What's the matter with FOTD?

Wayne Bond said:
To me filler would imply that ...
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The use of the word "filler" when describing someone else's music is either disingenuous, intellectually dishonest or portrays the critic's belief that they are somewhat psychic.

The honest critical approach would be simply to state that YOU personally don't like, don't understand or don't feel that particular song. Just because YOU don't like it, that doesn't mean that no-one likes the song. It certainly doesn't mean that the recording artist doesn't like the song, but had run out of ideas and just laid it down in order to fill up space on the record.

It is quite evident that many people, while liking the same band, have different opinions when it comes to individual songs from the band. Me for example, I love the Final Frontier album, which many people seem to bag. I love The Red and the Black, which many seem to bag, I love No Prayer for the Dying album which many people have as one of their worst Maiden albums.
I love the long epics, I love the way Maiden have progressed on AMOLAD, TFF and TBOS towards more complex "proggy" songs. But as I understand it there are many people that find these long "proggy" songs boring and they want the short snappy songs, they love Death or Glory, where I find this song to be dull and unnecessary for the album. Does that make it "filler"? No, I can't honestly say that I know what is going on in the heads of the individuals that we collectively refer to as Iron Maiden. Perhaps Adrian and Bruce think DoG is a great song, perhaps they would have fought tooth and nail keep that song should Harris have argued that it was dull and that the album was too long and hence could afford to lose it.

Anyway, I find it quite pretentious when a person claims that a particular song is filler. All you can know is what is in your own head. All you can know is how YOU feel about a song. If you don't like it then say so. Speak from the "I". You do not know what the artist thought of the song at the time of recording and release.
 
DJMayes said:
The thing that gets me with complaints about his "raspy voice" is that it seems most pronounced on BQOBD, one of the few tracks from this album people generally seem to like.
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"raspy" voice WTF. Bruce did "raspy" on No Prayer. He did it pretty well on No Prayer, it is a great feature of that album.
However on Fear of the Dark his voice seemed strained rather than "raspy" his voice seemed not upto par. For me it was the BIG elephant in the room. I just couldn't appreciate the songs because his faded voice was taking all the attention.
In saying that though, I did immediately love Be Quick and Afraid to Shoot, and Wasting Love and especially Fear of the Dark.

Over time I have realised that many of the other songs are pretty dull, The Apparition, Fear is the Key, The Fugitive...

Over many, many years, I have realised that Bruce's voice isn't that bad on FOtD album, he's sounded worse since. It's just taken time for me to get used to the change. But this doesn't change my opinion that there are some pretty dull songs on that album. It is by far the worst BD fronted album. But it beats all the Blaze fronted albums.
 
It's not that I hate the album, I just think the way they recorded it stunk and that many songs like Hallowed, RTTH and such work better live. 22 acacia avenue, the prisoner and children of the damned are the only solid album sounding tracks. I never like the song number of the beast, invaders or gangland. Never cared for run to the hills but the Rock in Rio version of it and pretty much every song they did was amazing. Never got much Fear of the Dark stuff live. Be quick or be dead is a rather fun and aggressive song. Wasting love is strangely appealing, the fugitive is nice, Fear of the dark is great but horrifically overplayed and afraid to shoot strangers is great after the first 2 minutes and 35 seconds lol

on a side note, the prisoner and 22 acacia avenue are 2 of my all time favorite maiden tracks.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I don't understand the hate
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Before everything else I assume myself as a FOTD "hater". I'll adress the reasons why later but I think you made some excellent observations that (unlike my opinion regarding the album) I think you aniled it 100%.
JudasMyGuide said:
I consistently include TXF in my top 3
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True. TXF is one hell of an album it's not my #3 but it ranks at #6 (tied with Killers). It's epic, heavy, dark and is Maiden bveing Maiden again. Even though I disagree on the Blaze aspect. Back then he wasn't 1/10 of the singer he is today and his vocal performance could be a bit better. Nevertheless that doesn't makes TXF any worst of an album.
JudasMyGuide said:
Weekend Warrior - a cool and catchy song that reminds me of Bruce solo
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True. Not one of their best of songs but far from the atrocity people want to make out of it. Nevertheless my problem with WW is precisely the fact that it doesn't sound the slightest like a Maiden song. If it was included in Balls To Picasso or Tattooed Millionaire it would be a really cool track. But while a Maiden song it seems out of its element. Don't get me wrong: I like the song but it would work better if it was a B side or something.
JudasMyGuide said:
The "apocalyptic" (and catchy!) Childhood's End, the thrashy Be Quick or Be Dead (amazing!), the beautiful chorus-instrumental section-chorus of ATSS. And Judas, one of their best short songs, IMO. And I still love FOTD
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True. All the songs you named range from good to excellent (namely BQOBD and ATSS) IMO. The Fugitive (just a bit boring) isn't bad either and The Apparition is a bit of a lackluster but works as a cool filler. Chains Of Misery is a bit too hard rock when it come to the chorus but hey... one can turn a blind eye.

