Anything Maiden

Dartz · 10-09-2015 8:44pm

blastman wrote: »

Album arrived last night, I have to say the vinyl package is a thing of beauty!

Boheld!

Record sounds pretty good aswell. Rega really needs something better than logitech speakers to play through, but it works.

Empire of the Clouds is a proper grower alright.

jack presley · 10-09-2015 10:04pm

A week in and according to the play count in iTunes, I've only listened to each song between 9-10 times but the album has grown on me a bit. I still think The Man of Sorrows and The Great Unknown are quite poor but the rest of the songs are decent enough. Only Tears of A Clown and The Red and The Black I'd consider as potential Maiden classics but I've even beginning to like Empire of The Clouds now. The piano riff (or whatever you call a piece done on piano) is pretty cool and it's the piece I find myself humming to myself throughout the day.

Knock off a couple of tracks and take EotC down to about 10 minutes and you'd have a great album in my opinion.

jack presley · 11-09-2015 8:14am

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/iron-maiden-s-nicko-mcbrain-book-of-souls-is-number-of-the-beast-for-the-new-millennium-1.2347355

Interview with Nicko in today's Irish Times. Album review there too.

xtradel · 13-09-2015 10:04am

First dates TBA tomorrow 14th according to an upside down message on the front page of ironmaiden.com

jack presley · 13-09-2015 10:32am

xtradel wrote: »

First dates TBA tomorrow 14th according to an upside down message on the front page of ironmaiden.com

Australian ones do you reckon?

xtradel · 13-09-2015 10:52am

jack presley wrote: »

Australian ones do you reckon?

Thats what I thought myself but the original statement said they are kicking off in the states first....maybe its just a cock up

Seth Brundle · 13-09-2015 11:02am

xtradel wrote: »

First dates TBA tomorrow 14th according to an upside down message on the front page of ironmaiden.com

Excellent
Now we're going to hear Bruce say "when I wanna go away from Trim back to England, I wanna be able to go to the hearing doctor and go, "Doctor, Trim fůcked up my hearing for good!", alright?""

Lithium93_ · 13-09-2015 10:31pm

The Book Of Souls World Tour Australian Tour dates

CHRISTCHURCH - April 29th - Horncastle Arena
AUCKLAND - May 1st - Vector Arena
BRISBANE - May 4th - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
SYDNEY - May 6th - Allphones Arena
MELBOURNE - May 9th - Rod Laver Arena
ADELAIDE - May 12th – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
PERTH - May 14th – Perth Arena

Fanclub presales start on Thursday 17th, with tickets going onsale to the general public at noon on Thursday 24th September. Visit www.ironmaiden.com or www.daintygroup.com/tour/iron-maiden-2016 for all the details.

We'll be bringing our buddies The Raven Age along too!
More 2016 dates to be announced soon...

Wurzelbert · 13-09-2015 10:34pm

just listening to ‘if eternity should fail’…great song with a totally awesome verse structure, if only the chorus would live up to it…still a damn good song…

jack presley · 14-09-2015 7:02pm

Just noticed that I had post 666 in this thread...!!!!

Wurzelbert · 15-09-2015 1:19pm

finally got the book of souls delivered…as many have said before, i too think it could be a grower…some songs are immediately awesome while others sound like they have great potential and seem to get better with every listen…all in all a very good album, yet not the world beater some reviews would make one believe…and can we please get a version of empire of the clouds without violins and all that…

savemejebus · 15-09-2015 3:44pm

Anyone else think that 'If eternity should fail' sounds a bit out of place?

I know it's a song Bruce originally wrote for a solo record, and it's in drop-d etc. and I'm not knocking the song but to me it sounds like maiden didn't put their stamp on it soundwise. I still think it's great but when it ends i expect to hear something like darkside of aquarius following it rather than Speed of LIght.

RayCon · 16-09-2015 8:43am

I'm struggling with the whole album ... finding it more of a chore than a pleasure.

jack presley · 16-09-2015 3:25pm

RayCon wrote: »

I'm struggling with the whole album ... finding it more of a chore than a pleasure.

I kind of get what you're saying there. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a chore but it is just too long. Apart from the first listen, I don't think I've listened to it from start to finish. I just don't have the time to spend 90+ minutes on an album. And I like doing that with albums, it gives you a better feeling for it.

ush · 16-09-2015 4:23pm

There's not enough that grabs you on first listening. The gloriously positive reviews were biased. I suspect journalists are afraid of alienating the band's management.

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
At the speed of light

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
We're slipping through the night

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
At the speed of light

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
At the speed of light

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
At the speed of light

Shadows and the stars
We will not return
Humanity won't save us
At the speed of light

RayCon · 16-09-2015 5:11pm

jack presley wrote: »

I kind of get what you're saying there. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a chore but it is just too long. Apart from the first listen, I don't think I've listened to it from start to finish. I just don't have the time to spend 90+ minutes on an album. And I like doing that with albums, it gives you a better feeling for it.

Don't get me wrong ... like you I like to listen to the whole album - and have no problem with long "double LPs" if it's justified and takes you many places - this doesn't (for me anyway).

