Pick One, go on, just one.....

pick one of these 4 as your favourite

  • Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

    Votes: 16 33.3%

  • Hallowed Be Thy Name

    Votes: 19 39.6%

  • Paschendale

    Votes: 8 16.7%

  • Starblind

    Votes: 5 10.4%
  • Total voters
    48
Starblind with sun, the
Stars are one.
We are the light that brings
The end of night.
Starblind with sun, the
Stars are one.
We are with the Goddess
Of the sun tonight.
 
OK, I do think that Starblind is a great song (it's the inspiration for part of my sig, after all) but I can't see how it can be compared to the best tracks ever written by the band. It's not even in the top three of the album. Just my opinion.

I'm voting for Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
 
To be honest both HBTN and ROTAM are better songs, everything included. But Starblind is fresh and it's certainly already a classic. So i gave my vote because i listen to this song more frequently right now than others.

Paschendale is a great track, but not that great as some people here like to hype  :D It stands out from DoD's general mediocrity, but in fact, there's at least one song from majority of 80's album that's better.
Objectively, Phantom Of The Opera, Hallowed Be Thy Name, To Tame A Land, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, Alexander The Great and Seventh Son are top tier Maiden epics, they have both historical and musical value, whole subgenres of rock/metal have been influenced by those songs and we need to look stuff with the context of time included. Should i mention second-tier longer songs like Powerslave, Caught Somewhere In Time, Infinite Dreams?

There's nothing new in Paschendale. It's a great composition, but nothing new. On the other hand, there's some new stuff in Starblind, the structure is quite strange with bluesy, cleanish lead Smith guitar passing through almost all the time. Quite fresh both for Maiden and for average metal.

But overall it's great that Maiden's actual music gets compared with their most classic stuff, and even gets votes!  :)
 
Albie said:
OK, I do think that Starblind is a great song (it's the inspiration for part of my sig, after all) but I can't see how it can be compared to the best tracks ever written by the band. It's not even in the top three of the album. Just my opinion.

I'm voting for Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
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I like HBTN and RotAM more than Starblind of course. I`m just in a "Final Frontier" mood recently that's why I voted Starblind. :shred:
 
Paschendale. As great as Starblind and HBTN are, Paschendale is Maiden's finest work. Rime doesn't crack my top 20...
 
Hallowed Be Thy Name. Starblind and Paschendale are at tied number two though. Great songs all four, though.
 
i must admit, i am quite surprised that ROTAM is winning, i thought HBTN would walk away with this. still its nice to be surprised sometimes. :)
 
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Hallowed Be Thy Name comes second, Paschendale is third and Starblind is fourth. They're all in my Top 6 as you can see on my sig.
 
Invader said:
Rime, though I'm surprised how PFD is getting its ass kicked so bad by the 80s songs. 
Click to expand...

Finally this forum has come to terms with Paschendale. Great, but not as great as the greatest.
 
Forostar said:
Finally this forum has come to terms with Paschendale. Great, but not as great as the greatest.
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PFD is the pinnacle of the Iron Maiden experience... I'll debate that until I'm cold and stiff...
 
People are simply blinded by what they have been told is true.

Plus Starblind is dividing up the Paschendale votes. It's like putting Ralph Nader on the ticket.
 
We know via Survivor games that Paschendale is the 4th favourite song in the discography. The 3rd favourite isn't here.
 
I think Paschendale is overhyped on this forum. It's great and emotional song, but can't compete with the greatest.
 
When people say that, I just stare at it and shake my head. I honestly don't get that perception. I agree that Hallowed and Rime are fantastic and in the "above greatness" category of Maiden songs, but I do think Paschendale is that good. I think it's a far more interesting composition than either of the above songs (given the third guitar, the orchestral component, and the long hours of careful writing that the High Lord H put into the track). Lyrically, it's definitely one of Steve's best. And finally, I find it completely original, whereas Hallowed lifts from Beckett (I think, very tired at the moment) and Rime is a re-enactment of Coleridge. The lifting of lines for Hallowed has always displeased me, and I think that you deserve more credit for writing a tale out of something that isn't a tale, rather than what Steve has done with several books and movies over the years.

H has made Paschendale sound so "precise". Everything in the way the song sounds is carefully choreographed to mimic the horror and violence of a First World War battlefield. The music for Hallowed is just really, really fucking good music that evokes certain emotions as it moves; Rime is more of a choreographed piece, but not to the extent of Paschendale. Literally every second of music in Paschendale is plotted, and if you listen to it, it will tell you a story on its own. Remember the tale of when the track was written; H read a bunch of books on Third Ypres and then wrote the track, but gave it to Steve for lyrics, who, on his own, wrote the song about the exact same battle; that's how well H's music works on its own.

For me, I find Paschendale to be a complete triumph; the music, the planning, the lyric, the emotion. Much like Hallowed and Rime, the band knew they had a winner when they put this one on record, and they clearly gave it their all on the album. This has never been about a good song on a lesser album for me; Paschendale is a deeply personal and wonderful experience that I anticipated fully before getting my hands on Dance of Death and have relived every single time I've listened to the song. I can't say that about another song in anyone's catalog. Ever.

Except, possibly, Stargazer.
 
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