The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[Cool Chris]

Live After Death is iconic and I can see why many people would rank it high or at the top, but I didn't live through that so it doesn't have that soft spot for me. 

Same here.

2. Book Of Souls: Live Chapter

It sounds great, but beyond that, the live versions of The Book Of Souls (which did surprisingly well in my rankings), The Red And The Black, and the underrated The Great Unknown, which was fantastic live, are all amazing.

Good to know. I don't think I've ever given this a listen, and I really like that album!

[The Realm]

Live After Death is iconic. I did live through it and watched the VHS hundreds of times. It was just the greatest thing ever for the teenage me. I still think it is the greatest live album ever but yeah I get that it doesn't have the same impact on everyone.

My next favourite is Maiden England, I also had the VHS of this and also just loved it. Not as iconic but has iconic moments for me which are probably a bit weird for everyone else. I just love Bruce's 'intro talk' over the beginning of The Evil That Men Do, just something about it. Bruce sings the wrong lyrics in Still Life, Adrian hits a bung note in Wasted Years intro riff in the middle breakdown part (he misses the high E and hits the E flat). I also think Bruce may have had a 'few beers' before the show as he is kind of in a crazy mood in the performance.

Beast Over Hammersmith is also awesome, just a great vibe and 'youthful energy' on this and Bruce is an absolute powerhouse.

All the others have their moments. I don't enjoy the latest live albums as much because Bruce sounds as if he is really struggling/straining vocally. I saw The Book of Souls tour live and thought Bruce was awesome but listening to Live Chapter is a struggle and Legacy of the Beast is even worse.

[Dream Team]

Maiden England has the best set list.

[wolfking]

Maiden England has the best set list.

Yeah, I've always thought it's their most unique, creative set.

[The Realm]

Yes Maiden England is a great setlist.

[Deadeye21]

Can I just say that I like the live albums past Rock In Rio more because Bruce sounds in much better shape? He sounds fine in Beast on the Road and then Live After Death and Maiden England sound like late tour fatigue big time!

[Mladen]

Rock in Rio is an essential Maiden DVD for me. It's the Live after death of my generation. 

[The Realm]

Can I just say that I like the live albums past Rock In Rio more because Bruce sounds in much better shape? He sounds fine in Beast on the Road and then Live After Death and Maiden England sound like late tour fatigue big time!

Sorry but I disagree big time in relation to Live After Death and Maiden England.

[Dream Team]

Can I just say that I like the live albums past Rock In Rio more because Bruce sounds in much better shape? He sounds fine in Beast on the Road and then Live After Death and Maiden England sound like late tour fatigue big time!

It's because their touring schedule was insane back then. It would kill most singers.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Can I just say that I like the live albums past Rock In Rio more because Bruce sounds in much better shape? He sounds fine in Beast on the Road and then Live After Death and Maiden England sound like late tour fatigue big time!

As much as I love Live after Death and how important that live VHS was for me growin up he does sound aweful and fatigued at times.

[Kwyjibo]

Live After Death is a great record and transports a lot of energy, but Bruce doesn't sound good.

Same goes for Maiden England, the chorus to Run To The Hills is almost painful to hear.

[Glasser]

Beast over Hammersmith is by far the best live Maiden that represents the early days.

[jjrock88]

Beast over Hammersmith is by far the best live Maiden that represents the early days.

Great album

[Ben_Jamin]

While doing my list for the top 75, I used the ranking system and listened to songs that I was unfamiliar with. Which was the entire discography of Iron Maiden. I found some great songs in all of their albums, and those songs ranged from the reunion, the Blaze, and classic eras.

Iron Maiden has so many great songs that it's a shame they do not play these songs much at all live. To me, I feel it's a waste that Iron Maiden, or more the state of the music industry, has made these great songs to go by the wayside and never played live. That music industry idea of pleasing the casual fans and bringing in cash.

I would be all in for a reunion era set, or more, a set containing nothing but songs that are not the hit singles.

[wolfking]

Beast over Hammersmith is by far the best live Maiden that represents the early days.

Great album

You have 2 days to rank your fav 75 Maiden songs mate.  Chop chop!!

[425]

While doing my list for the top 75, I used the ranking system and listened to songs that I was unfamiliar with. Which was the entire discography of Iron Maiden. I found some great songs in all of their albums, and those songs ranged from the reunion, the Blaze, and classic eras.

Iron Maiden has so many great songs that it's a shame they do not play these songs much at all live. To me, I feel it's a waste that Iron Maiden, or more the state of the music industry, has made these great songs to go by the wayside and never played live. That music industry idea of pleasing the casual fans and bringing in cash.

