Your Maiden blasphemy

Black Bart said:
Congratulations: you've won the Blasphemy thread! :okok:
"Prowler '88" is like a macaroni collage of Mona Lisa (almost as bad as Deep Purple's "Hush 1988" on Nobody's Perfect).
Well, to each their own. That's the whole point of this thread! ;)
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I can listen to the '88 versions, but what makes the debut special to me is the shabby sound of the production coupled with the aggression of playing that is perfectly complemented by Paul's vocals. It's raw, hungry and full of electricity. All this is missing on the re-recordings, and they're basically just any other Maiden songs.
 
Perun said:
what makes the debut special to me is the shabby sound of the production coupled with the aggression of playing that is perfectly complemented by Paul's vocals. It's raw, hungry and full of electricity.
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For a period of a little over half a year, the Iron Maiden debut was my favorite heavy metal album. I couldn't get enough of it essentially for those reasons above.

Time to update my Maiden blasphemies (as my tastes change all the time):
  • Killers is a pretty bad album with a little under half of it being non-grating to listen to. I do quite like Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Innocent Exile, the title track, and Twilight Zone. The rest I can very well go without having EVER heard. I think it's that bad. Like a Z list hard rock band forgetting to finish their album in the studio before putting it out bad.
  • The Number of the Beast, while not a flat out bad album, is just boring. I think the production is flat and over half of the tracks on there (Invaders, 22 Acacia Avenue, the title track, Run to the Hills, Gangland, Total Eclipse) have very poor writing/song structuring.
  • Dance of Death and The Book of Souls are directionless, muddling, disorienting, less than half-baked, tiring, grating and annoying listens with very, VERY few tracks I ever go back to. I think Steve Harris often mistakes giving songs no direction what so ever as clever, progressive songwriting.
  • Bruce isn't aging very well and his voice has obviously degraded from 2016 to 2019.
 
Perun said:
All this is missing on the re-recordings, and they're basically just any other Maiden songs.
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I think they are historical songs on the contrary, especially "Prowler" which is the first song on the first record, this should not be overlooked. ;)
 
Black Bart said:
I think they are historical songs on the contrary, especially "Prowler" which is the first song on the first record, this should not be overlooked. ;)
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I think he’s talking about the re-recordings specifically, and that getting rid of any rawness makes them any other Maiden song.
 
Black Bart said:
I think they are historical songs on the contrary, especially "Prowler" which is the first song on the first record, this should not be overlooked. ;)
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I get that, but it's no longer "historical" if it's a re-recording done in completely different circumstances.
 
Dityn DJ James said:
For a period of a little over half a year, the Iron Maiden debut was my favorite heavy metal album. I couldn't get enough of it essentially for those reasons above.

Time to update my Maiden blasphemies (as my tastes change all the time):
  • Killers is a pretty bad album with a little under half of it being non-grating to listen to. I do quite like Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Innocent Exile, the title track, and Twilight Zone. The rest I can very well go without having EVER heard. I think it's that bad. Like a Z list hard rock band forgetting to finish their album in the studio before putting it out bad.
  • The Number of the Beast, while not a flat out bad album, is just boring. I think the production is flat and over half of the tracks on there (Invaders, 22 Acacia Avenue, the title track, Run to the Hills, Gangland, Total Eclipse) have very poor writing/song structuring.
  • Dance of Death and The Book of Souls are directionless, muddling, disorienting, less than half-baked, tiring, grating and annoying listens with very, VERY few tracks I ever go back to. I think Steve Harris often mistakes giving songs no direction what so ever as clever, progressive songwriting.
  • Bruce isn't aging very well and his voice has obviously degraded from 2016 to 2019.
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I’ll disregard the last two points and just say: YAY FOR ANOTHER PERSON WHO SEES KILLERS FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS!
 
^
I'll disregard the first two points and just say: YAY FOR ANOTHER PERSON WHO SEES POST-REUNION MAIDEN FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS!
 
