permanenteddie
Educated Fool
Well Metallica in the - very - early days, when Mustaine was in the band, not sure James had a lot to say (and for what I read, he was quite shy and not too confident). During the days Burton was in the band, both Lars and James seemed to have a lot of respect for him, specially since he had a lot of skills neither James or Lars had (talking here mainly about how to write and arrange music and its classical influences that are nowhere to be found on the rest of Metallica's discography).Well I disagree with that. At least with Maiden nowadays. In the 80s that was the case.
Yes, Steve is still in charge of the music portion, but most people don't realise that Bruce is in charge in most other areas. Products, image etc is mostly Bruce now. And it seems that 'Arry is happy with that.
Regarding H, he might not be that vocal about things, but I believe he is the key part in the studio, even though he isn't in charge. His ear is very much missed in the 90s Maiden albums and for example Tyranny Of Souls.
So, in short, Maiden are more of a collective than Metallica since 99 IMO. In the 80s, it was a different story.
But once Burton passed away, clearly it was just James writing the music and Lars making the arrangements, the other two making some contributions here and there but very scarcely. So yeah definitely since 1988 we can say Metallica is just James & Lars with Kirk coming in just to record his solos (where Maiden guitarists all play rhythm and lead guitar) and Jason and now Robert coming in to play their bass parts (some of them if not most, they just have to follow what James told them to play...just watch the one year and a half videos for some examples).
And one thing people should not forget, you are in Metallica, you aren't that free to write what you want to write but you are not allowed either to do your solo stuff (main reason Jason left...even if after 30 years Kirk finally had the right to do something outside Metallica!!!).
So Maiden back in the early days (lets say until Bruce came in), it was mainly Steve, on that I agree, but Bruce being Bruce from day one, not sure he didn't voice things he wasn't ok with. Adrian might have been always the shy one but still some of his stuff has always been accepted as MAiden songs even some he thought it didn't (talking about Wasted Years here). And this was back in the middle-late 80's. Since Bruce and H came back, for sure its all way more democratic and specially Bruce seems to have a lot of room to express himself and be part of a lot of decisions.
So no comparison here, imo, between these two bands, one is, since 1988, James and Lars thing, while the other started as being Steve almost only but quickly the other members came as being an important part of it specially since 1999.