Read a post somewhere where the person said "Iron Maiden don't do Prog Metal , they do Long Metal" and that sums it up for me.

Long =/= Prog =/= Interesting .

breffni666 · 16-09-2015 10:54pm

A very slow burner so far. Didn't like it at all first listen but I'm giving it a chance. Spoken word piece on opener and piano on EOTC didn't fill me with any joy. It could take some time and I'm a long time fan (28 years). A definite case of "wait and see".

Wrongway1985 · 16-09-2015 11:37pm

ush wrote: »

There's not enough that grabs you on first listening. The gloriously positive reviews were biased. I suspect journalists are afraid of alienating the band's management.

I didn't find much grab me on first listen but jaysus hopefully these biased journos didn't review the album having only listened to it once.

I think album is really great in fact maybe the best of the reunion records with the only downside being the production really hope they play a good chunk of it live on it's tour. This album follows the same vein as the other reunion albums so could I imagine automatically alienate those not interested in those releases.

RayCon · 17-09-2015 9:03am

Wrongway1985 wrote: »

I imagine automatically alienate those not interested in those releases.

I love AMOLAD ... and thought FF was pretty good.

Wrongway1985 · 17-09-2015 12:05pm

RayCon wrote: »

I love AMOLAD ... and thought FF was pretty good.

If thats the case you could be grand with this one so if you give it a chance I was half disinterested on first listen tbh. Sorry just the long metal comment summing things up for you would lead anyone to believe you weren't a fan of what they've been doing the last few albums too.

scudzilla · 17-09-2015 12:43pm

It's a steady Maiden album, nowhere near as amazing as all the reviews have given, and those of my Maiden nuthugger friends.

IMO Motorhead's new album pisses all over it, best Motorhead have produced in a LONG time

Wurzelbert · 17-09-2015 12:46pm

so far only the first and last song have really stuck with nice melodies and riffs and all…will have to see if the album as a whole really is the grower i initially thought it would be…

peter1892 · 17-09-2015 1:04pm

There are some songs on the new album that I like a lot - If Eternity Should Fail, The Great Unknown and Empire Of The Clouds (although they could have knocked a few minutes off that one).

It is the song lengths that cause the problem for me they could have been far more 'economical' this time round. I loved the first 3 post-reunion records but TFF lost my interest quickly and so far I think this one is heading the same way.

Maybe a change of producer would work - nothing against the Caveman but I'd love to hear how someone else would shake things up a little.

RayCon · 19-09-2015 9:39am

peter1892 wrote: »

Maybe a change of producer would work - nothing against the Caveman but I'd love to hear how someone else would shake things up a little.

That's the nail on the head right there ... you need a producer who's strong enough to stand up to the band (especially Harris) and get them to pull it back a bit - try get back to the early Maiden sound / song length.

Similar to how Nick Raskulinecz got an amazing album out of Rush on Clockwork Angels. You gotta have balls and do whats right ...

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/rush-producer-working-with-heroes/

peter1892 · 19-09-2015 1:30pm

RayCon wrote: »

Similar to how Nick Raskulinecz got an amazing album out of Rush on Clockwork Angels. You gotta have balls and do whats right ...

He's exactly who I thought of - I reckon he could do a great job for Maiden.

jack presley · 19-09-2015 4:01pm

On both the FF and BOS, I'd love it if someone would have said to Steve to chop off the slow intros that add nothing to the songs. For example:

Starblind - first 50 seconds
Talisman - first 2:20
The Man Who Would Be King - first 1:35
WTWWB - first 2:15

And on BOS, there are a couple of pointless outros too.

TRATB - First and last 30 seconds
Title track - initial 50 seconds, final 35 seconds.

savemejebus · 19-09-2015 5:58pm

So, instead of the band doing what they like and are interested in, ye think they should get a producer to help them make albums like the ones they made 30 years ago? Piece of Mind 2 and the like ?

jack presley · 19-09-2015 9:31pm

savemejebus wrote: »

So, instead of the band doing what they like and are interested in, ye think they should get a producer to help them make albums like the ones they made 30 years ago? Piece of Mind 2 and the like ?

Of course they can do what they want but as fans we're also able to say what we like and don't like.

Dartz · 19-09-2015 9:48pm

RayCon wrote: »

I'm struggling with the whole album ... finding it more of a chore than a pleasure.

It never felt like a chore. Then again I had a break every two tracks to flip the record.

peter1892 · 19-09-2015 10:06pm

savemejebus wrote: »

So, instead of the band doing what they like and are interested in, ye think they should get a producer to help them make albums like the ones they made 30 years ago? Piece of Mind 2 and the like ?

No - it's not about wanting them to recreate the past. I admire them for trying to do something different, plenty of bands of their age would be happy to re-hash the same old songs they've been doing for years. I just feel that a change of producer might bring a few fresh ideas to the table.

While I do think they could be more 'economical' with some of the song lengths I wouldn't expect them to start writing 3 minute pop songs! But where long tracks work for me is when they absolutely hold my attention for their duration (Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, 2112 and Suppers Ready all spring to mind). I think 'Empire Of The Clouds' is great, but it might have benefited from a bit of trimming, especially in the first half of the track.

Anything Maiden

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