Moonchild

How good is Moonchild on a scale of 1-10?


  • Total voters
    13
"Moonchild" and "Sign of the Cross" are awesome ways to open their respective albums, but "Aces High" is the best opener when looking at it as an actual song (though "SotC" is close).
 
The intro is one of a kind. Great drumming from Nicko. Amazing pre-chorus which is just a little bit better than the actual chorus. Good lyrics. The bass line is insanely good! Both solos are fantastic, especially Dave's one (that tapping is majestic, like in SOTC) - the little bass solo under that solo resembles the one in OTGDY and it is brutally good, of course. The screams (especially at the end of the song) are pure evil... Bruce, you're magician. One of the best openers in Maiden history.

9/10.
 
This song's energy feels like a train - it starts off slow, gradually ratchets up the pace, and then proceeds to thunder down the rails with no sign of stopping. Then it suddenly hits the brakes and grinds to a halt with an evil screech.

Possibly my favourite part of Moonchild (that nobody else seemed to mention) is the beautiful guitar line going off underneath the chorus.
 
The title of the piece refers to his eponymous short story (1929)
Alistair Crowley, which has undoubtedly been an influence of its history
album. In it, two groups of magicians compete for control
forces of a superhuman being they are trying to create,
of Moonchild, who, like the Seventh Son, becomes an "apple of contention"
between the forces of Good and Evil.
Reference is made to the introduction of the song
to the seven deadly sins. Pope Gregory
Megas (540 - 604 AD) described for the first time the
seven deadly sins in the book "Moralia In Job"
("Ethics According to Job"). These were: Superbia
(Pride), Invidia (Envy), Ira (Anger), Avaritia
(Greed), Tristia (Sadness) which later
replaced by Accidia (Laziness), Gula
(Gluttony) and Luxuria (Lust) (Moralia in Job, XXXI
cap. xlv).
The verses refer to the mandrake that
he shouts. When a man is killed with
hanging, often followed by two
posthumous phenomena which caused and
arouse the imagination and curiosity of the people:
the penis swells (as in an erection) due
accumulation of blood and occurs
ejaculation due to contraction of muscle fibers
of seminal vesicles (storage
areas of semen). This
phenomenon was explained by popular imagination
through the legend that the mandrake, its root
which has an anthropomorphic shape, sprouted
under the gallows by the sperm
hanged men. When pulled, the root
of mandrake due to negative pressure
which is created and the consequent
air inlet, emits a sound reminiscent of
crying baby. So according to
superstitions, when someone uprooted him,
his crying and mandrake could be heard
he was killing. The one who heard the weeping suffered an agonizing death. Those who
they collected it and put a candle in their ears so that they would not hear the sound that
released when uprooted. Due to the atropine it contains, mandrake
served in ancient times as a remedy for asthma, stomach ulcers,
colic and other diseases. However, taking it during pregnancy
can cause serious complications and termination of pregnancy due to the property
of some of its components to bind progesterone, the hormone that
ensures the smooth development of pregnancy. In fact, that was his quality
known since antiquity and in many cultures was used and
as an abortion drug.
According to Christian tradition, o
referring to the verses Gabriel is one of them
three archangels, messenger of God. He
presented in the New Testament (Luke 1:26) to
announces to the Virgin Mary the arrest of Jesus by
same as that of John the Baptist by Elizabeth.
The lyrics of the song are based in part on the ceremony "Libber
Same ”by the occultist Aleister Crowley. The ceremony is described as a ceremony
performed by the Beast (Crowley) for the purpose of conversing with his "Sanctuary
Guardian "and acquisition of his knowledge. The lyrics of the song bring in
mind the ceremony, mainly because both
texts are written in the first person and
similar measure. They are the words of Lucifer
introduced to the mother of the Seventh Son.
The name by which Satan addresses
mother of the child, the Purple Whore, is
character that appears in his work
Crowley but also in Revelation (17: 5), in
which she characterizes as “the Great
Babylon and Mother of all prostitutes and
of the abominations of the Earth ".
Semantically, this is the first part
of history. Satan, knowing that
the birth of a child she is carrying is imminent
the powers of a seventh son, offspring of a seventh son, fears the possibility
he to bring about the upset of the balance of Powers to his detriment and
seeks his death. So, he addresses his mother with a combination
assurance that its compliance will be assessed and its threat that if it does not
comply will kill her remaining children. So, he convinces her to
consume mandrake, which will cause uterine spasms and
"Strangulation" of the Seventh Son. At the same time, he invites the unborn child to
hear the mandrake scream as he uproots to him
kill.
At this point Satan shows how crucial he will be
contribute to the unborn child, causing him to 'open the seventh
stamp". The Seventh Seal is the one whose opening marks
the culmination of the Syntelia in the Apocalypse of John, the final
the supremacy of Good and the crushing of Evil (Chapter 8). The one who
opens is the Slaughtered Lamb, a symbol used in
Christian religion for Christ.
Under the constellation of the twins, the mother's lips "merge as if
they kiss ”as she bites the mandrake root. Satan defies her
his promise to appreciate the mother's gratitude and describe her
her gloomy fate if she tries to commit suicide or if she continues to live
trying to repent and receive remission of sins. He ignores, however,
how the future mother of the protagonist bears twins. Their pregnancy
its provocative end is approaching and the newborns are presented "exhausted".
Under the supervision of the forces of Good and Evil, his birth
the first of the twins, the one who will bear the gift of the Seventh Son,
is imminent.
Satan describes the birth of the first of the twins as
occurring "when Gabriel is asleep", having managed to
administer mandrake to the mother. One of the twins succumbs to
the contractions of the uterus (on the cover of the disc, in fact, the uterus
appears to cover the face of the unborn child by suffocating it)
and is born dead. But, according to
tradition, the gift of the Seventh Son bears o
Newborn male mother of six living siblings. THE
unborn brother of the dead newborn is favored by
luck and survives the contractions. Presented to
accompanies his mother's lament with his weeping
while still in the womb, which is the first supernatural
sign of his charismatic nature.
Satan, having belatedly realized his existence
second newborn, unable to intervene. Knowing, now, that despite the
his efforts to the contrary, the Seventh Son will live, warns
unborn child that his "lucky escape" from the forces of Evil will
followed by a cursed life in fear and an end that will lead him
in the "eternal night". This threat of Satan begins to be realized by
first moments of the Seventh Son in life, since, according to Dickinson46,
his terrified mother will soon leave him and he will
grow up alone and unaware of his rare capacity and the powers that be
it implies.
In the album insert, below the lyrics of the track there is
the symbol of Urovoros Ofi. The oldest known illustrations of this
of the symbol is from Egypt of 1600 BC .. From there probably to
was transferred to the Phoenicians and then to the Greeks. It is also found in
in Norwegian mythology (“Jörmungandr”), in Hindu mythology but
and in Alchemy. It symbolizes completion, completion and
cyclical nature of the universe, that is, creation through destruction,
life through death. The snake eats its own tail to
remain alive, in an eternal cycle of renewal.
 
