The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[pg1067]

I understand this reaction to Stadler putting To Tame a Land, but I also feel like it loses some credibility when you put Infinite Dreams.

LOL...my top 5 from that group of albums is TTAL, SSOASS, Powerslave, Eagles and Number.  I assume those aren't particularly controversial.

Not to derail into top riffs but the one that starts at 4:32 in Hallowed I absolutely love.

Pretty sure I know exactly what riff that is...nope...I was wrong.  That's a great riff.  Very fun to play.  I thought you were talking about the transitional riff right before it (which is also very fun but much more difficult).  I'm also partial to the harmony guitar section that starts at 5:49.

[DoctorAction]

That harmony part is great. It's an all-you-can eat buffet of great parts, truth be told.

[TAC]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

[KevShmev]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

Why would you do a top 100 when 75 is the likely number?

[425]

It's a perfect case for why it should be 100!

[TAC]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

Why would you do a top 100 when 75 is the likely number?

Because I am only running the Ranker once, and if I do a Top 100, it'll give me a Top 75 anyway!

Like the Rush countdown, it's really hard to pick between an excellent new song, and a good old song with history.

[The Realm]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

Why would you do a top 100 when 75 is the likely number?

Because I am only running the Ranker once, and if I do a Top 100, it'll give me a Top 75 anyway!

Like the Rush countdown, it's really hard to pick between an excellent new song, and a good old song with history.

Yes, I really feel this is where the differences of opinions will be pretty strong. I may be alone in this but I can honestly say that I am more likely to rank pretty much every song that have been mentioned in the 'NOTB, PoM, SiT, Powerslave, SS' bottom 5 lists higher than most of the reunion era and pretty much all of the Blaze era. I do love most of the reunion stuff but the first 7 Maiden albums and especially the first 5 Bruce albums just mean so much to me and my musical journey.

[WardySI]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

Why would you do a top 100 when 75 is the likely number?

Because I am only running the Ranker once, and if I do a Top 100, it'll give me a Top 75 anyway!

Like the Rush countdown, it's really hard to pick between an excellent new song, and a good old song with history.

Yes, I really feel this is where the differences of opinions will be pretty strong. I may be alone in this but I can honestly say that I am more likely to rank pretty much every song that have been mentioned in the 'NOTB, PoM, SiT, Powerslave, SS' bottom 5 lists higher than most of the reunion era and pretty much all of the Blaze era. I do love most of the reunion stuff but the first 7 Maiden albums and especially the first 5 Bruce albums just mean so much to me and my musical journey.

Likewise, much respect!

[nick_z]

LOL...my top 5 from that group of albums is TTAL, SSOASS, Powerslave, Eagles and Number.  I assume those aren't particularly controversial.

Ok, inspired by this, how about we do the favorite song from each of Bruce's 80s album?

It's super-hard but, today, mine would look like this (of course, I reserve the right to change my mind come Maiden countdown time  )

The Number of the Beast: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Piece of Mind: Revelations
Powerslave: Powerslave
Somewhere in Time: Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: Infinite Dreams

[WardySI]

The Number of the Beast: Prisoner
Piece of Mind: Revelations
Powerslave: Powerslave
Somewhere in Time: Wasted Years
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: Only The Good Die Young

Likewise always subject to change but those are todays...

ETA Actually tbh aside from NOTB and SSOASS, the choices for the 3 albums between probably wouldn't change too often

[TAC]

The Number Of The Beast: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Piece Of Mind: Where Eagles Dare
Powerslave: Powerslave
Somewhere In Time: Caught Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son: Infinite Dreams

[jammindude]

Favs:

NOTB: The Prisoner
POM: I'm honestly having an impossible time choosing between Where Eagles Dare and Revelations
PS: Rime of the Ancient Mariner
SIT: Sea of Madness
SSOASS: The Clairvoyant

[wolfking]

TNOTB: 22 Acacia Avenue
POM: Where Eagles Dare
PS: Powerslave
SIT: Caught Somewhere in Time
SSOASS: Seventh Son of A Seventh Son

[The Realm]

Favs:

NOTB: Hallowed Be Thy Name
POM: Where Eagles Dare (but nearly impossible to choose)
PS: Rime
SIT: Sea of Madness (also pretty impossible to choose)
SS: Infinite Dreams

[nick_z]

The Prisoner and 22 Acacia avenue were definitely in the running for NotB, as were Caught Somewhere in Time, Wasted Years and Sea of Madness for SiT.

