The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[Zydar]

Okay, my Top 3 right now:

1. Empire Of The Clouds
2. The Red And The Black
3. The Book Of Souls

[wolfking]

1. The Red and The Black
2. If Eternity Should Fail
3. The Book of Souls

Not sure if anything from the second disc can crack these three, Empire included.

[nobloodyname]

When the River Runs Deep... earworm is driving me mad!

[Scorpion]

1. Empire of the Clouds
2. The Man of Sorrows
3. The Book of Souls

[Mister Gold]

1. Empire of the Clouds
2. The Man of Sorrows
3. The Book of Souls

[Train of Naught]

Empire of the Clouds is definitely my favorite on here, also like to mention that the single Speed of Light was so much different than all/most of the other tracks, they had me thinking that this album was going to be way different, but I'm glad with how it turned out.

[Zydar]

The Man Of Sorrows is the only track here that hasn't really struck my fancy. I'm sure it will though, after a few more spins.

[NotePad]

I've never really thought Steve was in control on Virtual XI. He had far more influence on the back-to-the-roots approach on NPFTD and FOTD, it was basically his idea, and The X Factor was also driven by him quite a bit, the dark nature of the album is apparently influenced by the events in his life. With VXI, I hear a lot more band effort, even though Steve is credited on most of the songs. He actually doesn't sound as enthusiastic on it as much as on the previous records, some biographies mention that he considered disbanding the band at that point but the rest of the guys wanted to continue.

I agree with most of this. I wouldn't call it a loss of control per se, but VXI does feel like a cohesive team effort, whereas TXF feels like a Steve Harris solo album.  VXI has more of a classic Maiden feel to it, and that was evident right off the bat.

VXI is one of my favorite Maiden albums. But perhaps Blaze actually had a big influence on the album. If you're familiar with his solo work, he has a huge interest in technology and sci-fi themes.

[El Barto]

The first song totally kicks ass. Great track that sets a wonderful tone that the rest of the album completely fails to live up to. Shame, really. All in all it's a good album, certainly better than TFF, but I find very little of it to be particularly remarkable (aside form Eternity). Most of D1 sounds pretty samey to me, which is exactly how I felt about TFF. One is a standout and two is a halfway decent Metallica song, but all the rest of it is very generic modern Maiden, IMO. Disk two is much better, albeit without the standout. I really dig DoG (although I can't help snicker at "climb like a monkey." Not sure why people are down on Shadows; good, older sounding song. And Empire is certainly better than the title track. Seems to me that if they took Eternity and all of side two they'd have a pretty good single album. As it stands it's probably just two or three songs I'd add to a playlist and that's that.

To be clear, a lot of this is because AMoLaD was such a good album. It's probably not fair to fault them for failing to live up to a great one, but it is what it is. When AMoLaD we all compared it to the classic albums and many of us still rank it in the top four or five of the catalog (which is stellar praise). I said at the time and still think that it's right on par with 7th Son. The rest of their post reunion stuff can all be measured against other post reunion stuff, and it's just not in the same league.

[cramx3]

I really dig DoG (although I can't help snicker at "climb like a monkey." \

I must say, DoG is maybe the most "fun" track on the album, by that I mean it is just a good song to dance and rock out to and sing along, and I love that line for the sole reason that it just seems like an odd line for a metal song, and i like monkeys.

[El Barto]

So I've reflected on Empire a bit and I'm kind of torn on it. First off it's still a few minutes too long. I haven't changed my mind about that. But here's what confounds me. Bruce is an aviation buff, and has a very keen interest in airships; professionally and presumably personally as well. I'm not going to question his knowledge about the subject matter. At the same time my recollection of the R101 disaster is a bit different than the song portrays. From what I recall there wasn't really a storm, per se, but rather a steady rain towards the end and a steadily increasing wind. The cause of the accident, based on my recollection of their speculation, was that it was a combination of a strong, buffeting wind and the failure of an engine that made fighting the wind difficult. Combined with being slightly overweight it overstressed the airframe. I might be completely wrong, or maybe they simplified it to a common storm for artistic reasons. I figure they wanted a storm sequence in the song, which is their style and they did a fine job of it.  At the same time, a steadily increasing wind and the sudden failure of an engine would have been awesome elements for a song if you're looking for dramatic themes to use. Having the over-long storm section steadily increase in pace would have been a wonderful touch and quite possibly more accurate. Hearing musically the "3000 horses" fall silent even better.

