This is the thread where we talk about Iron Maiden!!

"Aces High" is the single greatest song to sing at the top lungs at 3am in your underwear...

"The Trooper" is their masterpiece though.

Also Brave New World is probably the best 'comeback' album by a metal band ever.

-- Roger Fascist (RogerFascis...) (webmail), November 11th, 2002 12:06 PM. (Roger Fascist)

lol

They are touring US again, and I am so fukcing there, .. i won't miss this for the fucking world

most rulest

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE!!! Oh, c'mon Bruce ... please do 1 or 2 songs for the headz...

As mentioned in the rolling metal thread, their five Western Canadian dates all sold out within a couple hours today...60,000 tickets. The Calgary pre-sale outsold the one for MSG. We've missed them a lot out here. Can't wait for June 8th!!!

"flight 666" is showing here tonight, i think it's sold out though ;_;

Dying to see that.

i got "the early years" a 2-dvd thing from netflix in the mail yesterday and watched 30 min of concert footage from a gig in late '80 or '81 (copyright) from a place called 'rainbow'? where they played iron maiden the song. it was paul di'anno, adrian smith and clive burr with dave murray and steve harris. they looked so much like fuckin spinal tap! my mouth was open when i wasn't head-banging. so awesome! can't wait to see the rest of this thing

Early Years is great! You are in for a treat and a half. But 'Beast Over Hammersmith' blows Rainbow away. Hearing/seeing Bruce with full pipes back then...glorious.

oh man i can't wait to get to my dvd player, dudes

Why did we never talk about this:

http://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/eddie-jessica-parker.jpg

From metalsucks back in 2008.

i'm shocked (shocked!) the final frontier is being ignored in year-end roundups. it's too bad, since "isle of avalon" is one of their great epics

It's really good but a combination of High On Fire and Cathedral has booted it out of my end of year list.

that cathedral album is GREAT and i cannot knock high on fire ever. seems like maiden somehow always gets the shaft though

Yes. YES. They're touring North America this summer...

http://www.ironmaiden.com/maiden-on-the-charge.html

V. sad news -- Clive Burr has passed on:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=f7aff587-1038-49c6-9d83-e27c0b007e53

So sad. Such a lovely-seeming guy, and man what a beast of a drummer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmswOIYWlg

ah fuck it, play this whole thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfU_zLWsh6I

ragh screw that link, it's way out of sync

this one's better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWF-B95qZj0

got home from a morning appointment and my daughter immediately runs up to me and says "I have something very sad to tell you. One of your drummers died"

:(

:(

yr daughter is the cutest

That guy could pull off drum fills like no other. I remain a big fan of Nicko's, but Clive really did bring a lot of personality to those early Maiden songs.

Yeah Nicko is terrific. I do think there was something special about Clive's drumming though (possibly sheer nostalgia for him talking but I'd like to think not) - I feel like he helped to set the speed and the punk feel of that first album and helped informed their early style through full-out metal transition with Dickinson and NOTB. I don't know if you could do that with just any drummer.

Yeah, Clive definitely brought the speed that the first two records demanded. Like Nicko, he was one of a kind, the perfect fit for that era of Iron Maiden.

it's funny how Nicko still feels like the new guy to me and he's been playing with them for how many years now?

RIP to a great drummer

Why did he leave Maiden?

So Piece of Mind is thirty years old today, sez Ade.

i recommend CRANKING THE HELL out of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udUlQmI3Mys

happy birthday Piece of Mind!

FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
ON YOUR WAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
LIKE AN EEAAAAAAAAAAAAAGLLLEEE
FLY AS HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGHHH
AS THE SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN

Well yes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfel9LJIGco

I've been listening to a lot of Maiden the past week because I finally read Garry Bushell's Iron Maiden Running free, which has been out of print for a long time, but revived on Kindle earlier this year for $5.99. I hoped it would be better as he does have writing/journalism credentials, and covered the band for various magazines over the years. However it's largely fanboy stuff, with a lot of fawning about what a blast it was partying with the band, relating (largely in heavy cockney slang) had-to-be-there inside jokes/pranks, and boring play-by-play accounts of their soccer games. Ah well, if you're a fan it's still kind of enjoyable. Most alarming was all the stories about what a dangerously bad driver Bruce was, and he vowed never to ride with him again. I wonder if he ever flew with them since then!

Regarding references to the band's annual Xmas cards, there was a (crappy B&W) reproduction of the one from 1981 in the book. I asked Martin Popoff if those cards are included in his Run For Cover: The Art Of Derek Riggs book. He said there should be a bunch in there. They are out of print, but you can still order from Riggs' site (derekriggs.com) or via Amazon.

I used this one for a piece 8 years ago that was likely from a card (I added the "Heavy Metal Holidaze" type):

http://fastnbulbous.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/eddie_dwarves.jpg

Lastly, I considered starting a thread about Iron Maiden acolytes, bands with strongly recognizable Iron Maiden influence, but I couldn't think of that many. There are a lot of bands with some Maiden influence of course, but not that many where they are easily recognizable as their primary sound. Savatage, Wolf, 3 Inches Of Blood and of course Slough Feg. Any others?

