Longest instrumental passages

BloodOnTheBassistsHands

BloodOnTheBassistsHands

Educated Fool
Hi everyone, I'm trying to put together a list of the longest instrumental passages in the band's catalogue (ie no singing or spoken words). I put together this list pretty quickly, let me know if there are any mistakes or omissions (I'm sure there are at least a few). I arbitrarily chose a threshold of at least three minutes.
  • "Empire of the Clouds" - 6:27 to 12:31 - 6:04
  • "The Red and the Black" - 6:33 to 12:30 - 5:57
  • "Sign of the Cross" - 4:42 to 10:10 - 5:28
  • "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" - 5:21 to 9:53 - 4:32
  • "The Death of the Celts" - 4:08 to 8:32 - 4:24
  • "Transvlvania" - 0:00 to 4:19 - 4:19
  • "Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)" - 0:00 to 4:12 - 4:12
  • "Phantom of the Opera" - 2:40 to 6:35 - 3:55
  • "The Parchment" - 3:18 to 7:06 - 3:48
  • "Hell on Earth" - 0:00 to 3:31 - 3:31
  • "Where Eagles Dare" - 1:20 to 4:48 - 3:28
  • "To Tame a Land" - 3:59 to 7:25 - 3:26
  • "The Duellists" - 1:49 to 5:13 - 3:24
  • "Alexander the Great" - 3:53 to 7:09 - 3:16
  • "The Nomad" - 4:33 to 7:48 - 3:15
  • "Genghis Khan" - 0:00 to 3:09 - 3:09
  • "The Parchment" - 9:34 to 12:38 - 3:04

Note: I'm assuming all the "choir oh's" in "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" don't count as vocals.
 
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Bombusbombus said:
Unbeliever at 2:42 comes before These colours, but I guess it's only more than 3 minutes that counts here?
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I kept my original list to 3+ minutes but definitely feel free to post others. I'm pretty confident I got all the songs over three minutes (studio album tracks, anyway). Here are some other songs over 2:30 (but there might be some I missed):

"Mother Russia" - 1:35 to 4:29 - 2:54
"The Unbeliever" - 3:12 to 5:54 - 2:42
"Hallowed Be Thy Name" - 3:47 to 6:25 - 2:38
"For the Greater God of God" - 4:51 to 7:25 - 2:34
 
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Instrumental part in "The Thin Line Between Love & Hate" is pretty long, more than four minutes, but in the middle is Bruce singing the words of the title.
 
I updated the list. There are four instrumental passages on "Senjutsu" that are 3+ minutes long, all of which are on the 2nd disc.

Two things to note. First, "The Parchment" is the first & only song in Maiden's catalogue that features two 3+ minute instrumental passages. Second, "Hell on Earth" opens with by far the longest instrumental passage of any song in their catalogue (among songs that eventually have vocals - so "Transylvania" and "Losfer Words" are excluded).

Of the 17 passages I've identified, four are from "Senjutsu"; two each are from "The Book of Souls", "Powerslave", "Piece of Mind", and "Iron Maiden"; one each are from "Brave New World", "The X Factor", "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", "Somewere in Time", and "Killers".
 
There isn't any other song on your list that starts at 0.00 and has a long instrumental section, so what song is second after Hell on Earth with the longest wait for vocals?
 
srfc said:
There isn't any other song on your list that starts at 0.00 and has a long instrumental section, so what song is second after Hell on Earth with the longest wait for vocals?
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I believe it's "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" (2:32). The other non-instrumental songs that open with 2+ minute instrumental passages are "The Parchment" (2:09) and "Empire of the Clouds" (2:06).
 
This is a really interesting read. The intro to Hell on Earth seems particularly lengthy, but in a manner that fits the song perfectly- you can really lose yourself in the compositions of a group of artists who have expressed themselves through long-form NWOBHM over the last forty years :)
 
Looking at this stats, it's kind of surprising that Maiden's longest instrumental song is 4:15 minutes long (at least the Reunion era epics have long instrumental sections and maybe that's why we don't have an instrumental song since 1984). Imagine ''Losfer Words'' to be an 8 minutes long instrumental with more & different great melodies... classic Maiden! I wish we had an instrumental of that length from the Reunion era, but I guess the 80's were the time for such a composition.

It's almost impossible for me to choose my favorite long instrumental sections because they're all fantastic, but I'd say ''The Red And The Black'', ''Sign Of The Cross'', ''Death Of The Celts'' and ''Alexander The Great'' (''Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son'' and ''The Duellists'' too). Amazing.
 
srfc said:
  • "Empire of the Clouds" - 6:27 to 12:31 - 6:04
  • "The Red and the Black" - 6:33 to 12:30 - 5:57
strange coincidence that not only are they nearly the exact same length but they start at nearly the exact same second into the song as well
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and they are both breathtakingly beautiful. I wouldn't mind if they lasted 15 more minutes...(actually I would be happier :) )
 
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