Eh, probably me just nitpicking, but still, it makes me wonder.

What isn't nitpicking, though is the SOS part. I'm pretty sure that the R101 never sent any SOS. I think the people on the ground were surprised to hear that it crashed. Moreover, why would they have sent an SOS immediately after takeoff but before the storm? It seems clear that Maiden put a great deal of effort into painting a nice, musical picture of their story, and in many ways they succeeded quite nicely, but that part just makes no sense. When I first heard the SOS I thought "hey, that's a good idea," but int retrospect it just doesn't make much sense to me.

[El Barto]

I really dig DoG (although I can't help snicker at "climb like a monkey." \

I must say, DoG is maybe the most "fun" track on the album, by that I mean it is just a good song to dance and rock out to and sing along, and I love that line for the sole reason that it just seems like an odd line for a metal song, and i like monkeys.

Yeah, it's like hearing Halford sing "blown to smithereens." Always makes me smile.

[Mister Gold]

That's probably because it's not necessarily about getting the exact historical accuracy down to a "T." It's about capturing the emotive quality of that tragedy and how best to represent that in musical form.

[cramx3]

That's probably because it's not necessarily about getting the exact historical accuracy down to a "T." It's about capturing the emotive quality of that tragedy and how best to represent that in musical form.

Yea, I'd say it's just an artistic expression and not 100% historically factual although it does seem unmaiden like to distort the facts, but I don't see the song as an "alexander the great" type of historical piece, but more of a storytelling song based around a real life scenario where just like a movie, will exaggerate or make changes for drama.

I must say though, for all the love it is getting, I don't think it is my favorite or maybe even in my top 3 on the album at this point and I do really love it.  Still working in my head how I would rank these songs though, so tough.

[El Barto]

Yeah, I certainly get they were going for artistry rather than historical accuracy. My point is that accuracy would have presented an even better opportunity for them to explore, and Maiden is good enough that they could and should have taken advantage of it.

And that still doesn't address the SOS thing, unless they simply decided they wanted that musical cue in there somewhere and this is where it would fit. I can't accept that they'd just pull something like that. These aren't lazy people and they don't patronize their audience.

[kirksnosehair]

This album fucking smokes 


It might be my favorite post-reunion album to date.  I really didn't think they had another album of this caliber in them.   And when I heard it was a double, I was afraid it would be stuffed with all kinds of filler, but the songs are surprisingly strong and they get better - WAY better with repeated listens.  It took me about 4 times through to start appreciating how good it really is.


I haven't completely warmed to the title track yet, it feels a little too long to me, but I'm really, really impressed and happy with this one.  Dave Murray is the legato master.     Love his solos.  But I also really love the contrast when they trade solos.  And the 3-guitar attack is fucking monstrous on this album for some reason.   

[cramx3]

The guitar work is really good on this one, I actually can't get over how awesome the guitars are in Speed of Light.  Just so awesome and fun.

[TAC]

What isn't nitpicking, though is the SOS part. I'm pretty sure that the R101 never sent any SOS. I think the people on the ground were surprised to hear that it crashed. Moreover, why would they have sent an SOS immediately after takeoff but before the storm? It seems clear that Maiden put a great deal of effort into painting a nice, musical picture of their story, and in many ways they succeeded quite nicely, but that part just makes no sense. When I first heard the SOS I thought "hey, that's a good idea," but int retrospect it just doesn't make much sense to me.

Perhaps they were foreshadowing what was going to happen?

[TAC]

It might be my favorite post-reunion album to date. 

Wow! You have heard the others right?

[Lowdz]

It might be my favorite post-reunion album to date. 

Wow! You have heard the others right?

I really like AMOLAD and BNW but this one is up there. It gets a big thumbs up for not every song having the folky Steve Harris intros, and title repeating choruses.

[TAC]

It might be my favorite post-reunion album to date. 

Wow! You have heard the others right?