So why do I dislike FOTD?
One reason is Bruce's vocal delivery (and here we part ways). It works wonders in most aggressive stuff (like Be Quick Or Be Dead or the title track) but when songs ask for a melodic approach it sounds funky.
But the main reason I really "hate" FOTD is what YOU DIDN'T mentioned. Namely the fact it features the 3 worst songs the band ever penned.
  • From Here To Eternity: Maiden playing American Hard Rock is a major punch in the balls. Bruce's arsh vocals make this crap sound even worst. The only cool thing about this "thing" is the intro bass line and videoclip... oh yes! Adding insult to injury they made a single out of this turd and played it on the following tour. I hate this song so much!
  • Wasting Love: A hard rock ballad? Really? I don't have the slightest problem with Maiden going slow and mellow (even semi acoustic) and I really adore some of those songs (Prodigal Son, Blood Brothers) but this is a failled atempt to go "Maiden FM playlist". The only cool part is the lead that starts the track. Then everything goes south. Once again Bruce is painfull to listen to and yes! With cool songs like ATSS, Judas Be my Guide or Childhood's End they had to pick this MONSTROSITY to be a single and a setlist feature. God...
  • Fear Is The Key: I don't know where to start... this is my least favorite Maiden song by MILES. This abortion seems like a miserable attempt to get that Zeppelinesque-Kashmir effect with some hair metal guitar bursts during the verses while Bruce present us with its worst singing ever. And the lyrics are horrible (man... they should've given it a better effort when writting about something as serious as AIDS). This thing should never exist and I think it was created solely to torment my existence! Well.. at least they had the decency to leave it out of their single and live playing plans.
So here you have the reasons why I really dislike FOTD: 3 fillers, a song I think doesn't belong in a Maiden album and the 3 worst songs ever made by the band (IMO). Other than that it has some good and even stellar moments as I said before, but when you feel that more than 1/2 of an album sould not exist it's hard to enjoy it.
 
In my opinion: Iron Maiden is pretty much all about melodies, while most or many songs on FotD are riff-based. It works on Be Quick or Be Dead because the song is overall very good, but most tracks on the album are just mediocre mid-tempo rockers. Add to that Bruce’s less melodic delivery, and that’s pretty much it.

Love BQOBD, ATSS, and FOTD, but the rest is very boring.
 
Formula409 said:
most tracks on the album are just mediocre mid-tempo rockers
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Formula409 said:
Love BQOBD, ATSS, and FOTD, but the rest is very boring.
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Yes... those are my favorite FOTD tracks as well (and I bet the majority of Maiden fans shares that feeling). I also really like JBMG and CH... not that they're "best of " material but they can hold themselves as accessories in a good album's tracklist.
And even fillers such as The Fugitive, Chains Of Misery and The Apparition while quite boring and even lackluster/skippable, wouldn't put to shame any body of work built by the good tracks.
My main problem is the sum of all parts: 3 standouts + 2 cool songs + 3 boring fillers + 1 song that's completely dislocated + IMO the 3 worst Maiden tracks is really poor regarding Maiden standards.
Hey even the coherency of the album: FOTD features the heaviest Maiden song ever (BQOBD) two pompous semi epics heavily relying in ambiance, harmonies and rhytmical swings (FOTD and ATSS) two typical blueprint Maiden songs (CH and TF... though the later is quite boring) a more rocky approach of the Maiden sound (COM and JBMG), a sort of interlude (TA), a song I find quite decent but has zero to do with Maiden (WW) and 3 miserable displays of FM hard rock crap.Some say a band has to do things outside the box once in a while and I tottaly concur. But there are ways to do it without losing your identity and sounding lousy. Take these 3 albums with really diverse song types that sound really solid: Killers, The X Factor and The Book Of Souls.
On Killers we have the typical rockers (Wrathchild, Drifter, Another Life, Innocent Exile), a speedster (Purgatory), typical Maiden songs (Killers, Genghis Khan, Ides Of March, Murders In The Rue Morgue ) and even a semi acoustical amazing take (Prodigal Son). The X Factor offers us dark epic songs (Sign Of The Cross, Fortunes Of War, Edge Of Darkness, The Unbeliever), the speedster (Man On The Edge), some really depressing dense stuff (The Aftermath, Blood On The World's Hands), typical Maiden songs (Judgement Of Heaven, Look For The Truth), a Maiden rocker (Lord Of The Flies) and a peculiar broody lamenter in 2 AM. Finnaly The Book Of Souls is filled with your typical Maiden epic song (If Eternity Should Fail, The Red And The Black, Title Track), rockers (Speed Of Light, Tears Of A Clown), a speedster (When The River Runs Deep), two dark songs (The Great Unknown, The Man Of Sorrows), 2 typical Maiden tunes (Death Or Glory, Shadows Of The Valley) and a prog metal stravaganza like they never dared to compose before (Empire Of The Clouds).
And despite being composed by this diversity of song types, none of this albums lose the Maiden blueprint nor they seem like a collection of songs made by different bands as FOTD does.
 
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Black Bart said:
:eek:
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Yup... Judgement Of Heaven has that bass crescendo we got used to in countless Maiden songs (The Clairvoyant, Number Of The Beast, RIme Of The Ancient Mariner, Childhoods End, etc) bursting into the same stutering rhythm, the chorus is typical Maiden (just picture Bruce singing it), the "oh-oh" choirs are present and the harmonizing guitars are as Maiden as it gets. Regarding Look For The Truth Maiden has always been strongly influenced by celtic melodies and Jethro Tull (Phantom Of The Opera, Transylvannia, Quest For Fire, The Prophecy, Dance Of Death, Blood Brothers, Montsegur, the list goes on and on). And those same influences are really noticeable on this tune.
 
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