Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

[EmaDaCuz]

I'd argue that after the reunion they went for a much darker and more progressive sound than trying to sound like old maiden. In fact I can't think of an instance where post reunion era sounds anything like classic maiden at all Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but I firmly believe that all the albums since Bruce and Adrian's return have been stellar. Yes, there's filler here and there but even those songs like New Frontier or The Alchemist have some fine moments. I don't really know what to say to someone who ranks Virtual XI ahead of AMOLAD

Let's start from the end. "Virtual XI"is a great album, the songwriting is consistent throughout the tracks, the songs are relatively short and in your face (for being Maiden's, of course), and the 3 longer songs are not boring as hell. Maybe and I say maybe "the Angel and the Gambler" is, but it eventually grew on me. Is it a masterpiece? No, but it was something fresh -as was X factor- and showed a potential new direction.

As for the post-reunion, "Brave new world" IMHO was a wannabe-carbon-copy of 'Seventh son" and partly succeeded without being as good as the original. The first time I played "Dance..." I thought it was a slightly darker remake of "Piece of mind" with a disastrous production. "AMOLAD" was a mess, but they tried too hard to get the style of "Phantom of the opera" and "The rhyme..." back.

Having said that, I hope this new album will be a TRUE return to the ol' Maiden style rather than a soulless imitation.

 

[andyjanson]

Let's start from the end. "Virtual XI"is a great album, the songwriting is consistent throughout the tracks, the songs are relatively short and in your face (for being Maiden's, of course), and the 3 longer songs are not boring as hell. Maybe and I say maybe "the Angel and the Gambler" is, but it eventually grew on me. Is it a masterpiece? No, but it was something fresh -as was X factor- and showed a potential new direction.

As for the post-reunion, "Brave new world" IMHO was a wannabe-carbon-copy of 'Seventh son" and partly succeeded without being as good as the original. The first time I played "Dance..." I thought it was a slightly darker remake of "Piece of mind" with a disastrous production. "AMOLAD" was a mess, but they tried too hard to get the style of "Phantom of the opera" and "The rhyme..." back.

Having said that, I hope this new album will be a TRUE return to the ol' Maiden style rather than a soulless imitation.

Well we clearly have entirely opposite views on this then . For me, Virtual XI was an abomination with The X Factor not far behind at all. IMO of the longer songs on VXI, TAATG is a strong contender for worst maiden song ever (the chorus is repeated SIXTY SIX times), The Clansman is very overrated even with Bruce, and Don't Look To The Eyes of a Stranger has the most unintentionally hilarious bridge section I think I've ever heard, along with that super messy repetition of the title at the very end which makes me cringe every time I hear it. I try to mentally block out the Blaze albums when I think about Maiden, even if Sign Of The Cross is fantastic with Bruce on Rock In Rio.

As for the rest of your post I genuinely can't see where you're coming from. The only similarity I can see between BNW and SSoaSS is the cover being blue. To be honest when you have one main songwriter/co-producer/general captain of the band like Steve Harris over a 16 album career, there's bound to be a few similar sounding bits here and there and I personally feel that Maiden have managed that about as well as they could have. Every album sounds and feels different both in terms of song writing and production, and I think any of the last 4 albums (The Final Frontier possibly excepted) stand up to the 'big 5' from the 80's.

 

[EmaDaCuz]

As for the rest of your post I genuinely can't see where you're coming from. The only similarity I can see between BNW and SSoaSS is the cover being blue. To be honest when you have one main songwriter/co-producer/general captain of the band like Steve Harris over a 16 album career, there's bound to be a few similar sounding bits here and there and I personally feel that Maiden have managed that about as well as they could have. Every album sounds and feels different both in terms of song writing and production, and I think any of the last 4 albums (The Final Frontier possibly excepted) stand up to the 'big 5' from the 80's.

De gustibus non est dispuntandum, but I really think BNW is the only one that deserve to be in the top 10 and only because there are some "bad" albums like "No prayer..." or "The number..." (yeah, I hate it!).

I also disagree when you say "Maiden have managed that about as well as they could have". It is true if you expect them to play the same music all over again. But, fortunately or unfortunately, there were two albums with Blaze showing that Maiden can play something different and be (IMO) still pretty good. They failed to develop that line and went back to a more classic hard rock/NWOBHM style.And I will never forget them fot this.

