The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[Zydar]

Any other 'Somewhere in Time' fans here?   It's my fav Maiden album.  The title track and 'Sea of Madness' is in my opinion are the lost Maiden classics that they should play live much more than they did.

It's tied with Seventh Son as my favourite Maiden album. And I agree about Sea Of Madness - one of their very best ones.

[kaos2900]

I love me some Somewhere in Time. Is there any better string of album than Killers--->SSOASS?

[Stadler]

Any love for "Back In The Village"?   Love that song, and I'm pretty partial to Powerslave as my favorite album.  That side two is absolutely killer,

[soupytwist]

I love me some Somewhere in Time. Is there any better string of album than Killers--->SSOASS?

Yeah I can think of one.

Iron Maiden ----> SSOASS

[kaos2900]

Any love for "Back In The Village"?   Love that song, and I'm pretty partial to Powerslave as my favorite album.  That side two is absolutely killer,

Love Back In The Village! Fantastic chorus.

[Mladen]

Any love for "Back In The Village"?   Love that song, and I'm pretty partial to Powerslave as my favorite album.  That side two is absolutely killer,

Good to see some more appreciation. I've always thought I was alone on this. However, I usually go as far as to say Back in the village is my favorite song on Powerslave, so I'm definitely alone on that.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

While we're at it, throw some love for Deja-vu. 

[Zydar]

"Feel like I've been here befooore" 

[cramx3]

While we're at it, throw some love for Deja-vu. 

Honestly I was just thinking that.  Everyone's throwing their love for unpopular songs and this is the one that came right to my mind.  I LOVE it so much. 

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Yeah, Revelations is a top ten IM song and one of Bruce's finest vocal performances. 

"She came to me with a serpent's kiss
As the Eye of the Sun rose on her lips
Moonlight catches silver tears I cry"

 

I remember I used to obsesively watch Live After Death during my teens when I thought I was the biggest fan in the world, atleast next to my buddy how introduced me to them. Way before internet so my worldview was pretty limited.  Anyway the part when Bruce asks everyone "can you feel it" still sticks with me to this day even when I hear the album version. 

Same when I hear any other version of Flight of Icarus, I always add

As the sun breaks above the crowd
An old man stands on the hill
LET IT GO!!!!

Yea that's cool. It's amazing though how better Bruce sounds on the Flight 666 compared to LAD even though it's 24 years later.

[PowerSlave]

Yeah, Revelations is a top ten IM song and one of Bruce's finest vocal performances. 

"She came to me with a serpent's kiss
As the Eye of the Sun rose on her lips
Moonlight catches silver tears I cry"

 

I remember I used to obsesively watch Live After Death during my teens when I thought I was the biggest fan in the world, atleast next to my buddy how introduced me to them. Way before internet so my worldview was pretty limited.  Anyway the part when Bruce asks everyone "can you feel it" still sticks with me to this day even when I hear the album version. 

Same when I hear any other version of Flight of Icarus, I always add

As the sun breaks above the crowd
An old man stands on the hill
LET IT GO!!!!

Yea that's cool. It's amazing though how better Bruce sounds on the Flight 666 compared to LAD even though it's 24 years later.

I remember reading somewhere about their tour schedule at the time that LAD was recorded. To call it insane would be an understatement. I think that he was tired more than anything else. In fact, I don't think that he really got full command of his voice back until the mid/late 90's.

[cramx3]

The insert on the LAD CD has all the dates for the tour.  It's insane how much they toured at that time. 

[TAC]

The insert on the LAD CD has all the dates for the tour.  It's insane how much they toured at that time.

The album sleeve also had the set up times for the road crew. In my college Public Speaking class, one of my oral presentations was the set up of a rock concert by the crew, and I totally ripped off the LAD info.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Yea that certainly played a part because he does sound exhausted on LAD. I still think his voice has matured well even though he struggles with really high notes.

[Cyclopssss]

They talk about that in the documentary part of the 'Maiden England' dvd. How everybody was pretty much fried after that tour, especially Bruce. Pretty risky move to come up with a concept album after that!

[Lowdz]

While we're at it, throw some love for Deja-vu. 

Honestly I was just thinking that.  Everyone's throwing their love for unpopular songs and this is the one that came right to my mind.  I LOVE it so much. 

One of only 4 songs I can listen to on the album

[soupytwist]

Sorry if this has been done before, ignore me if it has - but what are people ranking of the 5 post reunion albums.

I find it really hard to rank them as they are so consistant, but..

1. Dance of Death.
2. Book of Souls.
3. Final Frontier.
4. Brave New World.
5. Matter of Life and Death.

The first 4 are so close, I put Matter last but even that is more for the production than the song quality.

[RodrigoAltaf]

I´d rank the more recent albums like this:

1. Dance of Death.
1. Book of Souls
2. Dance of Death.
3. Brave New World.
4. A Matter of Life and Death.
5. Final Frontier.

I listened to "AMOLAD" and Final Frontier recently, and there were a few songs in there that I didn´t even remembered they existed...

[Scorpion]

1. A Matter of Life and Death
2. The Final Frontier
3. The Book of Souls
4. Brave New World
5. Dance of Death

[Cyclopssss]

1. Brave New World.
2. Book of Souls
3. A Matter of Life and Death.
4. The Final Frontier.
5. Dance of Death. 

[kaos2900]

Wow this was harder than I thought.

