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

I noticed that I kept the same opinion on newer albums, that is, albums that came out since I started listening to them (post BNW).

All before that tend to go back and forth with time.
 
While I think their reunion albums are overall better than their “classic 80s” stuff, I’m not sure if I’ve ever turned around on a Maiden album or song. The way I feel now is how I’ve always felt, more or less. Granted, I’m also one of a few that believes that Maiden has never produced a bad album or even a bad song, though some are better/worse than others.
 
LooseCannon said:
I'm not taking away from those who truly love the song (@Perun)
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You're not. I honestly don't care if people dislike the music I like. If you like if, great, let's have a beer and rock out to it. If not, it's still my song and I don't see what it would do to diminish my appreciation for it.
 
Mother Russia was in my top 10 Maiden songs when I was a new fan. It has become a lot less significant since then.
 
Great thread, interesting to hear the apathy from some towards the post-Blaze era cos, for me, the strong material late in Maiden's career really elevates the band to my 2nd fave of all time.

Also interestingly, despite the love from others earlier in the thread, SSOASS is probably the album that has plummeted most in standing for me. MC and IF are phenomenal, the title track is great but ETMD bores me a bit now though maybe as it's overplayed. Prophecy and OTDDY young are bang average and CIPWM is very weak. The album pales in comparison to the 4 that came before it.

TBOS is still great and Mother of Mercy is possibly the most underrated Maiden song of the last 20 yrs.
 
EDDIEVH said:
Mother of Mercy is possibly the most underrated Maiden song of the last 20 yrs.
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I'm afraid this is Bruce's fault. The following explanation is a tad convoluted but please bear with me:

Whenever Bruce is trying to conserve his voice in live settings, he sings them in a particular "voice" in a particular range. An obvious example of this is when he sings "in the name of God, my father, I fly" in Flight of Icarus. Instead of singing it at the studio pitch (E5 I think?), he just sort of shouts it in the fourth octave range. This is pretty much how he sounds all over Live After Death and why I don't hold the album in esteem on Bruce's end as it comes across as strained on a good day. The chorus of Mother of Mercy is sung in this style, with the weird shouty strained vocals.

Further, I think most fans of Bruce's are drawn to his interesting phrasing choices. It makes him sound passionate even when he's singing something as dumb as "Alexander the Great... he died of fever in Babylon." But in Mother of Mercy he sounds so preoccupied with being in that weird ass range that he's not even thinking about what he's singing. It's a very straight take with little panache.

The song is also faulted ever so slightly by one of Steve's lyrical weaknesses. He has a tendency to overuse filler words when he needs to fill out syllables in a line ("just" is the usual offending word). Steve does this so frequently I never need to look at the writing credits of a song to know he's on there. The line "I'll die a lonely death, of that I'm certain of" is a particular abomination though because not only did Steve bust out one of his trusted filler words, but he did it in such a way that it's grammatically redundant. The line should either be "of that I'm certain," "I'm certain of that," or "that I'm certain of" (least grammatically correct). Songs don't need to be grammatically correct obviously, but that one just grinds my gears (I'm probably the only one though), especially knowing Steve's history of filler words.

All that being said, it's a fantastic song, and like many Maiden songs, without the chorus the song is a 9/10 for me.
 
EDDIEVH said:
Great thread, interesting to hear the apathy from some towards the post-Blaze era cos, for me, the strong material late in Maiden's career really elevates the band to my 2nd fave of all time.

Also interestingly, despite the love from others earlier in the thread, SSOASS is probably the album that has plummeted most in standing for me. MC and IF are phenomenal, the title track is great but ETMD bores me a bit now though maybe as it's overplayed. Prophecy and OTDDY young are bang average and CIPWM is very weak. The album pales in comparison to the 4 that came before it.

TBOS is still great and Mother of Mercy is possibly the most underrated Maiden song of the last 20 yrs.
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I'm with ya except SSOASS is still top notch
 
AMOLAD never grabbed me at all and I initially thought it was the weakest of the post-reunion batch. I've come to appreciate just how good the composition of each song is much later. In the past, I found it inconceivable they dared to even play over half of it live. Nowadays? Oh, yeah, I get the choice to play the whole thing.

Losfer Words through Back in the Village also never interested me too much on Powerslave initially. I guess when you've got an album with two 10/10 songs to start it and end it, the middle kind of seemed like a chore to get through just to get to Powerslave. Now I listen through the whole thing with no problem at all.
 
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I didn't like back to the village until I listened to the vinyl. One of their best songs, describes what maiden is all about, the riff and the punch. The cd version is very weak tho
 
Leif Erikson said:
I've really come around to the Blaze era, especially Virtual XI. There's some really good songs on there actually. Two standouts are The Clansman and The Educated
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GhostofCain said:
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.
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I was driving to Michigan in early 2000 and bought a bunch of CDs for the ride with X Factor and Virtual X! being there since I never gave them a chance--- one song rocked me more than the others so much so that I added it to our band's set list at the time: "The Aftermath"-- has all the elements of the a classic Maiden album to me, albeit without Bruce, but damn good...
 
The album that became less interesting when compared with the first time I listened to it (more than 3 decades to be more precise) is The Number Of The Beast. Still think it's an amazing album but I must admit it lost some of its charm.
When it comes to songs there are some that suffered from attrition due to severe overplaying: Fear Of The Dark, Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Evil That Men Do, Two Minutes To Midnight, Iron Maiden, etc..
On the other hand there are songs that I've always liked but my enthusiasm increased with the passing of time. Invasion, Sanctuary, Murders In The Rue Morgue, Genghis Khan, Invaders, Losfer Words, Back In The Village, Deja Vu, The Prophecy, Fates Warning, Run Silent Run Deep, Mother Russia and The Thin Line Between Love And Hate are perhaps the songs that better fit that profile.
 
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