Midnight
The Ever-Present "It"
The song would have been better if the first chorus was performed in the style of the later ones, with the last four repetitions having more guitar than the first four.
IRON MAIDEN REFERENDUM 2020: Results -> Hallowed Be Thy Name wins for the 5th time!
- Thread starter Night Prowler
- Start date
I was hoping somebody would get this.
Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
I don't really remember why I even voted for it. I think my brain shut down, let's hope this didn't cost its life 
I love the DoD melody at the beginning, instantly hooks me.
I love the DoD melody at the beginning, instantly hooks me.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
DoD doesn’t work for all of the reasons that others have already listed, especially the wildly inconsistent songwriting and messages. My biggest issue with the album is actually Bruce and, more specifically, what he’s singing. Bruce and Steve have some real misses in the vocal melody department on this album.
I do think DoD is important for two reasons:
Wildest Dreams - purely average and kinda boring. Too happy sounding.
Gates of Tomorrow - also too happy sounding. The verses are so off-putting. I think this is easily the weakest song of the reunion (and also suffers from the same terrible tandem guitar/vocal line as The Red and The Black). It’s a shame, too, because the pre-chorus, chorus, and harmonized melody are all quite good. But boy, that verse is just beyond atrocious.
New Frontier - same as Wildest Dreams, just meh. Also also too happy sounding. I don’t hate this song as much as some others, but it’s very bland.
Face in the Sand - the music in this song is actually amazing. I truly love the arrangement and the different musical pieces. That intro is one of the most epic in Maiden’s discography. The problem here, and it’s a big problem, is Bruce. The vocals in this song are just subpar - verses are lame, pre-chorus is plain weird and the chorus is bland and screechy.
Age of Innocence - that chorus. That fucking sing-songy happy chorus...boy do I hate it. The second worst song of the reunion era.
I do think DoD is important for two reasons:
- It features some of the greatest songs of the reunion era. The highlights are truly high. The strength of songs like Paschendale, the title track, Rainmaker, and No More Lies really makes the small problems in other songs seem like glaring deficiencies.
- It sounds the most like 80’s Maiden with its upbeat, jaunty melodies AND proves that the band doesn’t sound as good doing those types of songs anymore.
Wildest Dreams - purely average and kinda boring. Too happy sounding.
Gates of Tomorrow - also too happy sounding. The verses are so off-putting. I think this is easily the weakest song of the reunion (and also suffers from the same terrible tandem guitar/vocal line as The Red and The Black). It’s a shame, too, because the pre-chorus, chorus, and harmonized melody are all quite good. But boy, that verse is just beyond atrocious.
New Frontier - same as Wildest Dreams, just meh. Also also too happy sounding. I don’t hate this song as much as some others, but it’s very bland.
Face in the Sand - the music in this song is actually amazing. I truly love the arrangement and the different musical pieces. That intro is one of the most epic in Maiden’s discography. The problem here, and it’s a big problem, is Bruce. The vocals in this song are just subpar - verses are lame, pre-chorus is plain weird and the chorus is bland and screechy.
Age of Innocence - that chorus. That fucking sing-songy happy chorus...boy do I hate it. The second worst song of the reunion era.
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Journeyman’s chorus is somewhat at odds with the bulk of the song, but it is mostly bittersweet and pretty and hardly a failure. Age of Innocence has never deserved to be reviled the way it generally is on Maidenfans. The lyrics are clunky and not my personal politics, but the song is very well-structured with some nice melodies.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
I can’t make out the lyrics through the muddy sound anyway, but I’m glad there’s someone else who doesn’t hate Age of Innocence with a passion.
KidInTheDark666
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
Age of Innocence is a good song with a great chorus. I had to vote for it though.
Black Wizard
Pleb Hunter
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
For The Greater Good Of God
Lord of Light
Rainmaker
No More Lies
For The Greater Good Of God
Lord of Light
Rainmaker
No More Lies
Midnight
The Ever-Present "It"
New Frontier is probably my least favourite song on DOD for the lyrics alone. They just don't sit well with me.
1. I'm an atheist who likes science. Making an artificial lifeform would be awesome, and it's hard to have a "war of God and man" when there is no God.
2. The stuff I read has given me a love for mad science in fiction. Assassination Classroom, Girl Genius, Narbonic, Skin Horse... the list goes on and on.
3. My Creation by Megadeth is a better song.
1. I'm an atheist who likes science. Making an artificial lifeform would be awesome, and it's hard to have a "war of God and man" when there is no God.
2. The stuff I read has given me a love for mad science in fiction. Assassination Classroom, Girl Genius, Narbonic, Skin Horse... the list goes on and on.
