The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[TAC]

https://bravewords.com/news/iron-maiden-author-offers-nine-maiden-related-ebooks-free-of-charge

[jammindude]

bump

I finally picked up Dance of Death today....though I'm not sure how soon I'm going to be able to listen to it because I picked up the new BTBAM and Ayreon Universe in the same haul.   I'm looking forward to checking it out though.

[Anguyen92]

As I stated, you are going to have a big aneurysm during No More Lies.  You have been warned.

[Cool Chris]

I love No More Lies. And loved it even more when I saw them play it live.

[Anguyen92]

In all fairness, I like No More Lies as well, but given jammindude's likes and dislikes when it comes to Maiden songs, this one is probably going to be in the lower end.

[jammindude]

Somewhere along the line, I have heard No More Lies and...ya.   It has all this potential, and I like most of it, but by the end I'm waiting for it to be over.   I can't think of a single example of a Maiden song (or song by anyone actually) where the name of the song being repeated 16 times for the chorus doesn't annoy the crap out of me.    Even if they were to just alternate it with ONE different line, it would make all the difference in the world.   

[The King in Crimson]

I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
I love No More Lies.
And loved it even more when I saw them play it live.

FIFY

[Zook]

No More Lies was fun live, but only because the entire crowd was singing along, but it really is quite an annoying and repetitive song.

[MirrorMask]

With the Legacy of the Beast tour approaching (and I'm a fanatic no spoilers guy, especially when it comes to Maiden, so I propose this idea but I won't be around to see how it went  ), what do you think will be in the setlist? we can follow the tour announcement and the little rumors here and there to predict a reasonable setlist.

I'd suggest these guidelines:
- Respect the tour announcement. Classics of the '80s and some newer songs.
- No more than 17 songs. 16 if you use two 10 minute-ish songs. 15 if you use a longer song like Rime.
- Strongly hinted songs are For the Greater Good of God and Flight of Icarus, find some room for those.
- Three songs as encore, last of the main set must be Iron Maiden.
- Bruce said he wanted "social media madness" after the first show, try to predict what he will come up with now that he has more control over the setlist!

(I hope it's not Alex the Great. To this point I'd rather have them not play it than giving in to those that tour after tour continue to insist in the hope they'd do it  )

[cramx3]

There's been hints of FTGGOG being played again? 

[MirrorMask]

There's been hints of FTGGOG being played again? 

It's in the actual tour announcement, the first video released with the announcement of the tour and that image with the various "church windows". It plays over the video, it's basically the first song.

Also, it's rumored that Nicko at a drum clinic said they'll play Flight of Icarus and Where Eagles Dare.

[cramx3]

Nice, I don't think I paid that close attention since this is a tour that I am not going to be seeing, but damn that makes me want to go to Europe this summer.  I actually did check out the idea of going to Paris since I have off from work that week but the cost is just too much.

[MirrorMask]

This blog kept a detailed account of all the hints, be them interviews or details hidden in the artwork:

https://maidenrevelations.com/2018/03/31/spring-speculation-legacy-of-the-beast-european-tour-2018/

[Ruba]

I actually like No More Lies. And Blood Brothers to boot. Even though I find modern Iron Maiden often overtly repetitive.

I finally gave The Book of Souls a chance this spring. I'm not a fan of the post-reunion Iron Maiden albums, they are very inconsistent and too long for their own good, and in 2015, I didn't really care about Iron Maiden or follow what was happening in their camp. Also, the tracklist and the song lengths (3 +10 minute songs, album +80 minutes), I figured it was not worth it.

