The Worst of the Beast

____no5 said:
where did you find these ratings, from SMX ??
...and we are talking for a scale 0-10 I guess huh ?

I found them on the Commentary.  Every song has options to be ranked with 0-5 stars.  The ratings are out of 5.  While I am sure that SMX voted, I doubt he generated between 700 and 2600 votes.
 
LooseCannon said:
Ardius, this forum has always been pro-Blaze, and most members here will tell you that The X Factor is in the top 3 Maiden albums.  Perun will literally let you watch him masturbate to TXF.  But this forum is a small bastion of sense in a wave of crap.  I tend to agree with you.

Hence why I said:

Ardius said:
Now I realise not everyone did this, but I don't recall ever seeing many people praise the Blaze years at all even now (as in, in places other than Maiden fan sites).
 
cornfedhick said:
When I saw the reference to Chains of Misery as being the lowest rated song, my first reaction was, "what the hell is that?"  While The Apparition, which comes right after it on the FOTD album, obviously made an impression on me (albeit a terrible one), Chains of Misery apparently made no impression on me at all, as I had completely forgotten its very existence.  I listened to it again, and I still say The Apparition is far worse.  

EDIT:  It occurred to me that Iron Maiden could have simply made FOTD a 7-track album and it would have been much better.  At 36 minutes, which is very short for Iron Maiden but not unprecedented, we could have had an album consisting of: Be Quick or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers, Childhood's End, Wasting Love, The Fugitive, Judas Be My Guide and the title track.  Still not a masterpiece, but pretty good, and a hell of lot more satisfying than the current tracklist.  I'll just pretend the rest are "bonus tracks" and burn a CD without them. 

Have fun with it. Add some favourite No Prayer For The Dying songs and pretend that Maiden made only one album in the early nineties.
 
LooseCannon said:
I found them on the Commentary.  Every song has options to be ranked with 0-5 stars.  The ratings are out of 5. 

I'm confused.  I just checked the Commentary a few moments ago, and Be Quick or Be Dead and From Here To Eternity have ratings of less than two -- i.e., worse than Chains of Misery.  Where in the Commentary did you look?  I was looking at the "View Results" link next to each song...
 
Those results, CFH, are the old averages from May of 2006.  I added all the new numbers into a spreadsheet today.

And if you notice, most are within 0.01 of a multiple of 0.5.  Maverick just took the mode of all songs after halfway through NPFTD instead of actually doing the fucking math.  Grumble.
 
Actually, using the mode isn't that much worse of a measurement than using the mean in this exercise. 

EDIT: Um, nevermind, now that you've already taken the time to load the data into a spreadsheet, the mean is MUCH better.   :innocent:
 
To be fair, if I had the original data from 2006, I'd compare the mean and the mode to determine if the mode did an accurate job back then.  I can say for about 2/3rds of songs today that the mode is within 0.25 points of the mean.

What makes using the mode half the time frustrating is that Maverick used the mean for just over half of songs - songs before NPFTD and all songs with possible ratings above 4.5.  THEN he altered some of the ratings by 0.01 to make it look like he wasn't just using the mode.  I have no problem with using the mode for an average, it's perfectly mathematically acceptable, but half and half and trying to hide it is REALLY frustrating.
 
I can't believe someone mentioned Dance of Death.. lol. I thought that track was pretty awesome, and the solos melted my face off. Maybe it is a little celtic sounding, though.
 
LooseCannon said:
While I am sure that SMX voted, I doubt he generated between 700 and 2600 votes.
:D

EDIT :I was meaning the top10 songs

LooseCannon said:
To be fair, if I had the original data from 2006, I'd compare the mean and the mode to determine if the mode did an accurate job back then.  I can say for about 2/3rds of songs today that the mode is within 0.25 points of the mean.

What makes using the mode half the time frustrating is that He Who Must Not Be Named used the mean for just over half of songs - songs before NPFTD and all songs with possible ratings above 4.5.  THEN he altered some of the ratings by 0.01 to make it look like he wasn't just using the mode.  I have no problem with using the mode for an average, it's perfectly mathematically acceptable, but half and half and trying to hide it is REALLY frustrating.

I'm not sure if I understood everything that you say here, especially the use of the word mode, so forgive me if I 'll repeat something that you've already said

with simple words,
what I was doubting back in time is if votes were ever took place at all
I mean this rating system appeared out of the blue one day and the data base was mentioning already too many votes
from the very start
 
____no5 said:
I'm not sure if I understood everything that you say here,

I can say the same about this:

with simple words,
what I was doubting back in time is if votes were ever took place at all
I mean this rating system appeared out of the blue one day and the data base was mentioning already too many votes
from the very start

Could you rephrase that please?
 
ok ; when the ratings appeared in IMC I had the impression that they were fake
the reason was that as soon as they appeared there was a big number of votes for each song already
 
greeneless said:
Say you made an album compilation of Iron Maiden's least supported, or most poorly written tracks. This is what mine would be.

1. The Deulists (Powerslave)

2. Gangland (The Number of the Beast)
3. Alexander the Great (Somewhere in Time)
4. Lightning Strikes Twice (Virtual XI)
5. The Assassin (No Prayer for the Dying)
6. Quest for Fire (Piece of Mind)
7. Weekend Warrior (Fear of the Dark)
8. Wasting Love (Fear of the Dark)
9. The Aparition (Fear of the Dark)
10. The Nomad (Brave New World)
11. Gates of Tomorrow (Dance of Death)

There would be more Blaze songs, but I honestly don't know them all.

