Iron Maiden

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I have listened to them all in the last few months, I think I can rank them...

1) The Wicker Man
2) Writing on the Wall (but could move up!)!
3) The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
4) The Speed of Light
5) El Dorado
6) Wildest Dream (really hated this one, Rainmaker would have been a far better choice!)

[Charger]

Top 3. Great songs all of them
1. Wicker Man
2. Wildest Dreams
3. Speed Of Light

Bottom 3...pretty weak songs all of them
4. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg (the only listenable song on AMOLAD)
5. El Dorado
6. The Writing On The Wall

Post Dance Of Death Maiden has been pretty damn spotty to say the least but in most occation though the better tracks on the albums have been the shorter faster songs....the only problem is there aren't that many of them.

[Jack the Stripper]

1)The Wicker Man
2)El Dorado
3)The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
4)Speed Of Light
5)The Writing On The Wall
6)Wildest Dreams

I think they’re all great tracks and pretty good choices for first single except Wildest Dreams. I don’t hate it but think it’s a bit weak and has a whiff of filler about and was a poor choice to be the opening track on the album let alone lead single.

Hard to go past “The Wickerman” as the best though but I think El Dorado comes close. That song just flat out rocks and has really grown on me in the ensuing years since it came out.

[Zzzptm]

Here's a bombshell... I haven't heard any of those except The Wicker Man and WotW and only once or twice for both. So I'll give this a go and come at it totally fresh.

[Zzzptm]

I'm using the "Official Version" videos of each of the tracks in question for judging, listening to music only, no video other than a few frames at the start. Comments typed in as I listen in...

The Wicker Man - opens up like an old school Maiden song, very cool. Chorus kinda drags it for a while, but the verses get back to action. Strong jam track in this one. Starts off in both first and last place.

Wildest Dreams - kicks off like a good rocker, but different guitar tone than traditionally used by the Maidens. Has an 80s power metal feel to it, I like this one. Oh yeah, this totally kicks ass! I place this ahead of The Wicker Man at this point in my ranking.

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg - Quiet intro like Still Life. And the guitars suddenly blast! Wait, no, they don't. More intro. Then quiet singing. NOW GUITARS BLAST! No? More quiet stuff? Are you sure this is Iron Maiden? Oh hang on, there's the loud part. Not a blast, more of a rumble. Reminds me of Russian band Aria, which sounds a lot like Maiden, but plays a lot of mid-tempo numbers. Track so far is a slow burn. Kinda waiting this one out to finish. Slow gallop for guitars in the solo part... I'm going to guess that there's no fast part in this song. And I'm now checking to see how much longer this runs... yeah, it's behind the other two. Plenty of space between my 1-2-3 at this time, no close calls. Checked the time on this one - SEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES? Oof. That's not a single. That's half of side one.

El Dorado - got that Speed King everything at once opening, then it's Hard Lovin' Man. Is this Iron Maiden's tribute to Deep Purple in Rock? OK, traditional Iron Maiden gallop starts and the groove gets going. It's another long one, almost 7 minutes... totally not in the old school "Keep it at 2:30" way of thinking... The lyric reminds me of Gillan's talking style from Bloodsucker, go figure, this IS a DP in Rock tribute. Like it when Bruce goes high for the chorus and the guitars do a good job opening up the solo section. I'm tapping my toes and banging my head, this is going to slide in between 1 and 2 in my rankings, nice and easy.

Speed of Light - shorter track than the last 2, only 5 minutes. Opens up kinda like a Motorhead tune. Not as good as El Dorado, but is it better than Wicker Man? I'm thinking so, I'm not hitting any parts that make me have to wait for the better parts. The chorus reminds me of Sun and Steel, and I like that track a lot. Yes, this one moves into 3rd place for me.

Writing on the Wall - 6 minutes long, has that quiet opening and then it goes country on me. I still don't know what to make of it, I'm imagining the band all wearing cowboy hats and big belt buckles as they play this song. So help me, is this going to be a crossover hit, leading to a tour with Bon Jovi? No blasting guitars, makes me disappointed. I'm starting to check my emails and am planning to do my annual privacy awareness training and export training after this... and this will NOT be the soundtrack that I play as I click through the mandatory powerpoint slides. Checking my watch on this one again, at least it's not as much of a drag as Ben Breeg, but not a fun song. 5th place.

Overall rankings:

1. Wildest Dreams - playing that one for a victory lap right now
2. El Dorado
3. Speed of Light
4. The Wicker Man

5. Writing on the Wall
6. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg

Looking at the other rankings, mine are almost the opposite of KDC's and I've got top 3 entries from both Charger and Jack.

