Moments when Maiden really surprised you

Dick Brucinson

Dick Brucinson

Bruce Dolci
I think Maiden is one of these kinds of bands that belong to the more or less predictable ones (which is beyond good vs. bad, it's just a matter of fact). So, what to expect is Heavy Metal in their style as they wouldn't come up with a jazz album the one year and with a blues album the next, stirring things up with a classic orchestra tour inbetween. You know what I mean.

But were there any times Maiden kind of surprised you the one or other way? I guess a vast example for many of us is the present tour with its interesting setlist. Other Maiden surprise examples that come to your mind?
 
Aside from the current tour, the songwriting credits for Senjutsu were a big surprise. After two big solo Bruce songs on TBOS, and five albums where Steve wrote only one song by himself — and with TBOS having being pretty dynamic (not every song was co-written by Steve like on previous albums) — I expected that to continue. Then the album was announced and goddamn Steve wrote four ten minute songs by himself for the album? Holy shit.
 
LOTB was definitely one, Flight of Icarus being brought back after over 30 years (I really considered it a "they'll never do it again" by that point) but especially the two Blaze era tracks and especially Sign of the Cross. They hadn't done anything from those albums since 2003 and while The Clansman seemed like an obvious pick I really felt like they weren't gonna go for it. SotC was just a downright pipe dream since it wasn't exactly an audience favorite in 2000 and there was no obvious tease for it.
 
I was positively surprised when Maiden have released The X Factor, Brave New World and A Matter Of Life And Death. Added to the fact that the band has made Journeyman and Empire Of The Clouds.
 
The Legacy as a song.

Nicko writing a song (New Frontier).

Steve getting four (?) solo writing credits on the new album. Cool to see that again.
 
Besides the current tour, the writing credits on Senjutsu, Empire Of The Clouds, Journeyman, Nicko writing a song, LOTB tour concept and the choice of Blaze:

Playing the whole new album live in 2006.
TFF album with only ''1 leg'' tour.
NPFTD's musical direction and length of the songs, especially after SSOASS. Back then I would have expected an album like TXF or BNW (or Bruce's AOB ).
 
First thing that comes to mind even if it's not a surprise is that unlike many "old" bands, they still play a huge amount of new material each time a new album comes out. Most of the bands their age (or even younger) tend to just play one to three songs from the new album and that's about it and then back to the classics...of course, between albums Maiden always do a "nostalgia" tour but at least they don't repeat it when they are promoting their latest release.

- The whole AMOLAD played live in 2006 is probably the moment they surprised me the mot (specially if my memory is not wrong but at that time there were a lot of bands that were touring and playing a whole classic album or writing a sequel to one of their classics as well.., I remember Dio with Holy Diver, Queensryche that wrote Operation Mindcrime II, Helloween with Keeper part III, Metallica playing the whole MoP... Deep Purple playing the whole Machine Head...oh wait a moment that's something they've been doing since the album was released (being a bit sarcastic here))

- The first leg of the FF tour

- Of course the LotB set-list

- Journeyman as an whole acoustic song being played on tour

- Empire of the clouds, first time Maiden have ever used a piano

And for sure a lot more...
 
Music-wise - The Legacy, The Journeyman, Isle of Avalon

Playing the whole of AMOLAD on the first leg of the tour (and unfortunately dropping it in favour of some NOTB tracks when I finally got around to see them)

Seeing Afraid to Shoot Strangers live.

Also, it surprised me when I heard Asia (the band) in Powerslave.
 
Became a fan in 2002-2003, so can’t say much about the time before.

- When they released Dance of death, with full acoustic song, Nick writing credit, double bass on Face in the sand, suddenly they experiemented alot more than the very safe album Brave new world
- Releasing The early days DVD, doing a tour with songs from 80-83. I really loved the concept.
- doing the whole A matter of life and death album from start to end.
- playing live in my little home town in 2008.
- recording The book of souls in secrecy I think? At least I don’t remember them announsing the album until it was done and ready.
- It was not a well hidden secret they were up to something in Paris spring 2019, but when the whole Belshazzar Feast thing started during the summer 2021, I found all that very surprising.
 
