The Apparition

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


  • Total voters
    10
I like it too! :) Very atypical, with the weird verse... I also like the instrumental part. Not better than a 6 for me, but a strong 6 it is!
 
1/10

...And then we have the unfortunate pleasure of meeting The Apparition, a song that introduces itself by shoving its way through the door and taking a crap on your living room floor. And it is an elephant-sized crap. All other Maiden songs that I have disliked so far have simply been substandard, but The Apparition takes the cake. The lyrics are obnoxious, the vocal melody absurd, and the music is just boring and trite. If it’s not the worst song in Maiden’s history it’s certainly in the top five. But Janick plays a wah pedal during his solo, so at least that’s interesting?
 
What were the band thinking when they included this song? Fear Of The Fillers, people have dubbed this album, and although I've always had a soft spot for this record, it definitely is something to this. The album has it's fair share of downright filler material. Some of them I love dearly, just because they are what they are. But The Apparition? No, this one is too far out there. The only interesting part of the song is the instrumental section. Both solos are good, Janick uses a wah, MrKnickerbocker, very true. But apart from that, this song has absolutely nothing to offer. Lame riff, megalame lyrics, the vocal melodies are dull and... I could go on and on, but quite frankly I don't want to spend my time on The Apparition. Janick has had some great writing efforts with Maiden. This early attempt is DEFINITELY NOT one of them.
 
Disagreeing. I've posted thoughts before...after waiting and waiting for this album to be released I was really dismayed after purchasing and spinning it (or pressing the play button on the CD player to be exact) as the entire album felt underwhelming. The Apparition was one of only two satisfying songs after the initial listenings...so if anything The Apparition kept me interested enough to discover Fear Is The Key and Childhood's End and salvaged the album for me. Good points about The Apparition? No chorus...why would someone's ghost bother singing one. Bruce's vocals begin right at the beginning of the song...a first for Maiden I think. The song is mainly lyric based...the ghost telling a story. Weak point is the guitar harmony during the instrumental break...but I can forgive that because the pluses outweigh the negatives.

A solid 8 for the period Maiden was undergoing but a B-side when compared with the golden era, The X Factor or the reunion era.
 
I've never really understood the hate for this song. Of all the bad songs on this album, I don't think this one deserves to be singled out. It's another example of Maiden doing something different. I can see that it's a bit repetitive but I think Steve wanted to place more importance on the lyrics this time, as rambly as they might be. I think throwing a chorus in there would've detracted from the song rather than add to it. So I don't think it's a bad song, but it's also not all that interesting either. It's inoffensive, but I'm mostly indifferent to it beyond that. The instrumental section really has a classic 70s feel to it.

5
 
Most repetitive song in the entire body of work? The riff and hook is ok but it should have been used as a small part of another song. Pretty terrible

4
 
See my description of how to rank songs.

1/10. Would vote 0 if I had thought to include a 0.
 
Just bumping up my rating to a 10/10, don't mind me.

Seriously, I fucking love this song. It's weird, but holy shit is it great. 9 times out of 10, if a song gets stuck in my head, it's a good song. This is a good song. This is a great song. If I ever redo my 75, it'll end up higher than 64, believe you me. You might hate it, but it doesn't matter, because I love it. Just an awesome song.
 
Oh my God, why? Just why? How this song gets so much hate is beyond me. I really don't get it. Maiden have done worse, way worse than this. But that's not even my point; even by Maiden's standards, this song is not even close to being bad. It's very... uncharacteristic, I'll give you that. But that doesn't make it bad. It's a great song! Has a nice groove and actually very thoughtful lyrics! I give this one a high 8.
 
Oh my God, why? Just why? How this song gets so much hate is beyond me. I really don't get it. Maiden have done worse, way worse than this. But that's not even my point; even by Maiden's standards, this song is not even close to being bad. It's very... uncharacteristic, I'll give you that. But that doesn't make it bad. It's a great song! Has a nice groove and actually very thoughtful lyrics! I give this one a high 8.
Other than the fact that I give it a 10, these are my thoughts exactly. :cheers:
 
Horrible, just horrible. This is worse than The Assassin. It might not reach the same level of annoyingness, but it’s a nonsensical song. You can’t expect to release a song without a tune and get away with it. A band like them should be able to make up something better right there on the spot, in 1 minute. The lyrics are thoughtful but combined with the rest of the song they just make the whole mess worse. I’m trying to stay low on the marks for great song, so it’s only logical that I should do the same for terrible songs. 2/10
 
This song is basically two flavors of the same verse over and over and over again, with a break in the middle. The verse melody is semi-catchy, and the two verse riffs are OK, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Bruce's performance is growly and uneven, as with most of the songs on this album.

The interlude has some decent instrumentals, including a few good solos, before returning to the plodding verses. The song ends out of nowhere on an odd upward note.

This one actually had more going for it than I'd remembered, but it's still not good. I'm going to round it up to a 5/10.
 
The Apparition fans are uniting. Slowly but surely we are taking back this forum and propelling this song to the heights it rightfully deserves. :ok:
 
2 for being forgettable and bad, though it isn't really forgettable because it's my least favorite Maiden song...
1 is reserved for special cases called Metallica's Loverman
 
Horrible, just horrible. This is worse than The Assassin. It might not reach the same level of annoyingness, but it’s a nonsensical song. You can’t expect to release a song without a tune and get away with it. A band like them should be able to make up something better right there on the spot, in 1 minute. The lyrics are thoughtful but combined with the rest of the song they just make the whole mess worse. I’m trying to stay low on the marks for great song, so it’s only logical that I should do the same for terrible songs. 2/10
The assassin ain't that bad. I quite like that song. This song on the other hand is just well.......pretty terrible, the solo's are OK (has a cool little fast riff).
 
Back
Top