The Alchemist

How good is The Alchemist on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    11
Cobra, damn I'm dumb - I get you!!  I think we need to put this down to poetic license (or similar phonetic ignorance to my own [shurely not...]). 

Regardless, I'm with Mega about this getting in your head - FUCK, THIS ROCKS!!!  :edmetal:
 
I love the music in this song, but I really don't care for the lyrics. Luckily, bad lyrics don't ruin songs for me! All the guitar harmonies are cool, and Janick nailed the solo.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
I love the music in this song, but I really don't care for the lyrics. Luckily, bad lyrics don't ruin songs for me! All the guitar harmonies are cool, and Janick nailed the solo.
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What's not to like about the lyrics? /curious
 
p4warrior said:
What's not to like about the lyrics? /curious
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They just seem silly to me. I feel that random character names (Dr. Dee, Magus, Edward Kelly) are cheesy. Like I said, it's not like it ruins the song, but on an album with some great lyrics at times, it definitely brings it down a bit. I'm guessing these lyrics are Bruce's doing...
 
The lyrics are very simplistic to Bruce's capabilities. He must've had delved deeply into Dee's works and make something darker which could've positively affected the music, too.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
They just seem silly to me. I feel that random character names (Dr. Dee, Magus, Edward Kelly) are cheesy. Like I said, it's not like it ruins the song, but on an album with some great lyrics at times, it definitely brings it down a bit. I'm guessing these lyrics are Bruce's doing...
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See The Commentary on this for more details, but I assure you that the names are not random, but based on real-life people.  I think there are several songs with worse lyrics in them.  Mother of Mercy: they just did half an album on the subject, so it's a bit boring by now (though I love AMOLAD).  The Talisman and WTWWB: there are some lines that make me cringe, they are too literal or only serve to fill a hole in the story.  TMWWBK is a bit too obscure for my liking.  As far as reunion rockers go, I think The Alchemist is lyrically (and musically too, maybe) the best.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
They just seem silly to me. I feel that random character names (Dr. Dee, Magus, Edward Kelly) are cheesy. Like I said, it's not like it ruins the song, but on an album with some great lyrics at times, it definitely brings it down a bit. I'm guessing these lyrics are Bruce's doing...
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I appreciate where you're coming from, as the more cryptic meanings can be fun to read into and decipher.  However, for the subject matter and the narrative tone that they were going for, I like the historical name references.  It really got me curious (well, curious enough to read all the related wiki articles  ;) )
 
I tend to disagree with you, Jeffmetal, I don't think that the lyrics are simplistic at all, if by "simplistic" you mean "straightforward". The lyrics to WTWWB are much more simple, you understand from them what the story is right after the first listen/read, while The Alchemist requires more research and is a product of Bruce's obsession with alchemy and the occult.

For example, My dreams of empire from my frozen queen will come to pass - dreams of empire from his frozen queen? Who is this frozen queen, what empire did she dream of?
 
Ranko said:
I tend to disagree with you, Jeffmetal, I don't think that the lyrics are simplistic at all, if by "simplistic" you mean "straightforward". The lyrics to WTWWB are much more simple, you understand from them what the story is right after the first listen/read, while The Alchemist requires more research and is a product of Bruce's obsession with alchemy and the occult.

For example, My dreams of empire from my frozen queen will come to pass - dreams of empire from his frozen queen? Who is this frozen queen, what empire did she dream of?
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Funny you mention that Ranko, I just listened to this song in the car after reading Jeff / DB's thoughts, and that's the line that stuck out to me too.  Anything but simplistic.  I suppose the only part that's a little simplistic is the "This was my house" line, but even that makes sense and is part of a broader scope.
 
Ranko said:
For example, My dreams of empire from my frozen queen will come to pass - dreams of empire from his frozen queen? Who is this frozen queen, what empire did she dream of?
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Elizabeth I; the British Empire.
 
Yeah, Ranko, straightforward is the most correct adjective for describing these lyrics. It's just that I've read the basic bio and a bit about the most occult works of Dee that most of those lyrics seems like just a clever and direct introduction to his main quandary in life. Given how important he is to humankind, as he is the first spy ever (the first 007), I thought Bruce could've approached the storyline in the manners he did on most of The Chemical Wedding lyricism going deeper into his grimoire and mirrors visions, that Bruce cleverly points out on El Dorado lyrics'.
 
Jeffmetal said:
Yeah, Ranko, straightforward is the most correct adjective for describing these lyrics. It's just that I've read the basic bio and a bit about the most occult works of Dee that most of those lyrics seems like just a clever and direct introduction to his main quandary in life. Given how important he is to humankind, as he is the first spy ever (the first 007), I thought Bruce could've approached the storyline in the manners he did on most of The Chemical Wedding lyricism going deeper into his grimoire and mirrors visions, that Bruce cleverly points out on El Dorado lyrics'.
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I see your point. But I still don't think they're as straightforward as Mother of Mercy, The Talisman or WTWWB.

@LC, thanks for the clarification about the queen. I kept thinking he was somehow talking about his wife. :D
 
Foro, that was interesting, I'm sure few of us would have thought about it this way. It will be cool to listen to TFF again with that point of view in mind.

I always thought Bruce's song "Meltdown" from Skunkworks could be about Steve Harris, with the "you and your twisted convictions" line and everything.

But that's the beauty of it really, all those multiple meanings.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
They just seem silly to me. I feel that random character names (Dr. Dee, Magus, Edward Kelly) are cheesy. Like I said, it's not like it ruins the song, but on an album with some great lyrics at times, it definitely brings it down a bit. I'm guessing these lyrics are Bruce's doing...
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The funny part of this observation is that the "characters" are actually real people.   :bigsmile:  Nothing random about it.  

Very old school Maiden track.  It's been my grower.  Love the storytelling aspect of these lyrics.
 
Forostar said:
In this case, with "frozen queen" Bruce refers to his solo career which in fact is frozen, and is one of the few important aspects in his life he's still dreaming of, to continue it, at some point.
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Well hopefully when his solo career melts the ice, it'll feature Adrian again. I like Roy Z and all, but I feel his last solo album really suffered without H. The only song I really liked from it was Kill Devil Hill.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Well hopefully when his solo career melts the ice, it'll feature Adrian again. I like Roy Z and all, but I feel his last solo album really suffered without H. The only song I really liked from it was Kill Devil Hill.
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Bruce should do a solo album with dave instead
 
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