Dawnbringer springs to mind.

I always maintained that The Decemberists' (yawrn, I know) "The Infanta" was heavily Maiden-influenced.

There's a whole genre of (generally really shitty) metal that was spawned from the furrow Maiden ploughed, called "Power Metal". Other than the genre-dwellers, I don't know that Maiden had a lot of recognizable influence. It's too bad. They're my favourite metal band, hands-down, and one of the all-time greats in any genre. That run of albums up to Seventh Son was unbeatable.

I finally got the Maiden England reissued set (1988) and it kind of blows me away how not dissimilar 88 Bruce sounds to '14 Bruce. I mean he's definitely lost his highest of highs but when I saw him last year he sounded about as good on these songs as he does on this album. Guy's definitely got longevity.

i wish they were bringing teh Maiden England tour back to the US again this year. saw it in back to back years in 2012-2013 and it was so effing dope.

also noticing how he's managed to sing flat throughout "Wasted Years" :/

FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
ON YOUR WAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
LIKE AN EEAAAAAAAAAAAAAGLLLEEE
FLY AS HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGHHH
AS THE SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, May 17, 2013 11:28 AM (1 year ago)

otm

i love how right off the bat quest for fire is so ridiculous

In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth

that when they keep going

When the land was swamp and caves werrrre hooooooommme
In an age when prize possession was fire
To search for landscapes men would roam.

it sounds like dickinson is hitting the high notes just to underscore it

work has offered up a lip sync contest for our sales meeting this year

think I'm going to do 'Run to the Hills' :D

mainly because I have listened to it more times than most of the other songs that I like and it's SO MUCH FUN

Well THIS sucks, glad it was caught early but

http://www.ironmaiden.com/bruce-dickinson-undergoes-cancer-treatment.html

fingers crossed for him

New album, The Book of Souls, September 4 (single global release date). A 92-minute 2CD set, last song is 18 minutes long.

Anyone tried the beer they make, Trooper? Not bad at all imo.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/pictures/420xAny/6/1/7/21617_iron-maiden-trooper-beer.gif

I love the beer, personally. Strong and citrusy. I also have no idea how to describe beer. But it's yummy.

They rock, they fly 747s, they make delicious beer. I don't know what this band can't do

Yeah the beer is p good!

P good in bottles, V good on tap, IMO.

I'm glad they're still rocks my (and when I saw them in 2007 or sthereabouts, they were stellar) but for me their discography ends with 7th Son. Consistently too much work for little reward after that.

*rocking, not rocks my, jebus.

I'll have a much more in-depth review done in a couple weeks, but after a month of immersion in <i>The Book of Souls</i> I thought I'd offer some quick thoughts on Twitter.

http://bit.ly/1IJh5UV

Their best since 7th Son? Count me in!

The single is not bad.

yeah it's ill....kinda bluesy and truckin' hard rock reminds me of the paul dianno era a bit

Here's my complete take on the new record. I would have been perfectly happy with an album on par with the last four, but they've outdone themselves with this one.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/196855-iron-maiden-the-book-of-souls/

That was a very enjoyable review. As a new Maiden fan who's working through the discography chronologically, I am now excited to catch up to The Book of Souls in... well, considering my current pace, probably five or six years.

Excellent review. I'm gonna come to s'toon and make you buy me beer if this record doesn't kick my ass, ok?

"empire of the clouds" is incredible. sounds like they've been listening a little to motorpsycho and steven wilson

I ended up tearing through the whole Maiden discography over about six weeks last month in preparation for seeing them live. The whole process was one of the most rewarding musical experiences I'd ever had. So much so, in fact, that a lot of other music, even stuff I like, is sounding a little drab in comparison. This band is just bursting with energy and riffs and hooks and fun.

My top favorites ended up being Somewhere In Time for the early run and The Final Frontier for the 2000-2010s era. But I bet I'd have a different opinion if I did it over again.

I doubt, however, that anything will displace "Caught Somewhere In Time" as my single favorite Iron Maiden song.

I listened to Piece of Mind the other day for the first time in a long while and marveled at how mild and basically arena rocky it sounded. When I was a kid, Maiden was like the heaviest sounding shit ever, but now it sounds polite.

Still love 'em.

They often strike me as a rather un-heavy heavy metal band. The word that kept coming to mind as I was listening to them, especially on the faster numbers of course, was "fleet". Maybe it's all those galloping rhythms and songs about aviation, but for me they evoke swiftness alongside size and power. But I don't often get that sense of thudding wrecking-ball heaviness from them that I do get from, say, Black Sabbath.

When I was a kid

Key point. I think until I was well into high school, the only Sabbath song I'd ever heard was Paranoid (on the radio).

