The Time Machine

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

  • Total voters
    25
Bruce's doubled vocals in this song (in the verses) are reminiscent of his doubled vocals in ''The Thin Line Between Love And Hate''.
 
This comparison between Darkest Hour and Coming Home is curious because there is a larger stretch of Adrian's solo in TWOTW that is identical to his solo in Coming Home and nobody noticed (not that I've seen).
 
The worst song by far on this album.
The intro is horrible, it is a rip off of The Talisman (that intro is horrible, I chopped it off, and in turn the intro to The Talisman is a rip off of The Legacy (that into is horrible, I chopped it off))
I'm not sure yet if I'm going to chop this intro off because the rest of the song might not be worth saving.

The part after the intro sounds like a musical (Yuck)
The second half of the song is kinda OK, not great, but bearable.
The section from 4:32 to 4:54 reminds me of the awkward transition in the man who would be king.
As a whole this song seems pretty yuck.

I'll give it a few more listens to see if it grows on me, but I don't think it will
 
As a huge fan of Janick's writing, I was very hyped for this song. Hyped to the point of having extremely high expectations, which usually is not a good thing. Because of that, the song was a disappointment at first, but I knew it was too early to judge.

So after a lot of listens, the track is growing on me. It has an upbeat vibe and feels like a colourful adventure. All the melodic twists and turns combined with the title make me think of jumping through time and space, appearing in various unexpected environments. The main riff is pretty unique, I think, it's quite an original song overall. It could really use extra 2 or 3 minutes for instrumental development (DotC should've been shorter and this one longer). I think there was an opportunity to go crazy here with some experimental, progressive stuff.

Anyway, I think it's good and it keeps growing.
 
This song would have been better if the different verses (after the melody) were used for the whole song - they sound much better than the first verses, which are ''too happy''.

The acoustic guitar under the chorus is a nice addition.
 
This is becoming the fourth grower for me. I feel a similar way about the major-sounding 'cheerful' parts, but within the context of the whole song I can appreciate it for effect, as I did with the triumphant sounding bits of Montsegur. When the song dives into the wormhole of the TBOS-soundalike lead and the Janicky instrumental part the song comes into its own and is worth waiting for. I'm actually surprised when the end of this song comes up, it feels like it could go on longer for a more satisfying conclusion.
 
That's how it went with TBOS too. Although it felt a lot more abrupt to me with TBOS. With Time Machine, it's more like "aw, I was enjoying that, is there not any more?"
 
Is one of the guitars downtuned? Sounds quite heavy on the chugging riff when it gets to the tempo change to the gallop half way through
 
Only one way to find out....my fingers are still painful from attempting TWOTW and Stratego, (with limited success) though
 
Good music, but with a lot of "déjà-vu" moments. The intro and the outro are ripped from The Talisman that is already ripped from The Legacy. The riff that begins at 3:08 is identical to the pre-chorus of The Book of Souls. Apart of that, there are nice parts as the verses and one of the heaviest riffs on the album. The lyrics are nice, but I sing: I am not a preacher, I am the Butter Man.
 
This is definitely taking time to grow. I already like it more than I did on my first listen, first impressions were disappointment at the heavy re-using of the Talisman intro and TBoS melody, but I can't let that detract from the rest of the song which is pretty solid. One of my favourite lines is the little guitar melody that starts around 6:15, it feels like it could be building into something heavy but instead goes back to the acoustic intro, which was a bit of a shame. Probably not gonna end up as one of my favourite Janick songs, but I'm warming up to it.
 
Janick Gers :notworthy:

I love that song! Top 3 on the album for me and an instant hitter as well. Yeah, the intro is pretty much The Talisman but I much prefer the vocal melodies in here, as well as Bruce's performance. Regarding that, I absolutely love his performance here, his storytelling really shines on that track. Don't know what else to say, I love basically everything in here. The verses are great, the chorus is amazing and perfect for a live setting and that breakdown in the middle to the Edge of Darkness/TBOS riff man, just perfect... Again, another recycling that I don't mind at all, fits perfectly to the song and the vocal melodies make it sound completely new. The riff starting at 4:30 is also beautiful and maybe my only complaint about that song is H's solo, I think it might have flown better with no solo at all on that section and just the riff. Then we get my favorite Dave solo on the album and one of my favorites from Jan and we go straight back to that lovely dancing riff. The acoustic ending also wraps it up well.

Overall it's such a fun track with a collection of great riffs and melodies all around. It may appear a little chaotic but the transitions are smooth and the song keeps getting better and better everytime. I can bet it will be an instant live classic, with crowds jumping around. Regardind the recyclings that indeed happened, I like to think that they indeed are intentional in a song called Time Machine. I consider them as throwbacks and even if they're almost identical, the vocals are completely different so it feels entirely new on both occasions. I love the original songs too and they're all among Jan's best imo, so I feel it's more like a tribute to his great contributions in Maiden.
 
It has become one of my favorites on the album. Despite the similarity to the Talisman in the intro, it does not bother me, but what comes after that is just amazing. Again, kudos to do something different. The main theme before the typical Maiden "dancing" part is reminiscent of some 70s prog rock, but is very well crafted and used here. The lyrics I like them very much. What comes at 03:08 is a typical Maiden theme, one can't help but start moving to it! It's crazy good. This was a grower, but an album highlight for sure.
 
That little part before the TBOS revisit feels like it's there just to say "and now for something completely different .... SURPRISE!" :D

And now I remember which DT song I was thinking of when hearing the chord progression behind the solos. It's "Take the Time". How fitting.
 
I don’t think the intro is that similar to The Talisman, but that riff is definitely copy-paste The Book of Souls. I had this album on in the background while studying and for a split second really believed I accidentally hit shuffle and was listening to TBoS.
 
Extremely progressive; it has the 'vibe' of something The Outer Limits era Voivod could've done; when the riffs kick in, it carries a Zeppelin 'groove' and if I had to get a reference, for the first verses, it would be Uriah Heep, at the end of David Byron's era (I read some saying it could be something Yes and/or Genesis, colud do, early in their career, but, can't see it). Great vocal lines, varied riffs, crazy tempo and rhythm changes. There's self plagiarism from the riff in 'The Edge Of Darkness', with a different harmony, but, I love the song and this riff, therefore, it doesn't spoil anything.

Don't know if it'll be a classic, but, it's a sensational song.
 
This is not bad at all, it gets better after a few listens. It demonstrates the divercity of the album. However I can't get over 3 facts:

1) The self plagiarism
2) The tempo change on 6:00, probably due to bad pasting/aditing
3) The disturbing sound, maybe some accidental palm muting during the last seconds of the song.

Then again we had worse such cases in the past :)
 
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