Tim: I was noticing your least favorites from the era…why the dislike for Loneliness and Sea of Madness? What did they do to you? 

[TAC]

Tim: I was noticing your least favorites from the era…why the dislike for Loneliness and Sea of Madness? What did they do to you? 

So remember, I LOVED this album when it came out, and rate Caught Somewhere In Time as my #3 all time Maiden song.

I never cared for Loneliness.  Never cared for its pacing. It does open up a bit during the guitar solo, but it feels like a song that's not fleshed out enough.

As far as Sea Of Madness...I guess I'm indifferent to it. Nothing grabs me in it. It's not a bad song, as far as structure, but it just never did anything for me.

[jammindude]

I’ve always been fascinated by the lukewarm response to Sea of Madness. This was an album that I mostly didn’t care for upon its release. But Sea of Madness immediately hit me as the strongest and catchiest chorus on the entire album. Never could get it out of my head.

I really need to revisit Somewhere in Time. That is just a lost album to me that IMO had horrible timing on its release.

I had started getting deeper and deeper into heavy metal from 82-84. But then in November, I picked up Ride the Lightning and that began a years long obsession with the heaviest stuff I could find.  I started with “The Big Four”…then Motley Crue followed up Shout at the Devil with Theater of Pain.  EW!!!! So then I started listening to Nuclear Assault, Raven, Exciter, and Exodus.  Then Ozzy Osbourne put on makeup, teased his hair with hairspray and released The Ultimate Sin.  EWWWWW!!!! So I got into bands like Sodom, Destruction, Celtic Frost, Venom, and Kreator. Then Judas Priest released Turbo. 

Meanwhile, Metallica had just released Master of Puppets and so bands started to get even heavier. I found Sacred Reich, Dark Angel, DRI, COC, SOD (later MOD)….so in late 1986, Iron Maiden were finally going to release their long awaited follow up to Powerslave.  THERE’S NO WAY that the mighty Iron Maiden is going to go all synth-y on me like Motley Crue, Ozzy and Judas Priest did! Get ready to have your freaking face melted off!!!!!!




…..oh……


….well, s**t…..

[TAC]

The thing is, Ben, is that I kind of found Somewhere In Time refreshing after what I thought was a very stale album (Powerslave).

[jammindude]

The thing is, Ben, is that I kind of found Somewhere In Time refreshing after what I thought was a very stale album (Powerslave).

It was just bad timing. I was 17, full of piss and vinegar, just falling in love with the most extreme music on the planet, and all my old heroes were hitting the brakes and going all top 40 on me.

I’m a lot mellower at 52.  I can’t even stand Slayer anymore. Just anything that feels like “hate” just turns me off. But 35 odd years ago was a different story.

[425]

So I have nominated 105 songs for a Top 100. This is going to be so hard.

Why would you do a top 100 when 75 is the likely number?

Because I am only running the Ranker once, and if I do a Top 100, it'll give me a Top 75 anyway!

Like the Rush countdown, it's really hard to pick between an excellent new song, and a good old song with history.

Yes, I really feel this is where the differences of opinions will be pretty strong. I may be alone in this but I can honestly say that I am more likely to rank pretty much every song that have been mentioned in the 'NOTB, PoM, SiT, Powerslave, SS' bottom 5 lists higher than most of the reunion era and pretty much all of the Blaze era. I do love most of the reunion stuff but the first 7 Maiden albums and especially the first 5 Bruce albums just mean so much to me and my musical journey.

This is part of why I'm particularly motivated to do 100 instead of 75. I know a lot of people have much greater attachment to the 80s era, and I have nothing against them having that preference, but I'm worried that the result will be that the top of the list will be so dominated by 80s songs that a lot of great material from the reunion era will fall below 75.

Ok, inspired by this, how about we do the favorite song from each of Bruce's 80s album?

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Revelations
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Alexander the Great
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Several of these were very close, though. Actually, all of them except Hallowed, which is a given for me, have at least a pretty strong second place contender.

