The Next Album (expectations / desires)

Forostar

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
September 2008.

I guess it’s not too early to focus our minds on a new (and possible last?) Maiden album. I’m sure the boys are relaxing (apart from Bruce :p ) but at some point they will meet again for the first sessions.

We, interested forum users, can finally think of the future as well. After a year of emphasis on the classics the future looms ahead. A future with a new Maiden studio album! :)

What do we desire and/or expect from the next Maiden album?

Personally, I certainly hope that Maiden will stick to the long songs (can’t get enough of it to be honest). Many bands with a long career have difficulties with writing strong shorter songs (e.g. less than 6 or 5 minutes) and Maiden is no exception.

It proves that it’s difficult to make a soup with less ingredients (in the form of time). The longer the songs, the more ingredients Maiden can add.

When AMOLAD came out I was surprised to see that the album had a longer average song length than My Dying Bride’s latest album. MDB are famous for their long songs so this was quite remarkable!

Will Maiden do this again?

Will they again have the same theme running through most (if not all) songs?

I am curious for your feedback, and I hope not too many of you are annoyed by such a topic. I know some people were annoyed when someone did this in the spring of 2007, but now we’re living somewhere else in time.
 
I'm okay with it.  We're closer to the time now.

Everyone knows I loved the new album, thought it was marvellous, but it's not in Iron Maiden's vocabulary to stay the same.  What would it be if we got 10 more long, slightly proggy songs?  That's not change.  That's more of the same.

Sorry, became Joe Biden there for a moment.

Anyway.  I think Maiden could do a few shorter songs if they wanted to.  I just believe it's that they don't want to.  They don't need the smaller radio play-style tracks too much anymore.  So if Steve wants to make a 50 minute long Rime of the Ancient Mariner II, then all the power to him.  At this stage, most MaidenFans are following the band no matter where they go to.

Personally, I'd like to see one or two shorter tracks.  The one thing AMOLAD was missing was a solid rocker like The Wicker Man and Rainmaker that was on the previous two reunion albums.  But if the band wants to make an album with 10 epic tracks in the vein of Brighter Than A Thousand Suns...well, I am not going to argue.
 
I'd like to see one last really solid rocker (like Rainmaker) on this next album. Apart from that, I just expect them to continue on the vein that they have (progressive) and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing epic 10 minute long songs on it. Just as long as the whole thing stands as one grand consistent work, similar to AMOLAD or The X Factor.
 
I sort of have a feeling Maiden can't go any further or do any better on this road that they're taking.  I think AMOLAD is like Seventh Son in many ways, and this is one: they are at the creative climax of that particular style.  I wouldn't be surprised if Maiden went back to their roots (No Prayer II but a bit different I'd guess) once more for their last album.  I don't want this, but I could imagine it.  I just feel that they'll have a hard time doing any better than AMOLAD; that album is the definition of perfect. 
 
Dave Murray always had a "thing" for writing short-rockers with catchy riffs. Actually, his riff from Benjamin Breeg is quite groove and catchy, it's just that Steve arranged that song in the vein of epics. Again, Adrian's riff from Lord Of Light would also be great for short rockers, again Steve co-wrote the stuff and they made almost epic out of it (and it's a great track).

I see that the latest album was made to be epic as possible, with only Different World and The Pilgrim going into short rockers category.

I'm just a bit worried about Janick and Dave...Their songwriting input is gradually declining since the "reunion", with some symptoms of repetivness (mainly in solos) being shown on AMOLAD. If any of the three prime songwriters (Steve, Adrian, Bruce) comes with a lack of inspiration, Janick and Dave should be there to save the day.

In any case, Maiden aren't on a frenzy schedule of the '80s, and it's damn sure they'll try to do their best, even if it takes a month or two more to finish the record. The new record should be different to AMOLAD as AMOLAD was different to Dance Of Death, and as Dance Of Death was different from Brave New World. It's just a matter of direction they're going to take. For my personal wishes, i want another progressive record, but not developing in direction of AMOLAD. If they increase mood/rhythm/timecode switches, it'll sound a bit too progressive. I want that directed like it was on Somewhere In Time or Seventh Son, with a lot of atmosphere and melodies...and to bring back some of those great tripple guitar lines and tripple guitar solos from Dance Of Death. And yet again, it shouldn't be like they did a sequel of '86, '88, or '03 albums. And no filler tracks. And blazing performance of all six. Damn, it's hard to grant my wishes  :D
 
I think that, after AMOLAD was so good, Maiden are going to be faced with expectations they can not possibly face.  Sure, it'll be a good, probably great, if not downright amazing, album (since when has Maiden disappointed us), but will it match the expectations AMOLAD sets?  Probably not.
 
Cosmiceddie said:
I'm longing for a better produced album than the last two, which failed on that score.
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Really? Well its better than Steve producing it at least...
Its a real shame how The X Factor was produced and mixed, it could have been so much better.

I have faith the new album will be excellent, it can't go as bad as No Prayer at least. I think I'll agree with Zare and hope for a slightly more atmospheric album. I don't think its beyond some of them to experiment again, especially Adrian who can't seem to stop himself experimenting with different sounds all the time.
For the most part though, I think I'm going to sit back and try and forget about this one until it comes out, so I can try and keep an open mind about it.

Oh, on the topic of short rockers....name a Maiden album without at least one...hmm?
 
One "pretty good" short song is nothing compared with the pre-2000 era, and especially the 80's.
If they're going for short songs again I really hope they'll come up with something completely new, and not a The Wicker man-Wildest Dreams-Different World part 4. In other words: I hope that Adrian won't contribute to the opening track, he's better in longer songs, since he has rejoined the band.
 
