The Unbeliever

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

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    12
Number 6 said:
Conversely, the small bridge linking the intro to the first verse (0:21-0:34) is awful and could have been made much better. The fact that it appears twice in the song is enough to bring it from a 10 right down to an 8.
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It's also literally the melody of a guitar tuning up, i.e it's the 6th string open, followed by the fifth, followed by the 4th followed by the 3rd and then the sequence reversed.
 
A peppy intro gives way to a monumentally stupid guitar-tuning bit, which rolls into an odd-rhythm verse that was probably a good idea in paper but doesn't work at all in reality, IMO.

The pre-chorus would be OK, but Blaze is off-key with inconsistent delivery again. Then the chorus kicks in and Blaze tries and fails to sing beyond his range, so he sounds just horrible.

The multi-part musical break after the chorus is very nice, with tasteful solos, before returning to the intro and flowing into the verse and chorus again.

Blaze continues to blow chunks on the chorus, and then we come back to the intro and finish off the album on that awful guitar-tuning bit again. Blecch.

If it weren't for the strong musical break in the middle, I would have rated this lower. 4/10.
 
I have grown to like how Blaze sings here, especially with the chorus he sounds like he's really feeling the lyrics and it makes me overlook him struggling at times. Now some of the random changes were awkward (like in the intro) and could have been left out. But I like the mood of the song. It's dark and fits in with the album but it's also hopeful so it works nicely as the last track. 8/10
 
Very odd almost monotonic verses are the glaring issue about this song. But you know on the second go after the (pretty good) middle section it's much better. Jumping in with that nice intro and into these hard heavy verses make it tiring at the start. The switch from the verse to the slow chorus is also very sudden but because it's not much different in terms of speed it drags it on even more, and I think it fits the song well.

Fast chorus is the best part, that's when the song gets interesting, although I don't think it would be good to jump from the heavy verse to the fast chorus, the slow chorus acts like a bridge between them. Also I love the guitars before the fast chorus and they make me think of Judas Priest :duckie:

At the end it feels much longer than Paschendale and maybe even Legacy, just because it's much less dynamic.

I think I'll raise it to 8, it has some problems but it works great as a whole imo
 
A great opening leads to a great performance from Blaze with some really good lyrics that lead to a weaker but still strong chorus. The instrumental section is the highlight here, feeling like a summation of the entire album. "The Unbeliever" isn't as good as some of the other songs on The X Factor, but it's still very strong and a great closer. 8
 
This one should have been a B-side. I get that they went experimental and thats’s great and all, but the result is just a mess.
 
Interesting intro. The main riff is great and so is the chorus (Blaze's powerful singing is one of his best performances). The highlight is the middle part for sure - great melodic riffs and solos. One of the band's best instrumentals! After that part it has a short fast riff (which is great..., I wished this riff was present until the end). The bass and the drumming are great too. A different kind of song for the band that closes the album in a unique way. 7/10
 
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The dumbest way to waste the best instrumental I have ever listened by them. The darkness of the solo section and the depth of Janick's harmonic at the beginning of his solo are amazing. The rest of the song is pure shit, the only exception being, potentially, the acoustic chorus.

4/10, and I'm not lowering it to 3 thanks to the instrumental only.
 
The lyrics seem to be an internal dialogue of someone who
is in an identity crisis. Torturing questions arise
framed in a musical sum that gives them almost ironic
tone.
subject
At the end of the track, Harris is heard saying, "That's the one! Nig,
I said, let’s go listen to it! ” ("This is Nig [Nigel Green - co-producer],
I said, let's go listen to it! ").
 
A song that has a decent but unexceptional start that suddenly reaches sheer transcendence with its second half. The solos are mesmeric but the bass and the drums deserve mention as well for the atmosphere they create. I love Blaze but he's kind of incidental to this track
 
Forostar said:
From the first dying echo of that quick guitar touch we go into some tribal groove (unique in the catalogue).
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Sorry to reply to an old post, but listening to this underrated song today, I realized that now we have a 2nd song with a tribal groove in Maiden's discography - ''Senjutsu''. The instrumental part is pure gold! Btw, a certain part of ''The Unbeliever'' intro could easily fit into the vibe of the latter imo.
Forostar said:
Note also the ethereal sound of Jan’s rhythm guitar, appearing some measures after Dave’s melody.
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^ You're talking about the transition between the two solos, right? This is a magnificent (and unique, I believe) feature - Dave's solo begins with the same note from the end of Janick's solo. Completely mesmerizing.

This is a very interesting song and it's great for closing an album. I wish they had played it live in 1995, it would be a great live song, I think.
 
Kalata said:
^ You're talking about the transition between the two solos, right? This is a magnificent (and unique, I believe) feature - Dave's solo begins with the same note from the end of Janick's solo. Completely mesmerizing.

This is a very interesting song and it's great for closing an album. I wish they had played it live in 1995, it would be a great live song, I think.
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I think he was talking about this:
 
Maturin said:
Interesting song and a nice vocal performance.



This. There's too many songs that are too low for him. It's not often you hear examples of rock songs that would have benefitted from higher vocal lines. I'd have no trouble seeing Blaze singing a few of the songs a full step to a full step and half higher.
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This is a terrifying paragraph
 
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