 

[Harry]

I came in the thread wanting to post an opinion on Iron Maiden, but it seems every opinion has been used already
Even if the songs aren't crash hot, I always look forward to more Adrian Smith solos. Still some of the best vibrato in the business and always delivers memorable melodies with great phrasing.
I find myself just skipping straight to the solos on most of the songs of the last few albums anyway

 

[andyjanson]

De gustibus non est dispuntandum, but I really think BNW is the only one that deserve to be in the top 10 and only because there are some "bad" albums like "No prayer..." or "The number..." (yeah, I hate it!).

I also disagree when you say "Maiden have managed that about as well as they could have". It is true if you expect them to play the same music all over again. But, fortunately or unfortunately, there were two albums with Blaze showing that Maiden can play something different and be (IMO) still pretty good. They failed to develop that line and went back to a more classic hard rock/NWOBHM style.And I will never forget them fot this.

I'll admit to googling the latin, but yeah you're right haha I still think if anything after the reunion they expanded on the direction of the blaze era and became darker and more progressive rather than returning to the NWOBHM style, but heh, opinions. (Although I can't understand how anyone would think NOTB is a bad album haha - Children of the damned, the prisoner, 22 acacia avenue, title track, run to the hills, HALLOWED?)

I came in the thread wanting to post an opinion on Iron Maiden, but it seems every opinion has been used already
Even if the songs aren't crash hot, I always look forward to more Adrian Smith solos. Still some of the best vibrato in the business and always delivers memorable melodies with great phrasing.
I find myself just skipping straight to the solos on most of the songs of the last few albums anyway

Hell yea bro, Adrian's solos are always a highlight. Dudes phrasing is spot on.

 

[EmaDaCuz]

Although I can't understand how anyone would think NOTB is a bad album haha - Children of the damned, the prisoner, 22 acacia avenue, title track, run to the hills, HALLOWED?

I only like Children of the damned, which is probably in my Maiden Top 5. All the others, including the album version of Hallowed (which is my fave live song), are meh to me. But again, de gustibus

 

[ShiftKey]

Big maiden fan here, agree with most that already been said tho the x factor grew on me back in day day, (had it on repeat when learning visual basic),the thing that always stuck in my mind was that alot of the lyrics must have been written just after watching apocalypse now as they seem to fit with that dark theme of the film. (Or mabe I watched it around that time made I made the mental link )

 

[starslight]

I'm stoked. Hopefully this time they tie Steve's hands behind his back during the mixing phase. A band with 3 guitar players and yet the bass sits more forward in the mix than all 3 of them put together.

I'm not saying it's how their albums should be mixed, but I don't mind it at all. Steve Harris is one of my all-time favorite musicians and I love that you can always hear him loud and clear.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

The production sound really good.

 

[JD27]

Haha, NOTB a bad album! Crazy talk! That's like instant Maiden fan membership revocation right there.

I was so happy last time I saw them live and they played The Prisoner.

 

[Force]

This short clip has made me very happy despite the crap quality. I'm hearing a mix of Piece Of Mind & Somewhere In Time, guitar tone wise with current Maiden drum production which is very pleasing.

This part of the song is not far removed from what they've been doing the last 15yrs but really cool. My only gripe is they should be adding harmonies to those melodies. I played one along with it & it was the final piece of the puzzle. 3 guitarists playing the same damn thing most of the time, come on..........

This snippet has made the wait even more painful, never been so psyched for a Maiden album.

 

[Andromalia]

Those Nicko rolls.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

 

[Chemical-Pony]

This didn't really do it for me, which is a shame. There's nothing memorable or catchy here. All just a bit "meh" as the youngsters say these days. Just very bland. And Bruce really seems to be struggling now.

 

[SD83]

If the rest of the record is like this I'll probably love it.

 

[p0ke]

The video was pretty cool, but the song sounded like a filler to me...

 

[Force]

I love it, great song, cheesy but clever vid. There's a few things I could gripe about but won't because I'm over the moon about finally hearing some new Maiden & think they've done a good job.

Bring on 4th Sept............fvck yeah

 

[andyjanson]

Yea, as expected really, fairly standard up-tempo maiden rocker, nothing wrong with it, but nothing that blows my mind yet. Not worried at all though, maiden have a history (at least in the post-reunion era) of releasing solid if unremarkable radio friendly singles. Nice Adrian and Dave solos though, sounds very Powerslave era to me. That's one of the things I love most about maiden, you can instantly identify which guitarist is playing which lead, they all have such unique styles and tones.

 

[JD27]

In all seriousness, I would play the .... out of a video game featuring Eddie.

 

[efx1138]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Hunter