May the 4th be with you...
History Towers throws open it's doors once again and welcomes you to it's new surroundings from a technically different location.
If you wouldn't mind taking your shoes off at the door and keeping the noise down around the Degu cage you can make yourselves comfortable.
Yes folks my move went through, the lovely lady and I are in and so on International Star Wars Day I thought I'd kick back off with this masive missive I began penning way back in April.
Okay it was only a matter of time before I wrote about Iron Maiden...
It isn't a shock and we all know it won't be the last time either, so if you are not interested tune out now as this is some serious geekery about to unfold.
The motivation for this piece was because I have talked a lot about the nineties of late - most likely because I was there first hand to witness Metal stutter and attempt to evolve, but somewhere in the passage of time I have come to realise the nineties were a whole decade ago... where does the time fly?
The most significant thing in music for me to happen in the last ten years of music was the reunion of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith with Iron Maiden and the subsequent four albums they have released.
I remember it like yesterday; it was 1999 and I was in halls of residence at university. It was probably a weekday as we were all pretty wrecked and the sun was certainly high enough to denote afternoon... who knows, as I said we were wrecked - the excuse? A day ending in Y probably.
The news came over the communal kitchen radio that the duo had returned; quite frankly this news was better than sex and promptly myself and one of my good friends ran around like giddy schoolgirls shrieking until we located the only Iron Maiden CD in the house (my collection was either on tape or confined to nostalgia at this point), the Paul Di'Anno fronted Killers.
You couldn't make it up.
Annnyyyywwaaaayyy...
The nineties were dark years for Maiden and this is something no one can deny. After conqueroring the eighties with an astounding run of albums; Adrian Smith left to pursue his own interests, Steve built a studio in the barn in his back garden, Dickinson changed his vocal style and long time producer Martin Birch announced imminent retirement. Whilst I have the luxury of viewing No Prayer For The Dying and Fear Of The Dark through youthful and Maiden tinted glasses (being my first new music by the band) the fact is that 'Prayer' sounds like a badly produced take on AC/DC style Rock n Roll and 'Fear' has nearly 50% filler.
Then Dickinson left.
Then Grunge exploded.
Then Day-Glo Punk exploded
Then Harris' father died and he got divorced.
By the time the X Factor rolled round in the mid nineties things were pretty dire in Camp Maiden and arguably only getting worse.
Smith had been adequately replaced for the proceeding two albums it seemed by 'Manic' Janick Gers who, admittedly can pen a good tune, but is an absolute travesty live where his insistence on skipping everywhere, throwing his guitar over his shoulder and not bothering to play the half the notes because he's 'off the wall' is frankly infuriating (especially now Smith is back and can actually play HIS solos) and grips my shit even seeing him live, yet alone on DVD where you can actually pay attention to the mangled guitar parts...
With Renaissance man Dickinson gone off to sing solo, fly solo, fence solo, DJ solo, write books solo, slag Maiden off solo and generally do other stuff (solo), Harris turned to Tamworth Terror and vertically challenged missing link, Blaze Bayley of Wolfsbane.
Now I want to be clear, I don't hate Blaze Bayley... (well maybe I do a little). When he was in Wolfsbane I loved him - Downfall The Good Guys is an awesome album, and I was rooting for them to become big. Just as it seemed they might, the short list came up for prospective Maiden candidates - I think the best two mentioned were original singer Di'Anno (who then - and now - looked like an inflated, geriatric Evan Seinfeld on crack) and Blaze.
It wasn't a vote but my support was with Blaze, a good solid down to earth guy who could sing. It cost Wolfsbane their career, a sad footnote in the story, but sacrifices have to be made... this is Iron Maiden, Godammit.
The anticipation built all summer long and then finally somewhere around September 1995 Man On The Edge was released as a single.
It wasn't great, but it wasn't the end of the world; that slight deflating feel that (deep down you knew) it wasn't that good was pushed to one side - album tracks were where the band cut their teeth these days.
Yeah... maybe not. The X Factor was a dirgy piece of work from start to finish in my opinion, flat monotone vocals, lumpen repetitive rifs and rubbish production. Even the Eddie on the front is a new level of shit.
It would honestly make it into my worst albums of all time, if not for the follow up release of Virtual IX, which apart from a slightly better cover has no redeeming features at all in my book. The notes Blaze had managed to hit on the X Factor were gone and if I hear that 'Lightning Strikes' chorus again it'll be about the 457th time and I only got half way through the album.
It's a dog. Truly and utterly. And it's only eight tracks long too - writing on the wall time?
And more importantly it had, up until that sunny day in 1999, completely and utterly destroyed my love for the band and Blaze Bayley, who in one move had broken up a much loved band and killed the best band in the world - and that's without talking about the piece of crap that is the Virus song they recorded for The Best Of The Beast - Metallica didn't lose the plot this bad with St Anger for fucks sake.
But a new millennia promised much; Smith and Dickinson back, a producer on board - the band even charitably kept Gers... who has now, much to my chagrin, been in Maiden LONGER THAN ADRIAN SMITH!!!!!!! - and embarked on a new chapter and this is what (after the extended intro) is what I wanted to talk about.
Maiden post 2000.
