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

Are you satisfied with the results?


  • Total voters
    18
Isle of Avalon
Different World
These Colours Don't Run
BTATS
Benjamin Breeg
Lord Of Light
The Legacy

I've never been a fan of AMOLAD, at the very least seeing at as being very overrated. I think many of the songs intros are just rehashed and over-repeated, with many of the songs not quite going anywhere and getting a bit boring. Alternatively some of them just don't click with me. The songs that have survived have done so after I remembered songs or individual parts that I either did enjoy at one point or had slipped from my memory, such as Out Of The Shadows. The only non AMOLAD song I voted off was Isle Of Avalon.
 
When you cherry pick lines that support the view you’re pushing and intentionally ignore the ones that undercut it, and then present that as a refutation, that is a straw man. It’s intellectually dishonest and you know it.

This goes both ways. The lines I quoted undercut your interpretation. Both passages belong to the same song. They talk about the same thing. If their interpretations contradict each ther, there is a problem with the interpretation.

You haven’t offered any response on the lyric that is a glaringly obvious vampire reference.

I don't think it's a glaringly obvious vampire reference, but okay, here's the interpretation I had when I first heard the song and went through the lyrics. To me, it meant that a person who does not have a dark side to them is not a full human being. This is a theme often explored in media, and the first thing that came to mind when I read those lyrics back then was a classic Star Trek episode. I don't know why you are so mad about the fact that I said I didn't ever think of vampires when listening to this song. The tone of the song does not match this topic in my opinion, and as I said, I had my interpretation confirmed by what Bruce said, so it never crossed my mind in later years. So yes, I was a bit bewildered by this interpretation. I never heard it before, and I thought it was a bit out there.

The lyrics in “Out Of The Shadows” that talk about a person being cooped up indoors, with life seeming all the same, questioning its purpose, and calling for the starlight to surround him — not hard to see the association with a long-lived vampire who can only have freedom at night, in the starlight.

I completely disagree with this interpretation. To me, the lyrics aren't about someone being cooped up indoors but about someone being released to the world and about what will face them there.

“Princes Of The Universe” is a phrase used by another rock band as a metaphor for immortal creatures who suck the life force out of others and are unable to have children. Hmm. “Who will be born today?” could well be referring to who will be turned and reborn as a vampire, thus being a “king for a day”, reveling in their newfound power until they realize its cost.

Highlander isn't about vampires or undead though, so I think that's a bit of a stretch. "Who will be born today" could refer to someone turned and reborn as a vampire - or it could simply ask who the person born today will be in their life. A newborn child is king for a day because on the day of their birth, everything revolves around them.

Vampires are undead. The only way to “live again” would be to cast off the curse, and other than a stake through the heart, the only way to do that would be through self-immolation. Ending his pointless immortal life by stepping out of the shadows and into the sun. Thinking of the past as he burns away the curse (“the old ways are done”). There is both beauty and pain in that crucible, but he must endure it to “live again”.

I don't quite follow you here. How do vampires "live again" after this? They are destroyed. If we follow the paradigms set here, according to the last line they don't have souls and therefore there is no potential for any life after this.

I'll offer you my take on the song for you to pluck apart now. Hopefully this way you see that I don't have any malicious intent.

Hold a halo round the world, golden is the day
Princes of the universe, your burden is the way
So there is no better time, who will be born today
A gypsy child at day break a king for a day


This verse speaks of the anticipation before birth for those around the newborn, and the child itself. It is a golden day - a new life is born, a prince of the universe in the sense that the whole world lies at the child's feet. The child is a vagabond at first, because nobody knows where their life is headed (and if we accept that reincarnation is a topic of the song, which soul is being reborn, but I don't think this is an essential interpretation), but the way is also a burden, because nobody can take away the hardships. The mission is to make life fulfilling and make the good outweigh the bad.

Out of the shadows and into the sun
Dreams of the past as the old ways are done
Oh there is beauty and surely there is pain
But we must endure it to live again


The child was a mystery before they were born and is now out in the sun for everyone to see. Everything that was before the child was born is old and in the past. To most parents, the birth of a child is an event that changes everything in their lives. What came before doesn't matter anymore, the old ways are done. I'd like to point out here that the imagery in this song is very close to that of This is Your Life by Dio.
The mission of the child's life is stated once more, and by witnessing the child growing up and overcoming the difficulties to appreciate the beauties of life, the parents and family retrace their own steps and live again. Many parents have stated that they relive their own youth by watching their children grow up. Being a step-parent myself, I can confirm this.

