What's your favourite post reunion album and why? #2

What's your favourite post reunion album and why?

  • Brave New World

    Votes: 34 29.1%

  • Dance of Death

    Votes: 11 9.4%

  • A Matter of Life and Death

    Votes: 38 32.5%

  • The Final Frontier

    Votes: 9 7.7%

  • Book of Souls

    Votes: 25 21.4%
  • Total voters
    117
1- Dance of Death. Has three crap songs but also the best songs of the reunion. Hit and miss but the hits rule.

2- Brave New World. Very solid record all the way through. Very good sounding too.

3- A Matter is Life and Death. Again very solid but maybe not as memorable as BNW.

4- Book of Souls. I find it decent. There are some great songs on there but I mostly find it a bit overlong.

5- Final Frontier. It’s okay I suppose. Probably my least favourite Maiden album.
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
Is it possible for a Maiden song to be overlong??
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Angel and the gambler music video four minute version was actually fun. The ten minute version was ridiculous.

Don’t look to the eyes of a stranger

The red and the black is too long. I couldn’t believe it at one point that it was going into ANOTHER verse!
 
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I was torn between AMOLAD and TBOS. Both outstanding albums from top to bottom, but I went with TBOS mainly because I feel some tracks like IESF, TRATB, BOS really stand out and Empire was just amazingly ambitious and epic.
 
Travis The Dragon said:
I disagree about Matter Of Life And Death. Take the 3 longest songs. Thousand Suns does the same thing at the beginning and end with a middle piece. Greater Good Of God repeats the same thing 3 times in a row and then the same chorus at the end
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a matter of life and death is a unique gem. It sounds nothing like any prior maiden album. You could easily put any dance of death song on a brave new world album and it would fit like a glove and same vice versa. But put longest day on those albums and it would stuck out like dogs bullocks. Put legacy or Lord of light or coming home on any prior album it would be like chalk and cheese. Lord of light is a weirdly terrific and off kilter song.. so is starlight. It is only when we go to book of souls do we see maiden going back to their roots. Interspersing it with this new direction. That is my one regret about book of souls. I want them getting more inventive rather than going back. Move forwards boys. I have 100 songs of the past I want to see what else you are capable of!
 
For a long time, I'd considered Brave New World to be my favorite of the post-reunion efforts, but, thinking about it some more, I have to change my pick to The Book of Souls. Performances are excellent on BNW, but there's a couple of clunkers on there (Mercenary, Fallen Angel, Nomad) and some songs that are just kind of there: Blood Brothers.

TBOS, for me, only has one weak song (TOAC) and both Bruce and Steve's epics are outstanding. The 18 minutes of Empire of the Clouds just effortlessly go by and it never feels like a chore trying to listen to it. Same applies for TRATB and the title track as well.

The Final Frontier was my first new record as a fan, but over time it's lost me a bit. Thought it was solid upon release, but in more recent years I feel it sags a bit in the middle before finishing off strong. A Matter of Life and Death I've warmed up to, but it still hangs around fourth. Dance of Death brings up the rear. When it's great, it's great. When it isn't, it isn't.

My rankings would be:

The Book of Souls
Brave New World
The Final Frontier
A Matter of Life and Death
Dance of Death
 
Just because I'm kinda emotionally attached to it I would pick BNW, although that one and AMOLAD are literally equal for me, my two favourie IM albums in general.
 
  1. The Book of Souls
  2. Brave New World
  3. The Final Frontier
  4. A Matter of Life and Death
  5. Dance of Death
 
1. Brave New World

Simply put it's my favourite of all the Maiden albums.

2. A Matter of Life and Death

My third overall favourite album. A very gloomy affair which is quite unique for Maiden. Great vocals, great production that fits perfectly with the songs themes, though it also contains some of the worst guitar solos from all three guitarists.

3. The Book of Souls

After the dull Final Frontier it's great to hear Maiden actually enjoying themselves. This is slightly hindered by it's own high quality - If Eternity Should Fail, The Book of Souls and Empire of the Clouds are all so good they make the rest of the album sound weaker by comparison, even though it's actually very strong.

4. Dance of Death

A hit and miss album, but when it's good, it's bloody good - Paschendale, Rainmaker, Dance of Death are among the best songs Maiden ever done.

5. The Final Frontier

The songs are well written and really came to life in live performance, but it's marred by ill fitting production, more lackluster solos and tired perfor. It could also have done with the epics between spaced out more, the second half is a bit of a slog.
 
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Brave New World. I think the songs are very powerful and carry lots of emotion, I like the feel of the album and the ideas it puts across, plus the songs work well together. I also think the composition of the songs are great (except perhaps DOM), I think for the other post reunion albums suffer from poor composition to differing extents

Plus you can feel the power and importance come out of it. It was the first album with Bruce back and showed that Maiden was still alive and blew many people's expectations apart
 
1. Dance of Death
2. The Book of Souls
3. Brave New World
4. A Matter of Life and Death
5. The Final Frontier

Although to be fair to TFF it does contain three of my favourite songs (The Talisman, Isle of Avalon and Coming Home), just as a whole package I find it the most uneven.
 
AMOLAD. This album actually ranks as one of my Top 5 all-time Maiden releases.

After AMOLAD, I would rank: 2. BNW, 3. the Book of Souls, 4. the Final Frontier, and 5. Dance of Death.
 
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