Bruce and Dave sound like they’re singing for a tavern band in the intro. And then in come the synths, louder and more present than on the previous record. I think the live versions with H playing the lines on guitar is better, but it’s a nice intro running up into the aggressive verses. Nicko’s performance on this track is one of my favorites of his. The band is very much trying to make a statement with this one. We get a much better Bruce performance than a lot of the last album had, and it’s also a harbinger of the rasp he’s gonna be using for the next three records of his (solo and with Maiden). Overall it’s a fun number that opens the record with a bang, not much more. 7/10
 
Time to continue where I left off. SSOASS is my third favorite album and thus the first album I review that's in my top 5. Time for some positivity I guess lol

Some general thoughts about the album itself. I adore the artwork with its dreamy quality and soothing colour choices. Very interesting and cool Eddie design as well. The production is amazing too. The album has a unique sound, just like SIT had its own identity, and it has aged gracefully. The performances in general are phenomenal and we can already hear Bruce experiment more with his voice, something he'd do even more in the 90s.

Now to Moonchild: It kicks off with the acoustic intro since we're dealing with a concept album for the first time. After that the song goes down the route of Aces High and Caught Somewhere In Time where a rather long intro, perfectly suited for concerts, builds up the excitement. After the intro the song falls somewhere between the previous two album openers. It's not as straight forward as Aces High, but also not a semi-epic like CSIT.

We hear a lot of melodic lead playing, even in the accompaniment during the chorus for example. Bruce delivers some vicious lines during the song, the synths establish a clear presence, all the other members perform on a consistently high level. There's a lot to love and not much to criticize here, really. An easy 9.
 
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