The_7th_one
Ancient Mariner
You would relisten 'For whom the bell tolls' It's a good song and it's very Maiden
Maidenfans Album Club: Purest of Pain - Solipsis
- Thread starter LooseCannon
- Start date
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Maybe I should have nominated this album which is very underrated and one of the best albums from the band IMO.
-> The first 6 songs + ''Everybody Up'' are all top-notch.
It's sad that you do not liked Destiny, but as I said, it's the most glam metal/commercial sounding album of the band and probably that's why the fans do not accepted it well. It has a huge difference between the early stuff of the band (including the debut album) and Destiny album.
EDIT: Rock The Nations is a good album - Side one is amazing (Side two is not so great) / Forever Free is a hit and miss album for me - the highlights for me are the title track, ''Can't Stop Rockin' '' and the ballad ''Iron Wheels''.
The riff reminds me of Phantom Of The Opera by Maiden.
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Ariana
Black-and-white leopard
How?
While listening to this album I realized I've totally fallen out of love with pure heavy metal. This one bored the shit out of me.
It's slow. It sounds like Bryan Adams with heavier guitar solos and shittier vocals. I've never rated Biff as a vocalist though. Production is good I guess, but nothing else is. Just the same old repeating choruses with nothing else other than the song title in them, as is Saxon tradition.
It's slow. It sounds like Bryan Adams with heavier guitar solos and shittier vocals. I've never rated Biff as a vocalist though. Production is good I guess, but nothing else is. Just the same old repeating choruses with nothing else other than the song title in them, as is Saxon tradition.
I really wouldn't call this pure heavy metal, though.
Sure, I'll listen now...
...I don't hear Maiden in it very much. A bit of a driving riff in the beginning but the second the chorus starts it disappears! I think this one just gets lost in the mud of the rest of the album. I really can't say I find it to be that special.
Question: would it be helpful to open a second thread to discuss nominations/future themes to divide that discussion out from the awesome album conversation? (That is to say, the conversation about the album is awesome. The album itself is not.)
phantomoftheicarus
Bleeding Freak
I think we can keep it as one. You're keeping track just fine (it seems) and it doesn't take up too much space to nominate a new album or theme.
Ariana
Black-and-white leopard
This.
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
My thing with this one was that I really liked the chorus, at least the first three lines of it. The final line ("...until the bell tolls") drops out of that cool "hallelujah" section and moves back into the style of the verses, which was little more than typical hard rock / metal chug. Kind of a wasted opportunity, because again, the subject matter is really interesting.
DJ James
A coma stole my name.
More or less it is the last Classic Saxon album, but interestingly enough, I don't see a lot of Saxon fans longing for that "classic" period to come back. I really believe that from Dogs of War (1995. Underrated as hell and an enjoyable listen) and forward Saxon hit a good stride. I absolutely adore their run from 2001 to 2007 (Killing Ground, Lionheart, The Inner Sanctum). My three favorite Saxon albums. They all follow that formula I elaborated a little on above. It's just hard hitting, reinvigorated NWOBHM mixed with good German power metal. I love it.
Luck of the draw honestly. Plus, Maiden were so big anyway it didn't truly matter what they did with their sound. People even enjoyed and bought Load and ReLoad when they were released.
Yep. Pete Gill was a hell of drummer, but I can't even tell you who played Bass for Saxon before Nibbs Carter (Who I think started playing for Saxon in '94) or who played alongside Paul Quinn before Doug Scarrett came to the band. Speaking of Paul Quinn, he had some good riffs (Never Surrender, Machine Gun, and Princess of the Night all come to mind), but I wouldn't even mention him in the same breath as H, Dave, KK, Glenn Tipton, Fast Eddie Clark, or even Brian Robertson. It looks like one Graham Oliver played alongside Quinn on Destiny. Their performances on the album didn't even warrant a mention in my original post so that should tell you all you need to know about the guitar on Destiny.
I have no clue about the cover. I guess they just figured that's what Americans wanted to hear: a B tier British metal band covering a song that only hit no. 2 on the charts... for four weeks... nine years prior...
DJ James
A coma stole my name.
