The Nomad

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


  • Total voters
    34
8- I love how this song paints a vivid picture in my head.  But I always though the mid section was overlong and that's before I learned it was heavily borrowed.  Still, Bruce is awesome on here and it has some good solos.
 
Dr Sin said:
This song sums up Maiden for me - 10!!! :rocker:
What, ripping off other bands?  :innocent:

Yeah. Parts of the song is a rip-off.

I fucking love the song though and I agree, it's a 10.
 
3/10

Judging by the quality of the lyrics you can tell this was originally written for Virtual XI. It's an interesting experiment with the Middle Eastern theme and harmonic minor scale melodies to set up that desert atmosphere, but it just drags a lot, even with the awesome solos. The keyboard for me is WAY excessive: it's a nice touch but it shouldn't interfere with the actual instruments. The chorus is terrible.
 
Business as usual.Cut the choruses in half.Shorten the instrumental section,get rid of the intro,put some decents drums and you get a classic.The arrangement as it is on the album is really bad.
 
Just like some of you, I have a soft spot for the harmonic, eastern-sounding scales, and the using of such scales to create atmosphere. While this song doesn't do it as excellent as, for an example, To Tame A Land, it's still well done and I love the feeling of the song.
Great riffs, great vocals (feels like I'm saying this so every song on Brave New World) and great solos (but they could have been longer).
The arrangement of the song reminds me of Alexander The Great the way they both totally change after the second chorus, and then the instrumental section slowly builds up for about 3 minutes before going into the last verse. Talking about the middle section of The Nomad, I listened to the Beckett song, and they are indeed very similar, only Iron Maiden's version is better. But they are too similar, too much of a ripoff for me to fully enjoy it.
All-in-all a great song and it continues the streak of quality songs on the album.

8/10
 
The lowpoint of the album for me. I wouldn't say it's a bad song, but it's not exactly inspiring.
5/10
 
Probably the most controversial tune on the album. I have mixed feelings on this one. The stuff they actually came up with themselves is solid stuff, but I don't love it. The eastern vibe is at least really cool and unique for Maiden. The lyrics are goofy but Bruce delivers them with conviction. Everything up to the Beckett section is entertaining but feels more like a jam than a fully fleshed out song.

The Beckett part is the best part of the song. It's disappointing that they ripped it off. I usually don't have a huge problem with that sort of thing if they do something unique with it, but they didn't. It's totally disconnected from the rest of the song which also doesn't help.

Overall, an OK song but doesn't really justify its 9 minute length. It doesn't help that the best part of the song is a ripoff. If the parts around it were at the same level, I'd probably be fine with it.

6
 
Beckett's Life's Shadow. You can find it on You Tube. That's a rip off, but with modifications and orchestration that improve it so much. The original version is just flat and lacks "grandeur".
 
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The chorus part where it is sung with an eastern music inflection is interesting but not that enjoyable. Otherwise it's ok. Great heavy riffs in the verses and the main chorus is better. The instrumental is superb but we all now know the history of it.

7
 
I like this song a lot, but there are a few things that annoy me.

The first is the chorus which is annoying. I don't like Bruce's singing and the vocal line. The second thing is how they ripped of Beckett. Other than that it's a majestic track. You can easily picture the nomad, deserts, sand and all of that. Maiden are extremely good at fitting lyrics to music or vice versa.

9/10
 
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