Maiden studio album shoot-out, Part 19 - THE FINALE

PS vs. SSOASS

  • Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

    Votes: 29 70.7%

  • Powerslave

    Votes: 12 29.3%
  • Total voters
    41
  • Poll closed .
Dick Brucinson

Dick Brucinson

Dave Sustaine
GRANDE FINALE! :nuts::clap::nana::wub::smartarse::rocker:


Now that these two albums made it to our final competition: Powerslave and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. Let's see which one will be the final winning album.

It was a real and great fun doing this project with you all, THANK YOU for taking part everybody! :wub:

@Eli already announced to create some kind of a song competition somewhere in the near future - quite excited what he would come up with at last.

Up the Irons! :edmetal:

Rules as usual: 24 hours time to vote, poll results again can't be viewed before having voted, once casted vote cannot be changed, poll will be closed after 24 hours.
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Finale: Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son & Powerslave
Knocked out: Somewhere In Time, Piece Of Mind, A Matter Of Life And Death, Iron Maiden, Brave New World, The Final Frontier, Fear Of The Dark, Killers, Dance Of Death, Virtual XI, The Number Of The Beast, The X Factor, Senjutsu, No Prayer For The Dying, The Book Of Souls

RESULTS FROM ROUND #4:
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 80% (A Matter Of Life And Death 20%)

RESULTS FROM ROUND #3:
A Matter Of Life And Death 70% (The Book Of Souls 30%)
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 67% (Brave New World 33%)
Powerslave 67% (Brave New World 33%)

RESULTS FROM ROUND #2:
Brave New World 76% (Iron Maiden 24%)
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 64% (Powerslave 36%)
The Book Of Souls 70% (The Final Frontier 30%)
A Matter Of Life And Death 74% (Fear Of The Dark 26%)
Powerslave 64% (Piece Of Mind 36%)

RESULTS FROM ROUND #1:
A Matter Of Life And Death 77% (Killers 23%)
The Book Of Souls 74% (Dance Of Death 26%)
Fear Of The Dark 69% (Virtual XI 31%)
Brave New World 61% (The Number Of The Beast 39%)
The Final Frontier 55% (The X Factor 45%)
Piece Of Mind 53% (Senjutsu 47%)
Iron Maiden 57% (No Prayer For The Dying 43%)
Powerslave 58% (Somewhere In Time 42%)
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 76% (Senjutsu 24%)
 
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Two distinct flavours of Iron Maiden going head to head. Each representing the band at their creative peak. I will settle for Seventh Son, as when I asked my brain what it wanted, it replied Seventh Son from Maiden England. So that’s how I’ll vote
 
Okay, let’s look at this scientifically: song vs song:

—“Aces High” is a terrific opening song, with incredible vocals and amazing guitar passages.
—“Moonchild” is a strong opener too, with a lot of buildup, one of my favorite Nicko performances, and Bruce and the boys tear it up. But the “seven deadly sins” intro is cheesy and the song doesn’t fully grip me.
Aces High.

—“2 Minutes to Midnight” is overplayed live but the studio version is solid gold. That H riff is magnificent, Bruce shines again, Steve kills it on bass. Beautiful.
—“Infinite Dreams” is a complex mini-epic with some great lyrics and atmosphere, but doesn’t quite land it with the faster instrumental. “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” did it better.
2 Minutes to Midnight.

—“Losfer Words” is a stupendously good instrumental, throwing you right into the heat of action, sonically representing the complexities of the album cover. Maiden’s best instrumental.
—“Can I Play With Madness” is a fun single with a great chorus, that’s all.
Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra).

—“Flash of the Blade” is like a sonic wet dream. H and Dave fucking slide in and out of each other, making love to the guitars, as Bruce narrates a simple but gripping tale of vengeance and glory. Fuck yeah!
—“The Evil That Men Do” is a cool atmospheric single.
Flash of the Blade.

—“The Duellists” is another goddamn guitar masterpiece with just amazing instrumental work and a fun swordfight story as the framework.
—“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” is a really atmospheric epic with some sinister moments. It repeats the “Rime” bass interlude but it does so well. But come on, the guitar parts just don’t compare here.
The Duellists.

—“Back in the Village” is another soaring rocker that just kicks ass all the way through. Talk about fun!
—“The Prophecy” is the album’s most narrative driven track and suffers from that as a song. The individual parts are nice but it’s just not as memorable.
Back in the Village.

—“Powerslave” is a metal masterpiece! The intro, the drum intro, the riff, the lyrics, the SOLOS, everything about this song is AWESOME!
—“The Clairvoyant” is really cool and one of the album’s best tracks but like, come on.
Powerslave.

—“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the ultimate metal song. Every single second of it is pure perfection. Do I really have to say more?
—“Only the Good Die Young” is a sad ending to a concept record that had so much more it could’ve done. That “Moonchild” intro reprise is like the band laughing at you expecting them to put effort into the album. Fuck off.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Oh shit would you look at that, it’s a clean sweep for Powerslave.
 
Aces High - Moonchild - Moonchild is great but not the classic that is Aces
Two Minutes to Midnight - Infinite Dreams - Very close matchup but ID is one of my favorite Maiden songs.
Losfer Words - Can I Play with Madness - not even their best instrumental
Flash of the Blade - The Evil That Men Do - TETMD is just a better song
The Duelists - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - I like The Duelists but can't compete with the epicness of SSOASS
Back in the Village - The Prophecy - The Prophecy is the better of two fillers, well I don't really consider it filler
Powerslave - The Clairvoyant - Powerslave, of course.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Only the Good Die Young - Rime is still arguably their best epic

Seventh Son edges out Powerslave 5-3. I can certainly see some say it's a tie with 2MTM over Infinite Dreams but.....

This is the definitive list, any deviation is wrong :cool:
 
Two great albums. I've generally ditched the somewhat prevalent attitude of Powerslave being "Fillerslave," as the middle four are indeed good songs. To me, though, they still stand out as noticeably inferior to the powerful pairs on either side of them.
Seventh Son, though...every song is a banger. Only one I get tired of is Can I Play With Madness occasionally. It's a crime Only the Good Die Young never got played live, and The Prophecy is equally magnificent, but a bit more understandable why it got skipped on the Seventh Tour.
 
Listening to Seventh Son I already hear shades of No Prayer for the Dying album (in terms of production and playing style) so this album for me is the band entering into their Twilight Years in some way. Their peak clearly was The Number of the Beast - Somewhere in Time era. But Somewhere in Time was Bruceless, so Powerslave is their best. Best sounding album with the best flow of the songs. I mean, you can't top Aces High, Two Minutes, Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Duellists has great guitar harmony section. Losfer Words, Flash of the Blade and Back in the Village may be a little bit weaker, but in album's context does it's job just fine. Powerslave is the album. Period.
Moonchild, Infinite Dreams, The Evil That Men Do, Seventh Son is no way better than Aces High, Two Minutes, Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
 
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this time I voted without flipping a coin :)....for SSOASS. I think it's a little bit better.

Thanks to Dick Brucinson for this thread, it was fun.
Waiit for the best song contest very soon!
 
Azas said:
Moonchild, Infinite Dreams, The Evil That Men Do, Seventh Son is no way better than Aces High, Two Minutes, Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Click to expand...
I can agree with that bit. Those four songs are probably stronger than any song on SSOASS. SSOASS wins for me down to being consistently great from beginning to end, and I cannot say that about Powerslave.
 
There should be an extra, informative vote: "do you usually listen to albums from start to finish or do you pick the songs at random one at a time?"
I wouldn't be surprised if, overall, the former would have picked SSOASS and the latter Powerslave.
 
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