"The data are mixed." - Zzzptm

[Charger]

I've never really considered El Dorado that way... I might have to listen to it again and see if I can spot that Purple influence there. There is a shot then that it might change places with Breeg.

On most other tracks our opinions merge quite well.


The big problem with Iron Maiden post Dance Of Death is that they don't sound anything like Iron Maiden anymore. Sure they went dark and long already from The X Factor onwards but atleast back then they still SOUNDED like Maiden. Fast hooks, galloping riffs, long (inspired not overly repetetive) instrumental sections...and so on. But for some reason they completely dropped the ball and it rolled down the sewer and got carried away with the rest of the turds with A Matter Of Life And Death...and they never really found it again part from few songs here and there.

[Zzzptm]

^ That hit/miss stuff is why I trailed off in my Maiden listening habits over the years. I was already calling it a day after Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

[Charger]

Oh yeah...the decline started with 7th Son there is no doubt about it. That album only had few good songs on it and the two after that were absolutely horrid.

They did rejuvinate themselves a bit with the Blaze-era stuff but the start of the more progressive overlong stuff already begun, but back then it was still fresh and the quality was still there.
Brave New World had some great tracks but the pompousness was starting to raise it's head at that point...same with DOD...and after that it's been a fast decline. Book Of Souls had some good material and even some more galloping stuff like The Red And The Black but Bruce's vocal delivery and melodies started to sound really stale at that point already....and with this new single the bland staleness just went up 10 notches.

[Zzzptm]

I'd definitely pay a buck apiece for the 4 songs I liked, but I'd need to hear the whole album and decide if I want to get the whole thing or go track by track.

Unlike the later-era Motorhead albums, those I could buy the whole thing and feel good about the purchase.

[Charger]

Yeah...I think from all the albums post DOD there are 6 or 7 songs I really like...and most of them are on Book Of Souls. I still don't regret buying those albums (well okay maybe A Matter Of Shit and Turd...that album is really horrid) as they're still Maiden and I'm a fan...but if there's ever been a band that truly lost their magic it'd be Maiden....

[Jack the Stripper]

I think Maiden knew they had something unique and special and something to be truly proud of when they made AMOLAD. That’s why they played it in full when they toured on it.

Remarkable album.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'm probably somewhere between Charger and Jack regarding AMOLAD, I really like about half of it but when it's bad it's awful!!

[Thelemech]

Oh yeah...the decline started with 7th Son there is no doubt about it. That album only had few good songs on it and the two after that were absolutely horrid.

I have to disagree as I believe Somewhere In Time and 7th Son Of 7th Son to be Iron Maiden at their absolute peak. The two albums that followed are both fantastic as far as I am concerned. They were an attempt to bring pack a rawer sound to the bands music. I can however see how you might dislike those last two before Bruce left but myself I think that they are great.
Also plenty of my Metal Head friends liked No Prayer alot but most were indifferent concerning Fear Of The Dark though as I have already stated I found plenty to like on both.

[Charger]

Oh yeah...the decline started with 7th Son there is no doubt about it. That album only had few good songs on it and the two after that were absolutely horrid.

I have to disagree as I believe Somewhere In Time and 7th Son Of 7th Son to be Iron Maiden at their absolute peak. The two albums that followed are both fantastic as far as I am concerned. They were an attempt to bring pack a rawer sound to the bands music. I can however see how you might dislike those last two before Bruce left but myself I think that they are great.
Also plenty of my Metal Head friends liked No Prayer alot but most were indifferent concerning Fear Of The Dark though as I have already stated I found plenty to like on both.

Somewhere In Time is great, but it was already a step down from the perfection that was Powerslave.

7th Son was lacking punch too many soft and mid tempo songs...and ofcourse it also features Maiden's worst track which is Can I Play With Madness... The title track is brilliant though.

Good tracks from No Prayer and Fear Of The Dark can be counted with single hand digits combined. Mother Russia probably being the best of the lot...and that's actually one of those few Maiden songs that could have actually been even longer.

I think Maiden tried to sound a bit like Motörhead or other rockier bands with those two albums but it just didn't work. And Bruce's change in vocal style was stupid.

[Zzzptm]

My favorites are Piece of Mind, Powerslave, and Number of the Beast. Before those, I have to have fistfights with the ghost of Billy Underdog because I don't like DiAnno's stuff. After them, it just wasn't the same on Somewhere in Time and 7th Son, so I lost interest. Good tracks on both, but there was also stuff that just failed to click.

There are times when they do really really really long numbers and I just fall asleep. Truly for safety's sake, I do not play them when driving. Grand Funk's Good Singing, Good Playing has the same effect on me at the end of side one and side two, so I don't play none of those tracks, neither.