My Maiden journey started in 2007, so playing A Matter of Life and Death in it's entirety, let alone all the previous twists and turns didn't quite touch me real time.

However, from these very active years onboard the Maiden boat, I think 2010 setlist was definitely a big surprise! A lot of people like to bash Maiden England tour altogether, but for me, it was a low-key surprise that they'd visit that era in form of a history tour in the first place and while the set had some lazy solutions and whatever, I definitely didn't expect them go out with 17 song setlist with no Hallowed (didn't realize it was due to lawsuit back then) and with Afraid to Shoot Strangers. Overall, the sheer existence of that tour was certainly a surprise and also a dream come true for me, as Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was and probably still is my favourite Maiden album and I seriously thought I had missed the boat for Moonchild and The Clairvoyant after not being able to attend the 2008 shows here.

Not related to the topic, but just saying, I think people here are sometimes too harsh towards that particular tour. Sure, it might look retrospectively underwhelming given the scale and freshness level of basically every tour since, but hey, they delivered outstanding performances of five Seventh Son songs and alongside came The Prisoner, Afraid to Shoot Strangers and Phantom of the Opera, so... Moonchild was played on 2008 of course, but it's a magnificent opener!

Anyway, back to being surprised by Maiden...

Ruflux said:
SotC was just a downright pipe dream since it wasn't exactly an audience favorite in 2000 and there was no obvious tease for it.
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- I have to agree with the above! I had faith for The Clansman's return and as soon as the tour poster surfaced, Icarus seemed like a sure thing (of course the whole Legacy thing was quite a surprise to begin with), but Sign of the Cross was a total, unexpected surprise as it wasn't something you could be almost if not entirely sure about between the tour announcement and the first gig. Monumental surprise, but most pleasant one.

- Well, The Future Past tour being a thing sure is one, I suppose! I realistically believed that Stranger in a Strange Land was going to be played again as it just felt like a next one on the line after Icarus being dusted off for the Legacy of the Beast run, but... all this. Caught Somewhere in Time and all. WOW.
 
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Legacy Of The Beast setlist in 2018, Where Eagles Dare, The Clansman, Sign Of The Cross, For The Greater Good Of God, Flight Of Icarus... What an amazing setlist.

Also The Future Past tour, I was expecting a Senjutsu tour but I'm glad with how things turned out as Somewhere In Time is one of my favorite albums.
 
Randalf said:
I think 2010 setlist was definitely a big surprise!
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Yeah, especially since it was the year the new album was released. They should have named the tour differently and used a different stage set (maybe a modern version of the BNW tour stage or stars/space decors). But on the other hand, it was kind of normal after a Hits tour.
Btw, I believe it's because of this tour that they didn't play a 6th song from TFF live (The Alchemist or Isle Of Avalon).
Randalf said:
A lot of people like to bash Maiden England tour altogether, but for me, it was a low-key surprise that they'd visit that era in form of a history tour in the first place and while the set had some lazy solutions and whatever, I definitely didn't expect them go out with 17 song setlist with no Hallowed (didn't realize it was due to lawsuit back then) and with Afraid to Shoot Strangers. Overall, the sheer existence of that tour was certainly a surprise
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I think the biggest surprise was that it was a ''Throwback album tour'' and not a History/Hits tour. Especially after SBIT tour concept. ME tour was not part of their original plans, iirc? SSOASS is an amazing album (they only song that had not been played live in a long time that we got was the title track), but I think they should have done a 90's era tour (at least in 2014) or a Deep Cuts tour instead.
Maybe they should have played the whole album back then (well, they rehearsed Infinite Dreams and only had two songs left). I always wondered why they left out Only The Good Die Young for the 1988 tour - perfect live song imo.
 
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