Iron Maiden's bluesy new single "The Writing on the Wall"

[thugler]

gonna just post Steve's lyrics to Age of Innocence here for bants (Dance of Death, 2003)
it kind of signalled the way the boomer mindset would take us really. makes you think. of course the only lyrics Dave ever wrote were Charlotte the Harlot.

It is bloody awful. Lost my love for Maiden a bit when I realised they are all not just stupid but also reactionaries.

I do enjoy how all their songs about historical events/figures are all completely devoid of any nuance, basically just spouting (usually incorrect) facts about stuff.

For example from 'Empire in the clouds' about the R.101 air disaster:
She's the biggest vessel built by man, a giant of the skies (incorrect)
For all you unbelievers, the Titanic fits inside (also incorrect)

[The Mollusk]

Haha fucking hell I already know I won't be going anywhere near that album, those song lengths are a piss take

[idunnosomename]

Despite having their longest song ever, I thought they kind of sorted out the length problem on Book of Souls a bit for the first time since Brave New World, it still had problems (like Brave New World), but it had some decent "normal-length" songs on it. It is a bit of a disappointment to go back to the OMG EPIC!! stuff full-time again. it appeals to that simple teenager mindset of "longer song more complicated, my music so clever" I think.

look forward to counting how many times steve whips out the ol' I-VI-III-VII. maybe he'll do it a key other than E!!!

[thugler]

02. "Stratego" (4:59) Gers/Harris

As in a song about the board game?

[idunnosomename]

well like Senjutsu seems to be just something from Naruto, it is a foreign word, but isn't really used widely for anything else in English other a game that has Mark Corrigan written all over it

[Pauline Walnuts]

Despite having their longest song ever, I thought they kind of sorted out the length problem on Book of Souls a bit for the first time since Brave New World, it still had problems (like Brave New World), but it had some decent "normal-length" songs on it. It is a bit of a disappointment to go back to the OMG EPIC!! stuff full-time again. it appeals to that simple teenager mindset of "longer song more complicated, my music so clever" I think.

look forward to counting how many times steve whips out the ol' I-VI-III-VII. maybe he'll do it a key other than E!!!

Not unless someones re-tunes his bass.

[mobias]

Is there a decent Iron Maiden album that came out after Live After Death? That album ended their 'golden era' for me back in the day. Somewhere in Time was ok but after that I gave up, grew up and moved on to other things. 

[idunnosomename]

Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son are widely considered as classics. No Prayer and Fear of the Dark were missteps. Then, despite an ill-fitting vocalist, The X-Factor basically invented a songwriting template Steve has relied on for like 25 years now. How interesting anything is usually down to how many good ideas Bruce and Adrian have managed to get in there, imo. Gers is a shit guitarist but has some good ideas too.

It's inevitable to grow out of them. They're still writing for the same age group they were in the 80s, and that's why they're so successful really, because they can appeal to younger generations over and over again. I do kind of respect that, rather that they just pander to their old fans (although they are notorious for predictable and boring setlists)

Not unless someones re-tunes his bass.

i think thats even less likely. If Eternity Should Fail on the last album is drop-D guitars but he doesn't seem to have let anyone mess with his low string. you know he's the sort of guy who thinks it'll ruin the neck

[willbo]

not loving that cover. It's too similar to Book of Souls which I thought was pretty bland too. Why can't the Mayan or Samurai characters be in some epic scene instead of just close up? I guess it's attention grabbing and I know some bands are trying to make their covers simpler to get attention on digital/spotify tablet sized screens.

it looks like some crap Samurai warrior tattoo my uncle would have got in the 80s at the barber's

[idunnosomename]

see also how easy it is to make merch, especially tour t-shirts of. there'll be more artwork inside the ultra-deluxe box-o-crap that'll come out.

Iron Maiden's success isn't all down to Steve with the band. A lot of it is thanks to Rod.

[easytarget]

Why can't the Mayan or Samurai characters be in some epic scene instead of just close up? I guess it's attention grabbing and I know some bands are trying to make their covers simpler to get attention on digital/spotify tablet sized screens.

Probably. Even the CDs don't look as good as the full 12 inch album paintings.

I like the big dumb epics - even though the same number of ideas rattled through in less than 3 minutes by Pig Destroyer (or even Dillinger Four).

Looking forward to this, they've done few good songs over the last 4 records and the titles are more promising than Book of Souls.

[willbo]

I've always been torn on Maiden. At their best, I find them really invigorating, passionate and high energy, real motivational, adventurous epic music, at their worst, the same old slow folky riffs, the lyrics which just describe a film (or conservative rants).

Blasted Blaze Bayley's new War album last night on youtube and really liked it...it actually sounds like classic Maiden...

seems strange that Senjutsu and Stratego are such similar titles/themes that the 2 songs must be "siblings" in some way.

[chveik]

"Death Of The Celts" doesn't inspire confidence, although i doubt i could be worse than all that pagan metal shite

[idunnosomename]

303 on the new Blaze album is a better to-the-point anthemic headbanger than anything's Maiden's written past thirty years. I thought Death or Glory on the last album was about one of the best they've managed. It helps Blaze has a young band behind him now (Absolva with the Appleton brothers from Manchester, who are 27 and 32). But I think everything he's put out since Silicon Messiah is top stuff and quite varied (with the exception of the dud King of Metal). I highly recommend seeing him live, even if you don't know the songs, because he puts on a great show and it's never much more than a tenner. I've seen in him Stoke-on-Trent AND Blackpool!

