Iron Maiden: Brave New World

The Bollox

I had a bit of a debate with a friend today about the Iron Maiden album: Brave New World. I think it is brilliant that it came out when it did, a really good 'welcome back', if you will, from Bruce Dickenson after the tragedy that was Blaize Bailey. but my friend says it was too little too late, and that 'too little' was not used lightly, Brave New World is his favourite Maiden album, he just thinks it would have done so much more for Maiden in the Powerslave / Piece Of Mind days. what do you think? I think the album brought a new generation into Maiden, because for me, up until Brave New World came out, Powerslave was their last great album, and once I heard some of Brave New World I loved Maiden again, it was exactly what I needed to get back into them. They, IMHO were going down the Metallica road, but then they went back to the old ways and blew me away.

do you think the album would have been more suited for the older days, or do you think it was best left for when it was released?

tj-music.com

In all fairness: any singer after Blaze would have been a relief. All the better that Bruce Dickinson was back. I peronally think it is a strong album and I reckon without Dickinson Maiden would have been more or less finished considering that the mighty Maiden had to play clubs again with Blaza as their frontman.

Doctor J

In fairness to Blaze, the two albums he's on are **** musically. Totally uninspired and sound bland as ****, the band sounded dead and the songs were very weak. That's not his fault, he did a bang up job with Wolfsbane but I can only think of Dio, Halford and maybe Tim Owens not having a hard time following Bruce Dickinson. I heard that Man On The Edge tune live on telly once and, with the guitars nice and loud as they should be, it didn't sound all too bad. On the cd though, the guitars are tame and subdued, there's no energy or aggression to the sound at all and it just sounds miserable, even before the singing begins.

Bruce is an amazing singer, he makes everything he sings on sound a whole lot better. Brave New World isn't a patch on Maiden's output from the 80's but when Bruce is on form you can get away with murder

DerKaiser

Brave New World was typical of were Maiden were at that point, nowhere, it was a terrible album in comparison the the early brilliance of the band that was the saviours of hard rock/metal, everything between their debut and 7th son was pure genius, everything after...... ropey at best, I saw them in the Point in '91 on the no prayer for the dying tour, great live show, all their new stuff stank, they were supported by Wolfsbane funnily enough!

BlackSabbath

DerKaiser wrote:

Brave New World was typical of were Maiden were at that point, nowhere, it was a terrible album in comparison the the early brilliance of the band that was the saviours of hard rock/metal, everything between their debut and 7th son was pure genius, everything after...... ropey at best, I saw them in the Point in '91 on the no prayer for the dying tour, great live show, all their new stuff stank, they were supported by Wolfsbane funnily enough!

still better than anything by judas priest though.

John

BlackSabbath wrote:

still better than anything by judas priest though.

I really like the Brave New World album but to suggest that it's better than British Steel or Painkiller is heresy!

BlackSabbath

John2 wrote:

I really like the Brave New World album but to suggest that it's better than British Steel or Painkiller is heresy!

different strokes, that's all.:cool:

peter1892

'Brave New World' is an excellent album, and a good introduction to Iron Maiden. I listened to it again yesterday, in full for the first time in ages, and I'm still as impressed by it now as I was when it was released. Full of energy & creativity.

I do think that (some) people tend to underestimate just how important Adrian Smith is to the band - IMO they didn't record a decent album after he left (neither 'Fear of the dark' or 'No prayer for the dying' being much to write home about).

Anyway, I'd rate both 'Brave New World' and 'Dance Of Death' quite highly - just as good as the early output. Well OK, not as good as '..Beast' or 'iron Maiden' but certainly as good as 'Piece Of Mind' or 'Seventh son...'

BlackSabbath

peter1892 wrote:

Anyway, I'd rate both 'Brave New World' and 'Dance Of Death' quite highly - just as good as the early output. Well OK, not as good as '..Beast' or 'iron Maiden' but certainly as good as 'Piece Of Mind' or 'Seventh son...'

HAHAHAHAHA. just no.

peter1892

BlackSabbath wrote:

HAHAHAHAHA. just no.

Like you say, different strokes...

BlackSabbath

peter1892 wrote:

Like you say, different strokes...

i know, it was my opinion.:cool:

Civilian_Target

I didn't think Brave New World was a great album - it has some exceedingly good tracks (Wickerman, Brave New World) but the album itself I find weak, particularly when placed beside Dance of Death which is both very well paced and has some equally stonking tracks (Rainmaker, Montsegur, Paschendale).

