absolutely agreed; i cannot fathom how this album is considered a masterpiece. the same problems seem to pop up again and again with the latter day maiden material - the production, the repetition (chorus retardation as maidenslave refers to on his youtube maiden reviews), and most of all, the lack of well written melodies and vocal lines.
It's interesting to me how fans of a well established band can have such polar opinions. I guess it a way it shows the variety that the band have to offer, catering to people's "special" interests.
When AMOLAD first came out, I found it a fantastic album. Certainly very different from all previous efforts. I felt it had a "mature" sound to it. But to be honest, I'm not really sure what I mean by "mature" LOL, I just don't have the musical lingo to explain it sufficiently.
BTATS is such a heavy and crunching song, more so that anything they have ever done.
The Longest Day is a grinding song that mimics in some ways the grind of war. It set's up the chorus in an unusual and very effective way, making the song great.
Out of the Shadows is very nice for its flurry of intertwining guitar leads/melodies throughout. Which to me seemed a new trick for Maiden.
Lord of Light, for me was the piece de resistance. A unique song, interesting and exhilirating.
the mixing simply sounds muted; it should kick with all the thrilling energy of an act like the allman brothers band, multi guitar acts. but the guitars sound so sanitised. the drums sound like they were recorded separately from everything else, and the bass and drums rarely seem to meld and mix to create any kind of effective rhythm section.
Unfortunately most albums of the 90's through to now are poorly mixed and mastered. Certainly the compression of loudness wars has had a huge detrimental impact as well as the free downloading culture. It just doesn't make much sense for bands to put much $$$s into producing a great sounding album these days when sales are so low, they don't get return on investment.
"a matter of life and death" for me is bereft of melodic hooks for the most part
I don't really understand what the term "hook" means. But regarding melodies, I don't mind at all that this album isn't so laiden melodies, in someways the lack of strong melodies is a feature rather than a deterant for me, it makes this album unique from the other Maiden albums and allows me to focus on other musical aspects.
too many tracks on this album simply plod; similar sounding without much to distinguish and musical ideas decent but not at all to such a high degree to elevate this material to great.
I can totally understand why this is a deterant for you on this album.
I don't completely understand why it isn't a deterant for me, but the album has much more to offer. It's plodding quality is a strength for me, strangely enough.
i find the album almost unlistenable; when played before or after other great albums by great acts, this album simply pales in comparison. "brave new world" i feel is the best of the latter day style, but from "dance of death" this mundanity has been ever more present. it reached its peak i thought with "the final frontier"; an overlong, tedious record, with some very good ideas buried under extreme musical lenghts.
I feel TFF is the best album Maiden have ever created.
It's not perfect, sound quality isn't great, Bruce sounds strained at times. But I find the songs for the most part very interesting, certainly quite a proggy album. I'm not such a fan of the straight forward songs on that album Alchamest, El Dorado, but the rest are sublime. I did have to shave off Satellite 15 and the intro to Talisman, but otherwise a very great album.
BNW and DOD are my least favourite from the Second Coming of Bruce era but still very, very good.
"a matter of life and death" would be for me one of their poorest albums, along with "x factor", "final frontier", and "virtual xi". a very difficult album to sit through, and its replay value not very high.
I do, however find virtual xi to be a poor and rarely reached for album.
