(https://i.imgur.com/opzPPyy.jpg)
Welcome, one and all, to the Iron Maiden Survivor! It’s been over two years since these legends of metal have had a survivor on DTF, so I think this is long overdue. I know the Irons have a lot of fans here, so hopefully we’ll have a lot of people voting in this survivor.
It’s worth noting that this is the first time I’m doing one of these, so if anyone more experienced than I has any suggestions on how to make this proceed more smoothly, I’m all ears. That said, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing.
Rules:
- This survivor will include all 16 Iron Maiden studio albums, from the self-titled debut through last year’s The Book of Souls.
- I plan to include Sanctuary, Twilight Zone and Total Eclipse with their respective albums (Sanctuary—Iron Maiden, Twilight Zone—Killers, Total Eclipse—The Number of the Beast. I know that many of the original pressings of these albums did not include these songs, but I think this is the most efficient way to handle these songs, which are included in the main track sequence on the current commercially available versions of these albums.
- I do not yet have a plan for how to handle the other non-album tracks, so I’ll pose the question to the participants—they could be included on their respective albums, or they could have their own little survivor, or something else entirely. We would also have to decide what non-album tracks are worthy of conclusion. Here’s a list for people to dispute and add to/remove from:
- Women in Uniform (it’s a cover but it was somewhat important early in the band’s history)
- Virus
- Judgment Day
- Justice of the Peace
- I’m planning to have 48 hour rounds and do two albums simultaneously. I think that 24 hours is too short a time window for a survivor round, and if we do the albums one at a time, it will take us forever to get through them all.
- The top two songs from each album will go to finals. The 3rd place song from each album will go to consolations. If an album has 10 or more songs, the 4th place song on that album will also go to consolations. The winner of the small bonus track survivor will also go to consolations. There will be 26 songs in consolations. The top 2 songs in consolations will go to finals, so there will be 34 songs in finals.
- I plan to do tiebreaker votes in each case where there is a tie. If there is a tie in the tiebreaker, I think it makes most sense to go by total votes.
- This isn't even something that can really be policed, but I absolutely do endorse strategic voting.
A few questions for participants:
- What do you think of the bonus track issue? Does it make sense to include Women in Uniform? Are there other bonus tracks I should be including? Should there be a mini-survivor of those four? Or something else?
- Any objections to 48 hour rounds, with two albums run simultaneously?
- What do you think about the number of songs that go into finals/consolations from each round? Should we add a second song to consolations for everybody (which would allow all four of the songs that people love on Powerslave to make finals/consolations), or would a 32 song consolation and 34-36 song finals be way too much (I think it might very well be)? How should the numbers be adjusted based on the number of tracks an albums has?
Please, I do want input from those participating on how to handle these issues. Or if there's anything else you think I should change.
The survivor itself will probably start towards the end of the week. I want to get some of these technical things figured out and to be able to make sure we have a sufficient number of voters before we launch into this massive undertaking. That’ll also give people enough time to relisten to Iron Maiden and Killers, since I anticipate running those two at the same time. Anyway, please participate and give feedback about the rules!