who has been more important to the band? Adrian or Dave?

The combined sound of their twin guitar attack is the most important.

Adrian's songwriting abilities are the second most important.

Davey's guitar playing is the third most important.

/endofline
 
Dave's songs have always been my favorites on several albums.... "Charlotte the Harlot", "Deja Vu", "Still Life", "Fates Warning", "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate", and "The Nomad", are great songs with depth. Adrian's song are equally awesome! Adrian was a great addition but I seem to lean towards Dave out of loyalty, song writing and guitar playing style
 
When listening to the albums BNW up to the present, I'm really impressed with the guitar work, especially on the most recent two. I just wish I knew who was playing what. Iv always considered Adrian my favorite, partly because he has writing credits on some of my favorite songs. But I can't distinguish who plays what.

How do the 3 guitarists differ in sound and style? And who was it who wrote Thin Line?
 
How do they differ in sound and style?

Davey's main technique is playing legatos which makes for a very smooth and flowing sound. He has quite a wet guitar sound, using relatively lot of chorus effect in his solos.
Adrian has very cool compositions and sometimes uses techinques like tapping, artificial harmonics etc. Some of his best solos can be found on the album Somewhere in Time.
Janick has a messier shredding style of playing. He doesn't focus on such beautiful licks like Adrian and Dave (imo) but definitely has a unique touch. He is also the most energetic one on stage.

The Thin Line is a Murray song with many of his solos throughout the song.
 
Murray's songs are always great.... starting with the early "Charlotte the Harlot" which is one of my favorites of the early days. "Still Life", "Deja Vu", "Fates Warning" and "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" are all very well orchestrated tracks. Adrian's has always been more aggressive with songs like "22 Acacia Avenue", "The Prisoner", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Sea of Madness", "Wasted Years", "Flight of Icuras" and "The Wickerman"
 
When listening to the albums BNW up to the present, I'm really impressed with the guitar work, especially on the most recent two. I just wish I knew who was playing what. Iv always considered Adrian my favorite, partly because he has writing credits on some of my favorite songs. But I can't distinguish who plays what.

How do the 3 guitarists differ in sound and style? And who was it who wrote Thin Line?

Go here: http://ironmaidencommentary.com/?link=albums&url=releases&lang=eng
Pick an album, click on Lyrics, read along, and it'll tell you who plays each solo.

As far as which guitarist plays rhythm parts throughout the song, you'll just have to watch live videos. Sometimes you can tell by the tone, Dave's guitar is more mid-heavy and full sounding, Adrian's tone is usually very clear with a scooped mid-range (higher highs and lower lows), and Janick's tone tends to have more treble, especially during solos and leads. Janick also plays a lot of the acoustic guitars on the newer albums.
 
Like, when listening to FF, some songs have quite a few solos (or 'mini solos';). I hear a few different guitar sounds, so i assume some songs have 2 of them doing solos at different times, even all three. It's quite spectacular. One of them, like on the last few albums, has a really 'blistering' sound with solos, and sounds kinda 'clean' and climactic, and reaches musical heights above the other gutiarists. It sounds whimsical. I'v always assumed this was Adrian Smith. And on the songs credited entirely to Steve Harris, does he write the guitar solos himself? Did he write all the solos on Where The Wild Wind Blows?

And did the band give any specific reasons why they kept all 3 guitarists in the band? personally, i love it. They're just unstoppable now.
 
Like, when listening to FF, some songs have quite a few solos (or 'mini solos';). I hear a few different guitar sounds, so i assume some songs have 2 of them doing solos at different times, even all three. It's quite spectacular. One of them, like on the last few albums, has a really 'blistering' sound with solos, and sounds kinda 'clean' and climactic, and reaches musical heights above the other gutiarists. It sounds whimsical. I'v always assumed this was Adrian Smith. And on the songs credited entirely to Steve Harris, does he write the guitar solos himself? Did he write all the solos on Where The Wild Wind Blows?

And did the band give any specific reasons why they kept all 3 guitarists in the band? personally, i love it. They're just unstoppable now.

Steve said in a documentary that if a song is credited solely to him, he writes everything EXCEPT the guitar solos.

Adrian left so Janick joined. When Adrian wanted to rejoin, they didn't want to kick out Janick so they went with the 3 amigos.
 
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