Tournament of Maiden Solos: the Top 10 video!

Which guitar solo is your favourite?

  • Total voters
    32
  • Poll closed .
After a little thought, I decided to go with Mr. Dave Murray's contribution this time. Its grandness and epicness wins it the prize. Both are great sound-wise and showcase the style of the respective guitarists in a great way, so I had to look to more abstract qualities to decide.
 
Dave Murray's Alexander the Great solo (045) lost the match for the 3rd place. The Bronze medal goes to Adrian Smith's Caught Somewhere in Time solo (038)!

Ladies and gentlemen: now we go to the Final! You've heard these solos countless times but again, and for the last time, I am asking you all:
Please listen to the vid before you vote! Cheers!
 
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SiaSL is the best. It was the first solo that came to my mind at the beginning of this game, when I tried to guess which one will win. There will be time for analysis of the whole ranking, but I think that these two solos deserve to be in the final.
 
Powerslave is the better solo, but neither of them should be here. If it were up to me the top two would be Adrians Caught Somewhere in Time and Alexander the Great solos with the latter winning.
 
Two worthy finalists. Both sound like there is thought behind them, while they also are excellent examples of each guitarist's distinctive style. In addition, both are further enhanced by the interaction with the bass line. Finally, both fit very nicely to the atmosphere of the respective songs they are part of.

If I were to select a handful of Maiden solos that I would listen to over and over again, these two would be there, no doubt.

But now that I must choose one to vote for ... Stranger. In addition to being a damn fine piece of guitar work on its own, it is a great example of music that can help create images. During that first part, I can almost imagine standing alone in the ice, staring towards the horizon ... no brave new world.
 
Glad to see the finalists feature solos with such great feel.
Tough choice, but I am voting Stranger because it carries through a tempo change, whereas PS passes the baton.
 
Ideally, neither. :/ To me, SIASL is highly stylised and relies on that, it doesn't have a lot of feeling. The best part of it is the ending. I'd definitely rather have CSIT any day, which has far more flair and is everything a solo should be. I'm going to have to go for Powerslave, which I find much more enjoyable to listen to, although it's comparatively mellow and isn't as standalone.
 
Brigantium said:
Ideally, neither. :/ To me, SIASL is highly stylised and relies on that, it doesn't have a lot of feeling.
Click to expand...

Really? It's one of the few solos in metal that sends chills down my spine.

Voted for SIASL to make it a tie.

Ariana said:
The PowerFarce continues...
Click to expand...

I don't think farce is the right word to use for such a consensually well liked song. It's a very unpopular opinion to dislike Powerslave, up there with disliking Hallowed or Rime.
 
Neither of these solos are anywhere near my top 10, but I'll have to go with Stranger here. I really like the solo section, and some of the licks are quite tasteful - though overall I still think it's a bit too stiff. Like Brigiantium said above, it is highly stylised and with that I think it suffered a bit from too much thinking (especially in the more intense section).

Powerslave is a nice solo, but it's main drawback here when comparing to other solos is that unlike Stranger it ends just when the band kicks the song back into full intensity again.

My personal top 10 would be:

1. Rainmaker (Dave Murray)
2. Brave New World (Janick Gers)
3. Gates of Tomorrow (Janick Gers)
4. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate (Dave Murray, 6:54-7:04)
5. Wasting Love (Janick Gers)
6. Sea of Madness (Adrian Smith)
7. Lord of Light (Dave Murray)
8. Fear of the Dark (Janick Gers)
9. Fear of the Dark (Dave Murray)
10. Judas My Guide (Dave Murray, 2:14-2:38)
 
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