efekåseo_suomi
Educated Fool
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Which Maiden album features the best Janick Gers songwriting contributions?
- Thread starter efekåseo_suomi
- Start date
Jer
The dotage of a dotard
This is surprisingly tough. For me, this comes down to Brave New World vs. The Book Of Souls vs. Senjutsu.
Brave New World features the best Maiden song that Janick had a writing credit on — the excellent “Out Of The Silent Planet” — as well as the great “Ghost Of The Navigator”; but it also has a couple of merely OK-to-good contributions in “The Mercenary” and “Dream Of Mirrors”. The Book Of Souls features the excellent title track (probably my second favorite Maiden song that he has a credit on), but also the merely good and somewhat plagiarized “Shadows Of The Valley”. And while Senjutsu also only features two writing credits for Janick, “Stratego” and “The Time Machine”, both of those songs are great.
Forced to choose, despite the fact that Brave New World and The Book Of Souls have slightly higher highs from Janick, I think the consistently great output on Senjutsu takes it in the end.
Brave New World features the best Maiden song that Janick had a writing credit on — the excellent “Out Of The Silent Planet” — as well as the great “Ghost Of The Navigator”; but it also has a couple of merely OK-to-good contributions in “The Mercenary” and “Dream Of Mirrors”. The Book Of Souls features the excellent title track (probably my second favorite Maiden song that he has a credit on), but also the merely good and somewhat plagiarized “Shadows Of The Valley”. And while Senjutsu also only features two writing credits for Janick, “Stratego” and “The Time Machine”, both of those songs are great.
Forced to choose, despite the fact that Brave New World and The Book Of Souls have slightly higher highs from Janick, I think the consistently great output on Senjutsu takes it in the end.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Brave New World - 4 great songs. It has an advantage.
His songs are always very strong, especially for the last 3 albums. Speaking of his writing contributions, I think he should have written another song for The Final Frontier album (instead of ''Mother Of Mercy''). Maybe even for The Book Of Souls. I also would have liked a Harris/Gers song in Virtual XI album.
His songs are always very strong, especially for the last 3 albums. Speaking of his writing contributions, I think he should have written another song for The Final Frontier album (instead of ''Mother Of Mercy''). Maybe even for The Book Of Souls. I also would have liked a Harris/Gers song in Virtual XI album.
The X Factor.
7 songs in total, all of which are awesome. His guitar work on 2 AM is unbelievable - a career-best solo on that one IMO.
He really had a good songwriting team with Blaze, so many songs on TXF (plus the b-sides), Como Estais Amigos and the ones that went on to BNW.
7 songs in total, all of which are awesome. His guitar work on 2 AM is unbelievable - a career-best solo on that one IMO.
He really had a good songwriting team with Blaze, so many songs on TXF (plus the b-sides), Como Estais Amigos and the ones that went on to BNW.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
I also think his solo in ''2 A.M.'' is great. So much emotion in it. A career-best solo? There are other great candidates (like Brothers, Wasting Love, Parchment). His guitar work as a whole is amazing in The X Factor album.
He indeed had a good songwriting team with Blaze, but Steve also co-wrote some of the songs.
AncientMariner_Essex
Educated Fool
X-factor for me. The album with the most writing credits and all of them excellent songs. It was close with brave new world as he has credits on some great songs and Ghost of the navigator is a highlight of the reunion era for me and one of Maidens best songs IMO.
efekåseo_suomi
Educated Fool
Yes, without his contributions The X Factor would have been a much weaker album and the Blaze era pretty much forgettable.
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
A Matter of Life and Death. All killer, no filler.
After that it would be Brave New World, followed by Dance of Death.
After that it would be Brave New World, followed by Dance of Death.
efekåseo_suomi
Educated Fool
True, but Gers only had The Legacy and The Pilgrim on that one. Awesome songs, but none of them among the five best songs of that album.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
''The Legacy'' is a strong contender for that, without a doubt. And in an album with so many great songs, every song could be the best.
Poto
Ancient Mariner
The Pilgrim is underrated if such a thing exists on AMOLAD.
chaosapiant
Ancient Marinade
I've got to give it to The Final Frontier. And it's a very close call, but I love The Talisman and The Alchemist.
efekåseo_suomi
Educated Fool
I'd put FTGGOG, These Colors, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Out of the Shadows and The Longest Day in my top five, but whenever I listen to the live bootleg from Globen Stockholm, The Pilgrim tends to be my live favourite! A Matter of Life and Death is probably my favourite Iron Maiden album. But the tracks Gers did for The X Factor really raised the quality of that album, whereas A Matter of Life and Death would be a great album even without The Legacy and The Pilgrim.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
Brave New World, of course. 
MindRuler
Found in a lost world
Oh yes... Your username.Brave New World, of course.
So basically you´re the lovechild of Janick and´Arry?
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
Or Air Raid Siren's and H's one...Oh yes... Your username.
So basically you´re the lovechild of Janick and´Arry?
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Janick generally has at least 1 outstanding song per reunion album, but BNW is still the best.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
The comparison is not fair becasue he co-wrote 7 out of the 11 songs for The X Factor. A Matter Of Life And Death is the better album (although the other album is full of good songs), but ''The Legacy'' is such a unique song with its different intro and second half for the band and it's improtant to the album (they wanted to call the album like that), while ''The Pilgrim'' is the much-needed great rocker in it (along with ''Different World''). On the other hand, a song like ''Man On The Edge'' does not fit the mood of the album that well, although I understand why they added it.
Some albums have more than 1 such song.
Travis The Dragon
"Here's another fine mess you've gotten me into"
This is too hard since I can only vote for one album.