I disagree. Revelations, in my opinion, greatly relied on the imagery of the lyrics being apocolyptic to tell its story. It intentionally points to the book of Revelation in the title to put the listener in a mindset, then creates a story around that. It's how it has always come off to me, anyways. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
Heaven Can Wait still relies on religioun to establish its story. Am I dreaming, or did I escape death and the afterlife? ect ect
7th son relies on numerology to an extent which is used in all of the major religiouns. It is also very anti-religious in several aspects. It's a negative commentary on the church in certain ways, and you can't do that without relying on religious imagery to begin with.
I STRONGLY disagree with you on Revelations and
do think you are reading too much into it. But as I understood you post, you are trying to make a contrast between what people thought was the message behind NOTB, which implies that the songs you mentioned are, in some respect, pro-religion or somewhat supportive of religion. And, by extension, because we are again contrasting that with the perceived message of NOTB, we would be talking about, for lack of a better term (and, for the record, I hate this term), Judeo-Christian religion. Those songs
aren't really supporting or endorsing religion in that sense. In fact, I'm not sure ANY Maiden song does that, despite that quite a few of their songs are commentaries on religion or may use religion or religious imagery to make a point.
It reminds me a lot of an interview I read a long time ago from some magazine or website or something that was somewhat loosely "Christian-based" (again, for lack of a better term), and they were praising the DT guys for being a "Christian band" because of all the great "Christian imagery" in their lyrics on I&W. And JP's reaction was along the lines of (paraphrasing), "Um, wait, what? No, we're not a 'Christian band' and that isn't what we're saying at all. We use religious imagery in our lyrics to make a point, but it isn't the point you are reading in. You really haven't read our lyrics carefully if you think that is what we are saying."
I think it is largely the same with Maiden. They use religious imagery all over the place. But if you try to take that and say that they are somehow pro-religion or, more specifically, pro-Christianity in their lyrics, I think you either misunderstood their lyrics or don't really have a clear understanding of what that religion actually teaches. (and I'm using "you" in a general sense--not calling
you out specifically)
That's how I see it. Bit maybe I misunderstood.
Topic: The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls (Read 572556 times)
