The Mercenary

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

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    36
One of the better songs on the album. I'm actually really impressed with this song. It'd be a 9 if it weren't for the repetition of "show them no fear" etc, which is honestly worse than that in TAATG and DLTTEOAS. Still, it doesn't detract all that much overall, so it's a strong 8/10.
 
Nothing really special here. It's a very good song, for sure, but it's far from being a masterpiece, or even merely great. The chorus is awesome, though, one of the most memorable from the album. 7.
 
I like this a lot, a lot of fun and makes for a nice breather between the epics. Maybe a little too repetitive with the final "Show them no fear..." part, but it does keep things interesting with some nice guitar fills. A couple of blistering solos from Dave and H, not sure the harmony section after really works, but it's brief enough not to be too invasive. I love the Predator connections, didn't think I'd ever see Maiden reference that film!

I give this a 7, on par with The Wicker Man and above only The Fallen Angel.
 
A decent uptempo riff kicks off a decent verse. A pretty catchy pre-chorus leads into a repetitive, less appealing chorus.

Another round of verse through chorus, and then we get a couple of good solos, a brief and kind of pointless interlude, a tease of a drum+vocal section that mercifully goes full-band before turning into an 80s cliche, and some more chorus before an abrupt ending.

Nothing special here, but it gets the job done. 6/10.
 
This is a song that took a long time to warm up to, given the really, really repetitive chorus, but somehow I've gotten it now. This song is fucking awesome. A kick-ass rocker about the morality of a bounty hunter and the pre-chorus is one of the best bits of the album. The chorus itself is great too, despite the repetition that once fazed me, and the instrumental section - while not as good as "Weekend Warrior", eh, Cried? - is great as well. This song rules. 10
 
I quite like this song. Great start to it. Great riff, drumming (like in the whole album), awesome verses and chorus. Both solos are good and the triple-lead guitar harmony after them is superb. The Rock In Rio performance of that song is great. Short rocker in a Maiden style. 9/10.
 
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5/10

Well, the album had to run out of steam eventually. Still, that doesn't mean this song is bad. I like it, but it's not on the caliber of several other similar Maiden songs. The call-and-response nature of the chorus is neat but it's a bit overdone. All in all, you could do a lot worse but also a lot better. A textbook 5 it is!
 
4
Good song. Actually if the lyrics were more inspired it would be a 7. Absolutely no issues with the music.
 
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4.

It's alright, but it's a little forgettable and I think would've benefitted from a shorter chorus.
 
One of the great head scratchers for me in the Maiden fan community is how people are constantly pining for short rockers, but then whenever Maiden makes one they’re either quickly forgotten or heavily panned. I genuinely don’t see how The Mercenary isn’t ranked in the pantheon of classics such as The Wicker Man, Aces High, and The Trooper. It has the riffs, a great chorus, some great tempo changes, awesome instrumental material. It’s super tight, not a lot of superfluous material, the energy is awesome. The half time feel in Adrian’s solo is totally out of left field. I love Bruce’s delivery of the lyrics, even if they are somewhat generic (it definitely loses a point there). The instrumental section is awesome. I’m glad they pulled this one out for the tour, wish they brought it back. The only other thing losing points is that the chorus carries the song a little too much. I don’t care about repetition too much, but there should be a bit more going on there.

8
 
The nostalgia is strong with this one. 16 year old me loved this rocker and so does 37 year old me. The repetition of the chorus doesn't bother me too much as Bruce puts little inflections on each one which makes it different. A nice, straight to the point metal song with no fat on it which still sounds stately in parts thanks to Bruce drawing out those notes. 9/10
 
This song has such a great detail - a short ''drums only'' after the triple-lead guitar harmony.

The only others songs I can think of with a similar feature are ''If Eternity Should Fail'' and ''The Book Of Souls''?
 
TheTalisman said:
Gers reworked some old White Spirit stuff for this song. ;)
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I think the riff is Janick's only contribution for the song. I mean, he co-wrote it with Steve, but he is without a solo in it! Strange. The song is a leftover from the VXI sessions (and it shows, like ''Dream Of Mirrors), so I think except the riff, everything else was written by Steve. Then again, a song like ''Sun And Steel'' is credited to Dickinson/Smith, but only Dave plays a solo.
 
Kalata said:
I think the riff is Janick's only contribution for the song. I mean, he co-wrote it with Steve, but he is without a solo in it! Strange.
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I think they let Adrian play a solo on this because he had so few other solos on this album (just The Wicker Man and The Fallen Angel)
 
TheTalisman said:
I think they let Adrian play a solo on this because he had so few other solos on this album (just The Wicker Man and The Fallen Angel)
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In '' The Nomad'' too. But yeah, this sounds like a plausible reason. BNW is the album with the least solos from Adrian, right?
 
Kalata said:
In '' The Nomad'' too. But yeah, this sounds like a plausible reason. BNW is the album with the least solos from Adrian, right?
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Edit:
Yes, propably because much was already put in place before he rejoined. He got to write a lot on the next album through.
 
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