Well it's the end of Iron Maiden week and I have followed Dr JJ's prescription and listened to not much else. It hasn't been one of my heavier listening weeks but ,all the same , the fact that I managed to do it says something. So at the end of it, what's the verdict?
I think I can still say that they'll never be an all time favourite of mine but I have been converted to some extent.
One thing I will give them for starters is that they appear to be remarkably consistent in terms of not releasing rubbish - even Top 10 bands for me like Queensryche, DT etc... have had multi-album runs that I rate very low and I have a feeling that may not be the case with Iron Maiden.
So this week I have listened to all the 80's albums sans the debut , as well as the 2 CD set From Fear To Eternity (best of 1990-2010).
Despite how it might seem with all my ratings etc.... I usually put very little thought into rating music aside from how it pleases my ears/how often I wish to hear it in future. That's my rating system in short - and I only started doing it because I can't remember how good/bad all my stuff is . I admire how much thought goes into a clever piece of music (Octavarium for instance) but if I don't like listening to it (I don't) without that knowledge then it means nothing to me.
In the case of Iron Maiden I have tried to put a bit more thought than usual into why I may not have connected with them the way most of you guys have and I'm still a bit stumped. They do have a very different feel to them compared to most bands I like - perhaps more lead based rhythms vs low end riffs/ power chords , Bruce's vocals I find tend to overpower the guitars at times , I can't remember too many solos at all that impressed me (pleasant for sure but few standouts) and maybe I'd prefer more full choruses and less "chants". On the positive side I think they have a knack for having at least 2-3 memorable songs on each album and , although lyrics mean little to me in the end, it is noticeable even to me that they are well above par in terms of the amount of thought that goes into their songs. And of course the rhythm section is very solid.
In the end I think it comes down to two things:
1) I don't like Bruce's voice as much as everyone else does and he is front and centre at all times. I do think he has a fine metal voice but he does at times use it in ways that grate on my ears. I much prefer his more natural deeper/gruff range as featured on songs like Number Of The Beast and even Holy Smoke which I find to be a really fun song where he just belts it out in that range. His higher range is hit and miss for me - sometimes it sounds fantastic but at other times where he tends to turn a's and i's into strained eeeeeeeeeeeee's ("somewhere in tieeeeeeeeeeeem") I really don't like it. Used sparingly I can hack it but in many songs I can't stand it. On Back In The Village he sounds like a constipated fairy.
2) My apathy towards Maiden has its basis in the mid-late 80's and specifically the albums Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind and Powerslave. I heard plenty of the hits (which I quite liked) but when I heard others playing the full albums those songs stood out to me as head and shoulders above the rest. So unlike my favourite bands where I liked most of the deep cuts too , with Maiden there were hits (that I was eventually sick of) and the deeper cuts which I didn't like. And that remains today with those albums , except I am receptive again to the classics after a long break.
During my recent listening it has become clear to me that I like the way they went after this period better - the music is more lush ,more consistently likeable (for me) and I like Bruce's vocals better. So perhaps I gave up on Maiden at just the wrong time.
Having said that I didn't like Seventh Son at all on my first listen years ago and all of a sudden I rated it quite high this time so perhaps my tastes have changed too.
RankingsI am ranking just from Killers through Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , which were rated between 77%-89%. So they're a high tier band for me at this point (higher than a week ago
) but not right up there with my absolute faves . If I had rated the Best of 1990-2010 album it would've been up around 90% so I should check out those albums too.
Albums Top 5:
Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Killers
Number Of The Beast
Piece Of Mind
Songs Top 10
Stranger In A Strange Land
The Number Of The Beast
Killers
2 Minutes To Midnight
Different world
The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
Aces High
For The Greater Good of god
Deja Vu
The Clairvoyant
I will collate the results later.
Note: Not so sure if I will check out the Blaze albums or not. I enjoyed the live versions of the Blaze era songs (with Bruce) on the Best Of but when I checked out the studio versions they sounded like all the life had been sucked out of them.
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