The Man Of Sorrows

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

  • Total voters
    17
In this song Bruce literally sounds like he has a huge cancer tumor in his mouth. Dave's playing is nice but it doesn't save this song from being their worst of the century. 6
 
Yeah, there's worse. TMoS's only sin is that it's a bit unremarkable for Maiden, and the emotional stuff is even better on the tracks it's stuck between, "Tears of a Clown" and "Empire of the Clouds". It's good, it's an important part of TBoS, but it's not Maiden's best, and at the same time it's not their worst. It's just a decent song.
 
My music terminology is probably off but oh well.. I think it's that minor note played on the keyboard during "As one turns against the other" then the song explodes into the chorus. That brief part makes the whole song for me.
 
Collin said:
My music terminology is probably off but oh well.. I think it's that minor note played on the keyboard during "As one turns against the other" then the song explodes into the chorus. That brief part makes the whole song for me.
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Diesel 11 said:
Yeah, the transition from pre-chorus to chorus is actually quite great. Best part of the song for sure.
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I agree. It's quite ominous sounding, but fits the song perfectly.
 
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Edington said:
Interesting, how so?
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Mainly because TBoS, for me, is an album that's bigger than the sum its parts. Some of its tracks by themselves aren't as great, yet somehow the entire listen is crucial and it's a Top 3 Maiden album just based on how everything fits together, despite some of the songs by themselves being merely decent.
 
Collin said:
My music terminology is probably off but oh well.. I think it's that minor note played on the keyboard during "As one turns against the other" then the song explodes into the chorus. That brief part makes the whole song for me.
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Yes. It's a minor note played over a major chord, implying an F#7 chord. The song also happens to change keys from C minor to B minor during this phrase. Without getting too deep into the music theory stuff, F#7 is typically the chord that creates tension in this key and wants to resolve to B minor (the "home" chord). Of course that resolution does happen after stretching out the tension all the way into the chorus, which makes the chorus itself all that more satisfying. Amazing songwriting. There are a ton more details in that passage alone that make the song great, but I digress. "Worst Maiden song of the century" is a far more interesting topic anyway.
 
Diesel 11 said:
Mainly because TBoS, for me, is an album that's bigger than the sum its parts. Some of its tracks by themselves aren't as great, yet somehow the entire listen is crucial
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I get your point, but personally I've never found TMOS particularly interesting, the only time I listen to it is on a full playthrough of the album and I don't seem to take any notice of it. On my first listen, the only thing I found remarkable... was how unremarkable it was. That and Janick's solo.
 
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