Iron Maiden has the gallop, which is their unique swing on the heavy metal thing.

finally listened to Bruce's version of "Remember Tomorrow". I never did in the past cos I usually don't like hearing him on most Paul songs but dare I say I think he does this one better. it's so jarring hearing him sing notes that are so low (for him), because he so rarely did, and he sounds...different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPG0GNGVx-Q

Nice, I think Bruce Bruce handles pretty much all the old songs pretty well. I was just reading last year's comments about not being that heavy, well to be fair they did develop their sound throughout the 70s, inspired by the likes of Jethro Tull and Wishbone Ash. There's always been a progressive element that they return to more on certain albums. Here's Opeth in 1998 covering the same song:

https://youtu.be/k-ZfPeC14qw

lol the OPeth version was the first I heard and I didn't know it was a Maiden song.

expecting Maiden to be "heavy" is kinda missing the point IMO, outside of the first two albums. like Priest were a more 'aggressive band' (though also were more AOR at times), Maiden were more exploratory and textured.

I'm also mega jealous of anybody who saw them play together back in the day

Well, not really about Maiden, but...behold.

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/vancouver_singer_for_clown-themed_iron_maiden_cover_band_arrested_for_allegedly_smuggling_7_million_of_drugs_into_japan

hey all Maiden has another live album from their last tour and like all Maiden live albums it's a lot of fun and reminds me a lot of that tour.

the guitars sound like buzzsaws and the bass is nice and present. also Bruce sounds gee-reat. obviously how many diff versions of these damn songs do you need, but hey, right now we CAN'T GO TO CONCERTS so fuck u for your attitude

k i'm sorry u didn't deserve that

New song "The Writing on the Wall" just premiered on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhBnW7bZHEE

really weird that they decided to cover the Sam Smith James Bond song

Admittedly I've only been half paying attention to the viral build up this week, is "Belshazzar's Feast" the name of the new album then?

not a bad tune, but somewhat lacking for a first new single drop.

Admittedly I've only been half paying attention to the viral build up this week, is "Belshazzar's Feast" the name of the new album then?

I don't think that's been confirmed yet. In trying to figure this out, I discovered that "Belshazzar's feast" is the name sometimes used for the Bible story that gave us the phrase "the writing on the wall". So it may just be something they were using to tease the new single.

i dunno, i thought the song was pretty good!

i said to mr veg, the storyline of the animated video kinda lost me at times but it looked like it was dreamed up by a 14 year old while bored in math class (which is a compliment ie it looks dope)

It's a perfectly fine middle-of-Side-One Iron Maiden song, but a leadoff single? Nah. Iron Maiden used to write fast songs; they need to get back to that.

in the context of modern era maiden ie the past, 15 years, i think it’s fine & no slower than most of their other recent stuff

i know this corny but i am super fucking grateful that they do not suck. I mean, they could happily retire if they wanted but instead still pushing out pretty fkn decent tunes in 2021 & staying in their lane.

Agree 100%. And the fact that they continue to absolutely destroy live is amazing to me. I've never gone home from a concert happier than the nights I saw Iron Maiden.

yeah same

that was my first thought: new single = new album = new tour weeee 😃

I don't think that's been confirmed yet. In trying to figure this out, I discovered that "Belshazzar's feast" is the name sometimes used for the Bible story that gave us the phrase "the writing on the wall". So it may just be something they were using to tease the new single.

thanks! i just saw that name popping up too, so I assumed that to be the name of the first single before today. waiting until i can hear this on something other than shitty laptop speakers, but def excited for more new Maiden! \m/

It's a perfectly fine middle-of-Side-One Iron Maiden song, but a leadoff single? Nah. Iron Maiden used to write fast songs; they need to get back to that.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:39 PM bookmarkflaglink

this is how I feel tbh. not so much about the tempo, as some of my favorite tunes on Book of Souls (which I loved) were mid-tempo, but this doesn't feel like a leadoff single to me.

if I heard it in the middle of the album, I'd like it just fine.

Agree 100%. And the fact that they continue to absolutely destroy live is amazing to me. I've never gone home from a concert happier than the nights I saw Iron Maiden.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:45 PM bookmarkflaglink

I genuinely got chills when I saw them in Tampa two years ago, because the lights were as such where the crowd became mega visible, and you could see the 21,000 seat arena was fucking FULL and screaming their heads off. 20,000+ people to see Iron Maiden, in the 21st century. Priest, on the other hand, who are also still going strong, are mostly doing Hard Rock Lives and things with much smaller capacities (though I'm guessing in Europe they draw bigger).

by comparison, I saw Slayer's last arena tour, and, not gonna lie, the attendance was pretty dope, but....the arena was not filled. there were empties.

