The Parchment

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

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    26
Shame! :p

I actually find it the best put-together of the longer Senjutsu songs, even if it feels to me like they rolled a couple of encores into it and made it sound like a show closer.
 
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While the emotion of Hell On Earth puts that as my favourite Senjutsu song, I think The Parchment is the best written track on the album.
 
I like the middle eastern feel to the song.
I love when Bruce does that middle Eastern thing with his vocals at about 9:22-9:32. That's the highlight of the song for me. But the lead up to that part, drags on for far too long.

The song has actually dropped a bit since the early days for me. It really is insanely repetitive in parts and takes a long time to get to the good parts. It's a good song, it could have done with a bit more effort in making it more succinct.
 
Iron Lurker said:
The Parchment is my fav track off this amazing album.
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2nd (and only by a hair) to Lost in a Lost World.

those piledriving riffs in LIALW (along with the plum gorgeous lilting intro and - especially - the outro) make it my fave on the disc.
Parchment, LIALW, Hell on Earth, Time Machine, and Darkest Hour are all easily in my Top 30 all time Maiden songs.

LIALW and Parchment are probably in my all time top 10 now.
 
As expected this has grown to me, it's not perfect (it is very repetitive in many sections and overall is poorly arranged, the remix I posted above works much better) but it's my favourite off the three epics.
 
Brigantium said:
I actually find it the best put-together of the longer Senjutsu songs, even if it feels to me like they rolled a couple of encores into it and made it sound like a show closer.
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Best written song on the album? Every song is well written more or less, but from the longer songs I would say: The Parchment and the title track. No second repeat of the chorus in Hell On Earth and the instrumental section of LIALW (not the chorus!) and even of DOTC could have been a bit shorter (although the main instrumental melody in the long songs should be repeated at least twice imo). Lost World would be with a standard length of a song without the intro & outro. Parchment, Senjutsu, Celts and Hell On Earth have a perfect combination of music and lyrics.

About The Parchment - I think it needs the repetition because you have to keep the mesmerizing vibe with the melodies (with solos and vocals too) on point throughout the song and the tempo is perfect for that. That's why it doesn't even need a chorus. The repetition is also needed for the build-up of the climax with the fast part. Like the title track needs more lyrics to picture the scene. And if you add more different parts (melodies/riffs), it will be a mess. One epic song should have a main structure and theme. I think they rolled a couple of encores into its twin song from the previous album (TRATB ) - it also could have been a great 7-8 minutes long song with: only two repeats of the riff after the bass intro, without the ''Meanwhile we play the waiting game...'' part and the ''oh-ohs'' after it, only three repetitions of the chorus (not four) and a shorter instrumental section (1 minute shorter, for example). Whereas The Parchment won't work if it's shorter (like Book Of Souls and Empire). It sounds like a show closer because it has a similar structure to HBTN.
 
Edington said:
Adrian's two solos are a bit of a let-down here, given his work on the rest of the album. They both start off really strong, I especially love the almost creepy licks of the first solo and the way it snakes in from the main riff, but they quickly lose their way and sound as though Adrian didn't really know where he was going with them.
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I think all the solos are perfect and great (given the vibe and theme of the song), especially Adrian's 1st one.
Edington said:
Janick's fantastic when he slows down and he can come out with some really exotic-sounding stuff, it suits this track perfectly.
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^ This is the very truth.
 
Death of the Celts showcases the melodic side of Maiden, where the three guitars interact with riffs and harmonies and the bass joins in as well. That classic riffing. The Parchment, on the other hand, is more along the lines of The Red and the Black, Alexander the Great, or even When the Wild Wind Blows. A sprawling epic that stays at a steady pace and the vocal parts frequently take a back seat to the guitar solos. Each guitarist is given the space to tell the story here, and they really go all out here. Is this the most solos in a Maiden song? I find this one to be very similar to TRATB, but it sort of corrects a lot of the issues that I had with that track. For one thing, the instrumental sections feel more balanced. Even though there are more solos, I like that they are integrated into the song a little bit more rather than the TRATB style of long distinct vocal section followed by long distinct instrumental section. The lyrics also have much more direction and the historical references are classic Maiden. The solos on here are insane, once again each guitarist giving their all. Shoutout to those frantic arpeggios from Janick's final solo.
10
 
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