1. AMOLAD
2. Brave New World
3. Book of Souls
4. Dance of Death
5. The Final Frontier

[goo-goo]

Wow this was harder than I thought.

1. AMOLAD
2. Brave New World
3. Book of Souls
4. Dance of Death
5. The Final Frontier

This would be my ranking. Sorry to steal your rankings kaos 

[cramx3]

Wow this was harder than I thought.

1. AMOLAD
2. Brave New World
3. Book of Souls
4. Dance of Death
5. The Final Frontier

This would be my ranking. Sorry to steal your rankings kaos 

Stealing it as well.

[Stadler]

Wow this was harder than I thought.

1. AMOLAD
2. Brave New World
3. Book of Souls
4. Dance of Death
5. The Final Frontier

No kidding; I've done this list a couple times now for varying reasons, and I feel like it's different every time.   They're all at least "very good", so to separate them... it's really hard.  It usually comes down to mood for me (though I will say, Dance of Death is usually number one, because I love Wildest Dreams and Journeyman so much). 

[Samsara]

A Matter of Life and Death
Brave New World
Book of Souls
Final Frontier
Dance of Death

[bosk1]

Other than the fact that you put yours upside down, it's not bad.

[Grappler]

Brave New World
Book of Souls
Dance of Death
Final Frontier
A Matter of Life and Death (the dry sound on this one drives me nuts). 

[RodrigoAltaf]

Any love for "Back In The Village"?   Love that song, and I'm pretty partial to Powerslave as my favorite album.  That side two is absolutely killer,

Love Back In The Village! Fantastic chorus.

Listening to Powerslave now...the first metal album I ever listened to, and one that started my Maiden fandom. I got this for Christmas in 1984 - I asked dad for The Number of the Beast, but being from a catholic family, I think dad thought it would be too satanic. A few days later - January 11th - Maiden would play Rock in Rio for the first time, and watching it on the TV changed my life forever. Someone mentioned the crazyness of the LAD dates, and it´s true - they were playing North America, came down to Rio for a one-off, and then got back to NY. I think that tour filled their pockets but almost broke them down emotionally.

Hey, I´m enjoying posting here in DTF, after being suspended simply by saing "the album has leaked" - no links or any other kind of mention of where to find it, I didn´t even say I got it - when Book of Souls came out.

[jjrock88]

Brave New World
A Matter of Life and Death
Dance of Death
Book of Souls
Final Frontier

[kaos2900]

Listening to X-Factor now. Interesting album. Some really good songs, but the production is weak and I'm not a huge Blaze fan.

[Samsara]

Other than the fact that you put yours upside down, it's not bad.

Listen, 1ksob, it's not my fault you have bad taste. 

[jjrock88]

Listening to X-Factor now. Interesting album. Some really good songs, but the production is weak and I'm not a huge Blaze fan.

underrated album for sure!

[Scorpion]

I don't get why people love Brave New World so much. It's a good album, sure, but there's like three songs in there that I wouldn't sweat if they were completely banished from existance (The Wicker Man, Brave New World and The Mercenary), and I rarely come back to Blood Brothers. Sure, Ghost of the Navigator and the last five songs are awesome, but the album is far too inconsistent to rank among the top for especially when compared with albums like A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier, which are both front-to-back brilliant.

[bosk1]

I generally agree with you about BNW, and I put AMOLAD in the same category.  With both albums, I find myself tuning out after awhile and just not paying attention.  As you say, they aren't bad albums.  But they also aren't anywhere near the quality of the other reunion albums. 

Since we HAVE TO rank everything at DTF:

1.  The Final Frontier:  Best Iron Maiden album, period.
2.  Dance of Death:  A close second in the reunion era.  Only some of the classic era albums beat it (Piece of Mind, and probably NOTB and Somewhere In Time, depending on my mood).
3.  The Book of Souls:  Not as good as the two above it, despite having more material.  But still some good songs.
4.  AMOLAD
5.  BNW

[Grappler]

I don't get why people love Brave New World so much. It's a good album, sure, but there's like three songs in there that I wouldn't sweat if they were completely banished from existance (The Wicker Man, Brave New World and The Mercenary), and I rarely come back to Blood Brothers. Sure, Ghost of the Navigator and the last five songs are awesome, but the album is far too inconsistent to rank among the top for especially when compared with albums like A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier, which are both front-to-back brilliant.

Personal preference. 

I saw them for the first time in 1999 and Brave New World followed a year later.  They (and I) were riding high on the reunion with Bruce and Adrian and this album was a monster comeback for them.  Every song on that album is awesome, and I'd listen to that record all the time along with Rock in Rio.  I've spent 16 years with that album and it can bring me back to those years when I was in college and loved that record to death.

Then comes Dance of Death, AMOLD and Final Frontier.  Yes, it's Maiden, yes, they're awesome, but those albums are where I find the big clunker songs, especially as they kept getting longer and longer (especially on AMOLD).  Those songs don't hit me as hard as Dream of Mirrors did.  Kind of a been there, done that, feeling with some of that stuff.