(it was an awesome show/tour, and Slayer's popularity was probably as high as it had been in 20 years, but you could tell that an arena tour was a little lofty in 2019 for Slayer, as opposed to 1991)

they are ok.

great post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkYGNiBkso

steeeerike two

I recently saw a clip of Brexiter Bruce complaining about all the ways Brexit has made things harder for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lku0bf3grts

hey mods uhhh

those are kinda fun tbh

tho actually (unintentionally?) make a great case for Maiden's songcraft and ability to write indelible guitar melodies

so the whole Belshazzar's Feast thing was a red herring? anyway, who cares, new album imminent. cover art is badass. up the irons! \m/

https://www.ironmaiden.com/media/images/teddy.jpg

1. Senjutsu (Smith/Harris) 8:20
2. Stratego (Gers/Harris) 4:59
3. The Writing On The Wall (Smith/Dickinson) 6:13
4. Lost In A Lost World (Harris) 9:31
5. Days Of Future Past (Smith/Dickinson) 4:03
6. The Time Machine (Gers/Harris) 7:09
7. Darkest Hour (Smith/Dickinson) 7:20
8. Death Of The Celts (Harris) 10:20
9. The Parchment (Harris) 12:39
10. Hell On Earth (Harris) 11:19

lol at 3 10+ minute songs

i hope this is as ridiculously OTT as Book of Souls, which I loved

same. i have no problem with current era epic length Maiden songs.

Book of Souls material went over really well live too. in fact that fuckin' tour was maybe my favorite, though the last one was great too.

I'm not sure what I expected from an Iron Maiden song in 2021 but I didn't expect most of it to sound like country to me

sounded more like ZZ Top-influenced Maiden to my ears. this is the type of song that woulda fit in the middle section of The Final Frontier I think.

weird choice for a lead single unless the whole album is like this.

Kinda wish these recent album cover art efforts didn't just have a black background behind Eddie, though. You need some sort of insane landscape or towering monument or something.

True.

Eddie in Las Vegas playing craps

but I didn't expect most of it to sound like country to me

Maybe I need to start listening to country radio more often if this is what it sounds like now!

Eddie in Las Vegas playing craps

Somewhere On The Strip

Yeah hold on if country radio 2021 is essentially Iron Maiden then what a world we live in.

I planned out a Maiden jukebox musical last year when there was nothing better to do, it involved a young tearaway called Eddie ("Running Free") being falsely accused of murdering a sex worker (guess) and executed ("Hallowed Be Thy Name"), then being struck by lightning or somesuch and, as the zombified Eddie, falling through time ("Somewhere in Time") to various historical periods (plenty of material there) before going to Hell and killing Satan ("Number of the Beast"). Then returning as the Phantom of the Opera or whatever.
I mean I'd go and see it.

the evil that men do
goes on in Nashville

hahaha dude put that sucker up xpost

I think you just outlined what would have happened if Steve Harris was mysteriously replaced by Jim Steinman.

I'd Be Caught Anywhere in Time (But I Won't Go There)

"Don't be sad
Two minutes to midnight
Ain't bad."

Ned otm re the cover

the new album cover kinda gives me, dare I say it, ‘X Factor’ vibes *shudder*

This is kind of... "stoner"?

I like it more than anything on Book Of Souls already.

their album covers kinda suck now

lol I was wondering and I didn't know the breakup with Derek Riggs was so spicy

For the album] “Somewhere In Time”: ‘We want a science fiction city. A bit like Blade Runner.’ Cause they just steal things out of films, that’s all they do,” Riggs said. “I was with them one time and we were walking around a bookshop somewhere, and they were looking at the book covers saying ‘Oh, we can have Eddie doing this, and Eddie doing that.’ starling ideas instead of trying something original. I just had enough of it. They run around making out like ‘they’re all our ideas.” but no, the ideas that they give me are stolen from other places. But I did the best I could to try to make them original and to inject some life into them.

“You know, Steve Harris’s idea was he wanted to link Eddie to his favorite football team [American soccer],” he said. “It’s like, you’ve got a legendary rock ‘n’ roll icon, and it’s the best selling icon there’s ever been in rock and roll and you want to tag it onto the ass-end of some f**king second-rate football team. From then on I just kind of lost interest: ‘If you want to do it, you f**king do it. Let’s see what you’ve got.’ And what they had was nothing.”

Adding to the discord between Riggs and the Maiden camp was the tremendous popularity of Riggs’ art work.

“The album covers – my work – was getting more attention than the music, and it upset their (the band’s) ego,” Riggs said. “So they were going around the world telling everybody that it was all their ideas and I was just a dumb monkey that painted it all. So this didn’t go down very well. And then they said to me. ‘Well, when are you going to come out with a good idea, because they’re all our ideas,’ and I was like “Oh, are they all your ideas? Then you tell me what to paint and I’ll paint it.” ’cause if you’re working real f**king hard to make these ideas, to make them continuous and make them cohesive the way they were – but then some f**king jackass can turn around and say something like that, it’s a real f**king slap in the face. It gets real old really f**king quick. So, from then on my attitude was like, ‘You tell me what to paint and I’ll paint it, because I’m obviously not getting credit for thinking of these ideas.’

When it comes to the latter day cover art nothing can beat Dance of Death for time and place cheese. On the flip side, I appreciated the perfect pulp of The Final Frontier.