3. My Creation by Megadeth is a better song.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Now don’t be sad, cos 1 out of 5 ain’t bad...
Dance of Death is an ugly album. The cover is a stunning failure especially when you consider that Maiden consistently had the best artwork in the 80s. The production sounds as if the album was mixed by a guy who spent 30 years and thousands of gigs standing next to the crash cymbal without hearing protection. The songs are stylistically all over the place and sometimes sloppily written. There's an ugliness to the lyrical themes as well. We go through the mud and rain of one of the bloodiest battles in history, the massacres of the crusades, and a gathering of the undead. We even get (albeit shakey at best) political lamentations of the 21st century in New Frontier and Age of Innocence. I don't usually enjoy the handwaving of bad production/performance as being appropriate for the music, but in the case of Dance of Death there is at least that level of consistency in what is by far their most inconsistent album. I'm still never really sure where to rank it. It certainly has some of their weakest material, but the highlights are excellent and there are few moments that absolutely offend me. The weaker songs all have their moments.
I also think time hurts this album. Before A Matter of Life and Death, it was hard to tell where the band was going. In some ways it was fortunate that they were even making new music and trying new things. It was clunky, but for a band at this stage in their career it was probably as good as you were going to get. Then AMOLAD came out and showed that their best moments were still ahead of them. The Final Frontier then showed that there was a modern Maiden formula and The Book of Souls just continued at the high standard to which we now hold the band. This leaves Dance of Death as being the album that really set them up for future successes, but it's not quite there. It doesn't have the energy and spark of Brave New World and it also doesn't have the excitement and ambition of A Matter of Life and Death. It's the growing pains album.
There are really only two major stand out songs that remain significant all these years later: the title track and Paschendale. I'm curious to see how these two fare, especially Paschendale. It's interesting to see how Paschendale has gone from being a top 5 song on here to one that, if I had to make a prediction now, probably won't crack the top ten this time. I think there are a few explanations for this. One is group think. A lot of the major Paschendale advocates are either no longer part of the forum or aren't as vocal about it. Another is, once again, time. Paschendale is a fantastic song, but they've done greater things since then. A Matter of Life and Death is like an entire album of better Paschendales. Later epics, like Starblind and Isle of Avalon, have similar traits. When the song was new, it was unlike anything Maiden has done before. But in the process it created the formula for much of their work going forward. It set the standard. It's kinda like how very few people cite Number of the Beast as their favorite album, even though it kickstarted a lot of what came after.
I also think time hurts this album. Before A Matter of Life and Death, it was hard to tell where the band was going. In some ways it was fortunate that they were even making new music and trying new things. It was clunky, but for a band at this stage in their career it was probably as good as you were going to get. Then AMOLAD came out and showed that their best moments were still ahead of them. The Final Frontier then showed that there was a modern Maiden formula and The Book of Souls just continued at the high standard to which we now hold the band. This leaves Dance of Death as being the album that really set them up for future successes, but it's not quite there. It doesn't have the energy and spark of Brave New World and it also doesn't have the excitement and ambition of A Matter of Life and Death. It's the growing pains album.
There are really only two major stand out songs that remain significant all these years later: the title track and Paschendale. I'm curious to see how these two fare, especially Paschendale. It's interesting to see how Paschendale has gone from being a top 5 song on here to one that, if I had to make a prediction now, probably won't crack the top ten this time. I think there are a few explanations for this. One is group think. A lot of the major Paschendale advocates are either no longer part of the forum or aren't as vocal about it. Another is, once again, time. Paschendale is a fantastic song, but they've done greater things since then. A Matter of Life and Death is like an entire album of better Paschendales. Later epics, like Starblind and Isle of Avalon, have similar traits. When the song was new, it was unlike anything Maiden has done before. But in the process it created the formula for much of their work going forward. It set the standard. It's kinda like how very few people cite Number of the Beast as their favorite album, even though it kickstarted a lot of what came after.
Black Wizard
Pleb Hunter
They also haven't played 'Paschendale' live since they messed it up in 2010, so it hasn't been given the same exposure.
Voted for These Colours Don't Run, For The Greater Good Of God, The Legacy, Wildest Dreams, No More Lies, Montségur and Gates Of Tomorrow.
Eliminated after Round 6:
Wildest Dreams - 31 votes
Age Of Innocence - 30 votes
New Frontier - 29 votes
Gates Of Tomorrow - 28 votes
Face In The Sand - 16 votes
KidInTheDark666
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
I can't believe Face in the Sand is out before Journeyman.
So what are the rules for elimination? Is it always the top 5? Because there was a big jump from 28 votes down to 16 votes. Like....a huge jump.