What songs/albums have you changed your mind the most drastically about, since you started listening to IM?

It feels so horrible to admit this, but when I was 13-14 I refused to listen to any rock or metal albums that featured keyboards or synths.



Over half my Top 5 Maiden Albums list now consists of albums with keyboards on them. (Somewhere In Time, AMOLAD, Brave New World...)
 
Leif Erikson said:
The Blaze era tends to grow on people, and for good reason. I personally prefer Virtual XI because of The Clansman and The Educated Fool, but The X Factor is good too.
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Not for me. The X Factor is OK. It has some good moments but is pretty bloated. I found Virtual XI to be mediocre back in 1998. I would not be that generous with my rating in 2020.
 
I never enjoyed Dance of death album when it came out, it was basically their worst for me, and also horrendous production. But like five years ago, I gave it a good listen again, and I realised it’s probably the most varied Maiden album, it has a bit for everyone who likes them.
 
Sth2112 said:
I never enjoyed Dance of death album when it came out, it was basically their worst for me, and also horrendous production. But like five years ago, I gave it a good listen again, and I realised it’s probably the most varied Maiden album, it has a bit for everyone who likes them.
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Dance of death is like fear of the dark for me. It'd be much better with some trim, limit it to 8 songs and make the others bsides. The bad songs like age of innocence overshadow the good ones and make your listening experience worse.
 
1. The debut album. I was massively into this when I first bought it and during the Early Days tour. However, I have not listened to it much since. I prefer to listen to the live versions of the songs on the album.

2. Powerslave. I was massively into this album when I first got it but not so much anymore. I have said on this forum many times how I find it a chore to get through the whole thing. There are amazing songs on the album but the album is a bit much when listening in one sitting.

3. Fear of the Dark. Loved it when I first bought it but then it went out of favour. However it has started to grow on me again.

4. Book of Souls. Probably my least favourite reunion era album. I drifted off to sleep on the first listen! It has some of my favourite Maiden songs on it but it took a long time to get into it.
 
I like this topic, I've been thinking about it for a few days. So there are Maiden songs I like that others don't seem to love, but most of those haven't changed (The Angel and the Gambler being the most prominent example). And there are Maiden songs I dislike that others do love, but again, those have been pretty regular (To Tame a Land and Infinite Dreams prominent there).

A song I used to like but that I have soured on over time is The Educated Fool. I'm not taking away from those who truly love the song (@Perun) but while I still think it's got some neat lyrics and is technically fine, there's a point I would have considered this a top 10-20 song and now, I would not consider it a top 100 song (part of that is Iron Maiden adding about 40 new songs since I became an Iron Maiden fan, of course). I feel like it never gets to the level it needs to get. It builds some intensity but never really pays it off.

A song I used to never enjoy but now I get...well, there's two. One is Only the Good Die Young, which I used to think of as pretty poor. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in general is an album I enjoy a lot more now than 20 years ago, and the appreciation for this track is one of those reasons. Another one is Flight of Icarus, which really clicked with me when I saw it live on Legacy of the Beast. It's a way better song live, and once you have those positive live feelings, they come back when you hear the studio track.
 
LooseCannon said:
Another one is Flight of Icarus, which really clicked with me when I saw it live on Legacy of the Beast. It's a way better song live, and once you have those positive live feelings, they come back when you hear the studio track.
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Interesting, cuz for me I used to love the studio version, but now I just think the choir vocals in the chorus are... too over-the-top, to the point they almost take me out of the song. Both LAD and NOTD are where I now go to when I want to listen to it.

But I did have a similar experience with another LOTB song, “For The Greater Good Of God”. Never got it — thought the lyrics were great, but the constant repetition? Not so much. But then I saw a YouTube video of the band playing the song in Tallinn and it hooked me. It went from being outside my Top 100 to inside my Top 10.
 
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SixesAlltheway said:
I'm even less enthusiastic about latter-day Maiden recemtly than I used to be and it's hard to pinpoint why exactly. There's just nothing that draws me back to AMOLAD, TFF or TBOS. AMOLAD in particular was an album I listened to a ton when it came out but it's just a bit boring to me now.
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I'm kinda the same way. I never was much into TFF and TBOS but I only started to admit it to myself recently.
 
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I could never get into amolad, very monotonous album, its like a sandwich with cheese, cheese is nice but after some bites you need sauce too. I like how the longest day starts but I press the skip button on the How long part. TFF I like, the distorted bass on satellite 15 is nice, I really like mother of mercy, it has a part that sounds like a song from the sound of perseverance. Coming home is also nice.
 
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I used to really dislike Mother of Mercy, but now it's in my top 10 songs. The singing in the chorus sounds spectacular.


... Wait. It's lunchtime. You shouldn't be piss drunk, Yax. Go sober up. :D
 
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Two or three songs were released prior to the AMOLAD release. I didn't feel any of them. I remember I disliked the vocal phrasing in verses of Thousand Suns. That was also inside a period when I listened less to Maiden than usual. I remember a year ahead Breeg came up on shuffle while I was walking down the street and I couldn't believe the groove and the bridge riffing. Then I got the entire album and I asked myself where the fuck I went wrong with my life.

AMOLAD is definitely one of their best albums ever and the best album this lineup has done.

Similarly to that, The X Factor. I loved Sign of the Cross, Man on the Edge but everything else seemed to drag along. I remember intentionally listening it from start to end so it can grow, but it just didn't. Not while sitting in front of PC. Commuting to my first work, constant waking up in early morning after years of college disarray, winter, walking with a heavy backpack through a industrial zone, crossing the railroad bridge where smoky fumes are coming out of the railroad tunnel, sounds of heavy mechanization somewhere down in the fog. So sort of a perfect ambient.
 
Yax said:
The singing in the chorus sounds spectacular.
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I agree, and I also dig the guitars in that song. For some reason it reminds me of latter-day Death. That said, the lyrics bother me so much I have a hard time enjoying the rest of the song. After so many great war songs over the years, it just feels half-assed, particularly the religious piece at the end.
 
Oof. I’m a big critic of how Bruce sounds on that album — I think a lot of it has to do with the mixing — but I like how he’s pushing past his “comfort zone” on Mother Of Mercy, El Dorado, and The Talisman. To me it sounds cool.
 
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Diesel 11 said:
Oof. I’m a big critic of how Bruce sounds on that album — I think a lot of it has to do with the mixing — but I like how he’s pushing past his “comfort zone” on Mother Of Mercy, El Dorado, and The Talisman. To me it sounds cool.
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The vocal compiling skills of Shirley is indeed great on The Talisman - That being said, the En Vivo performance is unbelievabe. El Dorado is cool too. I agree though that the dryness of the album isn't doing him any favors - Without the subtle 50 milliseconds or so delay which fattens it up it would sound even more naked. But he is singing well. Not as well as the prior reunion albums, but still.
 
Samantas5855 said:
The part at 1:32
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Yup. Really different from Maiden’s typical stuff.
Yax said:
That being said, the En Vivo performance is unbelievabe. El Dorado is cool too.
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Yeah that album is actually one of my favorites of the reunion era when it comes to how it translates live. Those songs rock so hard. Also the build up Satellite 15 gives The Final Frontier, epic as hell. And some of the guitar parts are awesome. El Dorado and When The Wild Wind Blows have some of my favorite instrumental sections in the Maiden catalogue.
 
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