But I've been slowly warming up to them lately and decided to bite the bullet. And you know what, it wasn't half bad. Some of my pet peeves about their latest albums (3 minute clean guitar intros that hardly serve any purpose, choruses consisting of one line repeated ad infinitum, Em-C-G-D chord progression) were thankfully toned down. They didn't reinvent the wheel, which is both plus and minus, since the album is totally the Maiden we know and love, but sometimes sounds pretty derivative of their older material. Thankfully there is Empire of the Clouds, going to a completely uncharted territory for the band with it's prominent use of piano and symphonic sound. On the other end of the line is The Red and the Black, which basically makes me think Steve Harris has run out of ideas. At five minutes I just hoped it would end... and it kept dragging on for another eight minutes. C'mon Steve, the hook of the song is almost completely same than the outro of The Wicker Man! I have no will to revisit it, but probably you will make me now that I've trashed it. But sometimes the manage to sound fresh and interesting while using their old songwriting tropes, like in Speed of Light and the title track, which is probably my favourite Maiden epic since... Alexander the Great?! Could very well be, it pretty much stays interesting during its whole length and doesn't have any awkward or out-of-place passages (Dance of Death and The Man Who Would Be King, I'm looking at you two!).

I don't think I should pass any lasting judgment yet, but I was positively surprised and while it doesn't come close to their 80s albums, it's a decent addition to their discography.

[Ruba]

With the Legacy of the Beast tour approaching (and I'm a fanatic no spoilers guy, especially when it comes to Maiden, so I propose this idea but I won't be around to see how it went  ), what do you think will be in the setlist? we can follow the tour announcement and the little rumors here and there to predict a reasonable setlist.

I'd suggest these guidelines:
- Respect the tour announcement. Classics of the '80s and some newer songs.
- No more than 17 songs. 16 if you use two 10 minute-ish songs. 15 if you use a longer song like Rime.
- Strongly hinted songs are For the Greater Good of God and Flight of Icarus, find some room for those.
- Three songs as encore, last of the main set must be Iron Maiden.
- Bruce said he wanted "social media madness" after the first show, try to predict what he will come up with now that he has more control over the setlist!

(I hope it's not Alex the Great. To this point I'd rather have them not play it than giving in to those that tour after tour continue to insist in the hope they'd do it  )

Hell no! Not that snoozefest. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns or Lord of Light please . But I'm in. And I'll make two: my dream set and a likely set.

Also, I'm happily surprised if they play Icarus. I thought Steve hates it.

What I'd want
1. Churchill's Speech/Aces High
2. Purgatory (you can always dream, right )
3. 2 Minutes to Midnight
4. Revelations
5. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
6. Flight of Icarus
7. No Prayer for the Dying (not gonna happen, but still )
8. Blood Brothers
9. 22 Acacia Avenue
10. The Book of Souls
11. Infinite Dreams
12. Wasted Years
13. Iron Maiden
---------------------------
14. The Number of the Beast
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name (they're allowed to play it again, right?)
16. Running Free

To be fair, they'll play The Trooper and Run to the Hills anyway so...

The more realistic set
1. Churchill's Speech/Aces High
2. Wrathchild
3. Ghost of the Navigator
4. The Trooper
5. For the Greater Meh of God
6. Flight of Icarus
7. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
8. The Evil That Men Do
9. Wasted Years
10. The Book of Souls
11. Run to the Hills
12. Iron Maiden
---------------------------
13. The Number of the Beast
14. Fear of the Dark
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name

E: I just realized there's only two "new" songs there... well I replace 2 Minutes with Ghost of the Navigator then.

[Mosh]

This blog kept a detailed account of all the hints, be them interviews or details hidden in the artwork:

https://maidenrevelations.com/2018/03/31/spring-speculation-legacy-of-the-beast-european-tour-2018/

I can’t take this seriously at all. Do they really think Sun and Steel will be played? The only scenario where I see that happening is if they do all of Piece of Mind, which I actually wouldn’t rule out at this point.

I think two reUnion era songs is pretty realistic, especially if one of them is a big epic.

[Mladen]

I think they precisely constructed the tour poster in oder for the fans to be able to guess some of the songs. And given that they certainly knew the set list by the time they started promoting the tour with that poster, to me it's very likely some of those guesses might become true. I do count on For the greater good of God, The Clansman and Flight of Icarus. Some aren't as likely, though.

