New Single - The Writing on the Wall

So - nothing special music wise in duelist. Basic stuff in flash of the blade. So much about 'creativity'. You've talked about creativity on powerslave and yet you are talking about Basic stuff or about other bands. Half songs on powerslave are boring and they have nothing special in them, H solo on TWOTW has more things going on that these 4 songs together.
The duellists has an awesome instrumental part, very emotional. Maiden were on top of their game back then, they had riffs that could peel walls, energy that can get you going, adrenaline pumping songs. New stuff is a borefest. What are the other 2 songs btw?
 
This is the lead single of the album and for sure it will be played during the album tour - my question is: who will play the acoustic intro live? Janick (as usual) or Adrian this time... maybe Adrian, because the song has his writing credits.

If it's the gig opener I suspect it will be played on tape, with Adrian appearing when it kicks in.

If for some reason they play both If Eternity Should Fail and The Writing on the Wall one after the other, they could run the two bits of tape together at the end of IESF and the begining of TWOTW
 
If it's the gig opener I suspect it will be played on tape, with Adrian appearing when it kicks in.
Yep. I think the gig opener will be the opener of the album. Probably some fast-paced song (given that the first single is not the traditional fast-paced song this time).
 
In terms of reunion singles track placing it's gone 1, 1, 7, 2, 2, so this one had better be track 8 for the sake of the pattern.

So you're saying that the duelist and flash of the blade are peak of their creativity and benchmark for their 2021 work?
I mostly agree - Powerslave is disjointed and not the start to end masterpiece sometimes claimed - but FOTB is a gem. Call out Back In The Village or Losfer Words instead! :p
 
I accept new song, after each listen I like it more. But so called true fans, please stop degrading those who miss golden days Maiden music style. For one, we miss top notch production, when each album had it's own identity. You can't argue that new song is light years different sounding to AMOLAD or TBOS. About Powerslave, for me it's one of their most metal, guitar driven album. It's 'in your face', no sluggish or plodding songs. Great, and I mean GREAT guitar harmonies, great solos, great calmer sections. Even if you call Flash of the Blade 'filler' song, it has great production, it's fast paced, it don't annoys. Compare it to The Mercenary, Wildest dreams, The Pilgrim, The Alchemist, Different World for example, those songs lack in production department and are absolutely toothless. As a whole Powerslave is cohesive, from 8 songs on it, four are absolute classics and great songs by themselves. Instrumental is pleasant to listen to, the Duellists has great guitar harmonies. The only problem Powerslave has, that it contains two songs about almost the same topic. Fencing and swording, that's all. So, don't say a bad word about the mighty POWERSLAVE. :D Peace to all.
 
For one, we miss top notch production, when each album had it's own identity. You can't argue that new song is light years different sounding to AMOLAD or TBOS.
The new song does sound very different to AMOLAD or TBOS. You might even say it has its own identity...
 
Creativity for what? Half of this album is boring or simply bad. If not for Rime the powerslave would be know as 'this album with two good rockers'
Every song on powerslave is killer. Rime in my opinion is the weakest song on that album. Far too long and repetitive, drags on quite a bit. none of the other songs have that problem. The whole album is a great showcase of guitar work. The overall sound is fantastic.
 
No one is able to write a Powerslave 2. Not only because of its greatness, but also due to its relevance. It was relevant in the era of the 80's. The world, the human beings, the bands should evolve.

As for the writing on the wall, I really like the song, especially after 5-6 listens. I adore that they try new things, and this shows that they love what they do, since, even in this stage of their career they want to explore new territories. It is not something completely new, you immediately understand that this is a Maiden song. But it has some elements which are somewhat new for them. Also, I really like the fact that it is 6 minutes long, and the time passes very fast. It lacks the unnecessary parts and repetitions which have ruined many wonderful ideas and songs in the past. I hope this will apply to the whole album.

As for the YouTube video, it is a pity that the audio is so bad... Who listened to it and said, "oh great, it is ready, lets give this to the public"? It ruins such a nice video. I can't easily accept such mistakes from a band of this caliber. I don't want to see the video again just for this reason.

I am really excited for the new album, and I feel extremely lucky that this band is still in our lives, and they even create new music!
A Powerslave 2 would sell like crazy nowadays, don’t kid yourself about whether it would be relevant or not. Just look at how much better Firepower did compared to any other post-painkiller Judas Priest album. Now multiply that by 1000 and you have what a Powerslave 2 could achieve. It would have sent people into frenzy.