I'd put Dance of Death on par with Number of the Beast/Piece of Mind but not Brave New World, which was just the warm-up act

This new album should be good, given the form Maiden have been in of late...

pbsuxok1znja4r

Whatever it was about the production, or having 3 guitarists on it, I think Brave New World is genuinely the heaviest Maiden album, and I think it sounds all the better for it. Nothing Maiden have done begs a bit of a headbang quite like the opening to "The Wicker Man" does... \m/

SirLemonhead

It's one of about only 3 Iron Maiden albums I can stand listening to (Piece of Mind and Fear of the Dark being the other 2)

It's a good listen from start to finish, with really no weak songs.

I figure my opinion wont matter to Maiden fans anyway. I hate Powerslave and think Bruce is a horribly over-rated singer

Oh, Somewhere in time is pretty good too.

peter1892

I don't particularly like Powerslave. 4 brilliant tracks (Aces High, 2 minutes..., Ancient Mariner & the title track) a couple of really good ones & some fillers.

Fear of the dark....when it was released I loved it but now it sounds pretty poor. Apart from 'fear of the dark' itself which is a brilliant song. But it was recorded at a time when Bruce wasn't happy with the direction the band were going in & he left within a year of it's release (or at least announced that he was offski).

Somewhere in Time is good, a bit of a departure with the synths. I'd have liked to have seen them experiment more with '7th son..' in fact Bruce Dickinson admitted that when he heard Queensryche's 'Operation Mindcrime' (released around the same time) he though 'Oh s***!' because that's what a concept album should have sounded like...

(Hmm, didn't know I wasn't allowed to use the 'S' word!!)

AlanOB

Yeah Seventh Son is wildly overrated, particularly when you compare it to Mindcrime as you say. Moonchild, Infinite Dreams and the title track are obviously classics but Can I Play With Madness is extremely tame sounding and the rest of the album is just totally forgettable and leaves no lasting impression.

You'd struggle to even call it a concept album too, because it lacks the kind of cohesion that genuine albums of the kind have.

As for the rest of Maiden's discography, I love the Di'Anno era with Maiden and Killers being two of my favourites from the boys. Number of the Beast is great but the title track is tame with an awkward chorus and Gangland sucks (apart from the drumming). Love, love, love Piece of Mind. Bit of filler at the end, but the monumental To Tame A Land saves it and sends you home happy.

Powerslave as someone already said is four great songs, three not so great songs. Somewhere in Time is awesome, and definitely one of the most overlooked in their discography. The title track is one of the best openers I've ever heard on any album, and is one I used to play before I went out on Saturday nights when I was younger to get me fired up. No Prayer for the Dying is awful, with anodyne songwriting and Bruce sounding like somebody ripped his larynx up with razor wire.

Fear of the Dark is an improvement but it's mostly filler, with some awful tracks (Who's idea was The Apparition?). And the less said about the Bayley era the better, although it must be said that Blaze is a great frontman and the poor output during that time was solely down to awful songwriting and incompatibility between the band and Bayley himself.

Brave New World is a great comeback for me. Bruce sounds amazing, the three-pronged guitar attack works a charm and produces some great tracks (The Wicker Man, Brave New World, The Nomad).

And the latest Dance of Death rounds things off. Fantastic album with some great lean rockers (Montsegur, Rainmaker) and some amazing balls out epics (Paschendale, title track). Astounding really that after 13 albums, Maiden still sound fresh and are still churning out some of their best work.

Here's to 13 more!

peter1892

AlanOB wrote:

And the less said about the Bayley era the better, although it must be said that Blaze is a great frontman and the poor output during that time was solely down to awful songwriting and incompatibility between the band and Bayley himself.

The thing about those two albums (X Factor & Virtual XI) is that despite their overall weakness there's still a couple of 'classics' in 'Sign of the cross' & 'The Clansman'. Of course, Bruce makes a better job of them live than Blaze did. 'Lord of the flies' is a great song too, again the version on 'Death on the road' is superior for me (although that live album disappointed me, it seems a bit weak, could be the production more than anything else).

Given their output over 25+ years there's always going to be a huge amount of opinion on Iron Maiden, personally I can't wait for the gig in december!

r3nu4l

I do think that Bruce being back was always going to make Maiden better than any of their last albums but again like a lot of people, I think Maiden had their peak in the 80's. Brave New World was a good effort but not enough for me.

I really think that Live after Death brings together most of their best material and while it doesn't have the polish of the studio albums, I think it rocks.

Favourite pieces, Phantom of the opera, Aces high, Powerslave, number of the beast, Hallowed be thy name, 22 Acacia Avenue.

peter1892

Bruce Dickinson reckons the new album could be out by june (he said this on his latest radio show on BBC 6 Music).