Most overrated Maiden album?

Vaenyr said:
Huh? BNW had the most studio work from the reunion era. The drums are sample enhanced. Multiple songs have a ton of vocal harmonies. Plenty of songs have guitar harmonies, the title track most prominently in the middle. The "live in the studio thing" is mostly on the latest few albums, not on BNW.
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I think what he means is that there are no harmonized interludes in the vein of, say, PoM, and that's true.
 
TNOTB album can't be overrated because it was their first home run. It contains such gems as:
Children of the Damned
The Prisoner
22 Acacia Avenue (musically it is great)
The Number of the Beast
Run to the Hills
Hallowed Be Thy Name

Gangland is weaker, but only Invaders is subpar. 6 good to great songs out of 8 album can't be overrated by definition. One has to be completely insensitive to call TNOTB overrated. Maybe production of this album is not so refined yet, like is on subsequent albums, but that's it. Gentlemen, "you forgot faces of your fathers", if you call TNOTB overrated. :cool:
BNW, on the other hand, is overrated for sure. The very fact of the reunion played major role on that, imo.
 
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Yax said:
I think what he means is that there are no harmonized interludes in the vein of, say, PoM, and that's true.
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Admittedly, there aren't many. But saying none at all isn't right either.

The title track has harmonized guitars after the solos. The Wicker Man technically has some during the "oooh" part towards the end, as does Dream Of Mirrors during the second "oooh" part. Out Of The Silent Planet has a bunch of them (the end of the intro under the vocals, after the fast chorus before the vocals are repeated, during the last chorus). The middle of The Thin Line keeps adding guitars and then a bunch of solos on top, before going to the quiet part.

Yes, it is true that many of those examples either are during some kind of vocals (even if it's just an "oooh" melody) or there's overlap with vocals and not a pure intrumental section. Most instrumental breaks with melodies on the album either feature a single guitar line (sometimes backed by synths) or doubled guitars in octaves. That's something that became more and more prevalent in Steve's writing from FOTD onwards.

Personall, if I had to guess, I think they were still experimenting how to deal with three guitarists and how to integrate Bruce and Adrian into Steve's late-90s writing style. BNW has a lot of vocals harmonies. Some of them are pretty busy and rather creative. The chorus for OOTSP for example features a distinct vocal line that doesn't just double the main vocal in thirds; it pretty much does its own thing and somewhat clashes with the main vocals. It seems they gave Bruce a bit of free rein to do some of the stuff he was doing on The Chemical Wedding, vocally, while the guitars were somewhat more reserved. Those feel like deliberate choices to me and not just a consequence of the recording style.

But yeah, I concede that as far as pure instrumental harmonized interludes are concerned there are only two parts on the album (title track and Thin Line).
 
Maiden guitar melodies are choc a bloc on the album, as they are on all Maiden albums. It's major nit picking that they aren't harmonised in 3rds anymore, and to be honest I'm dead certain if they were, then the complaints would be "hARMINIES IN TURDS IS TEH CLICHE!!!11", much like you get with the e-c-d chord progression comments
 
Perun said:
I know I'm gonna get crucified for this, but: Somewhere in Time. To my ears, Sea of Madness, TLOTLDR and Déja Vu have "filler" written all over them, and Heaven Can Wait is probably the least interesting song of the "classic" period. Bruce is abysmal on some of these tracks, and I have yet to talk to a die-hard, table-pounding SIT fanatic who won't admit that in the end. I do enjoy the tracks I mentioned, but the only parts that really stick out to me are the instrumental section of Sea of Madness and the intro to Long-Distance Runner. Of course, CSIT, Wasted Years, SIASL and Alex are timeless classics, I won't deny that.

SIT has had a weird career in fan reception. In the early 2000s, my feeling was that it was the lowest rated of the First Seven, and it was mostly a small group of die-hard nerds who held it in such high esteem. General opinion was that it was the most dated and commercial sounding of their albums. I was actually one of the people who liked it better than the average Maiden fan. And then came SBIT and the album's under-representation in the setlist, and as these things go, when something is obscure and under-represented, it has to turn into the Best Thing Ever, and suddenly everyone thought it was the Great Underappreciated Classic, and it became their One Great Masterpiece, and there developed a mass hysteria about ATG having to be played live. Maybe the 80's nostalgia juggernaut that overwhelmed us in the 2010s also contributed, I don't know. I also don't know if I believe the general fan hive really appreciates the album and its deep cuts any more now, and isn't just caught up by the album art, the 80's vibe and Alexander The Forgotten Epic. I've seen too many bandwagon movements in my life to be convinced
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Interesting perspective, even though I love SIT I recognise some of what you say.

Live under-representation was a factor in its mystique. It was chronic, even from the 1990s when it usually only Heaven Can Wait played (because of the stage opportunity for a few fans I guess).

SIT got 2 songs at the start of Ed Hunter Tour, then just 1; but from 2000 it was under-represented again … criminally so in 2008 given the tour name with only 2 songs.

But I loved Future Past because it made right on this problem of ignoring SIT. I suspect it will outrank RFYL for me
 
SIT. On the old board especially. I seem to remember it was mostly highly rated by Americans. I think the band's profile was raised over there around that time, with LAD about.
Played BNW recently and was impressed, bar Dream of Mirrors which sounds like a Blaze era track.
 
Prowler said:
Blood Brothers and Thin Line always seemed to me like Blaze era songs.
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As far as we know Blood Brothers, Dream Of Mirrors, The Nomad and The Mercenary are to some degree VXI leftovers. Blaze wrote the lyrics to Dream Of Mirrors, Maiden bought them in exchange for not crediting him. Blaze has claimed to have recorded a demo version of Blood Brothers while he was still with Maiden.
 
Vaenyr said:
As far as we know Blood Brothers, Dream Of Mirrors, The Nomad and The Mercenary are to some degree VXI leftovers. Blaze wrote the lyrics to Dream Of Mirrors, Maiden bought them in exchange for not crediting him. Blaze has claimed to have recorded a demo version of Blood Brothers while he was still with Maiden.
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I think the Mercenary riff is from an 80s Adrian song or something?
I'm surprised that Thin Line isn't a VXI leftover.
Blood Brothers is the most Blaze sounding Maiden song that isn't sung by Blaze on a record.
 
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