They can’t write a Powerslave 2 , just like they can’t write great short, fast songs, it is time to face the facts.

TBH if I was Harris I would give the reigns to Gers and ask him to write an entire classic-sounding Maiden album, he is the only one who still gets it judging by the songs he has written post-reunion.
 
A Powerslave 2 would sell like crazy nowadays, don’t kid yourself about whether it would be relevant or not. Just look at how much better Firepower did compared to any other post-painkiller Judas Priest album. Now multiply that by 1000 and you have what a Powerslave 2 could achieve. It would have sent people into frenzy.

They can’t write a Powerslave 2 , just like they can’t write great short, fast songs, it is time to face the facts.

TBH if I was Harris I would give the reigns to Gers and ask him to write an entire classic-sounding Maiden album, he is the only one who still gets it judging by the songs he has written post-reunion.

Why would Harris do that?

TBOS did amazingly well. There's a decent chance the new album does as well or better. The music video is up to 2.4 million views in 2 days. Speed Of Light is on 24 million after 5 years.

The band are going to sell whatever they put out, and have the leeway to write the music they want to write. I'm glad to see new music at all, let alone something as good as the new single!
 
Jesus... A band is a living thing. It evolves. And every record is a snapshot of the band at that point in time.
Not sure I see any real evolution from BNW onwards. A band can also regress.
Maiden were once cutting-edge and innovative metal but, for the past 21 years, this formation has been plumbing the depths of their late 60-70s rock and prog influences. That's hardly creativity. Lots of fans love it. Good for them, but this mawkish 'we should be thankful...', 'Maiden won't be around for much longer...', the incredibly patronising, 'you can't expect guys in their 60s....', or your glib 'just walk away and don't listen to it' dismissal of legitimate criticisms, are just excuses. A plodder like TWOTW (elevated by a decent solo), backed by a childish video that constantly references past glories, is not a sign of a band moving forward.
 
A Powerslave 2 would sell like crazy nowadays, don’t kid yourself about whether it would be relevant or not. Just look at how much better Firepower did compared to any other post-painkiller Judas Priest album. Now multiply that by 1000 and you have what a Powerslave 2 could achieve. It would have sent people into frenzy.
This is complete nonsense. New album sales are down the shitter and have been for over a decade now. Artists far, far bigger than Iron Maiden are barely cracking platinum sales in the US, let alone selling tens of millions of copies worldwide like they used to. And even then, Maiden's album sales are pretty good for a band as old as they are. There straight-up isn't much room to grow with how many people just use streaming services instead.
 
Why would Harris do that?

TBOS did amazingly well. There's a decent chance the new album does as well or better. The music video is up to 2.4 million views in 2 days. Speed Of Light is on 24 million after 5 years.

The band are going to sell whatever they put out, and have the leeway to write the music they want to write. I'm glad to see new music at all, let alone something as good as the new single!
I won’t convince you about how much better a powerslave2 would have done, and it is speculation anyway, so there is no point to further continue this discussion.

TBOS was their effort to write a classic-sounding Maiden album, after the lukewarm reception of TFF, anyway and I believe that it was as good as it gets in terms of how close they can come to their classic sound. Too bad that the production lessened the impact of the album.
 
This is complete nonsense. New album sales are down the shitter and have been for over a decade now. Artists far, far bigger than Iron Maiden are barely cracking platinum sales in the US, let alone selling tens of millions of copies worldwide like they used to. And even then, Maiden's album sales are pretty good for a band as old as they are. There straight-up isn't much room to grow with how many people just use streaming services instead.
Each new Maiden post-reunion album has been debuting at higher numbers than the previous one, TBOS did piece of mind numbers in the U.K in its first week (60k+) and was their best debut in the U.S since 1992. If TBOS can do 75 k first week in the U.S I am positive that a powerslave2 (which means a very heavy album with pristine, clean and very polished sound) would easily do over 100k first week and give them that n.1 position at U.S billboard.
 
Considering the new single cover, ''Speed Of Light'' remains the only single of Maiden without a proper cover... very disappointing (the band has such a big tradition with their covers)! - they easily could have made a CGI cover for the aforementioned song (like for the new single). I bet it didn't take long.

The concept of the new single cover is great, but the drawing is not.
 
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