I think the sad thing is if the above was an album I'd still buy it.

Two of these songs are my favourites and some others are good too.  To each his own though.

I don't know what I'd have as my worst ten, but I'm pretty sure 'Flight of Icarus' would be on there.
Since the Bruce 90s material is mentioned often here I'll give a quick overview of songs I consider weak and songs I consider strong.  Songs without colours are somewhere in between.

  1. "Tailgunner" (Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris) – 4:15
  2. "Holy Smoke" (Dickinson, Harris) – 3:49
  3. "No Prayer for the Dying" (Harris) – 4:23
  4. "Public Enema Number One" (Dickinson, Dave Murray) – 4:13
  5. "Fates Warning" (Murray, Harris) – 4:12
  6. "The Assassin" (Harris) – 4:35
  7. "Run Silent Run Deep" (Dickinson, Harris) – 4:35
  8. "Hooks in You" (Dickinson, Adrian Smith) – 4:08

  9. "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" (Dickinson) – 4:45
  10. "Mother Russia" (Harris) – 5:32

  1. "Be Quick or Be Dead" (Bruce Dickinson, Janick Gers) – 3:24
  2. "From Here to Eternity" – 3:38
  3. "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" – 6:56

  4. "Fear Is the Key" (Dickinson, Gers) – 5:35
  5. "Childhood's End" – 4:40
  6. "Wasting Love" (Dickinson, Gers) – 5:50
  7. "The Fugitive"– 4:54
  8. "Chains of Misery" (Dickinson, Dave Murray) – 3:37
  9. "The Apparition" (Harris, Gers) – 3:54

  10. "Judas Be My Guide" (Dickinson, Murray) – 3:08
  11. "Weekend Warrior" (Harris, Gers) – 5:39
12. "Fear of the Dark"– 7:18

Of those songs any of the purple songs could be in my lowest 10 Maiden songs, along with aforementioned 'Flight of Icarus'.
Here is a more updated list, in no particular order.

1.  The Unbeliever

2.  When Two Worlds Collide
3.  Strange World
4.  New Frontier
5.  Flight of Icarus
6.  The Apparition
7.  Chains of Misery
8.  Hooks in You
9.  Run Silent, Run Deep

10.  Public Enema Number One

The songs in bold I can never claim to have enjoyed.
 
Do you enjoy Wildest Dreams more than Public Enema Number One, Flight of Icarus & The Unbeliever?

Would you make the same lists of the albums DOD, TXF and VXI? Just curious. ;)
 
I quite like Wildest Dreams.  It definitely doesn't belong in the worst Maiden songs.  It's on the same level as Different World, I'd say.

Now, Chains of Misery, that's a horrible song.  It could be my least favourite Maiden song ever, though I don't recall ever talking about it.  The Angel and the Gambler has its good moments (but they turn to bad moments when repeated for 13 minutes) but Chains of Misery is just rotten through and through.
 
Forostar said:
Do you enjoy Wildest Dreams more than Public Enema Number One, Flight of Icarus & The Unbeliever?

Would you make the same lists of the albums DOD, TXF and VXI? Just curious. ;)

I like Wildest Dreams.  The guitars and the chorus are great.  Definitely better than my worst 10.

Here for your info.  These things change, but since these are general ratings and not specific numbers I feel strongly that this is true for me.
  1. "Sign of the Cross" (Steve Harris) – 11:17
  2. "Lord of the Flies" (Janick Gers, Harris) – 5:03
  3. "Man on the Edge" (Blaze Bayley, Gers) – 4:13
  4. "Fortunes of War" (Harris) – 7:23
  5. "Look for the Truth" (Bayley, Gers, Harris) – 5:10
  6. "The Aftermath" (Bayley, Gers, Harris) – 6:20
  7. "Judgement of Heaven" (Harris) – 5:12
  8. "Blood on the World's Hands" (Harris) – 5:57
  9. "The Edge of Darkness" (Bayley, Gers, Harris) – 6:39
  10. "2 A.M." (Bayley, Gers, Harris) – 5:37
  11. "The Unbeliever" (Gers, Harris) – 8:10

  1. "Futureal" (Blaze Bayley, Steve Harris) – 2:55
  2. "The Angel and the Gambler" (Harris) – 9:52
  3. "Lightning Strikes Twice" (Dave Murray, Harris) – 4:50
  4. "The Clansman" (Harris) – 8:59
  5. "When Two Worlds Collide" (Bayley, Murray, Harris) – 6:17
  6. "The Educated Fool" (Harris) – 6:44
  7. "Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger" (Harris) – 8:03
  8. "Como Estais Amigos" (Bayley, Janick Gers) – 5:30


1. "Wildest Dreams" 
2. "Rainmaker"  
3. "No More Lies" 
4. "Montségur" 
5. "Dance of Death"  
6. "Gates of Tomorrow" 
7. "New Frontier"  
8. "Paschendale" 
9. "Face in the Sand" 
10. "Age of Innocence" 
11. "Journeyman" 

Just for the heck of it, I'll rank the "strong" songs from these three albums.
Paschendale
The Aftermath
The Educated Fool
Blood on the World's Hands
The Clansman
Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
Como Estais Amigos
Rainmaker
Sign of the Cross
Journeyman
Dance of Death
Man on the Edge
 
I tend to give higher rankings to albums that are half excellent, half total boredom than albums that are average throughout.

Foro, how about you rank your 90s albums like I've done.  I'm curious too.
 
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