages.

So that was the whole story! Uhuh uhuh.”


@Onhell: SIT was my favourite album for many years. Maybe it's even still so. :)
Nice to see that it can be a grower as well. I was instantly in love with it as soon as I spinned it for the first time. So many catchy melodies, such a nice warm sound! Magic!
 
Iommi is the riff master, the riff king. Undisputed Champion of riffs.

Dave Murray & Adrian Smith are the twin guitar masters in metal. Absolutely, positively.

That's why I'd put Black Sabbath + Iron Maiden together at first place. In my opinion TNOTB is a masterpiece in riffs (better than the first Album IMHO)

Oh by the way...Lightning to the Nations is a fantastic riff-driven album. Sucking my Love is a 5 star song !

cheers
 
Forostar said:
@Onhell: SIT was my favourite album for many years. Maybe it's even still so. :)
Nice to see that it can be a grower as well. I was instantly in love with it as soon as I spinned it for the first time. So many catchy melodies, such a nice warm sound! Magic!
Click to expand...

I liked it from the start, I was pleasantly surprised by Sea of Madness, Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner, because I initially got it due to Wasted Years. And Slowly the album as a whole, just love it!
 
It was a joke, made up of course! :)

Thanks a LOT for that interview, I found it very interesting. Only too bad that it doesn't say when it was done.

But I think you may have misread the bit on "Flash of the Blade". This is al that was said:

...followed by 'Flash Of The Blade', a slightly above average track, blessed with a killer intro riff. "Yeah, that was a good little song," recalls Adrian, "one of Bruce's; good, tight little song. We never played it live but I enjoyed playing it in the studio. I actually added quite a few more guitar lines to it. A lot of the harmony stuff you hear, I actually overdubbed. Good little song. And everybody knows Bruce is a fencing nut."

When you did your famous harmony solos, how did you guys work it out? "We actually used to work separately. Dave would go in for a couple of days and do some solos, do some guitar lines and then I would go in and do my solos and put the harmony to what he'd done. And if it was Steve's song, Steve would be there, but both of us were in there, just making sure it's what he wanted. He's very meticulous about his stuff, you know. But on 'Flash Of The Blade' for example, there were certain parts I didn't feel were strong enough, so I overdubbed harmonies myself on top of what was already there. So occasionally we would do separate harmonies, but mostly we would do them together."

He "added a few more guitar lines" is something else as "he did the whole thing".
 
Only too bad that it doesn't say when it was done.
Click to expand...

In case that someone might have missed couple of pointers;

People know me and that's what my thing is in the band, and it runs through to what I did with Psycho Motel
Click to expand...
The Untouchables (ed. one of Adrian's fun bands during his '90s hiatus)
Click to expand...

Looks to me like both the Psycho Motel and the 1990's are past sense, so this interview is surely from the reunion era.
 
It seems many of you have no clue what a riff is.

The word "riff" actually evolved from the musical term "repeated figure". It originated with jazz musicians to describe short melodies which could be repeated over chord changes. Long repeated melodies (like the opening of "Caught Somewhere In Time") may be repeated figures, but they are not riffs according to the usual sense of the term.

And InfiniteDreamer is right:
Tony Iommi is the undisputed king of the heavy metal riff, end of story.

However, I will admit that the albums listed in the first post are indeed full of great riffs, even if the absence of Sabbath's Paranoid album is quite startling. Seriously, the first four Sabbath albums should occupy the first four spots on that list.
 
Well i consider riffs to be repeating rhythm parts on the guitar.

It doesn't have to be a sequence of powerchords. The opening of the Be Quick Or Be Dead is a riff, while the opening of Wasted Years isn't (at least in my book...).

Opening of CSIT is a harmony.

I agree with SMX about Tony Iommi. His riffs aren't complex, yet they are great. Pure riffage!

About Maiden, for me their greatest riffs are in the Sea Of Madness, the opening/main riff, and the pre-chorus riff. Chorus riff is a standard Em-D-C variation type, yet it blends with such grace.
 
A riff isn't even exclusive to guitars. Riffs can be played by every instrument. And yes, the opening of Wasted Years is a riff, by every objective definition of the term.
 
I'd look to thrash metal if I wanted riffs.  I think Metallica and Megadeth should be higher on that list, definitely beyond Maiden at least.  I almost never pay attention to Maiden's riffs; it's the melodies and lyrics that appeal to me more with Maiden.

Or perhaps I have a different opinion of what a riff is than other people?
 
Invader,

yours is an interesting point of view.

I pay too much attention to Maiden riffs because I play the guitar and I must tell you, those fellas know how to do riffs like giants !
 
The Maiden reunion albums have their share of great riffs too, I could mention standouts like Nomad, Wicker Man, Rainmaker, These Colours Don't Run, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, Dance Of Death, among others.
Though in most cases the riffs don't stand out per se because they work in synergy with the melodies which Maiden does astoundingly.  :yey:
 
Mmm...Donuts said:
Though in most cases the riffs don't stand out per se because they work in synergy with the melodies which Maiden does astoundingly.  :yey:
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself.  :)  Exactly the reason why I never remember Maiden riffs.
 
Mmm...Donuts said:
The Maiden reunion albums have their share of great riffs too, I could mention standouts like Nomad, Wicker Man, Rainmaker, These Colours Don't Run, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, Dance Of Death, among others.
Though in most cases the riffs don't stand out per se because they work in synergy with the melodies which Maiden does astoundingly.  :yey:
Click to expand...

True.  For example, the bass riff on Brighter Than a Thousand Suns sticks out more because it is the focus and not much else is going on at that time.  Do I do in general agree with Invader, Maiden is interesting for me more due to harmonies and lyrics in most songs.  There are obvious exceptions.  Besides the song above, The Trooper, Revelations, Flash of the Blade and many others are great because of the riffs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top