Your Maiden blasphemy

Powerslave to me really feels like an album with a lot of compositions rather than songs. Lots of intricate music and arrangements, but only half of them are strong songs. Even out of the four that I consider good, one has some pretty bad vocal lines (Aces High) and the other largely survives on the strength of its source material (you should probably be able to guess which one this is).

Even those two have a lot of interesting music that almost overshadows the lyrical content, and a song like The Duellists basically lives entirely on the strength of its instrumental sections. Which I think are cool but way too overlong, so yeah. I would argue even the tracks Bruce worked on have the same issue (curiously enough), but in the case of Powerslave and 2MTM, the complete package is still good enough that the barrage of great riffs and solos and Powerslave's harmony section isn't enough to overshadow the vocals. Helps that the lyrics are very strong, of course.
 
To me, Powerslave = first three tracks and the title track.

Aces High is a killer opener, and the solo duel is what made me fall in love with Iron Maiden (especially Dave's legato section in his solo).
2 Minutes to Midnight is one of those classics nearly everyone knows. One of the first IM songs I listened to. I think it's a good song and one of their heaviest riffs.
Losfer Words is an overall good song, but not as good as Genghis Khan. Maybe the worst instrumental out of the three they made (Ides to me is too different, I can't count it among the "instrumentals").
The title track I regard as the best song on the album.

The others:
Flash of the Blade is, to me, one of the worst songs in the "classic era".
Regarding Duellists I agree with @Ruflux, it survives thanks to the instrumental section. Also, awful vocal line in the verses. "Classic era" The Unbeliever.
Back in the Village has their best opening riff, but the song is nothing special to me.
Rime is basically a nearly 14 minutes march which repeats the same gallop half the song. And yes, the lyrics are great, but it's because Harris summarized the original poem tracing it almost word by word.


Even Killers, which I consider a good album but kinda fluctuating between the "debut" Iron Maiden and the future Iron Maiden, I would rank higher than Powerslave.
Fortunately, two years later they made their best record (to me).
 
I have a new opinion about a thing I hadn't really thought about before...I prefer the studio version of Can I Play With Madness and Wasted Years to any live version I've heard (including hearing both in person). Both are my least favorite songs from their respective albums, though still very strong tracks. But it seems that choruses where the "weight" of it depends on the vocal harmonies, they don't seem to connect live. They're still good songs, but I dunno..just something about them. Maiden's live vocal harmonies have never been super good, but on most songs, they are good enough to give the choruses some width where it counts. On these two tracks, it sounds like two or three people are each singing out of tune with one another.

Am I the only one to feel this way?
 
chaosapiant said:
I have a new opinion about a thing I hadn't really thought about before...I prefer the studio version of Can I Play With Madness and Wasted Years to any live version I've heard (including hearing both in person). Both are my least favorite songs from their respective albums, though still very strong tracks. But it seems that choruses where the "weight" of it depends on the vocal harmonies, they don't seem to connect live. They're still good songs, but I dunno..just something about them. Maiden's live vocal harmonies have never been super good, but on most songs, they are good enough to give the choruses some width where it counts. On these two tracks, it sounds like two or three people are each singing out of tune with one another.

Am I the only one to feel this way?
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To some extent, I agree! I think Wasted Years is a very powerful live song, I think the chorus does lack some of the punch every now and then. Then again, it's has one of the more impactful and emotional sing-along choruses.

However, one of my favourite moments from Maiden live recordings is from Wasted Years '99. It's fucking powerful and dynamic moment. There's so much energy in that version and they handle the high tempo very well. Beautiful solos and then, the chorus kicks in... and huge part of the effect is that Adrian doesn't join straight away. Bruce doing the first "SO UNDERSTAAND..." alone sounds so great. And then, Adrian joining in for the repeat beefs it up nicely and makes the song "grow" even at very last moments.


Of course, it's neat when Bruce gave Adrian some spotlight over the more recent performances ("ADRIAN!"), but in many ways, there's a some very unique, raw power in the Ed-Huntour performances and perhaps the song captured the vibe of the whole reunion process very well. Don't waste your time searching for those wasted years etc.

