New Single - The Writing on the Wall

Listening to the solos again... Adrian's seems to be done in one take (except the divebomb at the very beginning)... While Dave's is compiled from 2 takes, like Kevin usually does.

Considering the difficulty of H's solo and that Kevin usually builds them from different takes... The man set the bar high with this one.
 
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the tempo in the chorus can get a bit tedious
This easily could have been avoided if the vocal melody was different and Bruce to sing the chorus with high-pitched voice.

The tempo in the verses and in the chorus is the same - slow (like the tempo of the whole song). Should have been different imo for an even more effective chorus.
 
This easily could have been avoided if the vocal melody was different and Bruce to sing the chorus with high-pitched voice.

The tempo in the verses and in the chorus is the same - slow (like the tempo of the whole song). Should have been different imo for an even more effective chorus.
Know what you mean. This song really reminds that Harris made the Maiden sound,and his influence isn't felt here. The steady tempo throughout, that's not the Harris style usually. In terms of steady tempo, this song reminds me a bit of Breeg, which was Dave's riffs.

It is a great song on the one hand ; on the other hands it's a bit middle of the road... but as many people have said, the debut tracks from the last few albums have never turned out to be major album highlights.
 
I swear some of these guys in the YouTube comments (a small minority BTW) calling this boring along with their last couple of albums makes me wonder why they bother. The type of "fan" that wishes every album was Powerslave. It's 2021 get over it already.

Since I almost exclusively listen to the Reunion Era nowadays (okay, sometimes I'll throw in the 90's, too), I can't even imagine what do these people mean.
 
Not sure if this has been pointed out, but I also love that they are seemingly going with the 'full' logo on this one like they did with TBOS. The chopped off logo that was used from Virtual XI through Final Frontier never ever looked right to me.

Great song!
 
I swear some of these guys in the YouTube comments (a small minority BTW) calling this boring along with their last couple of albums makes me wonder why they bother. The type of "fan" that wishes every album was Powerslave. It's 2021 get over it already.
I never understand this need some people have to have a band repeat themselves. If they want Powerslave, we thankfully have Powerslave and can listen to it any time. I’m not in love with everything Maiden puts out, but I’m happy that they aren’t trying to put out the same thing over and over. The idea that a bunch of guys in their mid 60’s would want to keep recreating the same thing they made in their mid 20’s is ludicrous, no artist in any medium would want to do that.

Regardless of how I feel about what Maiden releases, I’m glad it isn’t a rehashed attempt at capturing a moment in time.
 
Can't stand the intro and the main riff (average rock stuff, like many H riffs), but the vocal melody line, the chorus and solos are fine. Anyway, if they continue their historical trend, this gives little indication on the remaining songs.

Feel about the same after listening a couple of times. Nothing directly stood out as bad, but after 15 playthroughs nothing directly great stands out either.

Listening to the solos again... Adrian's seems to be done in one take (except the divebomb at the very beginning)... While Dave's is compiled from 2 takes, like Kevin usually does.

Considering the difficulty of H's solo and that Kevin usually builds them from different takes... The man set the bar high with this one.

I don't really see the difficulty of the solo here, sorry. Some nice licks, surely, and he times the ending nicely but Nicko also as always does a great job at keeping it together... All of it is really variations of stuff he's been doing for at least 25 years. Probably since the 80's. Any decent soloist could do an approximation of a solo like this in one or two takes. It's a simple progression that lends itself beautifully to melodic solos. Just dive in, play your licks and end on strong notes and you're basically guaranteed to sound good.

Not taking anything away from Adrian, simple =/= bad. It's just not a difficult solo. But a cool, nice solo? Yeah!
 
I swear some of these guys in the YouTube comments (a small minority BTW) calling this boring along with their last couple of albums makes me wonder why they bother. The type of "fan" that wishes every album was Powerslave. It's 2021 get over it already.
Yes, I’m over the “play classics fan”
 
Melodically the verses of TWOTW remind me of verses in The Legacy from AMOLAD. Any connection? AMOLAD part two? War theme? WAR OF THE WORLDS? And the intro is not similar but almost the same as from If Eternity Shoud Fail
 
The problem isn’t really that they don’t release a «Powerslave 2», though people here would loose their minds by joy if they had managed to do something like that, the problem is that the new song is awful. Using the age excuse is insulting for the band actually, I won’t mention any other big bands but just go and listen to the song «the walls» by the, not so young, Flotsam&Jetsam to see how Maiden style music is done properly without sounding old or cliche.

