There's been a distinct lack of GuineaPig in this thread.
I've been mulling over my opinions on the album.
Basically, I'm sort of unsure. It's a pretty good album with its share of highlights and thankfully relatively few bad stretches. It doesn't suffer from the same sort of sameness that infected AMOLAD (the sheer repetitiveness of chord progressions on that album hurts it the most); but many songs (I'm looking squarely at "The Talisman" and "When the Wild Wind Blows") fall into Maiden-by-numbers which hinder my appreciation for them (especially the latter). Also, as much as I hate to say it, H has sort of fallen into a very predictable soloing style. The only really "different" solo for him this album is the main one for "Starblind"; unfortunately it's pretty mediocre.
Davey is most certainly the man of the match here. His soloing is a step above the rest of his reunion work, which is good because he was a little stale creatively (with a definite exception on the solo for Breeg) previously. Second-place goes to Nicko who's solid here.
Bruce's performance sounds strained. Which sucks. He sounded great when I saw him live, so I don't know what the cause is here. My bet is that Kevin Shirley wasn't as strict as he needed to be. I read that the vox for "The Talisman" were recorded in one take, which is impressive, but it's not an excuse for not getting things as good as possible. Overall the production isn't that great. Steve needs to get the hell away from the mixing desk. It sounds decent; but I'd like Maiden to have a little more definition. I get the feeling that some songs suffer a hell of a lot from the combination of the previous two factors; notably "Starblind" which, imo, would be a top 5 Maiden song if it were better sonically and performance-wise.
Song of the album is definitely "Isle of Avalon." The two solos there are the best for each respective guitarist (sans Janick, unfortunately, who once again gets the short shrift on this album) and the whole breakdown middle is fantastic. If I were to revise my top 50, I think "Isle of Avalon", "Coming Home" (which is far and away Bruce's best performance, and should be amazing live), "Starblind" and "The Talisman" would make my top 50, in that order. Hard to say just yet though.
Is it the best reunion-era album? I'm unsure. It had the potential to be. There's a lot of diversity, cool ideas, and a real progressive-bent to this album that could have clearly elevated it above the others.
Little notes:
- The best part about "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" is the acoustic guitar. Very awesome touch.
- I think not redoing "Satelite 15" was a mistake. If it was mixed properly, it could've been a seriously epic and ominous intro. In its rough demo form, it's interesting, but not excellent.
- The lyrics are quite good. Except for some odd Harris lines that stick out, it might be my favourite album lyrically since
The X Factor.
- Is it ever good to not have to hear a repeating chorus every song.
- "The Alchemist" is wonderfully catchy, but the performances are a bit rough, and could've used some fine-tuning. The members aren't always in sync here.
- One similarity that people have overlooked but jumps right out to me: "The Man Who Would Be King" and "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate". Both Murray compositions.
- "When the Wild Wind Blows" is not in the same company of "Sign of the Cross" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". There are some seriously awesome sections, but as I mentioned early, there's a good chunk that's just too stock Maiden. Also, the intro vocal melodies simply don't work as well when the song turns heavy.
- Final addendum: Don't know if I'm the first to mention this, but does anyone else hear a giant dose of
Virtual XI on this album?
Topic: THE Iron Maiden Thread (Read 436503 times)
