The Parchment

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

  • Total voters
    37
The Parchment - 7/10 - I struggle with this song, I really do. I love it when I'm blasting it as it really reminds me of a combination of The Nomad and To Tame a Land. My issue really is that it's one pace for far too long and I just don't find it that memorable yet. Maybe it'll grow on me, who knows? This is the only song on the album where I still really don't know the lyrics as well, perhaps not having a real chorus lets this one down a bit. I expect this to grow on future listens, but really feel like they could have gotten this one down to a 9 minute version and it would have been better as a more compact song. Still, glad to hear these kind of different-ish melodies in a Steve song which are all typically way too familiar. I just wish it was a bit stronger.
 
Song came on during a drive today and I immediately had to play it two more times (it was a long drive) because the thought occurred to me that this song really could have fit in perfectly as an epic on anything from 1983 to 1988. As much as I love Hell on Earth, The Parchment might have just become my favorite epic from the album.
 
There's a few really cool parts, but it does meander for a bit too long on thr same mid-tempo drum beat. I really wish it picked up the speed way before the final couple of minutes. I much prefer both TTAL and Nomad. Hopefully it will grow on me.
 
Donner said:
I expect this to grow on future listens, but really feel like they could have gotten this one down to a 9 minute version and it would have been better as a more compact song. Still, glad to hear these kind of different-ish melodies in a Steve song which are all typically way too familiar. I just wish it was a bit stronger.
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Mate, we had to endure songs like TRATB and WTWWB. The Parchment is light years ahead IMO. As for Nomad, I get lots of you guys love BNW and this song, but I find it way too monotonous and half baked compared to anything Steve did on Senjutsu. So I hear you about the repetition but even so I believe it moves and it's got something magical about it. It still got more meat than anything Steve did for over 30 years now. Is it flawed, of course it is. Noone can expect a 12 minute song that was never played on it's enitrety before it was recorded to be flawless. Even ROTAM, which some people find repetitive had to relay on a 3+ minute haunting section to reach the 13 minute mark. At least the PARKEMENT is evolving.
 
I wish I could appreciate TRATB and WTWWB. To me these two epitomize everything I feel Steve has been doing wrong for decades.
 
Gk1 said:
As for Nomad, I get lots of you guys love BNW and this song, but I find it way too monotonous and half baked compared to anything Steve did on Senjutsu.
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+1 for Nomad slander. It's one of the worst songs Beckett ever wrote.

I've got my struggles with The Parchment, but it feels like what The Nomad should have been. The slower, heavier riffs make more sense as a buildup to the instrumental section, and the chorus to the latter has always annoyed me.
 
DJMayes said:
+1 for Nomad slander. It's one of the worst songs Beckett ever wrote.

I've got my struggles with The Parchment, but it feels like what The Nomad should have been. The slower, heavier riffs make more sense as a buildup to the instrumental section, and the chorus to the latter has always annoyed me.
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The main problem of Nomad is that it keeps a traditional structure for the first half. I mean that the second part ( mind you with a single guitar/ stolen melodies/ drum machine like drums sounds like a different song). I feel that The Parchment is Nomad on Steroids and a PhD degree.
 
Do you guys think that the first part of Dave's solo (from 5:02) could be backwards? I guess that sound could be gotten by some effects or other, but the playing also seems to be somewhat odd in phrasing here and there
Am I imagining things?
 
frus said:
Do you guys think that the first part of Dave's solo (from 5:02) could be backwards? I guess that sound could be gotten by some effects or other, but the playing also seems to be somewhat odd in phrasing here and there
Am I imagining things?
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Not really hearing anything out of the ordinary about the techniques used / note choice?
 
Gk1 said:
I wish I could appreciate TRATB and WTWWB. To me these two epitomize everything I feel Steve has been doing wrong for decades.
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I love TRATB, my fav Maiden song of all time.
I like WTWWB but it isn't a go to song.

The Parchment is my second fav from this album. I especially love it when Bruce does the Arabian singing bit at the 9.22 mark.
 
WTWWB is great, especially on En Vivo; great performance by everyone. My favorite part is Dave’s solo, fucking awesome, just what rock music should sound like.
 
From 2:00 to about 8:30,

In these 6 and a half minutes rhythm guitars are relentless through and through, this is the most complex part Maiden has ever done with riffs. The downpicking pattern is ~ 350 bpm over the staccato parts and apart from easing into ringing/stabbing chords every now and then, there is no rest point to it and the groove is that deep in the pocket it's impossible to follow through without practice.

It reminds me of the interplay between bass drums and rhythm guitar in last part of Seventh Son's breakdown. When Smith starts chugging. You can see his concentration live, it's hard to lose those accents. In Parchment it goes for minutes...

Just try the last part ("in a tempest never shaken"), it's basic E-C-A-B, you'll see what I mean by the time you reach half of it.

My god would I want to get stems for this one and remove or adapt the synths, the guitar work is immense.

It's also hard for me to judge the entire song as this part is probably something best Maiden have ever done.
For me it's competing with Seventh's Son's instrumental part for the best written metal arrangement of theirs.
 
Zare said:
The downpicking pattern is ~ 350 bpm over the staccato parts
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?!

It's 16th notes at around 90bpm, and the down picking is far from last for 6 minutes, starting from 4:16 it clearly is alternate picking. And no down picking is happening starting from the end of Dave's solo til the end of Adrian's solo.
 
And 90 * 4 is? I have a tap metronome, one downstroke one tap =~ 350 bpm. It's not all 16th notes as there are releases and chord stabs present. Maybe 'bpm' is misleading it's hits per minute.

We'll see if it gets performed live - I may be fully wrong, but in any case the technicalities do not matter at all, it's all about the final product which is immense.

I suggest you use the vinyl version to get more clarity, especially pay attention to right channel. 4:16 there is still downstrokes but on one guitar track as opposed to multiple at other parts. I used Sennheisser HD300Pro monitoring headphones with volume on blast.
 
This song is definitely one of the growers, it's still growing on me in fact and I find something new to enjoy every time. I like the quiet, ominous bass intro, it reminds me of the intros from the songs off of The X Factor which were just like this. One of my favorite parts is near the end when the guitars and Harris' bass all line up to perform the same melody, such a great moment. It might be the darkest song on the album musically/thematically and I'm not sure how well it would go over in a live setting given how much there is to unpack and could probably use some trimming, but it is a cool song nonetheless.
 
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