Anyway I'm rereading the songtitles from this new one and it seems like they should have already used about half of those already, I'm mildly surprised they hadn't!

i wish they would just back up the money truck & make up with Riggs already, his covers were so fucking awesome

he sounds like kind of a dick too though?
which with bruce in the band already kind of explains the parting of ways a little too

also maybd ease up on harry & westham united mate jfc

I like the stripped-down covers, including this one. Striking as hell, which is what you want in a great LP cover. The track is pretty great to be honest. I was blindsided by Smith's spaghetti western rock riff but the thing has grown on me mightily over the last five days. I loved Book of Souls, so my expectations for this one are high.

As for the Belshazzar's feast thing, I'm pretty sure it was just a sneaky gag. The Belshazzar story is the origin of the "writing on the wall" idiom, which happens to be the title of the first single. My guess, anyway!

I like the stripped-down covers, including this one.

U fiend

hates fun, clearly

It's been all downhill since Powerslave, cover-wise, though A Matter of Life and Death was a nice recovery.

Ha, I spent too many hours examining every centimetre of Maiden covers and posters in the '80s! Maybe the spartan look appeals to the 50 year-old me.

But seriously, as far as "menace" goes, this is the most menacing cover since Killers. Less cartoony, more direct.

Riggs did all the singles covers too, of which there were many - including Sanctuary, which caused great controversy at the time as the woman Eddie was hacking to death looked exactly like Margaret Thatcher. Bet Harris is a Tory nowadays mind.

https://www.ironmaiden-bg.com/web/images/stories/single02_sanctuary_a_small.jpg

Some of the descriptions here are amusing

https://1000logos.net/iron-maiden-logo/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpuwr9fF7kw

I like it.

good chorus, nice gallops, good riffs/instrumental breaks, but not a lot of fat.

It's such a great track. Considering how much Kevin Shirley hates anything that isn't big, beefy riffs, this track was a shocker. It's far and away the "hookiest" track on the album, though.

Senjutsu time motherfuckers

The other night I dreamed I was at a Maiden gig presided over by an old, bald Bruce. They were playing "The Trooper" and cleared the area in front of the stage so a marching band could walk in and play along. When the marching band came in, though, the two sounds didn't mesh at all and merely created a droney mess. And that was my first Iron Maiden dream, as far as I can recall.

https://shoutybeardything.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/wvm7aqa.gif?w=300&h=124&zoom=2

Iron Charles Ives Maiden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXW4COarLU

Streaming it for the first time. What are we thinking, ILM?

I need another listen but I was disappointed on first listen, cos it sounded like they went back to their pre-Book of Souls sound.

but i'm gonna give it another as it was 1 am when I listened.

I am digging "Stratego" kinda.

Okay, I already watched the "Writing on the Wall" video when it came out before.

It's just as I remember - Decent, not mind-blowing but not embarrassing, maybe 90 seconds too long.

I live-tweeted my thoughts on Thursday, and then put an edited version into my newsletter. Here it is:

Start with this: I don't like the cover art. It looks like a video game package, or a bootleg T-shirt.

Opening with an eight-minute not-fast song — the title track — was a bad idea. You need to get the listener's heart pumping right out of the gate. Why do so many bands fuck this up lately? (The drumming is really great, though.)

Track 2, "Stratego." And now we're galloping. This should have been the opener. There's an unfortunate "eyes/surprise" rhyme, and the synths are more prominent than I expected, but there are some excellent air-raid-siren moments. Bruce Dickinson really is an incredible singer.

Track 3, "The Writing on the Wall." I like the main country-metal riff, but things get kinda pirate-metal in the middle, which I'm not so into.

Track 4, "Lost in a Lost World." Starts off slow (and doesn't even sound like Dickinson singing), but gets rippin' after two minutes or so (of 9 1/2). Very heavy, bass prominent in the mix in a really good way.

Track 5, "Days of Future Past." The slow intro is a fake-out; at just 4:04, this is the shortest song on the record, and it rips. Big riff, operatic chorus, more excellent drumming.

Track 6 (last track on Disc 1), "The Time Machine." Oof, Dickinson just sang the words "impish whim." A lot of keyboards on this song, and more pirate-metal/sea-chantey riffing, plus a heavy breakdown/noisy guitar solo that feels super pasted-in. Not really feeling this.

Track 7 (first track on Disc 2), "Darkest Hour." Begins and ends with waves and seagulls. I think it's about Churchill or something. Slow, heavy, mournful, operatic...could be a leftover from A Matter Of Life And Death, honestly. (AMoLaD is my favorite 21st century Maiden album, so I'm OK with this.)

Track 8, "Death of the Celts." This is the shortest of the next 3 songs and it's 10:20. *Lots* of synth, and the verses are long and singsongy. Here come the guitar solos; will everybody get one? There's certainly time. (Turns out the answer is, yes, everyone will get at least one guitar solo.)

