Kevin's thoughts:
''Isle Of Avalon'' is a great song.
The fans going to love ''The Talisman'' (he likes the intro a lot). The lead vocals were a nightmare to compile.
''Starblind'' is a great proggy tune... which came out very strongly.
''The Final Frontier'' is quite straightforward and even quite simple for Maiden, but very powerful.
''The Man Who Would Be King'' is a highly complex song, cut in sections. It was very difficult.
''The Alchemist'' is very Deep Purple-ish. The original title of the song was ''House Of Dr. D''. Btw, I think this song should have been the lead single from the album.
They cut 10 totally different melodies for ''When The Wild Wind Blows''. The structure of the song altered a little form Steve's original idea.
For ''Starblind'' - complicated mix. Adrian wanted more reverb on some things. Steve wanted a drier mix, not roomy, but they went with the original mix.
Adrian is 95% happy with the final mix of the album.
Bruce had some issues with a couple of vocal lines he'd sung, and disliked a particular guitar solo. He recorded the vocal lines for ''Isle Of Avalon'' and ''Starblind'' in one day. Both are very high, so Kevin suggested a lower vocal line for Avalon, which Bruce tried.
''Adrian came by The Cave for a listen - he thought the tracks sounded good but "a little too much like the band in the studio". He thought more reverb to make them sound more "majestic" and "epic". Steve disagreed strongly. Honestly, they are both right. The thing I personally like about the dry, honest mixes, is that it sets them apart from any other Classic Rock or Metal band. They're not really metal anyway, in the present day sense of the genre, but they're more of a hard progressive rock band. I promised to run some mixes each way and decisions can be made down the road, if necessary''.
''We've had the album mastered three times, and have ultimately decided to go with my flat mixes over any of the mastering versions. I think the mastering place did a great job, but Steve, while liking these versions, feels that the integrity of the original mixes has been compromised somewhat and so it's coming out flat. No equalization, no compression, just as it was when Steve heard the MP3s of the mixes and just as it left my studio''.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Home - Adrian puts an acoustic guitar picking through the verses and choruses - what? Dave is really happy with his Hendrix-y solo which was done on his Les Paul guitar. Adrian's solo took him ''a while''.
El Dorado - quite a few takes from Adrian for his solo. The Three Amigos are really happy with this song.
The Man Who Would Be King - Dave tried some harmony guitars on the intro, but they don't really work. He loves the reversed solo (an idea by Kevin) and came up with it pretty quickly. Adrian was supposed to have a solo after Dave's solo, but the track felt so out of control, that they introduced the triple-lead harmony melody to bring some order into the chaos.
The Final Frontier - Again, acoustic guitar in the chorus? Adrian played the solo on his trusty Strat.
The Alchemist - Janick changed his original solo (great decision imo, although we'll never hear the original). The first solo was more ''in the meter'', he felt the new one sounded more ''incendiary''.
Mother Of Mercy - Adrian added a harmony guitar to the pre-chorus. Bruce recorded the vocals for the song after he has sung ''Coming Home'' and ''El Dorado''. Steve has a very particular melody in his mind, which Bruce didn't really get 100% correct. It's close tho...
www.ironmaiden.com