[DTA]

I always get hyped for this kind of shit, but then the band (not just Maiden) always winds up going the safe route. Like their idea of a deep track is a song like Afraid To Shoot Strangers or Where Eagles Dare or something. Good songs, but just not deep enough. U2 is doing something similar with their upcoming tour with hyping up rarities and unplayed songs, and some rehearsal spoilers are coming out and while there are quite a few surprises, a lot of it are somewhat obvious choices. Even Steven Wilson's tour has a couple cool PT tracks, but too many that are just too common. I hate to be a complainer about this shit, but there's so many awesome songs with so little time...why repeat yourself tour after tour?

[cramx3]

Yea, I hear ya.  The fact Bruce said he wants the internet to be buzzing about what they played makes me think it is possible for something really interesting, because I think the only way the internet explodes with their set list is if they play something they've never done before, specifically from the 80s and I'm not sure Sun and Steel would do it.  Probably Alexander the Great would do the trick. 

[TAC]

Right.

https://bravewords.com/news/iron-maiden-singer-bruce-dickinson-expects-huge-reaction-to-setlist-on-legacy-of-the-beast-tour-there-ll-be-social-media-madness-after-the-first-show

[DTA]

I'm hopeful, and that interview does sound like it's going to actually be something pretty spectacular. It's so awesome that they're still able to generate this much excitement this late in their career.

[MirrorMask]

In order to have the internet going crazy, not even opening with Where Eagles Dare or Be Quick or Be Dead would do.

They'd have to do something along the lines of:
- Play three hours
- Play Alex the Great
- Play both Rime and Seventh Son or something like that
- Open with Fear of the Dark or anyway really shuffle up the order of the songs

They also said they'd follow the Legacy of the Beast game concept and have the stage somehow portraying the different worlds. I wonder if they'll go in sections or continously switch, for example, there's a Battlefield stage and they could dedicate that portion of the set to The Trooper, Death or Glory, For the Greater Good of God and Where Eagles Dare one after the other (they have however so many songs about war that they could do an entire show about war songs), but it would be tricky to have blocks of songs that could flow coherently.

EDIT: re-reading the interview it looks like Bruce puts a bigger emphasis on the stage concept, and how the "worlds" will change between one another. So probably he considers the stage re-arranging itself 3-4 times during the show and, say, Flight of Icarus and Be Quick or Be Dead enough to warrant widespread internet interest.

[devieira73]

I also bet that the “ social media madness” will have more to do with the stage production than with the songs of setlist. However, like Bruce said, I think that it will be at last one big surprise song and my bet is on Empire of the Clouds.

[TAC]

He seems to be referring to the setlist, no?

‘Fucking hell, I can’t believe they played THAT song!’ That’s the reaction I want. ........... And we’re playing one or two things that people are gonna be really surprised by. There’ll be social media madness after the first show.”




Any chances Caught Somewhere In Time will be played? I mean the SiT Eddie is prominently featured on its own glass plane. I know they were heavily criticized for not playing it on either of the last two History Tours.

[devieira73]

Yes, it seems, but the last sentence could be an overall observation of the show, I don’t know.
But if I could choose  two special songs in the set, I would choose infinite dreams and caught somewhere in time.

[MirrorMask]

I doubt that CSIT will ever be back, Bruce would choke on the chorus.

About the "I can't believe it" part, depends what Bruce considers a surprise. For example, last tour I couldn't believe they'd play Powerslave, it always seemed one of their unwritten rules to have the title track or centerpiece of a show being played only in the tour dedicated to that album theme. He probably considered Children of the Damned a rarity, even if I have heard it already back in 2007 and it was played also in the second leg of the Somewhere Back in Time tour. But it wasn't part of a major tour from the get-go since 1986 in the end.

Flight of Icarus and Be Quick or Be Dead already qualify as huge surprises for Maiden standards, even though the dedicated fanbase would consider Alex the Great and Empire of the Clouds as "I can't believe it" kind of surprises. But hey, the average concert goer who is happy to hear all the classics would probably go "What song is this? as the sun breaks above the ground... ah, right! Flight of Icarus! heard it on Live After Death DVD two yeas ago, now I remember! cool!"