A day and many listens later I still cant understand what this song wants to achieve and for whom it is exactly. It wants to be commercial , obviously, but for the rock/western/blues/whatever elements to work for a mainstream crowd the song must be fast and snappy. This is a slow, monolithic song with no changes in tempo and that makes its commercial melodies even more absurd. Now I actually like monolithic music , I am even into funeral doom, but for something like this to work the song must be heavy and have dark melodies not happy western/country stuff.
The song isn’t for metalheads, better avoid any metal Facebook group , the song isn’t really for mainstream audiences since they won’t get the plodding nature of it , the song is just a mash of weird ideas that would be better in a Smith solo album.

Oh and what is this theory about how this is like solo Dickinson, Definitely sounds nothing like what would belong in Accident of birth, chemical wedding or even tyranny of souls.
 
A little sluggish too perhaps
Too sluggish imo. But the triple-lead guitar harmony between the two solos is pure gold. I can listen to it all day.
I just love the fact that the 4 horsemen are Reaper Eddie, Cyborg Eddie, Pharoah Eddie and Mayan Eddie.
I wonder why these 4 Eddies were chosen...

Reaper Eddie fits the image of the four horsemen.
Cyborg Eddie fits the apocalyptic picture of the video.
Mayan Eddie because this is the Eddie from the cover of their latest album.
Pharaoh Eddie because it's one of the band's most iconic album covers.
 
I rather like it. I don't think it's top tier Maiden, though. But I rather like the song. A lot more with the proper mix on Spotify (and played over Ed-Phones).
 
The problem isn’t really that they don’t release a «Powerslave 2», though people here would loose their minds by joy if they had managed to do something like that, the problem is that the new song is awful. Using the age excuse is insulting for the band actually, I won’t mention any other big bands but just go and listen to the song «the walls» by the, not so young, Flotsam&Jetsam to see how Maiden style music is done properly without sounding old or cliche.

A day and many listens later I still cant understand what this song wants to achieve and for whom it is exactly. It wants to be commercial , obviously, but for the rock/western/blues/whatever elements to work for a mainstream crowd the song must be fast and snappy. This is a slow, monolithic song with no changes in tempo and that makes its commercial melodies even more absurd. Now I actually like monolithic music , I am even into funeral doom, but for something like this to work the song must be heavy and have dark melodies not happy western/country stuff.
The song isn’t for metalheads, better avoid any metal Facebook group , the song isn’t really for mainstream audiences since they won’t get the plodding nature of it , the song is just a mash of weird ideas that would be better in a Smith solo album.

Oh and what is this theory about how this is like solo Dickinson, Definitely sounds nothing like what would belong in Accident of birth, chemical wedding or even tyranny of souls.


As for true metalheads hating on it, not all of them...

Check these two seriously bearded guys out:
 
The problem isn’t really that they don’t release a «Powerslave 2», though people here would loose their minds by joy if they had managed to do something like that, the problem is that the new song is awful. Using the age excuse is insulting for the band actually, I won’t mention any other big bands but just go and listen to the song «the walls» by the, not so young, Flotsam&Jetsam to see how Maiden style music is done properly without sounding old or cliche.

A day and many listens later I still cant understand what this song wants to achieve and for whom it is exactly. It wants to be commercial , obviously, but for the rock/western/blues/whatever elements to work for a mainstream crowd the song must be fast and snappy. This is a slow, monolithic song with no changes in tempo and that makes its commercial melodies even more absurd. Now I actually like monolithic music , I am even into funeral doom, but for something like this to work the song must be heavy and have dark melodies not happy western/country stuff.
The song isn’t for metalheads, better avoid any metal Facebook group , the song isn’t really for mainstream audiences since they won’t get the plodding nature of it , the song is just a mash of weird ideas that would be better in a Smith solo album.

Oh and what is this theory about how this is like solo Dickinson, Definitely sounds nothing like what would belong in Accident of birth, chemical wedding or even tyranny of souls.
the only problem is that you are confusing your opinion with the facts. The song is not 'awful'. You think it is. Anyone can have an opinion, but let's not present it as the ultimate truth. What exactly does "release powerslave 2" mean? Another album from which 50% of the songs nobody remembers?
 
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