I used to begrudge the Maiden reunion because it meant no Bruce/Adrian/Roy Z albums, but frankly the gaps between Maiden albums are so big Bruce could easy do one if he wanted to, I just don't think he's got enough good ideas in him anymore. He never even toured Tyranny of Souls in 2006 (last time he played solo was Wacken 2002). So if Maiden Holdings can get kids excited about their new albums like it's the 80s, keep at it lads.

[The Mollusk]

Blaze Bayley is from my home town of Tamworth, it's one of my favourite claims to fame. Never heard a jot of the motherfucker's music though.

[Retinend]

They all seem like really nice, down to earth guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDc5Px5f0OE
The History Of Iron Maiden - Part One
3,410,529 viewsOct 13, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S4CZ_MbWsc
The History Of Iron Maiden - Part Two
1,130,294 viewsOct 13, 2017

[willbo]

Blaze Bayley is from my home town of Tamworth, it's one of my favourite claims to fame. Never heard a jot of the motherfucker's music though.

didn't Tamworth have that park with one of those big web climbing frame things made from red ropes? I used to go on that as a kid. Visiting my aunt who lived there. There was a little record shop in a Tamworth shopping centre (i think) that was one of the first places I heard/saw metal music as a kid. So it's kind of significant to me that a metal legend figure could come from there.

[thugler]

not loving that cover.

Not sure why they don't get the original guy who did all their old covers to do one again, they've never looked as good as those did since, and some of them have been pretty dire like Dance of Death.

[willbo]

I'm a bit of a defender of Dance of Death's cover, I kinda like that "crap Playstation 1 game gone creepy" feel. There's something unsettling about those mannequin like unfinished CGI figures.

[idunnosomename]

Not sure why they don't get the original guy who did all their old covers to do one again, they've never looked as good as those did since, and some of them have been pretty dire like Dance of Death.

Derek Riggs doesn't do paintings anymore. he's done a bit for Maiden since they dropped him full-time with Fear of the Dark (before that he did EVERYTHING for them). Most of his subsequent cover art work is kinda weird wishy-washy CG stuff (like Brave New World, which isn't a bad cover, and also quite prophetic how it's not far off how the City looks these days with a bunch of random phalluses everywhere)
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Derek_Riggs/7127

Dance of Death was just a fucking disaster of a cover. It was a mockup done in Poser and Steve was like "looks great" and the artist, David Patchett, was so embarrassed he refused to be credited for it. I remember fans seeing it, and tracking down who made the masks and trying to get it blocked for copyright.

imagine if they let Dave finish it. perhaps his best-known work is for Coventry doom-metal legends Cathedral's debut.

[The Mollusk]

Hahaha fucking hell, it's Hieronymus Sploosch

[willbo]

original Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno looking ready to audition for Limp Bizkit -

[The Mollusk]

didn't Tamworth have that park with one of those big web climbing frame things made from red ropes? I used to go on that as a kid. Visiting my aunt who lived there. There was a little record shop in a Tamworth shopping centre (i think) that was one of the first places I heard/saw metal music as a kid. So it's kind of significant to me that a metal legend figure could come from there.

Correct! The record shop would have been More Than Music, it was at the entrance at the bottom of the big ramp. I bought my first ever CDs in there aged 14 (after watching the dismal film "Little Nicky" and realising that heavy metal rules). They didn't have "Highway to Hell" so I picked up "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". That was a big turning point in my life!

[willbo]

I remember seeing The Biker Mice from Mars soundtrack, Judas Priest's Painkiller, Nirvana's Nevermind, Megadeth's Youthanasia, Van Halen's 5150, and all the Whitesnake CDs ... all of them I saw in there, remembered based on the cover, then later got at some point cause the cover had stood out to me (or i knew them from films or something).

I was blasting Blaze's latest album on youtube this morning as well. It's great but a little generic (there are riffs that sound almost exactly like classic Maiden and Priest ones at times)

edit -  just to notice a random example -

https://youtu.be/lBLs8br5CGs?t=2113

https://youtu.be/pti-PHfDhko?t=305

[El Unicornio, mang]

They all seem like really nice, down to earth guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDc5Px5f0OE
The History Of Iron Maiden - Part One
3,410,529 viewsOct 13, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S4CZ_MbWsc
The History Of Iron Maiden - Part Two
1,130,294 viewsOct 13, 2017

Thanks for the share, I watched these last night, really interesting (despite not being a huge fan) and definite shades of Spinal Tap.

[Retinend]

This has hit five million views after a week. How does that compare to your average pop singer, though?

[Pauline Walnuts]

original Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno looking ready to audition for Limp Bizkit -

His autobiography is worth a read. Boy with problems, Wonder what happened with his court case about him signing on 3 times or whatever it was.

[willbo]

Taylor Swift's Folklore/Evermore got 64 million in their first week according to google

[idunnosomename]

A BTS video will get 5 M in its first five minutes. A lot of initial video view performance is measured in 100s of millions now, and then ultimately with a few billions.

Still not bad for some old dudes

[Retinend]

This (almost) solo acoustic guitar cover is impressive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqGLq5FqqI
IRON MAIDEN - The Writing On The Wall (Acoustic) by Thomas Zwijsen - Nylon Maiden
73,066 viewsJul 16, 2021