Also, re-listening to Jericho Siren, I don't know how I've passed over this song for so long. Verse riff is great, and although the chorus is predictable, it's pretty damn good with that little guitar lick they do during it. A great 80's metal track. I just wish the bass drum was a little higher in it.
EDIT: Thanks, @Kalata
EDIT: Thanks, @Kalata
The_7th_one
Ancient Mariner
OK, the driving riff, yes, and the 2 guitar harmonies… The song is strong in my opinion.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
Not a big fan of Saxon to begin with and didn't know anything about this record, but I still gave it a shot. Made it until about 2 minutes into the third track, then gave up, because life is too short and my spare time is too dear. This album...um...isn't good. Sorry. Seems like Saxon tried to find a sound they thought would be commercially successful and consistent with where music was going in the late 80s. But they seem to have missed the rise of Metallica and the emergence of Guns 'n' Roses. In comparison, this just sounds LAME. Speaking of which...
shit the bed hit the creative skids at about the same time.
As of 1991-92, even with the arrival of grunge, metal was poised for a huge decade. Priest went extreme with the legendary Painkiller. Metallica released the black album and became arguably the biggest band in the world -- with the possible exception of Guns 'n' Roses, which had dropped the Use Your Illusion albums, with "November Rain" dominating MTV airplay. The Metallica-G'n'R co-headlining U.S. stadium tour was THE go-to event of the summer of 1992. Dio rejoined Sabbath and released Dehumanizer. I mean, things were GREAT! Right? But then ... Rob left Priest, Dio left Sabbath (again), Bruce left Maiden, Metallica went into therapy and G'n'R imploded. Metal retreated back to the non-mainstream. Did grunge dethrone metal, or did metal abdicate? I think it is more the latter, as the elite metal artists of the '80s all
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srfc
Ancient Mariner
Agreed. There's a lot of myth about "grunge killed metal", the only thing grunge killed was Cobain. It was over by 94, yet all the metal bands from before Grunge are still around now, 25 years later.
The_7th_one
Ancient Mariner
The following chat is very interesting. It's about what if grunge never happened.
I think I linked in another thread, but it's very recommended. I enjoyed a lot hearing them discuss about this topic.
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Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Nibbs Carter is officially a member of the band since 1988 (his first album was Solid Ball Of Rock in 1991).
The bassist before Nibss was Steve Dawson - his last album was Innocence Is No Excuse (1985) /* for the Rock The Nations (1986) album, Biff played all the bass parts.... although, Paul Johnson (the bassist who played on Destiny) is credited, but not play, actually. Steve Dawson also co-wrote one last song for Rock The Nations album - ''Running Hot''
The guitarist before Doug Scarratt was Graham Oliver - his last album was Dogs Of War (1995).
Both of them (Dawson and Oliver) are founding members of the band along with Biff, Quinn and Pete Gill.
The original name of the band was Son Of A Bitch.
If I'm not mistaken, the songs for the debut album were demos from Son Of A Bitch (later Saxon) that the band played for many years. The first true new material was written for the next album, which turn out to be emblematic for the genre - Wheels Of Steel (1980).
Seems like Saxon tried to find a sound they thought would be commercially successful and consistent with where music was going in the late 80s. But they seem to have missed the rise of Metallica and the emergence of Guns 'n' Roses. In comparison, this just sounds LAME.
This pretty much nails the critical consensus and context of what the album was.
While I largely agree, I liked it at the time and am OK with it now. Heavy music was largely shit around then and it was better than Poison.
Ride Like the Wind is an awesome cover. Unlike LC, I kinda liked the original when I was 10 and listened to pop radio. To hear it get the metal treatment was a treat.
This pretty much nails the critical consensus and context of what the album was.
While I largely agree, I liked it at the time and am OK with it now. Heavy music was largely shit around then and it was better than Poison.
Ride Like the Wind is an awesome cover. Unlike LC, I kinda liked the original when I was 10 and listened to pop radio. To hear it get the metal treatment was a treat.
See, this is what I don't get. I don't know that I find it to be better than Poison, merely because I understand that Poison was garbage and I truly, honestly believe that Saxon is better than the album presented this month. I guess I should say: I would be disappointed hearing this album in 1988, knowing how much better Saxon *could* be.