Coming in 2000 itself Brave New World is rightly hailed as a modern Maiden classic - certainly the first great album for a decade and the natural successor to Seventh Son. It benefits from having a decent producer - not a hearing damaged, control freak bassist and the energy crackles from the off. The Wickerman is balls out and aggressive, Brave New World is majestic, Blood Brothers goes on forever but the whole thing sounds fucking awesome even now; the cover was sharp and the band who were looking like booking tours of Guilford Hall and The Duck & Pond Anywhere, were suddenly headlining Rock In Rio to quarter of a million people. It must have hurt Harris' notorious pride to admit he was wrong, but the band needed Dickinson. Happily he'd also seen sense toward the latter half of the nineties and had reconnected with Smith. Whilst Maiden were acting like a donkey caught in a tar pit, they had produced the amazing double whammy of Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding - proper metal albums again.
Smith rejoining was the icing on the cake... (and one of the conditions of Dickinson returning) now if only they would give him back his eighties solos...
Dance Of Death followed in 2003 and was again well received. In wracking my brain over this I have to say it comes last of all the albums they have released since the reunion. Don't get me wrong, I loved it at the time; Rainmaker, Smith penned war epic Paschendale, the title track, the led cajonnes of Face In The Sand, the title track, the acoustic Journeyman's Day... I still love it now, but if this was an offspring choosing competition it would be the red headed step child for many issues.
The cover is crap, a half rendered CGI masquerade ball with Eddie as the reaper, the half finished mix because Mr Harris listened to Kevin Shirley's daily recording one day and said 'That sounds great to me'. No More Lies indeed Steve, you're fucking deaf, I could go on but it would be uncharitable and a little like swearing in Church.
Still, when compared to the four nineties albums, it is a strong release and praised at the time with it's lavish stage show. Which I fucking missed to go stand at the back of a massive shed with no video screens and watch Metallica for the fourth time on the Madly In Anger At The World tour... not even the 5.1 HD DVD makes up for not seeing Paschendale with it's incredible trench warfare production.
A Matter Of Life Or Death arrived in 2006 and wow... Maiden's second longest album is a heavy weight affair that deals with war and religion all the way through. This is Prog Metal with all it's pomp and status - where as the band used to gallop they now march and ludicrously Dickinson sounds better on this album than he does on half the albums that have gone before it.
This is the album that saw massive cracks appear in the Maiden fan base as to the embracing of this direction. To me (once again terrible, thin, production aside) this is one of the pinnacles in an incredible career. The middle four songs on this album are some of the best ever recorded - Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, For The Greater Good Of God, The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg and The Longest Day... the album is not filled with tracks I would listen to individually a lot (the single Breeg as an exception) but as a complete piece it is just phenomenal and having seen the whole thing live it has to live with me as one of my favourite Maiden experiences.
And so to last year... 2011.
The Final Frontier arrived with rumours rife that the title was also reference to an old quote from Harris that he wanted to make 15 albums (this was back when they recorded Piece Of Mind in 1983). Thankfully rebuffed since it does highlight a very really and scary thought (for me anyway) that Maiden probably only have another 5 years left to run...
But what of the album?
It is another heavy slice of prog metal, but easily the most forward looking album for a long time. The chorus' are insanely singable, the production works and there are many bizarre twists and turns on this record. Of course for the fans who love Aces High, The Trooper and Two Minutes To Midnight, sombre epics like The Man Who Would Be King and When The Wind Wind Blows are going to seriously piss in the soup of rockers like El Dorado, the title track and The Alchemist but it spans an incredible seventy odd minutes of remarkable music that makes Maiden as vital and as great now as they have ever been no matter what Andy fucking Sneap says.
Make no mistake, the Maiden of this decade thunder like the days of old and unite the tribes with huge anthemic songs that put to shame the young pretenders half their age.The albums may divide opinion to shit or great, but live they are bigger, better and bolder than, well anyone. Sure I am biased as hell but having seen them conqueror Sonisphere last year with a set that show cased the reunion albums they have achieved the accolade of keeping relevant after a 30 year career which in itself is an incredible feat.
Due to the haze of nostalgia surrounding Maiden and their part in strengthening the metal genre in the eighties it would be easy to put together a top ten list of their classics... Run To The Hills, Aces High, Minutes, Hallowed, Seventh Son, Number Of The Beast etc which doesn't consider anything after 1988's Seventh Son and I would honestly struggle to praise their nineties material beyond Fear Of The Dark so as an exercise in education my recommendations for Maiden's Top Ten Songs post 2000 would be as follows:
1. Benjamin Breeg - AMOLAD
2. Brave New World - BNW
3. Starblind - TFF
4. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns - AMOLAD
5. The Wickerman - BNW
6. Paschendale - DOD
7. For The Greater Good Of God - AMOLAD
8. When The Wild Wind Blows - TFF
9. Coming Home - TFF
10. Rainmaker - DOD
But to be honest with you it is almost impossible to look at that list accurately considering the omissions... and particularly as I think Brave New World is a better album than Dance... I would have thought it would be simple.
(Album rankings
1. A Matter Of Life And Death
2. Brave New World/The Final Frontier
4. Dance Of Death)
I can name my favourite Metallica tracks of the last decade on one hand, okay that's a cheat maybe we'll say 15 to include the last four albums.
Bleeding Me
The Outlaw Torn
St Anger
Broken, Beat, Scared
No Leaf Clover... done!
Open that list to ten and I think I'd just do it but not have much passion left by 9 and 10 which shows how good Maiden have become in the final third of their career.
I'll stop rambling now... roll on August.
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