The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[seasonsinthesky]

I think y'all been posting some crazy comments.

1. BNW
2. TBOS

3. DOD
4. AMOLAD

5. TFF

[bosk1]

Of the albums I have, I would put it at #8:

1.  The Final Frontier
2.  Piece of Mind
3.  A Matter of Life and Death
4.  Somewhere in Time
5.  Dance of Death
6.  The Number of the Beast
7.  Powerslave
8.  The Book of Souls
10.  Brave New World
11.  Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12.  Killers

[El Barto]

I see BoS as a huge step forward from the totally uninteresting TFF. That said, it's still a far cry from AMoLaD. I supposed I'd probably have them:

AMoLAD
TDoD
TBoD
BNW
TFF

[cramx3]

I see BoS as a huge step forward from the totally uninteresting TFF. That said, it's still a far cry from AMoLaD. I supposed I'd probably have them:

AMoLAD
TDoD
TBoD
BNW
TFF

Pretty much how I feel except swap BNW and DoD

[krands85]

TBoS
AMoLAD

BNW
DoD




TFF

[425]

TFF
AMOLAD
BNW
TBOS
DOD

Love, love, LOVE TFF. Can't see how it's uninteresting it all. That run of five epics, all great

[TAC]

Love, love, LOVE TFF. Can't see how it's uninteresting it all. That run of five epics, all great

Yes!

I am willing to concede that AMOLAD is the Reunion Era's flagship masterpiece, but I find that I enjoy TFF a bit more.

TFF
AMOLAD
DOD

TBOS/BNW
 

[Mosh]

AMOLAD
TBOS
TFF
BNW
DOD

They are all awesome though, especially the top three. The run of epics in TFF is one of the coolest things they ever did.

[Tomislav95]

BNW
AMOLAD
TBOS
DOD
TFF

[Kwyjibo]

as of now:

BNW
TFF
AMOLAD
TBOS
DOD

Though all of them are definitely worth listening and better than some of the pre-reunion stuff.

[Polarbear]

BNW
AMOLAD
DOD
TBOS
TFF

All of the reunion era albums are really solid! Especially Brave New World, which i think is one of the greatest comeback albums of all time.

Book of Souls is a mix of really great stuff (If Eternity Should Fail, title track, River Runs Deep), and stuff that completely missed the mark (Red&Black, Shadows of the Valley, Empire of the Clouds). Overall though, the good outweighs the bad.

[CharlesPL]

BNW
DoD

TFF



AMOLAD

TBOS - Don't listen yet.

[fadetoblackdude7]

I still haven't heard any Maiden albums from No Prayer - TFF. All this hype for AMOLAD has me real excited though. I'm getting to it!

[Mladen]

You will not regret it. It's the definition of awesomeness.

[Zydar]

While you're at it, check out the other albums too

[The King in Crimson]

Does anyone else feel that Book of Souls isn't THAT great? It's good, but not even close to the last few. I believe AMoLAD is Maiden's crowning achievement. BNW is right next to it. But BoS, to me, is just lacking something.

It'a bit bloated and uneven at times, but I still think it's largely good. Easily better than DoD and either on par with or better than TFF, but it doesn't come close to touching BNW or aMoLaD.

My ranking:
AMOLAD
BNW
BoS
TFF

DoD

[Logain Ablar]

Does anyone else feel that Book of Souls isn't THAT great? It's good, but not even close to the last few. I believe AMoLAD is Maiden's crowning achievement. BNW is right next to it. But BoS, to me, is just lacking something.

It'a bit bloated and uneven at times, but I still think it's largely good. Easily better than DoD and either on par with or better than TFF, but it doesn't come close to touching BNW or aMoLaD.

I think I'd agree with this. My initial excitement faded pretty quickly, and I find myself skipping quite a few songs when I listen to it now, unfortunately. 

Personally, I'd love them to do a concise, well-produced album which cuts out the unnecessary bloat (repetition, lengthy bass intros and outros, I'm thinking of in particular  ), and keeps the vocals to a range where Bruce doesn't sound like he's straining too much to reach the notes. Maybe forget about this raw, "live" sound for one album, but I can't really see it happening.

My only nitpick with AMOLAD is the "dry" sound of the vocals and lack of vocal harmonies, apart from that I think it's great.

[Zantera]

Ranking the modern Maiden albums?

