IRON MAIDEN REFERENDUM 2020: Results -> Hallowed Be Thy Name wins for the 5th time!

Are you satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    18
Night Prowler said:
Promoted after Round 5:
If Eternity Should Fail
The Book Of Souls
Empire Of The Clouds
Isle Of Avalon
Starblind
The Talisman
Click to expand...
I just checked the rules to see if this was OK. I didn't realize you were promoting three per album but I'm sure it always used to be two. Did you change it to three to speed the game up a bit?
 
Musically, Dance of Death is not Maiden's best and not their worst. It has great songs (Rainmaker, No More Lies, Dance of Death, Paschendale) and weak ones (Gates of Tomorrow, which I maintain is just a remake of Lord of the Flies, New Frontier, Age of Innocence) and a lot that are just bubbling around insignificantly. On bad days, Bruce's chicken clucking on Montségur can get on my nerves a bit. To give credit where credit is due, the album broke a lot of new ground at the time: First all-acoustic song, first song written by Nicko, first use of double-pedal bass drums, first Adrian-written epic. But I can't help but notice that, with the exception of Adrian's songwriting achievement, these are all not only the first, but also the only instances of these things. They were all long-anticipated experiments that just left kind of a confused mess.

The confusion carries over to the lyrical themes of the album. It contains the lines "Still burning heretics under our sky/Religion still burning inside" and "Create a beast, made a man without a soul/Is it worth the risk, a war of God and Man?", is bookended by calls for complete self-determination (Wildest Dreams, Rainmaker, Journeyman) but has a long, reactionary ramble for state authority (Age of Innocence) and has a weird song about how only you can determine your fate and God doesn't do anything (Gates of Tomorrow) followed by one which says we shouldn't try to play god (New Frontier)...

The whole package just doesn't feel consistent or right. The album cover has a good painting with a great thematic idea messed up by half-finished CGI, and that somehow stands emblematic for the whole album. You kind of get a feel for what it's trying to be, and the brilliance does surface more often than not, but if only you could get rid of all the half-arsery that stands in its way...
 
Yes, it's like how we say how consistent and stable A Matter of Life and Death is. This one is a mess, it still amazes me how Paschendale is just one track after one of my most forgettable Maiden songs. Honestly, I could defend the songs if I fanboyed hard, but it's hard to look at these titles and say they're better than basically any other song.

Voting for all DoD songs except Age of Innocence.
 
Let's trim the fat from the clip-fest named Dance Of Death...

Wildest Dreams
No More Lies (x48)
Gates Of Tomorrow
New Frontier
Face In The Sand
Age Of Innocence

WD - probably the worst rocker in the reunion era.
NML - HATE the chorus.
GOT - Probably one of the weakest songs from reunion era
NF - Filler
FITS - A better filler, but still filler
AOI - The "...How old?" version is the better version and that tells a lot. (It has 100% of the votes. Could this be the first unanimous decision?)
 
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BTATS
The Legacy
Lord of Light
Wildest Dreams
Gates Of Tomorrow
New Frontier
Age Of Innocence
Journeyman

A heavy vote. I prefer DoD much more to AMOLAD - it just feels far more comfortable to listen too although it certainly isn't a perfect album by any means. I have never been a fan of any of the songs I voted off but the ones I kept I think are pretty good, especially Paschendale and Face In The Sand. All my previous AMOLAD choices also get a vote except for Colours and Breeg, as I had too many options.
 
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Colours
Wildest
Frontier
Innocence

DoD is a messy album, but I love it for that very nature. I enjoy every song (with the possible exception of the kinda stupid Age Of Innocence, but even then it’s got a good chorus) and Gates Of Tomorrow is still one of the most underrated tracks of the reunion era.
 
Wildest Dreams, Gates of Tomorrow, New Frontier, Age of Innocence, and Journeyman.

Wildest Dreams and New Frontier are simply bland. Gates of Tomorrow is, as Perun noted, a remake of a far superior song and Bruce does not sound good on it at all. Journeyman is an experiment, but a failed one. And Age of Innocence is easily one of my least favourite Iron Maiden tracks, from the subject matter to the music to...everything.
 
Yeah, I found myself shocked by that as well, but I guess lots of people are giving it a pass. That's okay. We'll have to whittle down DOD a few songs as it seems unlikely any of the remaining AMOLAD songs are going anywhere for awhile.
 
Also, when I said there are at least six AMOLAD songs worthy of advancing, the 6 remaining songs are the ones I meant.
 
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