I really like AMOLAD and BNW but this one is up there. It gets a big thumbs up for not every song having the folky Steve Harris intros, and title repeating choruses.

Those are fair criticisms, I get that.

[sneakyblueberry]

What isn't nitpicking, though is the SOS part. I'm pretty sure that the R101 never sent any SOS. I think the people on the ground were surprised to hear that it crashed. Moreover, why would they have sent an SOS immediately after takeoff but before the storm? It seems clear that Maiden put a great deal of effort into painting a nice, musical picture of their story, and in many ways they succeeded quite nicely, but that part just makes no sense. When I first heard the SOS I thought "hey, that's a good idea," but int retrospect it just doesn't make much sense to me.

Perhaps they were foreshadowing what was going to happen?

This seems plausible.  Like foreshadowing the fact that ship encounters distress. 

I think the SOS thing on either side of that majestic, major key guitar line is perhaps representative of the flight as a whole - there is apprehension at take off, signified by the SOS thing, then there's the majestic flight through the air with the guitar melody that becomes unsteady as it modulates to a more minor tonality, then the SOS thing brings us into the chaos of the storm, with Nicko's drum solo. 

EDIT: That riff at 12:56 is fucking badass.

[TAC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TjNodr1z1lY

[sneakyblueberry]

that's cool!  I wish they hadn't cut off his Jon Lord story!!!

[seasonsinthesky]

Random question to the superfans:

Already tried looking up on Googs with no results. Has Nicko or anyone in the band discussed the drum track in "Satellite 15?" Specifically, is that Nicko playing, or are the drums programmed?

They sound nothing like the proper drum sound on the record, there aren't really any fills, and it's only kick and snare. Sounds like a drum machine to me.

What inspired me to ask is that I'm pretty sure it's even faster than "Face in the Sand," and he used a double pedal for that, so the double kicks in S15 would be even more nuts for him to do.

[TAC]

I thought it was him playing it a couple times through, but then it's looped.

[cramx3]

I thought it was him playing it a couple times through, but then it's looped.

I thought Satellite 15 was all Adrian minus Bruce's parts which would imply drum machine, but I am not positive so TAC could be right.

[TAC]

I'm not positive either.

[TAC]

I am really struggling to do rankings. The 5 Reunion Era albums are stellar, but so are the Classic Era.
The Classic Era is what I grew up with, and is woven into my being. But the Reunion Era is UNDENIABLE!

Planning on spinning Piece Of Mind and Seventh Son tomorrow.

[wolfking]

I thought it was him playing it a couple times through, but then it's looped.

I thought it was this too.  Badly looped mind you.

[FuzzBucket]

Random question to the superfans:

Already tried looking up on Googs with no results. Has Nicko or anyone in the band discussed the drum track in "Satellite 15?" Specifically, is that Nicko playing, or are the drums programmed?

They sound nothing like the proper drum sound on the record, there aren't really any fills, and it's only kick and snare. Sounds like a drum machine to me.

What inspired me to ask is that I'm pretty sure it's even faster than "Face in the Sand," and he used a double pedal for that, so the double kicks in S15 would be even more nuts for him to do.

It was drum machine work by Adrian Smith. I remember it being discussed in some interviews when TFF was released. Smith just did it as a demo with the intention of it being redone by Nicko, but Harris just said "let's go with it" and it became the final version of the song.

[TAC]

Some updates:

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/iron-maiden-from-worst-to-best-15-13/
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/iron-maiden-from-worst-to-best-12-10/
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/iron-maiden-from-worst-to-best-9-7/
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/iron-maiden-from-worst-to-best-6-4/

[Ben_Jamin]

His AMoLaD write-up is exactly how I feel. It was the first maiden album I bought, as it was just released when I felt like actually buying a maiden album.

[425]

I don't understand this guy's view of Maiden at all, but that's okay

Respect for putting TXF that high.

[jammindude]

I may not agree with his exact placements, but most of his comments I totally agree with.    I think FotD is a salvageable album while VXI is not, so I would reverse those.   I may have put NotB slightly higher, but putting both AMOLAD and TXF so high is a bold move that I COMPLETELY agree with.