1. A Matter of Life and Death (no brainer, amazing all around, no lowpoints, some really strong tracks like The Legacy)
2. Brave New World (the one that showed us that Maiden were back in business, some really solid tunes like Wicker Man, some personal favorites like Nomad, Ghost of the Navigator and the title track)
3. Dance of Death (in my opinion a really underrated album, and I would put both Dance of Death and Paschendale in my top 10 Maiden songs without hesitation. Overall really good)
--
4. Book of Souls (Overall a very admirable album with some great songs on it, suffers a bit from length and I wasn't HUGE on the production, but overall a good release)
5. The Final Frontier (For me a lackluster first half is compensated greatly by a great second half. Gems like Isle of Avalon and Starblind are both amazing, but the album takes a long time to get going)

[Mladen]

1. A Matter of life and death
2. Dance of death
3. The Book of souls
4. The Final frontier
5. Brave new world

Here's the twist - they're all great. 

[Ben_Jamin]

1. A Matter of life and death
2. Dance of death
3. The Book of souls
4. The Final frontier
5. Brave new world

Here's the twist - they're all great. 

That would be my ranking as well.

It's still hard for me to listen to The Wickerman and not hear "Thy Will Be Done" in the chorus. I first heard the single  version of the song and feel those lyrics really added to the song.

[seasonsinthesky]

It's still hard for me to listen to The Wickerman and not hear "Thy Will Be Done" in the chorus. I first heard the single  version of the song and feel those lyrics really added to the song.

Wow, I didn't know that existed. It's WAY better.

[TAC]

I find The Wicker Man extremely average. I love the musical part but that's it. I think it's way overrated IMO.

[425]

I like The Wicker Man, but I don't have a love affair with it. It's in the bottom half of BNW for me, which isn't exactly bad because it's BNW, but not great.

Controversial opinion that is at the same time unsurprising because it's me: Satellite 15... The Final Frontier is the best reunion-era opener.

[Train of Naught]

The Wicker Man is okay I guess, Nic Cage is the saving grace, if not for him it wouldve been terrible

[Tomislav95]

The Wicker Man is okay I guess, Nic Cage is the saving grace, if not for him it wouldve been terrible

God, they made remake? There is 0 chance remake of anything will be as good as original and they still make it. And throw Nic Cage in it. Everything for the $$$

[aurorablind]

Saw Maiden live at Telenor Arena in Oslo yesterday.
The band was on fire and the set worked really well. The biggest issue was the venue. It's a terrible arena for large rock shows. The large metal ceiling makes the ambience unbearable at times. I could hear Bruces vocals coming out of the front speakers, and a second later the voice was thrown back from the back of the arena. We sat in the middle/back section of the venue, and the sound was just a large pile of mess for the most of the show. Such a shame, because the show was amazing 

[Zantera]

I don't think it's one of the best songs on Brave New World, but if we're comparing Wicker Man with the other openers of the modern albums, it's definitely one of the best. As a Maiden "hit", it does it's job, has a catchy chorus and is overall a solid tune. I guess the problem with Brave New World for me is that it suffers from the Angel & the Gambler syndrome. Some of the songs at least. Sections/choruses are repeated so much that it eventually gets annoying. The songs that suffer the most from this IMO would be Blood Brothers, The Mercenary and Dream of Mirrors. But the album has some really underrated gems like Ghost of the Navigator, The Nomad and The Thin Line Between Love and Hate, as well as a fan favorite (I guess) that lives up to the hype, in the title track.

[home]

Sections/choruses are repeated so much that it eventually gets annoying.

The whole album "suffers" from this I think, the title track being the main example

"A brave new world, in a brave new world" x 1000

[Tomislav95]

Sections/choruses are repeated so much that it eventually gets annoying.

The whole album "suffers" from this I think, the title track being the main example

"A brave new world, in a brave new world" x 1000

Yeah but for some reason repetition in The Mercenary doesn't bother me at all. In BNW, well, it does.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Bought myself last minute tickets for tomorrows show in Gothenburg. With all the good reviews i've seen I just couldn't see myself miss them this time around. Too bad the weather might not be the best tomorrow.

[jammindude]

I like The Wicker Man, but I don't have a love affair with it. It's in the bottom half of BNW for me, which isn't exactly bad because it's BNW, but not great.

Controversial opinion that is at the same time unsurprising because it's me: Satellite 15... The Final Frontier is the best reunion-era opener.

I was actually shocked to find out many people didn't like it.  I was completely floored by that intro!

[Kwyjibo]

I really like Satellite 15, it's so different from anything they've done and it opens the albums nicely. Certainly not a classic but better than others.

[kaos2900]

Satellite 15 would have been fine if it was it's own song and i had the option to skip it.

[Logain Ablar]

Satellite 15 would have been fine if it was it's own song and i had the option to skip it.

I agree. It's fine, but I nearly always skip forward now when listening to it.

[cramx3]

I dislike Satellite 15, I wish I could skip it.  Not a terrible intro or anything... just don't want to listen to it everytime I want to listen to the TFF song.