So yeah, while I love the live versions of it, the chorus tends to get a bit messy every now and then. That's why I love the '99 versions of it so much, where it doesn't get too "playful" - as heart-warming as that element from the 2008-2017 performances is, anyway.
 
chaosapiant said:
I have a new opinion about a thing I hadn't really thought about before...I prefer the studio version of Can I Play With Madness and Wasted Years to any live version I've heard (including hearing both in person). Both are my least favorite songs from their respective albums, though still very strong tracks. But it seems that choruses where the "weight" of it depends on the vocal harmonies, they don't seem to connect live. They're still good songs, but I dunno..just something about them. Maiden's live vocal harmonies have never been super good, but on most songs, they are good enough to give the choruses some width where it counts. On these two tracks, it sounds like two or three people are each singing out of tune with one another.

Am I the only one to feel this way?
Click to expand...

I think the blasphemy here is that ''Wasted Years'' is your least favorite song from SIT.

Btw, the studio version of ''Wasted Years'' is perfect. The chorus of CIPWM is great in studio, but it's also good live.
 
My blasphemy: Paschendale. Not the worst song on Dance Of Death but I'm not a huge fan of it either.
The instrumental section of Quest For Fire is pure Maiden greatness and I never understand why so much people consider this among the worst Maiden songs. Other songs often named as weak but favourites of mine: Hooks In You, The Educated Fool,...
 
Kalata said:
I think the blasphemy here is that ''Wasted Years'' is your least favorite song from SIT.

Btw, the studio version of ''Wasted Years'' is perfect. The chorus of CIPWM is great in studio, but it's also good live.
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Eh, Wasted Years is a great track...but all the other tracks on that album stand head and shoulders above it. That is such a powerful album, especially vocally. Probably one of my favorite vocal performances from Bruce along with Powerslave, and Matter of Life and Death.
 
take no pensioners said:
What I'm about to show you is insanely blasphemous. Get your pitchforks ready...

I got the master tracks of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and made a version of it WITHOUT synths:


I always wanted to hear a version without synths and couldn't find any so gave it a go myself.
Click to expand...
This way, some moments make the song sound like a distant cousin to "To Tame A Land". What remains very different from the sound of PoM though, is the excess of reverb, especially on the voice.

The only part where the absence of keyboards can be really felt in just before the final harmonies (when the pyro accompanies the "ah-ah"s live).

Anyway, great work @take no pensioners ! :ok:
 
Black Bart said:
This way, some moments make the song sound like a distant cousin to "To Tame A Land". What remains very different from the sound of PoM though, is the excess of reverb, especially on the voice.

The only part where the absence of keyboards can be really felt in just before the final harmonies (when the pyro accompanies the "ah-ah"s live).

Anyway, great work @take no pensioners ! :ok:
Click to expand...

Yeah, the vocal audio file I got seems to have an echo on it which is much more pronounced than on the actual album. Not much I could do to fix it though, unfortunately.

And yes, to me that was the only time I felt compelled to put the synth back in! lol
 
take no pensioners said:
What I'm about to show you is insanely blasphemous. Get your pitchforks ready...

I got the master tracks of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and made a version of it WITHOUT synths:


I always wanted to hear a version without synths and couldn't find any so gave it a go myself.
Click to expand...
Actually it is not bad, and I agree with @Black Bart aout the Piece-of-Mindness of the track.

The synths after all double the guitars on different octaves (not always, IIRC) and give that Seventh Son of a Seventh Son mood to the track... but Flight 666's Moonchild proves that those songs actually work good even with an heavier arrangement.

The only section which suffers from the lack of synths is the "ah-ah!" bridge after the solos leading to the finale. But I guess that in another album they would have played the synth melody on guitars.
 
take no pensioners said:
Yeah, the vocal audio file I got seems to have an echo on it which is much more pronounced than on the actual album. Not much I could do to fix it though, unfortunately.

And yes, to me that was the only time I felt compelled to put the synth back in! lol
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All the master tracks you have online of basically every band are sourced from Guitar Hero or in this case Rock Band. Unfortunately this means they're merged in strange ways, have leveling issues with things like fill-in guitars, synths and vocals, the mix is usually odd since everything's been EQ'd wrong, and they're pretty poor quality resulting in audible high-end distortion thanks to lossy compression. And yes, the vocal tracks usually have a ton of reverb on them that wasn't there originally which is super unfortunate.