Track 9, "The Parchment": the main chugging riff almost reminds me of recent, proggy-heavy Opeth. The lyrics are ignorable; this song exists to justify the five minutes of guitar wank in the middle and at the (faster) end, and I'm fine with that.

Track 10, "Hell On Earth." The jokes write themselves, especially when you realize you're only halfway through the three-minute bass-and-synth intro. Very dynamic (dramatic quiet parts, REALLY LOUD PARTS), but honestly I kinda...wish it was an instrumental?

Conclusion: It's a 21st century Iron Maiden album — too long (82 minutes), 100% the product of their own musical comfort zone, but these fuckers can really play, and when they want to be they're still pretty amazing. 7/10, will probably never play front to back again.

i’m digging it so far, partway into disc 2

always impressed by how great they are at adding texture & different melodies within their longer songs to keep interest, i rarely find them plodding or boring

the Time Machine is a highlight so far, also Hell on Earth

Aid & Dave just fully crushing their solos, how are they always so fuckin brilliant?

i feel like i will def relisten to this over the coming weeks, already looking forward to hearing the whole thing again

they definitely do the 'long' songs better hear than they did on Brave New World, which beat choruses into the ground.

second listen now!

aw i like Brave New World

i like it, but I never loved it like some others did.

TIL that Clansman & Blood Brothers ate tied together storywise, and Death of the Celts on this new album is the continuation (hence the musical references in the solos)

*are

oh cool!

My review is at PopMatters.

https://www.popmatters.com/iron-maiden-senjutsu-album-review

Like all other 2000s Maiden albums, it takes time to settle in. I love the record a lot, but it took at least four listens for me to get there.

I was super impressed by the Pitchfork write-up. Sincere piece, no snark, understood the band's late-career direction. And like it said, anyone who wants a "Trooper" rewrite can go listen to any of the many, mighty fine trad metal traditionalists out there. Maiden isn't allowing to do that.

(sorry, Maiden isn't GOING to do that)

this is definitely growing on me a lot. they didn't wanna do a Book of Souls 2, and I was big on BoS cos it was full of riffs and ponderous long sections. but this brand of Maiden is good too.

and it doesn't suffer from the problems I had with, say, Dance of Death, or A Matter of Life and Death.

I'll give it a second listen this week, I think.

i really underestimated the melodic mastery of the album the first few times.

it's won me over. I don't love *every* song, but once I got over my pre-conceived desires,I found myself enjoying it a lot more.

:D

My final decision was that I liked a few songs, the album was a little more ponderous than I like even though they do that sort of thing way better than anyone else. Ultimately they're making themselves happy and not tarnishing their legacy. I won't listen to it nearly as much as the classics but I'll add it to my collection without hesitation and added "The Writing on the Wall" to my Best of 2021 Spotify playlist.

"Stratego" aside (it's their best short song since "Rainmaker") the two I keep going back to are the title track and "Hell on Earth". There's such a consistent feeling of gravitas to this album, from start to finish, that we've never really heard from Maiden before, and for me that's pretty darn appealing.

Hero

https://consequence.net/2021/09/iron-maiden-bruce-dickinson-covid-willy-shrivel/

Tickets on sale for NA, and tickets in hand for myself, VG and Mr. Veg for Oakland. Up the Irons, etc.

FUCK i didn't even know.

next October, Tampa! woo

Well now you do!

i’m gonna see iron maiden next year i swear to fuckinn satan

Wisdom

MAIDEN \m/

While you all wait, I recommend a preorder of this:

https://www.prestomusic.com/books/products/8895730--denim-and-leather-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-new-wave-of-british-heavy-metal

Sioux Falls, huh.

Second ever gig was Maiden on the No Prayer for the Dying tour in late 1990. It was at Wembley Arena (a pretty shit now dead venue) and I remember being terrified about the kinds of people who might be there. Five minutes of being in there and I thought 'shit, I've found my people'. 30 years ago! Would love to see them again next year.

the last four times I saw them were completely mindblowing each time.

yeah the last Sacramento show was fun as hell. its always a good sign when the audience is already rocking out to the pre-show songs on the PA (to be fair Maiden are always great at priming the audience esp playing Doctor Doctor right before the show starts, everyone loses their shit its so great)

feel like I always make friends at these shows too. last time, I was sitting next to I think a Norwegian guy (I had bought his friend's ticket off of StubHub) and this funny guy a row back, and we were chatting the whole time.

the guy to my left vanished for a while, leaving his seat unoccupied, then randomly, two ladies invaded our row, despite not having tickets there, so now we had 11 people occupying the area of 10 seats. so now we were packed in tight, and the lady to my left kept passive aggressively putting her hands on my shoulder to try to get me from colliding with her (which was only happening because her and her friend weren't supposed to be there anyway!).

and then the Norwegian guy came back from getting a beer and yells "WHO ARE YOU TWO? THAT'S NEANDERTHAL'S SEAT, YOU ALL DON'T SIT HERE, YOU GET OUT OF NEANDERTHAL'S SEAT NOW!" and they went scurrying away, right as "Flight of Icarus" was starting.

the Piece of Mind trio was really dope at that show. that was....2019 i think?

