Iron Maiden Spinoff 2016 - Album Survivor - Round 8

[425]

Round 7 Results:

Somewhere In Time - 3 votes - 13.0%
Brave New World - 2 votes - 8.7%
Dance of Death - 6 votes - 26.1%
A Matter of Life and Death - 2 votes - 8.7%
The Final Frontier - 7 votes - 30.4%
The Book of Souls - 3 votes - 13.0%


Eliminated:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. The Final Frontier
11. Iron Maiden
12. Killers
13. The X Factor
14. Fear of the Dark
15. No Prayer for the Dying
16. Virtual XI


The Final Frontier will reach the top ten, but only just.

____________

 

Dance of Death

[Outcrier]

Dance of Death (i like it more than some other albums here but, strategic reasons)

Final Frontier got more than it deserves. I mean, it finished in front of Iron Maiden and Killers 

[CharlesPL]

A Matter of Life and Death

[425]

Dance of Death (i like it more than some other albums here but, strategic reasons)

Final Frontier got more than it deserves. I mean, it finished in front of Iron Maiden and Killers 

It should. The same way that ADTOE should finish ahead of WDADU.

[Outcrier]

WDADU = Iron Maiden/Killers? Yeah, this comparison doesn't make any sense to me.

[425]

By comparison to the rest of the band's discography, yes. In both cases, there's good material, but it's clearly not totally mature yet from a songwriting perspective and is just a hint of greatness that is to come. AND in both cases the classic singer hasn't arrived yet. It's not an outlandish comparison at all.

[Outcrier]

But both Iron Maiden and Killers aren't considered bottom of the barrel tier, unlike WDADU.

[425]

As often occurs, you're making my statement more complicated than it was intended to be. The comparison is simply that they are early albums that have elements of greatness, but showcase a band that hasn't achieved its classic lineup yet and hasn't reached a level of songwriting where they're making their best music yet. It would be very, very hard (read: nearly impossible) to argue that it's invalid to say those things about both WDADU and the Di'Anno albums. I'm saying that Dream Theater matured a lot as songwriters between WDADU and ADTOE, and produced better songs on ADTOE than they did on WDADU, unsurprisngly. And I'm saying that, in the exact same way, IM matured between Killers and TFF, and produced better songs on TFF than they did on Killers, which is not surprising (but which is also a personal opinion with which you don't have to agree). Hence the comparison. If you insist on me making statements like this without using analogies (I don't see why, I think analogies make things clearer and more memorable, when they aren't nitpicked to death), then let me restate it: "It should. It's a much more mature album with better songwriting, it should finish ahead of their early albums when their songwriting was still rather rough around the edges."

Honestly, Outcrier, you know I like you, and we're still going to have the Outcrier-only roulette someday, but sometimes I feel like you take the least charitable interpretation possible of my words and then quiz me on it.

[Outcrier]

Fine, i still prefer both over the "mature" Final Frontier.

but sometimes I feel like you take the least charitable interpretation possible of my words and then quiz me on it.

Part of my charm, i guess. Deal with it, son.

[425]

Fine, i still prefer both over the "mature" Final Frontier.

Which is fine.

but sometimes I feel like you take the least charitable interpretation possible of my words and then quiz me on it.

Part of my charm, i guess. Deal with it, son.

Yeah, it's real charming. 

[Outcrier]

Still, this mature thing kinda irks me the wrong way. Most of the times i think the early albums of most bands feels more mature than their recent albums (with some exceptions, obviously). Per example, Images and Words.

[Evermind]

Dance of Death

[425]

Still, this mature thing kinda irks me the wrong way. Most of the times i think the early albums of most bands feels more mature than their recent albums (with some exceptions, obviously). Per example, Images and Words.

And I feel the same way about what I see as an over-emphasis on a band's earlier works. Dream Theater could put out a better album than Images and Words next year and no one would care because it wasn't released in the period that is seen as their creative peak. To be quite honest, this is what I think Iron Maiden has been doing since 2006—but no one cares because their peak was supposedly in the 80s.

Putting out great records is not something that a band can only do in their first 10 years of existence. Sometimes—and only sometimes, I'm not arguing for the greatness of every latter-day record any band puts out—those years and years of experience can yield something as good as or better than the initial energetic output. But it seems like most of the time the best that a band that's been around for 20 or 30 years or more can do in the eyes of the listening public is "this is a good album, just not as good as their classics." It's like, that's the best you can do, and most of the time you're just going to get a "this is weak, no one cares, now go be a good little nostalgia act."

[Outcrier]

To be quite honest, this is what I think Iron Maiden has been doing since 2006—but no one cares because their peak was supposedly in the 80s.

For the record, my 2nd favorite Maiden album is from the reunion era. I think the 80s stuff trumps the rest though.

Putting out great records is not something that a band can only do in their first 10 years of existence. Sometimes—and only sometimes, I'm not arguing for the greatness of every latter-day record any band puts out—those years and years of experience can yield something as good as or better than the initial energetic output.

Yeah, i already said there's plenty of exceptions and all but, personally, it's rare the occasions where the latter era is my favorite period of a band.

[MirrorMask]

I vote against Somewhere in Time, Dance of Death is a wonderful album of the reunion era FFS! 

[425]

To be quite honest, this is what I think Iron Maiden has been doing since 2006—but no one cares because their peak was supposedly in the 80s.

For the record, my 2nd favorite Maiden album is from the reunion era. I think the 80s stuff trumps the rest though.

Putting out great records is not something that a band can only do in their first 10 years of existence. Sometimes—and only sometimes, I'm not arguing for the greatness of every latter-day record any band puts out—those years and years of experience can yield something as good as or better than the initial energetic output.

Yeah, i already said there's plenty of exceptions and all but, personally, it's rare the occasions where the latter era is my favorite period of a band.

Right. You clearly tend to prefer earlier stuff, and I tend to have a stronger draw than most towards later stuff. I'm not sure why this needs to be a problem, but it seems to be. Especially when I try to identify a reason why I have this preference, which is my preference for what I call "maturity"—the word that comes to mind for me when I try to think of a reason why I'm often drawn to later stuff.

[Outcrier]

No problem. I just think that word is kinda being misused here but that's just me, no need to argue that.

[Train of Naught]

The Final Frontier - 7 votes - 30.4%

Book of Souls finishing above Final Frontier

[Tomislav95]

Dance of Death

[Zydar]

Dance of Death, once again.

[Mladen]

Final Frontier got more than it deserves. I mean, it finished in front of Iron Maiden and Killers 

Well deserved as far as I'm concerned.

Brave New World

[wolfking]

DOD

[Prog Snob]

Anything with Blaze and after will suffice but I chose the latest album.

[Zantera]

It was good, but definitely the weakest out of this bunch. Book of Souls.