Dr. Eddies Wingman
Brighter than thousand_suns
Before you read on; this is most likely not interesting to those who do not know simple music theory (chord names and such things). I guess many forum members play an instrument, so they would know what I'm talking about and even be able to correct me - I'm by no means an expert in music theory myself).
Many say this album is the best Maiden album since the 80's - to which I agree, it is a very solid album. But what makes people see it as an improvement from the two previous albums? Well, more consistent songwriting, perhaps - or better performance from individual band members?
I think one point is that on AMOLAD the band used some new musical ideas. More use of odd-time signatures, more use of acoustic guitar, and some songs contain a chord progression I haven't heard from Maiden earlier - and this is where I come to the point.
In "Brighter than a thousand suns", we first hear it during the "Out of the universe ..." - it starts with E5-C5-A5 and usually I would expect to hear a D5 next. (The E-C-A-D an E-C-G-D progressions are very common in Maiden songs). Instead, they use the F5 chord which came as a surprise to me when I first heard the song. When one has heard most Maiden songs plenty of times, one is used to their standard chord progressions. As an example of a Maiden song using loads of typical progressions, listen to "No more lies".
Now, introducing an unusual chord progression in one part of one song isn't much of a "twist". But throughout the song, variants are used several times - the clean guitar line under the "out of the darkness ..." lines plays EmAdd9-Cmaj7-AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5 (correct me if I'm wrong) and the heavy middle part also uses the E5-C5-A5-F5 combination.
The same progression or "derivations" of it are used in two other songs as well:
In the middle of "Lord of light", where the lyrics go like "Others wait the time their lives were meant to last", the clean guitar plays EmAdd9-Cmaj7-EmAdd9-Cmaj7 and then AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5-AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5.
In the last half of "The Legacy" the rhythm guitar alternates between the E-C-A-F progression and the more typical (for Maiden, that is) E-C-D-G-F#.
I think the use of these chord sequences (they are not the most common in rock/heavy metal) add a nice variation to the album, it is good to see that the band aren't completely locked to old ideas.
(For those who want to check if I'm right on these Maj and add9 things, I include how I play it on guitar (left hand only). I use standard tab format - the deepest E string at the bottom and x means the string in question is not played).
---EmAdd9--------Cmaj7-------AmAdd9--------Fmaj7b5
e-----x------------0------------0----------------0
h-----0------------0------------0----------------0
G-----0------------0------------2----------------2
D-----4------------2------------2----------------3
A-----2------------3------------0----------------x
E-----0------------x------------x----------------1
Moderator squad: If you think this belongs on the musicians forum, I understand that - but I thought this might be interesting for those who don't use that forum as well.
Many say this album is the best Maiden album since the 80's - to which I agree, it is a very solid album. But what makes people see it as an improvement from the two previous albums? Well, more consistent songwriting, perhaps - or better performance from individual band members?
I think one point is that on AMOLAD the band used some new musical ideas. More use of odd-time signatures, more use of acoustic guitar, and some songs contain a chord progression I haven't heard from Maiden earlier - and this is where I come to the point.
In "Brighter than a thousand suns", we first hear it during the "Out of the universe ..." - it starts with E5-C5-A5 and usually I would expect to hear a D5 next. (The E-C-A-D an E-C-G-D progressions are very common in Maiden songs). Instead, they use the F5 chord which came as a surprise to me when I first heard the song. When one has heard most Maiden songs plenty of times, one is used to their standard chord progressions. As an example of a Maiden song using loads of typical progressions, listen to "No more lies".
Now, introducing an unusual chord progression in one part of one song isn't much of a "twist". But throughout the song, variants are used several times - the clean guitar line under the "out of the darkness ..." lines plays EmAdd9-Cmaj7-AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5 (correct me if I'm wrong) and the heavy middle part also uses the E5-C5-A5-F5 combination.
The same progression or "derivations" of it are used in two other songs as well:
In the middle of "Lord of light", where the lyrics go like "Others wait the time their lives were meant to last", the clean guitar plays EmAdd9-Cmaj7-EmAdd9-Cmaj7 and then AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5-AmAdd9-Fmaj7b5.
In the last half of "The Legacy" the rhythm guitar alternates between the E-C-A-F progression and the more typical (for Maiden, that is) E-C-D-G-F#.
I think the use of these chord sequences (they are not the most common in rock/heavy metal) add a nice variation to the album, it is good to see that the band aren't completely locked to old ideas.
(For those who want to check if I'm right on these Maj and add9 things, I include how I play it on guitar (left hand only). I use standard tab format - the deepest E string at the bottom and x means the string in question is not played).
---EmAdd9--------Cmaj7-------AmAdd9--------Fmaj7b5
e-----x------------0------------0----------------0
h-----0------------0------------0----------------0
G-----0------------0------------2----------------2
D-----4------------2------------2----------------3
A-----2------------3------------0----------------x
E-----0------------x------------x----------------1
Moderator squad: If you think this belongs on the musicians forum, I understand that - but I thought this might be interesting for those who don't use that forum as well.