It's why all these fanmade "RE-MIXED AND IMPROVED" editions you see on YouTube for some songs are a bit of a joke - they're not only working off of lossy source files without access to the original stems, but they're also EQ'd and have effects on them already, and then the amateur mixing gurus add even more on top till it sounds like complete crap.
 
Ruflux said:
All the master tracks you have online of basically every band are sourced from Guitar Hero or in this case Rock Band. Unfortunately this means they're merged in strange ways, have leveling issues with things like fill-in guitars, synths and vocals, the mix is usually odd since everything's been EQ'd wrong, and they're pretty poor quality resulting in audible high-end distortion thanks to lossy compression. And yes, the vocal tracks usually have a ton of reverb on them that wasn't there originally which is super unfortunate.

It's why all these fanmade "RE-MIXED AND IMPROVED" editions you see on YouTube for some songs are a bit of a joke - they're not only working off of lossy source files without access to the original stems, but they're also EQ'd and have effects on them already, and then the amateur mixing gurus add even more on top till it sounds like complete crap.
Click to expand...

I know all this. I'm not sure why you assume I don't. I did this track out of curiosity and thought I'd share. I'm not saying this is re-mixed and improved. It's nowhere near the original. I stated in the video description it's missing some rhythm guitar dubs, most noticeable in the intro. I did have to eq but did so sparingly. The tracks I got seem to be missing some low end, so they got boosted very slightly. I spent a short amount of time trying to fix levels and panning issues. If the vocals weren't trash I might've spent a bit more time on it, but as it is, it's just a project of curiosity. Anyhoo, thanks for listening.
:cheers:
 
take no pensioners said:
I know all this. I'm not sure why you assume I don't. I did this track out of curiosity and thought I'd share. I'm not saying this is re-mixed and improved. It's nowhere near the original. I stated in the video description it's missing some rhythm guitar dubs, most noticeable in the intro. I did have to eq but did so sparingly. The tracks I got seem to be missing some low end, so they got boosted very slightly. I spent a short amount of time trying to fix levels and panning issues. If the vocals weren't trash I might've spent a bit more time on it, but as it is, it's just a project of curiosity. Anyhoo, thanks for listening.
:cheers:
Click to expand...
I wasn't talking about you, just giving some context as to why there might be missing guitar tracks or annoying reverb in there for those who aren't aware. Sorry for the confusion, I realize my post might be read as far more accusatory than I intended it to be.

Honestly, I appreciate people doing stuff for curiosity's sake (like indeed removing keyboards from a track for fun) or posting isolated backing vocals and whatnot on YouTube or even doing re-mixes for fun, it's all good in my book. What annoys me is when you get these jokesters that get their videos promoted on my feed and endless views and praise for aggravatingly self-congratulatory titles for poorly done remixed versions.

I see this a lot with Metallica songs, but luckily it seems like that same kind of scene doesn't exist for Maiden, probably due to the lack of separated tracks for more than a handful songs.
 
Ruflux said:
I wasn't talking about you, just giving some context as to why there might be missing guitar tracks or annoying reverb in there for those who aren't aware. Sorry for the confusion, I realize my post might be read as far more accusatory than I intended it to be.

Honestly, I appreciate people doing stuff for curiosity's sake (like indeed removing keyboards from a track for fun) or posting isolated backing vocals and whatnot on YouTube or even doing re-mixes for fun, it's all good in my book. What annoys me is when you get these jokesters that get their videos promoted on my feed and endless views and praise for aggravatingly self-congratulatory titles for poorly done remixed versions.

I see this a lot with Metallica songs, but luckily it seems like that same kind of scene doesn't exist for Maiden, probably due to the lack of separated tracks for more than a handful songs.
Click to expand...
No worries!

And yeah, all the ...And Justice for Jason's spring to mind. Lol
 
^ people don't understand that Jason's bass isn't just "turned down" it's actually frequency jammed by Hetfield's guitar at times.
 
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