Waited too long, worst seats I ever had for Maiden lol.

But I'm taking a friend

“And what’s your friend’s name… Edward T. Head.”

“RARGH.”

So VG and Mr Veg and I can report that Maiden remain Maiden in the best of ways. Allow me to explain via tweets.

So yes, @IronMaiden, and if I had to sum up last night: pic.twitter.com/LVXy8voYUp

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) September 28, 2022

But some further additions. Thanks to @sharonjoy76 and Clay for the good company! pic.twitter.com/W6b43R9Ni8

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) September 28, 2022

It was a blast - can confirm

They always have great crowds but the crowd last night to me felt like the most energized I’d seen in recent memory, Bruce is sounding amazing - i think the break maybe helped rehab his voice - and the stage sets, if you have not yet seen the Legacy tour, are fucking killer… so stunning

Also not for nothing but i love that in the 20 years i have been seeing them, they never have shit sound, even the way they mike the drums is fucking glorious, they really are in many ways the gold standard for all big touring bands imo - professional, joyful, and always mindful that they are Putting On A Show <3

maiden fucking rules

can't wait to see em again

i'm going wednesday :)

:D

next Thursday for me!!! enjoy

I've heard really good things about this tour. The nearest show to me is on Friday but I'm skipping it. Glad to see other ilxors going, though.

I’m going, next July!

I've seen Maiden a few times now, the first time in 2016, and this tour was my favorite from a production standpoint. Nothing radically different, just really well-done.

really wanted to go this year, but if I recall correctly it was on Yom Kippur.

Chicago show was a blast. Still kinda parsing Bruce's take/speech from stage on Covid. But that aside, a fine stellar performance from all. Dave's guitar solos sounded particularly great.

everything about this show was amazing. I took my friend, who'd never seen them, and she was blown away, like, just kept thanking me for the experience. Bruce was in better vocal health than last time I saw them. also LOVED the Senjutsu sets, Senjutsu Eddie, and fuck, the songs themselves.

also accidentally caused a toilet to overflow in the men's room, causing many people to yelp

Bringing the Toilet Boys realness to Maiden

I was heavily tempted by these in the post office earlier but managed to resist

https://shop.royalmail.com/media/catalog/product/cache/d8a7db0523f43dec856c981f9b4fd49e/a/s/as9400d-1-ironmaiden-stamp-pack.jpg

you should get them!

On the R&R Hall of Fame ballot this year.

I want a Maiden theme park

I hate all theme parks, but I would 100% travel across the continent to visit that.

hell yes

Flight of Icarus
Aces High
Powerslave
Run to the Hills
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (log flume)

I mean, the rides sell themselves.

“Our focus groups say that Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter isn’t a ride that’s really gonna go over well, Steve.”

Charlotte the Harlot Flume Ride (18+)

here's one that you guys can probly help me out with: I have S/T through Powerslave, and I think I know all the major songs after '84, "fear of the Dark" "Bring yr Daughter," "wasted years" etc… but a while ago, it occurred to me that I don't know if they have their own "Sad but True" or two, like a really stomping, elephantine cut to stand up next to 70s Sabbath… they seem to be not exactly patient enuff, like they want to get to the fast part NOW…

Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but "stomping" and "elephantine" made me think of "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" from '06.

"Revelation" is pretty heavy, and "The Clansman" (from the Blaze Bayley era, though they made Dickinson sing it when I saw them in 2003) is a slower epic.

They did "Clansman" last year as well so it's become a bit of a staple I think.

FREEDOMMM

Revisiting Senjutsu in advance of their show in St. Paul in a couple days. It's even better than I remembered. At this point I hold post-2000 Maiden in just as much esteem as '80s Maiden. Their hook writing post-Bruce reunion is so consistently strong

It's been announced that Paul Di'Anno has passed:

https://hellorayo.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/iron-maiden-paul-dianno-dead/

:-( damn. i had some very hopeful dreams that the big 50th anniversary London show planned for next summer may include mini appearances by Paul and Blaze, shame that can't happen. those first 2 albums KILL!

Best Maiden singer by a long way! Not the greatest human being by all accounts but who cares, that first pair of albums is all the Maiden I ever need.

damn, rip to a real one. throwing on maiden japan IMMEDIATELY.

So sad. Playing 'Remember Tomorrow' and 'Charlotte the Harlot' on blast several times today.

RIP — the Dianno stuff still goes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9vPhim7mQE

Sad news. The only incarnation of Iron Maiden I ever saw was the Paul Di'Anno one. So great!

Oh Well, wherever, wherever you are,
Iron Maiden's gonna get you, no matter how far.
See the blood flow watching it shed up above my head.
Iron Maiden wants you for dead.

Killers was my first Maiden album. It still rules. RIP.

(Also, related by material, I've only just discovered *Beast Over Hammersmith*. Holy shit!)