[Zydar]

TNOTB: Hallowed Be Thy Name
POM: Revelations
PS: Powerslave
SIT: Sea Of Madness
SSOASS: Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

[Stadler]

The Number Of The Beast: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Piece Of Mind: Where Eagles Dare
Powerslave: Powerslave
Somewhere In Time: Caught Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son: Infinite Dreams

That's a pretty solid list.   I could quibble with SiT or SS, but I can live with both as well.  I could also do:

The Number Of The Beast: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Piece Of Mind: Where Eagles Dare
Powerslave: Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Somewhere In Time: Caught Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son: The Clairvoyant

[cramx3]

Favorite is a bit easier for me than least favorite

Hallowed Be Thy Name
The Trooper
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Caught Somewhere in Time
The Evil That Men Do

[Kwyjibo]

Here goes:

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Revelations
Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Caught Somewhere In Time
The Clairvoyant

[pg1067]

Ok, inspired by this, how about we do the favorite song from each of Bruce's 80s album?

It's super-hard

It's actually pretty easy for me (since my top five covers four of these albums).

The Number of the Beast:  The Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind:  To Tame a Land
Powerslave:  Powerslave
Somewhere in Time:  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son:  Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

[Cool Chris]

If a Top 50/75/100 IM songs is happening at some point, I am starting a run through of their discography now to spread it out a bit. When I went through Rush's albums for that thread I got pretty burned out toward the end.

[DoctorAction]

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Revelations
Aces High
Wasted Years
Only The Good Die Young

[TAC]

If a Top 50/75/100 IM songs is happening at some point, I am starting a run through of their discography now to spread it out a bit. When I went through Rush's albums for that thread I got pretty burned out toward the end.

Well I bet when you got to Power Windows you were like “Enough already “…

[The Curious Orange]

Hallowed Be Thy Name
The Trooper
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Heaven Can Wait
Moonchild

[Cool Chris]

If a Top 50/75/100 IM songs is happening at some point, I am starting a run through of their discography now to spread it out a bit. When I went through Rush's albums for that thread I got pretty burned out toward the end.

Well I bet when you got to Power Windows you were like “Enough already “…

  Actually it was a fun experience, since I never listen to those 80s/90s albums. It gave me the chance to listen to them with a fresh ear.

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Flight of Icarus
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Stranger in a Strange Land (I guess?)
The Clairvoyant

[RodrigoAltaf]

Bruce's isolated vocals on Seventh Son - simply AMAZING!!!!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsYSGE1InpY

[425]

If a Top 50/75/100 IM songs is happening at some point, I am starting a run through of their discography now to spread it out a bit. When I went through Rush's albums for that thread I got pretty burned out toward the end.

I just started this myself; I'll try to give little thoughts along the way. I was in an Iron Maiden mood today, and used that as momentum to listen to the debut.

So, I remain pretty much steadfast in the opinion I've held of the Di'Anno era for years now: A lot of it is good music, though it's a little uneven, but most of it is not really for me. I'm just not into the straightforward, rough-and-tumble vibe they're going for on a lot of these early tracks, I'm not a huge fan of PdA as lead singer, although he has his moments, and I find a lot of the lyrics, especially the sexual ones, genuinely off-putting.

But you can hear the seeds of their later greatness in a lot of these songs, which alone would make me interested in this album as a historical document of how one of my favorite bands came to be. And Remember Tomorrow and Phantom of the Opera just are great songs, with many of the qualities that I love about their later material.

Also, I really noticed this time through how poor the production on this album is. It takes a lot of the teeth out of Phantom especially, which sounds far better on Live After Death. If it wasn't for the two standout songs, I would probably prefer Killers on grounds of production alone.

[TAC]

Phantom Of The Opera is early progressive metal.

[425]

I'd agree with that. I don't know the history well enough to say for certain, but it seems to be setting the terms for a lot of the more intricate metal songwriting of the 80s.

[jammindude]

Had my music player on shuffle today and Prodigal Son came on. Perfect example of why I love the deep early cuts.

Not just with Iron Maiden, but with any band, I love that stage where they are still figuring out what they are going to be. I can’t imagine them doing anything like Prodigal Son today, but it’s just so perfect for that period of Iron Maiden.