I would be all in for a reunion era set, or more, a set containing nothing but songs that are not the hit singles.

I wish they would play more deep cuts, too, but they genuinely do get a lot of backlash and a lot less crowd engagement, especially in the United States, when they don't play the same set of songs that they've played hundreds of times before. It's hard for me to blame the music industry when a sizable portion of the audience has made its attitude toward hearing deep cuts quite clear.

But do I read you correctly in saying that you'd never heard any of their music before, and listened to the whole discography to do this list? If so, that's really impressive dedication, and I'm glad to hear you found so much to enjoy!

[jammindude]

Every time I listen to the red and the Black I can’t help but think that the opening versus sound so awkward and “busy” for lack of a better term. But once you get past the first few minutes, it gets better and better and ends really strong. I just think the opening verses are a bit meh. Bruce doing those fast lines that don’t do anything but mirror the guitar riff just doesn’t work at all. But the rest is amazing!

[Ben_Jamin]

While doing my list for the top 75, I used the ranking system and listened to songs that I was unfamiliar with. Which was the entire discography of Iron Maiden. I found some great songs in all of their albums, and those songs ranged from the reunion, the Blaze, and classic eras.

Iron Maiden has so many great songs that it's a shame they do not play these songs much at all live. To me, I feel it's a waste that Iron Maiden, or more the state of the music industry, has made these great songs to go by the wayside and never played live. That music industry idea of pleasing the casual fans and bringing in cash.

I would be all in for a reunion era set, or more, a set containing nothing but songs that are not the hit singles.

I wish they would play more deep cuts, too, but they genuinely do get a lot of backlash and a lot less crowd engagement, especially in the United States, when they don't play the same set of songs that they've played hundreds of times before. It's hard for me to blame the music industry when a sizable portion of the audience has made its attitude toward hearing deep cuts quite clear.

But do I read you correctly in saying that you'd never heard any of their music before, and listened to the whole discography to do this list? If so, that's really impressive dedication, and I'm glad to hear you found so much to enjoy!

I have only heard bits and pieces from all their albums, and not enough to remember much how they sounded like. So listening to those songs again was like listening to them for the first time. And being into them since the release of The Wicker Man (single version), I never really took the time to get more into the albums. I did get into Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album), I did buy Piece of Mind and A Matter of Life and Death (it was the new album at the time), I also bought Brave New World and Dance of Death. I stopped buying cd's and started listening to the rest on Spotify whenever I would remember or feel in that mood. I have also seen them live a quite a few times and loved some of the songs like The Clansman, Sign of The Cross, and some of their casuals like Fear of The Dark, Wrathchild, and Iron Maiden.

The ranking gave me that opportunity to give their songs a good listening and I found some fascinating gems in all their albums, some of which are surprising for the hardcore Iron Maiden fan. I do think they're good songs, and I will also reveal along as the rankings go. It'll be fun I think to get a sort of newer fans perspective on their songs.

[nick_z]

Just a thought..

I feel like The Red And The Black is the Reunion Era's version of The Duellists. I rate both tracks fairly high, but being honest, they're both just ok tracks, but both have this amazing lose-yourself-in long magical musical passages. I wish we had a live version of The Duellists.

Every time I listen to the red and the Black I can’t help but think that the opening versus sound so awkward and “busy” for lack of a better term. But once you get past the first few minutes, it gets better and better and ends really strong. I just think the opening verses are a bit meh. Bruce doing those fast lines that don’t do anything but mirror the guitar riff just doesn’t work at all. But the rest is amazing!

Yep, agree with both. The main appeal of The Red and the Black for me is the instrumental stuff. There are some beautiful leads/riffs in there.

And yes, Bruce/the guitars following the same melodies is a bit baffling. It's one of the very few things that annoy me about Senjutsu (the album), actually.  They do that in a few instances (most egregiously in Hell on Earth, which I love, BTW) and I'm not quite sure why. It mostly sounds awkward...

[wolfking]

I don't mind that comparison to The Duellists and TRATB, not bad.

[TAC]

I don't mind that comparison to The Duellists and TRATB, not bad.

I thought it was damn insightful, myself. 


Both tracks have excellent ratings from me in the upcoming countdown.

[Glasser]

Beast over Hammersmith is by far the best live Maiden that represents the early days.

Great album

You have 2 days to rank your fav 75 Maiden songs mate.  Chop chop!!

Me? I sent my list already.   

[TAC]

Beast over Hammersmith is by far the best live Maiden that represents the early days.

Great album

You have 2 days to rank your fav 75 Maiden songs mate.  Chop chop!!

