One thing that I don't understand (reunion vs. 1980s & early 90s)

[Dick Brucinson]

Does anyone have a plausible explanation for why the classic twin guitar harmonies were and are completely being neglected almost throughout the entire reunion era?
I mean, it used to be a trademark for Maiden ever since, perhaps THE trademark. Thinking of The Clairvoyant, Aces High, The Trooper - just to name a few.

The neglect of those twin guitar harmony parts still would have made sense to me if they had continued with only one guitar after Adrian's departure back in the day. But he is back for a long time yet and they actually have THREE guitars.

Why do they consequently not use the potential of three guitars - but come up instead with long intros and repeating patterns?

This is one of the least understandable developments in their entire career to me. (A misstep, comparable to if the Beatles had only let Ringo sing everything from 1966 onwards.)

Discuss.

 

[Azas]

The absence of prominent guitar harmonies - interplays, interludes, intersections, whatever you want to call them - along with the “live in the studio” recording approach, is the biggest flaw of the reunion for me. They essentially threw one of their greatest musical trademarks into the bin - something that could have been fully integrated into the songs. Just mind-blowing.

My not-so-serious speculation: Phil Lynott died - no more Thin Lizzy albums - and Steve forgot how cool guitar harmonies are and drifted AWAY.

Yeah, most likely, by the end of the ’80s, Steve had started listening to different, newer music, which probably influenced his songwriting approach.

 

[Kalata]

I don't understand it either (even more than the ''live in the studio'' approach), especially with 3 guitars. I think Steve really changed his writing style around 1995. Maybe he always wanted more prog rock with melodies (long intros and outros too, ofc) than classic harmonies and their 80s style again (something new), though he loves both. But the thing is, they can do both perfectly enough, and not for every song for good measure.

Harmonies aren't completely abandoned from the Reunion songs, every album has a few of them (apart from SJ, which is really unfortunate, especially when you have a hollow part in a song), but they were like more common until 2006 (like the balance of the material and pace). Interestingly, they played harmonies on some songs live, not originally on their studio versions (No More Lies comes to mind).

 

[srfc]

There's as much twin and three part melodies on Maiden albums as the past, they just aren't in thirds. Adrian has said Steve thinks thirds are cliched.