Dusty dreams in fading daylight, flicker on the walls
Nothing new your life's adrift, what purpose to it all?
Eyes are closed and death is calling, reaching out its hand
Call upon the starlight to surround you


The moment you are born, you are marked for death. A life has to end at some point, and the question is, what is the purpose? What dreams did we fulfill and which ones are just dusty, old and unaccomplished at the end? We need to remember we're not here forever and ultimately, it's up to us what we do with our lives and what we choose to accomplish. When we die, we return to the night and the shadows, and we can hope that we live on in what we accomplished in our lives, our night thus being illuminated by the starlight we created ourselves during life.

A man who casts no shadow has no soul

As stated above, there is both light and shadow in our personal existence. We must embrace both to become a full person. If we deny the darkness in us, we deny our personality.
 
This argument over OOTS is great because it makes the most boring song on AMOLAD suddenly much more interesting.

Ironically, I completely disagree. I think it's interesting because it takes a different road musically to the rest of the songs on the album and therefore it appeals to me more. I think it flows quite well too and is not too long.
 
'Out of the Shadows' is a beautiful song and vastly underrated. I rate it very highly and, if I were a rank 'n' rate sort of guy, then I would put it in the upper echelons of Iron Maiden's songs. I am very disappointed to see it go so soon. Sad and weak from 13 forum members!

The Iron Maiden Commentary also agrees that the song is about birth and life, no mention of any mythical creatures: http://www.ironmaidencommentary.com...mmentary14_amolad&lang=eng&link=albums#track6
 
Different World
The Longest Day
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
Lord Of Light

I really like these songs – especially Different World – but everything else is just better!
 
This goes both ways. The lines I quoted undercut your interpretation. Both passages belong to the same song. They talk about the same thing. If their interpretations contradict each ther, there is a problem with the interpretation.
Note the deflection here. No acknowledgement that your tactic was disingenuous, just an attempt to turn it back around on me. Except I did address the passage in question, and you just didn’t like my explanation. So this is in fact another straw man.
I don't know why you are so mad about the fact that I said I didn't ever think of vampires when listening to this song.
That’s not the issue. You openly mocked the idea that someone could have possibly interpreted it that way, both here and elsewhere, when there are some pretty clear anchors for that sort of interpretation; then you “defended“ that point of view disingenuously. That’s what’s annoying about it. And I think you already know that, and you’re just posturing again. Because that’s apparently what you do.

Let me be 100% clear, since you keep attempting to muddy the waters. I understand that the song is about life and death, and that Bruce has confirmed this. I don’t deny this, and I’m not trying to claim that it’s secretly about something else. My initial interpretation of the song was different, and was based on a foundation that I already described. It made sense to me, and I don’t think it was an unreasonable way to interpret the song with no other context. That’s all I’m saying.

Baseless mockery and disingenuous straw man bullshit from someone who’s supposed to be a moderator is what I find annoying here. That’s all. Everyone is welcome to whatever opinions they have on this, yourself included. I just find your tactics to be tiring and inappropriate.
 
You read an incredible amount of things into what I say, and not for the first time either. I gave you an olive branch and you blew it away with one of your self-indulgent rants. That's all I have to say about this.
 
For me, these AMOLAD votes feel like a Play Classics Fan (PCF) watching as people vote for every song off Powerslave.

Nah, AMOLAD is just really overstuffed and monotonous. Just about every song follows a similar formula and the repetition kills the joy of the song. The Longest Day could be a great song if it were edited and tightened up a bit. Ben Breeg is the Stonehenge skit from Spinal Tap in song form.For The Greater Good of God would have been cooler if the solo section was a bit shorter and then extended to the album version when played live. These songs were studio creations and it feels like it. If they had played these songs through live a few times and tried to trim some of the fat maybe they could have uncovered a phenomenal album buried in there somewhere. The whole album seems more like doing math homework than listening to songs. And yes, I would take every song off of Powerslave (and Piece of Mind and 7th Son) over every song on AMOLAD any day of the week. However, I would take every song off of Brave New World and nearly all off of Book of Souls over AMOLAD as well. Does that make me a Play Classics fan?
 
As I'm sure I've said before, I find AMOLAD needs to be listened to as a full album. It's difficult to pull individual songs from it. I find it difficult to look at the individual songs as standalone. I so wish I'd seen the tour.
 
Voted for If Eternity Should Fail, The Red & The Black, Death Or Glory, Isle Of Avalon, These Colours Don't Run, The Pilgrim, Out Of The Shadows, For The Greater Good Of God and The Legacy.
 
Back
Top