Me? I sent my list already.   

No, Jason.

[jjrock88]

Somewhere in Time is such as amazing album

[Glasser]

Somewhere in Time is such as amazing album

I love it as well. It stands alone. Nothing sounds like it before or after.

[425]

AMOLAD and TFF tonight, in hopes of having my list done by Friday. This run only reinforces these two as my #2 and my #1. There was a time when I thought that Senjutsu was a serious threat to AMOLAD's place, but now I don't think it's like—I think it will land third or fourth.

I say this, and I feel confident at the time, and then I come back to Senjutsu, and it's all even better than I remembered... it would be a tough, tough choice. Fortunately I don't really have to choose!

The Book of Souls was obviously in between these. I stand by my view that this album is a dip in quality. I had a hard time evaluating it until its successor came out. It was the first Maiden album that came out after I was a fan, so it was hard for me to tell whether I was being fair to it or whether it wasn't clicking with me because it wasn't one of the ones I already knew and loved. Once Senjutsu came out and I fell in love with it immediately, I realized I wasn't being unfair to TBoS. But interestingly enough, that took some of the pressure off it, and I was able to enjoy it for what it is. And it still is a really good album. There are a few songs that aren't up to the standard they set on the preceding two albums, but there's still a ton of superb material on there, including some that I don't see people mentioning a lot. I love Shadows of the Valley and The Man of Sorrows.

[The Realm]

I'm not the biggest fan of The Book of Souls. I have mentioned previously that this album hasn't aged well for me and I do think it is easily the weakest of the reunion era albums. My biggest problem with it is that many of the songs are bloated and overly long. You mention Shadows of the Valley as a good song, but it just never ends. It should have been 5 minutes not 7+. The biggest offender is The Red and the Black, that is an awesome 7 minute song that goes for 13 minutes! I do have 3 songs from the album in my top 75 though so there is that.

[nobloodyname]

Empire of the Clouds is the worst culprit for going on and on, and without much variation. The melody is great but it's repeated ad nauseum.

I don't think Book of Souls is a bad album (although Shadow of the Valley, Great Unknown and Man of Sorrows are real snoozers) but not a single track from it made my 75.

Opinions, opinions.

[The Curious Orange]

The Book of Souls should have been a single disc. We can argue and disagree on exactly what we would have edited out, but surely we can all agree that ANYTHING that got it down to a single disc length would have been an improvement?

[Dream Team]

The Book of Souls should have been a single disc. We can argue and disagree on exactly what we would have edited out, but surely we can all agree that ANYTHING that got it down to a single disc length would have been an improvement?

That applies even more to Senjutsu. Could have trimmed any of the endless repetition like the middle of LIALW.

[425]

The Book of Souls should have been a single disc. We can argue and disagree on exactly what we would have edited out, but surely we can all agree that ANYTHING that got it down to a single disc length would have been an improvement?

I think the problem is that if we disagree on what to remove, it wouldn't be an improvement. For example, nobloodyname would want to get rid of three songs that I think are indispensable. My very first cut would be Death or Glory, which I know a lot of people love. It's fine as it is.

And absolutely do not touch one single note of Senjutsu.

[Stadler]

The Book of Souls should have been a single disc. We can argue and disagree on exactly what we would have edited out, but surely we can all agree that ANYTHING that got it down to a single disc length would have been an improvement?

That applies even more to Senjutsu. Could have trimmed any of the endless repetition like the middle of LIALW.

No.  Senjutsu is perhaps my favorite Iron Maiden album at this point.

EDIT:  I'm seriously worried that my first 10 songs are all going to be from Senjutsu.   

[romdrums]

Book of Souls? More like Encyclopedia of Souls!  Yeah, listening to that one recently was kind of a chore.  Only Maiden albums of the ones I own that I can say that about.  Senjutsu, on the other hand, is fine just the way it is.

[nobloodyname]

Yeah. I think I'd leave Senjutsu alone. Only thing I'd change is the really weird transition in... I think it's in Death of the Celts. Sounds like they came back and recorded it the next day and someone had moved the amps. It's quite jarring.

[Dream Team]

The Book of Souls should have been a single disc. We can argue and disagree on exactly what we would have edited out, but surely we can all agree that ANYTHING that got it down to a single disc length would have been an improvement?

That applies even more to Senjutsu. Could have trimmed any of the endless repetition like the middle of LIALW.

No.  Senjutsu is perhaps my favorite Iron Maiden album at this point.

Okay,  but the point is you couldn't live without a couple of bars of the repetitive sections? (also repetitive in the sense they've used the exact same sequence of notes on many prior songs).