New single: Stratego

Reminder... Most of the reviews stated that both Stratego and WOTW are good songs...

Meanwhile Time Machine, Darkest Hour, Death Of The Celts and Hell On Earth were always graded even better. Even Days Of Future Past and The Parchement in some cases...

I'm pumped.
 
And I really hope Adrian sings the chorus with Bruce live. This song needs 2 vocals on the chorus.

Also sounds to me like H is following Bruce on the verses with chords too (his vibrato is unmistakable).

Also, again, that breakdown is great.
 
Good first impression. BNW vibes to me, especially the chorus with the vocal harmonies. I'm going to give this some more listens tomorrow.

I'm really getting my hopes up for a great album now.
 
Now that we have heard the song and have the lyrics, Im SO glad that the word stratego is nowhere to be found in the chorus much less the rest of the song. Would have been difficult to work such a strange word/term into a song.
 
Intro and gallup has a powerslave (song) feel. Great, layered chorus (nice to hear harmonies again). Janick's guitar shadowing of the vocals is a bit disappointing. (1) It clouds the vocals a bit and (2) it's lazy writing (it's tough to write licks that complement vs. mirror; but that's why they're paid the big bucks). But to be fair, it's a strong song. And I'm not always enamored with Janick's writing. But this one has some chops. And like others, I feel it feeds into TWOTW nicely.
 
Song ain't bad at all actually, maybe because the chorus kinda reminds me of Battlezone's I Don't Wanna Know :ahhh:
Also, I'll always have the memory of hearing it for the first time on my wife's phone while walking down Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna. Got some glares; I suppose those were audiophiles feeling I wasn't giving it proper respect, dunno who'd object otherwise.
 
Poto said:
Janick should have dropped having the guitar follow the vocals.
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Ok first listen, Yeh noticed this following. My first feelings on TWOTW was it sounded like Caught Somewhere in Time. This song seems to give me thoughts of the Sea of Madness actually, altho different to that, its a combo of a few things, just a feeling I am getting.

EDIT: Didnt know the Lyrics had Ocean and Madmen at this point of time hmmmms
 
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Boys, girls, I was in love at the second listen. Did not happen with TWOTW, although I like it too. Such a great song, the melodies, the gallop. It is such a uniquely amazing feeling to follow the best band in the fucking world while they still make new stuff. I am just so eternally happy.

Yes, I have trouble understanding Bruce in the chorus too. But the rest is flawless, IMO.
 
matic22 said:
And I really hope Adrian sings the chorus with Bruce live. This song needs 2 vocals on the chorus.

Also sounds to me like H is following Bruce on the verses with chords too (his vibrato is unmistakable).

Also, again, that breakdown is great.
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Second listen through of it I was thinking to myself "Please have Adrian sing backups live on this and not Steve." I feel it'll really lack some punch to it if it's just Bruce solo in the chorus.
 
spooklylugbolt7 said:
Intro and gallup has a powerslave (song) feel. Great, layered chorus (nice to hear harmonies again). Janick's guitar shadowing of the vocals is a bit disappointing. (1) It clouds the vocals a bit and (2) it's lazy writing (it's tough to write licks that complement vs. mirror; but that's why they're paid the big bucks). But to be fair, it's a strong song. And I'm not always enamored with Janick's writing. But this one has some chops. And like others, I feel it feeds into TWOTW nicely.
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To be honest, it's style. A lot of Maiden sound a bit folk-inspired, especially when penned by Gers. Unisons is a thing in that sort of style.
 
It's indeed a very strong song. It has elements from many previous albums. The general vibe feels like TFF to me, but sometimes it sounds like BNW and AMOLAD. It's also one of their best "gallops" in the last 10 years.

However, to me, it is not catchy for a short and fast song. I was not too impressed within the first 3 or 4 auditions. But the chorus stands out, of course. Now I appreciate more parts of the song, like the keyboards, the intro, and the outro.

The solo is disappointing, to be honest. It seems like one of those H's solo from the 80's that Janick steals in the shows. As it is a bit long, he could have lowered the tempo and added some melodic licks.

Someone wrote earlier that missed a typical Janick guitar melody (like that epic one in DOD which is one of the best guitar melodies ever played by this band) and I tend to agree. But he still has one more shot in The Time Machine. As it is a 7-minute song, I'm quite sure we'll be gifted with it.
 
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I do feel the production sounds a bit different to TWOTW when I'm hearing both back to back. Not exactly the production maybe, but the mastering. Feels a bit weird to me, Bruce sounds a little buried esp on the chorus. Song is great tho.
 
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