It would be nice to see Maiden reinventing

gor

gor

Ancient Mariner
its been a decade since they did. VXI, BNW and DOD were pretty much alike and extended Maiden's musical variety by very little. My opinion is that they should try to reinvent their sound a bit. It would make things a bit more exciting if we were expecting a non formulaic album. To my mind, the real regeneration happened with TXF, certainly not with Brave New Virtual XI.

The idea of a concept album tossed by nicko and the hint of a double CD album given by bruce in the epilogue of the 3rd edition of the Mick Wall's bio sure will stir things up if they happen. But there are some elements that definatelly should be reconsidered:

-production: they should record the good old Birch way, each instrument seperately! A studio product should be FLAWLESS, esp from band's like Maiden. the last few productions have been far from that. Keep Steve on the right side of the glass too!

-guitar sound: it sounds really weak and dated on the more progressive songs. Almost like a keyboard-guitar

-lyrics: enable quality control, esp over steve! no more Age Of Innocense, Nomad etc...!
 
Maiden being rejuvenated like at the time of The X Factor would maybe disappoint some fans. Remember the uproar when it happened back in 1995! The kiddos may not understand.

On the other hand, can you teach an old dog new tricks? Are Maiden still able to create something new and ground-breaking? I wonder. And even if they could, would they do it? They have a formula that works, picking up zillions of new fans with the least effort (unlike in the 80s when they were slaving away with their album/tour/album/tour routine, but then again they were 20 years younger).

When you see how easily they cash in on their old stuff, it makes you wonder if they're not just preparing their early retirement. Even Rod is selling Sanctuary, apparently. They have a fair financial security and no more urge to create (Dickinson's Tyranny of Souls is to me a good example of a soppy album with limited interest that was released just because they could afford it, not because it was outstandingly brilliant).

So your question is appropriate, although the answer is not easy. I'd love to see something new from the band that has so much sentimental value to me, but I sincerely have my doubts...


Anyway, this is just my opinion and most of you probably won't agree.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Maverick+Jun 14 2005, 04:17 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Maverick @ Jun 14 2005, 04:17 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]I'd love to see something new from the band that has so much sentimental value to me, but I sincerely have my doubts...
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It's quite difficult for a band that you've been probably been a fan for loads of years to create something which will have so much sentimental value for you.

I have always said that BNW and DoD are two really solid Iron Maiden albums, even better than some of the things they did in the 80s, but neither groundbreaking nor innovative. I expect that the new album will be great, but I don't think we'll hear many innovative aspects (if we hear any).

I tend to agree with you Mav about "Tyranny of souls". I think it's a good and enjoyable album, but not amazing. Bruce Dickinson created a masterpiece with "The chemical wedding" (probably one of the best albums he has ever recorded, Maiden classics included) that he has yet to excel.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Maverick+Jun 14 2005, 11:17 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Maverick @ Jun 14 2005, 11:17 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] The kiddos may not understand.
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What do you mean by that?
 
yes yes yes
each album til X had its very own sound, esp SSOASS and SIT
birch was master
 
I would just like to see a little something new from Maiden.
Any new material would be stuffed into any Maidenfans cd/ipod faster then you could say 'Snurdle', but thats not saying it wouldnt be musically different to BNW or DoD.
 
On a side note, I just wanted to point out that it's weird to see the expression "Maiden fans" turned into "Maidenfans". Is this due to this website or simply because the rate of illiteracy is worryingly increasing?
 
I consider a person viewing this website to be a "Maidenfan". While a person who enjoys Maiden without this website to be a "Maiden fan".
 
Just to add to the general uproar: I like progress and I think reinvention is the ability of those who want to survive. But even if Maiden never did anything new or inventive, it's o.k. with me. They have my respect for what they've done in music history and for staying nice people at the same time.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-gor+Jun 14 2005, 04:01 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(gor @ Jun 14 2005, 04:01 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] VXI; BNW; DOD; TXF
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Ok, this is the first thing that jumped out at me while reading this post. first I thought, what an odd Roman numeral... oh virtual XI, isn't it BMW? oh brave new world, DOA! ok ok Dance of Death and of course THX! George Lucas... Star Wars! oh The X Factor... wierd train of thought today [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

But I agree with Gor in the sense that something new would be nice. On the other hand the cool thing about BNW is that the sound of the guitars sound like 80's maiden and at this point in their career I doubt they are concerned with "new" sounds. They can always stretch the limits of the three guitars and Bruce doing both lead and backing vocals on DOD was nice (reminecent of Blind Guardian but not as bombastic.) The double CD would be awesome since they've never done that (with a studio album anyways). However, as long as they don't pull a FOTD or NPFTD I'm happy. Not that those albums are bad but they've done better.
 
I don't want to see Maiden re-invent themselves completely - I like the general direction of what they do. As long as they still have fresh songwriting ideas, like "Dance Of Death", "Paschendale" or "Journeyman" from the last album, I'm happy. I don't expect every new album to be full of innovation - as long as I get some, I'm happy.
 
all those great albums before VXI had great sound
listen
it sounds mystically when its SSOASS
it sounds futuristically when its SIT
etc etc
even FOTD and NPFTD had theit characteristic sound that albums like BNW and DOD are missing
 
I totally disagree that BNW and DOD don't have a unifying sound. BNW sounds, to my ears, very rock hard. Close to PoM and Powerslave in its tune, while DOD has an almost fantastical sound unifying all the songs. Spiritual, almost.
 
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