While TBOS is a good listen as a back-to back album, it has very few songs that stand on their own. I only listen back to If Eternity Should Fail or TBOS if I want to single out a couple of songs rather than the entire album. Much like Priest's Nostradamus. I think Nostradamus a terrific piece of art as an entirety, and an impressive attempt to reinvent Priest, but most songs are just bloated and pompeous when they stand on their own.
 
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chaosapiant said:
I think I would judge No Prayer harsher if it didn't sound like it was exactly what Steve wanted to do. When you think about how he wanted to make a more raw album like Killers, and realize they already had seven albums of experience under their belt as well as a much better singer, No Prayer is exactly what it was meant to be. And it's totally ok to say that's not a direction preferred over their previous stuff, but I eat it up. And lastly, it's easier to enjoy those sort of weird/outlier albums now because they charted a course back to their 80s sound and then right past it in terms of progressiveness. All their albums are gems for me, and when I want to listen to Maiden just kick ass and take names with a street feel, then I go to their first two and NPFTD and FOTD. Of the four, I think NPFTD is my favorite.
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Where were you in 1990?. Hehe. I don't like NPFTD. I can't stand FOTD:topicsucks:
 
Dityn DJ James said:
For a period of a little over half a year, the Iron Maiden debut was my favorite heavy metal album. I couldn't get enough of it essentially for those reasons above.

Time to update my Maiden blasphemies (as my tastes change all the time):
  • Killers is a pretty bad album with a little under half of it being non-grating to listen to. I do quite like Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Innocent Exile, the title track, and Twilight Zone. The rest I can very well go without having EVER heard. I think it's that bad. Like a Z list hard rock band forgetting to finish their album in the studio before putting it out bad.
  • The Number of the Beast, while not a flat out bad album, is just boring. I think the production is flat and over half of the tracks on there (Invaders, 22 Acacia Avenue, the title track, Run to the Hills, Gangland, Total Eclipse) have very poor writing/song structuring.
  • Dance of Death and The Book of Souls are directionless, muddling, disorienting, less than half-baked, tiring, grating and annoying listens with very, VERY few tracks I ever go back to. I think Steve Harris often mistakes giving songs no direction what so ever as clever, progressive songwriting.
  • Bruce isn't aging very well and his voice has obviously degraded from 2016 to 2019.
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Agree with all points except the second one. Always thought Killers was a 50:50 of great/absolutely rubbish and I've always been critical of Book of Souls, thought the composition was flawed and the lyrics all over the place and overrated except for maybe for EOTC in terms of lyrics.
 
Yes, the compositions are really what kill that album (atleast for me). It's like almost every riff on TBoS is like an open ended question, if that makes sense. I feel like almost every member of the on that album starts playing notes before they have a melody set or an ending to the song in mind. It's annoying.

And regarding my point about The Number of the Beast: I think I've just overplayed that one. From 2011 to 2015 I listened to it a lot, probably close to weekly. I haven't willing put it on in about 5 months now. I think it definitely doesn't compare to the Piece of Mind through SiT run.
 
Dityn DJ James said:
Yes, the compositions are really what kill that album (atleast for me). It's like almost every riff on TBoS is like an open ended question, if that makes sense. I feel like almost every member of the on that album starts playing notes before they have a melody set or an ending to the song in mind. It's annoying.
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While I'm a huge TBOS fan, I can definitely see your point and I sort of agree. In a way, it's bit of a Janick-esque thing; kind of "on the edge" all the time, and it really annoys some, while other find some charm in it. I do love listening to TBOS, and in all of it's loosiness I find it much more hooking and "inspired" than TFF, which might be (when it comes to compositions anyway) a bit more refined, but for me, not as compelling, as much as I like it too. But as mentioned, I acknowledge it's problems, they just don't really bother me quite that much, as I love the overall flow and mood of the album.
 
Randalf said:
it really annoys some, while other find some charm in it.
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Well, you can't please all the people all the time ... ;)

Literally the only problem I ever had with TBOS is that last time change in TRATB: after their past flawless record for seamless time changes that one seemed strangely jarring. But I've even got used to that now - I don't notice it any more.
 
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