This probably has less potential for controversy than my post above about the two Dickinson eras, but: I think the Di'Anno albums are still the best records they ever made. They were tough and grimy with him in a way they could never be with Bruce

i think that’s true for a lot of ppl who maybe find Bruce a little much idk

ppl say it semi regularly & it’s not like fighting words, its ultimately personal taste

but in retros D’ianno

ugh

but to be fair, in hindsight D’Ianno was never going to be the singer that takes them through 4 decades plus

like he’s working on a smaller canvas & that limits what the band can do too

it sounds cool, i agree, i love his voice and those 2 albums rule— but “better” comes with a hell of a lot of qualifiers imo

i think it’s unfair to make it a binary of better/worse

theyre completely different types of singers with different skillsets & they can totally exist side by side for our enjoyment :)

anyway

WRATHCHILD

Even though I grew up on a steady of diet of Powerslave, Live After Death, & Somewhere in Time, his gruff delivery & the band's primordial thudding on early stuff like "Running Free" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" kind of stillisIron Maiden to me, RIP Di'Anno, obv he wasn't as suited to material that came after him, where they really became a different sort of band, but those two records with him are peak NWOBHM greatness

definitely

RIP Paul.

He had a rough life, but what an impact he made on those two colossal records. That East End snarl of his, nothing like it.

really love the early maiden stuff, he gave it a real punk toughness, great singer

dude was just a real rocker

When I first became a Maiden fan there was nearly as much Di'Anno material available as there was Dickinson material, so me and my friends had a lot of fights about who was better. I eventually came to prefer Di'Anno, probably because I began to like punk rock too. RIP.

those two records really changed my life. I love Iron Maiden throughout the years but when I heard those, after I'd heard Number and Piece, a sense of metal's depth and range was clearer to me. and the fuckin hooks. Di'Anno had an ear for a chorus hook, one for the ages.

listening to the first record now, what a ripper 2 tuff

obv he's the gruff belter to bruce's operatic thing but i find his clean, melodic singing here to be very affecting and almost touchingly naive in a way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fkD-jzgMXE

i like what the guy contributed very much and love the era of maiden he emblemizes, but there's a lot of "the first and best maiden singer has died" today, and it comes from people who say they're all about metal and maiden now, but who very obviously looked down on maiden, metal and metalheads in the 80s.

and that is true, UMS, that at the time he and thus surely Harris were invested in projecting a hard man/ world weary POV, and the music makes it clear that it was transparently but touchingly not so.

xpost yeah otm i think there is a lot of truth to that

The first two Maiden albums are really good. But if they'd never changed vocalists, they would have never gotten bigger than, say, Motörhead. When you listen to Di'Anno's post-Maiden work, his limitations (vocal, creative) become very apparent very fast.

Yeah I only care for the first two records nowadays but clearly they made the right choice in binning him off and getting Brooce in. Also he was completely unreliable.

yeah that’s what i was half-saying upthread - there’s only so far you can go with that. It is sort of self-limiting

xpost

At least from where I was from, you had to be a pretty serious head to know those first two Maiden records in the 80s as they were imports for a long time.

i'd forgotten how much killers is just souped-up and speedier deep purple. i haven't heard it in a zillion years.

i never listened to iron maiden much. they were always "my brother's band". back when you laid claim to bands. he got maiden and motorhead and i got priest and black sabbath. he got aerosmith. i got rush.

Same deal in my house; I listened to Judas Priest, my younger brother listened to Iron Maiden.

This was a fun time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvHb7q5UXYI

Nicko retires! I heard Steve Harris's son-in-law will be the replacement.

https://www.ironmaiden.com/an-announcement-from-iron-maiden/

genuine shock when i saw that. A shame but unsurprising. Hopefully he pops up for a song or two at least at the big London 50th anniversary show next summer?

Nicko did have a stroke in early 2023. He recovered nicely and adapted quite well, he changed his mechanics to minimize arm movement. I saw Maiden in September 23 and October 24, and he held his own very well.

But time catches up to all of us. I remember Rod telling me years ago that Nicko's age was the one big concern when it came to planning, because they plan things years in advance. This seems like a lovely way for Nicko to end his 42 year run. He's a true gentleman, the kindest fellow, and will be missed.

(also it would not surprise me at all if Maiden indeed keep it in the family regarding a new drummer)

yeah he’s had a rough go of late, i am glad he’s going to be taking care of himself

and what a fucking legend
42 years! he still feels like the new guy lol

The farewell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39JgVCMpLc

And the final live song and goodbye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VxufJ8pqR0

Wonderful clips!

Simon Dawson from British Lion (Harry's side project) will be taking over as Maiden's touring drummer.

Now he just has to grow some extra arms or something.

Formerly of Dearly Beheaded!

No double kick drums allowed. Right foot only. No cheating.

I love how Janick Gers is no longer the newest bandmember, having served a 34 year run of hazing involving getting the other members' gear or whatever.