[cramx3]

Bruce specifically mentioning the song he wrote, Flight of Icarus, hasn't been played live in so long in his book makes that song much less of a surprise.

[bosk1]

In order to have the internet going crazy, not even opening with Where Eagles Dare or Be Quick or Be Dead would do.

They'd have to do something along the lines of:
...
- Play both Rime and Seventh Son or something like that

If by "going crazy," you mean "saying to myself 'not interested in the least in seeing this show,'" then the bolded would definitely do it.

[Mladen]

I doubt that CSIT will ever be back, Bruce would choke on the chorus.

Given that he sang the hell out of The Great unknown and The Book of souls, I don't think it's impossible.

What's important to remember is that, knowing how Maiden construct their set lists by often putting an emphasis on classics, a SURPRISING set is a set where you are surprised by no more than two or three songs. I wouldn't expect more than three surprises. Bruce did say one or two, but that's just a Brittish way of saying several or a few.

[TAC]

In order to have the internet going crazy, not even opening with Where Eagles Dare or Be Quick or Be Dead would do.

They'd have to do something along the lines of:
...
- Play both Rime and Seventh Son or something like that

If by "going crazy," you mean "saying to myself 'not interested in the least in seeing this show,'" then the bolded would definitely do it.

I hope Rime and SS don't get played. They have just been played on semi recent tours.

[cramx3]

In order to have the internet going crazy, not even opening with Where Eagles Dare or Be Quick or Be Dead would do.

They'd have to do something along the lines of:
...
- Play both Rime and Seventh Son or something like that

If by "going crazy," you mean "saying to myself 'not interested in the least in seeing this show,'" then the bolded would definitely do it.

I hope Rime and SS don't get played. They have just been played on semi recent tours.

It's funny how 10 years ago feels like a recent tour (for Rime).  But yea, I'd rather something different too.  That's kind of why Alexander feels possible.  It would take the spot of an old school epic, be fresh since it's never been played live, and gives those other epics a break so they can come back out for their final tour. 

[TAC]

It's funny how 10 years ago feels like a recent tour (for Rime). 

I was thinking the same thing. I just wasn't sure how to phrase it.


Rime does NOT set social media on fire, does it? I wouldn't think so.

[cramx3]

Nah.  We have the lovely live in NJ version on Flight 666 (I love this being that I was near the barrier for it).  Playing it again would be cool cause it's a great song live, but definitely not something that sets social media on fire unless the change it up some way.

I guess reworking a song would probably set social media on fire though.  No one considered that, but I also think that's more unlikely than playing Sun and Steel.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

In order to have the internet going crazy, not even opening with Where Eagles Dare or Be Quick or Be Dead would do.

They'd have to do something along the lines of:
...
- Play both Rime and Seventh Son or something like that

If by "going crazy," you mean "saying to myself 'not interested in the least in seeing this show,'" then the bolded would definitely do it.

I hope Rime and SS don't get played. They have just been played on semi recent tours.

It's funny how 10 years ago feels like a recent tour (for Rime).  But yea, I'd rather something different too.  That's kind of why Alexander feels possible.  It would take the spot of an old school epic, be fresh since it's never been played live, and gives those other epics a break so they can come back out for their final tour.

I'm all for that! That would definitely be a treat for the long time fans.

[Polarbear]

With all this talk about a supposedly mind-blowing setlist, let's fantasy craft a little bit!

Set.1
1. Sign of the Cross
2. Caught Somewhere in Time
3. Rainmaker
4. Dance of Death
5. These Colors Don't Run
6. If Eternity Should Fail
7. Dream of Mirrors

Intermission

Set.2
8. Moonchild
9. Brave New World
10. The Evil That Men Do
11. Killers
12. 2 Minutes to Midnight
13. Back in the Village
14. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
15. When the Wild Wind Blows

Encore.
16. Stranger in a Strange Land
17. Fear of the Dark
18. Phantom of the Opera

How's that?