What about title? They've had "Dance of Death" and "A Matter of Life and Death" So how about... " No Prayer for a Brave World that Dances to Death?"
 
Natalie said:
I'd like to see one last really solid rocker (like Rainmaker) on this next album. Apart from that, I just expect them to continue on the vein that they have (progressive) and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing epic 10 minute long songs on it. Just as long as the whole thing stands as one grand consistent work, similar to AMOLAD or The X Factor.
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I must comment on this - out of the short, fast tracks since the return of Bruce and H, I like Rainmaker the most. Better than all three album openers. Actually I'd have liked Dance of Death even more if Rainmaker had been the opener.

But I would certainly not like to have an album with only long, "epic" tracks. Of course, if Maiden want to do so, they will do so, but I certainly hope they have a couple of "Rainmakeresque" songs up their sleeves. Sometimes I think that the second half of AMOLAD is dragging out a bit too long - and I have that feeling for every album past FOTD, except for Virtual XI which has only 8 songs and the longest one comes as #2. I think two or three songs at 7:00 or longer is enough. Unless they are all as magnificent as Paschendale, Brighter than a thousand suns and Dream of Mirrors, of course.
 
Eddies Wingman said:
I must comment on this - out of the short, fast tracks since the return of Bruce and H, I like Rainmaker the most. Better than all three album openers. Actually I'd have liked Dance of Death even more if Rainmaker had been the opener.
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I know we are all entitled to our opinions, but you have to be on crack. as far as openers and "rockers" go, Wickerman is still the best since the return of B and H.
 
Cosmiceddie said:
I'm longing for a better produced album than the last two, which failed on that score.
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I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it failure, but I agree that they could use a better sound. They should consider saying goodbye to the Caveman and finding a new producer.

And they need to take greater advantage of the 3-guitar possibilities. They've done this well on some songs, but there's still a lot of doubling of parts. Steve needs to pull out some old April Wine albums for inspiration (a vastly underrated 3-guitar band who often had each guitarist playing a distinct part).
 
Eddies Wingman said:
But I would certainly not like to have an album with only long, "epic" tracks. Of course, if Maiden want to do so, they will do so, but I certainly hope they have a couple of "Rainmakeresque" songs up their sleeves.
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I just tried to explain that this is not only a "matter of write and do". I hope they can do it but I simply don't have much faith in it. Let's see if the band will prove me wrong!

The only song I find too long since 2000 is FTGGOG, which I liked immensely when I first played it, but now I think it's a bit too repetitive.

I have absolutely no problem with the sound AMOLAD, which I regard as the best sounding Maiden album since SIT.
 
Onhell said:
I know we are all entitled to our opinions, but you have to be on crack. as far as openers and "rockers" go, Wickerman is still the best since the return of B and H.
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Not on crack, just drunk  :p No, really - I absolutely love Rainmaker, but The Wicker Man is up there with it - and these two are in another league than Wildest Dreams and Different World.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Cosmiceddie said:
I'm longing for a better produced album than the last two, which failed on that score.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it failure, but I agree that they could use a better sound. They should consider saying goodbye to the Caveman and finding a new producer.
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For what it's worth, I'm going to take Shirley's defense here. The man did one horrible mistake with Rock In Rio and Dance Of Death- he did not produce them to be played as CDs on a standard stereo system. He produced them to be played as DVDs on a 5.1 system. Everybody I talked to who have both a 5.1 and the Rock In Rio DVD or Dance Of Death DVD-A told me how brilliant sounding they were, and how much they actually put you there, in the middle of it, while saying at the same time that the respective CD versions had a muddy, almost bootleg-quality sound. The production does not work properly for analogue equipment.
Shirley's mistake was that at the time, he did not realise that only very few people possessed a 5.1, even though it was hugely hyped at that time. Even today, most people consider the DVD to be a medium for films, and discard the idea of them being a format for records to be rather outlandish (plus, still very few people have a 5.1). You could argue that with Dance Of Death, Shirley was -and still is- ahead of his time.

I hate it how Shirley still is slagged for this one mistake. He proved what he has in him with Brave New World and A Matter Of Life And Death (which, in my opinion, is the best-sounding Maiden record since Piece Of Mind) and many other records by other artists. Shirley is still one of the best producers around, and most of his records stand out by miles compared to all those generic-sounding, lifeless products other hyped producers keep putting out.
 
I do have a wish, in fact. I'd like to hear Adrian sing solo again  :p

Forostar said:
Many bands with a long career have difficulties with writing strong shorter songs (e.g. less than 6 or 5 minutes) and Maiden is no exception.
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Interesting, I'd like to know more if you have any statistics at hand.

As for rockers vs long songs, I must say that I somehow prefer a good rocker but more in the style of Revelations. Those times will not come back though, so I'm with Forostar: the boys could come up with something fresh. And if they won't, I'll still love listening to Revelations (and singing along at gigs, which happened to me recently and it was beautiful :))

(As for soups and ingredients, I can make a pretty good soup with less than five ingredients, one of them being water (I don't mean stock cubes and such :))
 
Hehe, perhaps you can but Maiden and their songs? I am not sure...

Hm to be honest I haven't much statistics but I'll think about it. I could be wrong. But not when it comes to Maiden, at least. Al the popular songs of the last three albums are longer tracks, apart from Rainmaker and perhaps The Wicker Man. On older albums, way more short songs are often as popular as the longer ones.
 
Basically, all you need for a proper French onion soup is water, onions, cheese and stock. The secret lies in using the right versions and amount of everything.
 
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