What's your favourite post-reunion album and why?

Favourite post reunion album

  • Brave New World

  • Dance Of Death

  • A Matter Of Life And Death

  • The Final Frontier

Results are only viewable after voting.
My vote goes to A Matter Of Life And Death. It is the most consistent of the three and feels coherent in a way especially DoD and TFF are missing. I'll give a short summary of my thoughts on each:

Brave New World: Starts out great. The Wicker Man rocks, Ghost of the Navigator has a great chorus and solo, and BNW and Blood Brothers are great live. But the album is the one with the most chorus repetition out of the four albums (my only beef with the otherwise fantastic songs already mentioned as well). By The Mercenary it gets tiresome. Sound-wise the most refined of the four albums.

Dance of Death: Contains some great songs, especially the title track and Paschendale, but also contains the worst post-2000 material. Also the mastering makes this less pleasant to the ears than the other three albums.

A Matter of Life and Death: From the opening "ayeee" this album is a dark journey through war, deception and religious questions. Some of the songs on here felt great immediately (especially #2 and #3). Others took time to grow, like The Legacy (which is now my 2nd favourite from the album, after Brighter Than A Thousand Suns). The only drawbacks I feel the album have are: Chorus of FTGGOG, simply doesn't sit well with me. The same with the chorus of The Longest Day. The sound is not as refined as BNW, it is a more "raw" sound, but it feels right.

The Final Frontier: Thematically more spread out than the previous effort, with everything from space travel to magicians. It does almost feel too spread out, the songs don't feel like they belong together. Still, each individual song ranges from good to great.

If I must rate the four, I'd say AMOLAD > BNW > TFF > DOD
>>> Montenegro.
 
I'm definitely in the camp of folks who really dig the newer albums. In fact, I listen to them all quite a lot more than the classics. Not because I don't love those classic albums but because the newer ones just feel fresher to me (even BNW which is 15 years old). I'd rank them like this -

1. A Matter of Life and Death - amazing from start to finish. I sometimes feel I'm the only one in the world who loves Different World (best modern opener after The Wicker Man). But the whole album is amazing to me and I latched onto the sound and vibe right from the start. Just a brilliant album.

2. The Final Frontier - not quite as strong as AMOLAD with a few weak links (Mother of Mercy, and Man Who Would Be King are definitely lesser songs for me than the others) but still a fun journey for sure.

3. Dance of Death- yeah, the production is kind of a mess but the variety of the songwriting really saves this album for me. It's pretty damn awesome.

4. Brave New World - I love the first 3 songs, kinda the next 3 and then it just goes south for me. I was super conflicted when it came out because I really wanted to like it more than I did (and still do). It's probably the best sounding of the newer albums but it's also by far the least interesting for me. But I'd put the first 3 tracks up against anything else Maiden has done so it does have that going for it.

I'm honestly and realistically expecting The Book of Souls to place in the middle of the pack but would love to be blown away.
 
Oh I think 'The Good Book' will be my new favorite. It would have to be epic to pass DOD for me, but I expect it will. I really read the excitement and pride from the band this time around.
I know every band talks up their upcoming release', but I think Maiden genuinely feel like they've spun gold here with BOS.
 
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Brave New World and The Final Frontier in a shared spot for me. AMOLAD is the worst, still haven't fully forgiven them for playing it all live... :(
 
I'll reserve my vote for now as I feel that revisiting them is something I owe to Maiden, but the last three album have been very disappointing for me. It's a chorus, not a gregorian chant.
 
Just one remark.All the albums up to 1992 did flow quite effortlessly. This is something that I miss in all albums after that.I mean even in FOTD,you woukd get to ATSS without even noticing it.The sound was not muddy,the songs had twists and the albums made me pick up a guitar and follow the flow.These days the albums just don't flow.Once on the middle of e.g. BTATS I feel that I have been listening to music for half an hour.And this is not cause the songs are full of ideas.It is cause the music just doesn't flow anymore and it is not fun as it used to be back in the day.It us however quite clear to me that even if the latter part of TFF is full of long xongs it flows better than the al ums before it.Have a nice week everybody
 
bornless1 said:
I don't know how an album with Paschendale DOD rainmaker Montsegur can be considered SH*t by a maiden fan. I do love all the songs on this masterpiece album, but those four alone are outstanding and to me rank all in the top 20 songs of the reunion.
The album is not sh*t. Period. No way.
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I agree. Face in the Sand, Montsegur and Paschendale are killer songs. Definitely my favorite of the reunion albums.
 
Oh man that amolad concert was killer. One of my all time favorites. I didn't always study setlists pre-concert back then and went in not knowing it would be played in its entirety. Top 5 concert experiences ever...
 
My favourite is Brave New World. It has nice production, although there is clipping it sounds powerful and isn't compressed to all hell. The sound is refined and these Chorused clean guitars come to mind when I think "Maiden's sound". Nicko's snare drum on BNW is one of my favourite snare sounds. The track list is really consistent: no bad songs, they're all at least good, some are superb. The cover art suits perfectly: a new terror looming over London, or rather an old terror awoken risen again. There is terrific solo-work on the album and it all just feels revolutionary, a perfect way to begin a new life as a band.
BNW is followed by TFF, Matter and DoD, in that order.

Edit: Also, Bruce's vocals were incredibly strong in the early 2000s.
 
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Sad that Bruce gave his best performance over some really mediocre and boring songs
 
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Yeah i believe that in Piece Of Mind Bruce had his best vocals ever. The notes he nails there and the way he sings them are absolutely mind blowing. And everything comes from the chest, no fake high notes as others do.

I believe this deserves a seperate thread. I'm gonna post one right now.
 
I think Bruce may have been at his most powerful and bombastic on Piece of Mind, but that he continued to learn throughout the years and demonstrated a superior form and technique in the early 2000s.
 
Saapanael said:
Such as?
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Well - IMO- all the songs are not as good as they could have been. I feel that the songs were put together in a hurry. For the most part the drumming is quite basic (apart from the bass pedal).

I am afraid that each song has something that is really irritating and I just can't enjoy the album. I know other people think highly of this album.

I really think that for the most part the ideas are ok, but the arrangements and structures are just not so well thought out.

I really don't like a complete song in the album just bits and pieces like e.g the second half of TTLBLAH, most of The Fallen angel and most of the solos.

So I am sorry but I believe that BNW was a mediocre album
 
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