The Apparition

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


  • Total voters
    10
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

6 out of 10... This is not the band's strongest tune, but it's not a stinker either.
Jeffmetal said:
Cool is that Janick uses a wah for the one and only time on a Maiden album.
I'm a big wah fan... I think his solo kicks ass...
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

With The Apparition Maiden daringly, and successfully, attempted to write a song with no tune. Despite this I can still listen to the track without wincing too much.

5
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

Experiment turned not so good.
However, it's an interesting song with nice instrumental section, especially the harmony between the solos.

5.
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

This song just bores me. The instrumental part in the middle is OK, but doesn't save the song from total mediocrity. Easy to skip, especially considering that the next song is great. (It must be said, I have given this song its chances, but it has never managed to excite me in any way).

Another 4, but this is close to the 3 ...
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

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2/10
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

Musically there is not much to speak of in this track, more rock boogie than From Here to Eternity and Weekend Warrior combined. The guitar scale thing in the break in the first solo around the 1 minute 50 mark reminds me of the start of The Unbeliever.

Steve has a few stabs at life and words of wisdom in the lyrics and thats probably why the song came to be on the album. Steve thinking his scribbles in the notebook were too good lyrics to throw away and so they had to be used somewhere...And so the song came to be! Just a shame its not a very good one. 3/10
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

Another one of those failed attempts at something different that litter this album. It plays like Steve wrote a poem and the band jammed along behind it. I kind of like the rhythmic interplay between Dave and Janick at times, but overall this should be a hard-to-find bootleg for hard-core Maidenheads, not a full album track. Five
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

I quite like it. The rhythm is good and the lead solo respectable. However Bruce's phrasing is a bit silly at times. 6/10.
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

The song's subject has been dealt with much better elsewhere, and while the lyrics aren't all that bad I don't like the way the singing projects them. Musically lacking in invention too. 1/10
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

The lyrics of this song are interesting when you put them in context of Maiden's career, because we hear a positive advise -uttered by some kind of ghost or spirit (which could even be Steve himself, advising himself- about life and the road one can take.

... Live your life with a passion
Everything you, do well
You only get out of life what you put in ...


and check this out:

... can the soul live on through space and time? ...

... You don't be alarmed now, if I try to contact you
If things go missing or get moved around ...

... We'll meet up again some place, some way ...


Some way indeed! When listening to The Final Frontier Steve's input shows a continuation of this positive message, but now in a more reflecting way.
Space and time return, plus an attempt of contact.

... I think of my life, reliving the past
There's nothing but wait 'til my time comes
I've had a good life, I'd do it again
Maybe I'll come back some time, my friends

For I have lived my life to the full
I have no regrets
But I wish I could talk to my family
To tell them one last goodbye ...


... If I could survive to live one more time
I wouldn't be changing a thing at all
Done more in my life than some do in ten
I'd go back and do it all over again ...

... There isn't much time, must say my last rites
Nobody is here to read them to me
Must say my goodbyes, if only a line
A message to tell them in case they might find ...


The perspective might be different, but I see The Apparition's lyrics as an integral part of the positive aura circling above the band, and its motivator, Steve Harris.
I think this is not portrayed so well (in this manner) in any other song. The circle is round with The Final Frontier.

A. In The Apparition an advice is told to someone
B. That someone lives his life
C. And in The Final Frontier he reflects on that life, and surely shows that he has followed the advice.
One might even imagine that this someone (which is Steve of course) has again contact with the same spirit, but now Steve talks, and the Apparition "listens".

So I do find the lyrics important, and very uplifting. I can imagine that they even can support people who have lost a friend or a dear family member.

Musically the band ventures into the realm of "hotspaces". We hear short sudden silences in the couplets, because all the musicians and Bruce, play and sing and stop in sync, and continue together again. There's more going on in those couplets than I first thought, and I now I can appreciate them.

When Bruce sings "it's true!", the song suddenly continues in a different key, and the synth comes in, creating a different mood (like a sudden realization of the message). I like the short solos and the way we get back to the couplets.

Also note the last chord which is chosen very well (I bet it's no coincidence), because the next song starts with the same chord. Another reason to never skip this track, because it makes me enjoy Judas Be My Guide even more.

During that moment Bruce sings his last line of the song, like he means to say: "to be continued!":
a prophetic line.

7
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

1/10 from me, and that's generous.

It's one of only 5 Maiden songs I flat out hate.  I don't like anything about this song whatsoever.  Atrocious.
 
Re: Daily Song: The Apparition

I listened to this song earlier today so I could rate it once I posted here.  I had to listen to it again now, only a few hours after listening, because I had already forgotten it.  That's how forgettable this song is.  The verses sound kind of annoying, but not as bad as Chains of Misery's chorus.  The middle instrumental section was better than I remembered.  But, it's still definitely among the worst of Maiden's catalogue.  3/10.
 
The worst song in the Maiden catalogue. 1/10.
 
Funny how I find this one to be quite underrated. It's different and I like that. I don't know how anyone could call it their worst, but then again, look at what I just rated Judas My Guide. 6/10
 
1/10 (where is a puke smiley when you need one?) I think I have found my least favorite Maiden song. Should I be happy for never hearing this :censored: :turd: song until now?
 
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