Iron Maiden's second coming (Post 2000 output)

[Don Gately]

This is a thread I have contemplated starting a few times but getting round to it now that there is talk of a new Maiden album on the way. My own history with Maiden is mixed. I was an avid fan back in the mid 80s , went to the gig in the Point in 1990 and lost interest shortly after that.
Cut to about 2 years ago, young lad had to be educated in the ways of metal and we ended up listening to the Book of Souls one day and basically got hooked on all things Maiden again.
I was completely surprised and blown away by "Brave New World", " A Matter of Life and Death" and "The Book of Souls". The quality of the songwriting is fantastic and though no doubting it is Maiden it is worlds apart from their classic 80's sound.
Some may call it proggy and I get that but there is so much mire going on here. Songs such as "The Red and the Black" "Brave New World" "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" "Ghost of the Navigator" "the Wicker Man" are easily as good as you'll hear. At 18 minutes "Empire of the Clouds" is a masterwork of epic propostions.
What say ye?

[Carnage]

A big fan here too, though I'd say Empire Of The Clouds, while the most ambitious song they've recorded, is pretty crap to be honest. It's a rock opera, and a cringeworthy one in spots. I give them a nod for trying it though - just like Priest with Nostradamus - the ambition exceeded the ability IMO.

Brave New World is a fantastic album, and I'd rate it alongside any of the '80s albums, and above Piece Of Mind. There are a couple of duds toward the end, or at least lesser quality songs, hangovers from the '90s wilderness years I suppose. The Wickerman alone is a formidable declaration of intent, the best comeback they could have had.

Dance Of Death took years to grow on me but it's a cracker. As is AMOLAD, though it's years since I last listened to it. The production is the obvious bugbear (the 2015 remaster - or master, I suppose - is an improvement though), but the songs are solid.

The Final Frontier is my go-to 'reunion' era album, but another one that took a while to click. The first album where I could actually hear the three guitarists being justified, too.

The Book Of Souls is grand, but the most glaring example of what's been wrong with Maiden songs and albums since the mid '90s - it's far too long. That bass intro at the start of The Red And The Black, for example. It's shite, unnecessary and just Harris flexing his ego IMO. I actually said 'oh, for fuck's sake' out loud when they played it live in Dublin. A shame, as the song itself might be the best one on the album.

Overall it's a convincing return to the form that they had in their heyday, if not as immediate a 'fix'. Just rein it in a bit lads.

[Trev]

Dance of Death is my favourite of the reunions, everything after that just seemed to be a case of making longer songs for the sake of it, Book of Souls being the worst culprit. Haven't listened to it since it came out, but I remember the middle part of Empire of the Clouds was the same riff repeated over and over for about five minutes

There's still some good stuff on the lot, but they could all be trimmed by about 15 minutes

[blessed1]

My favourite of the newer albums would be Brave New World but I like Dance Of Death as well. Not a fan of any of the others bar a song here and there. Some sloppy enough playing on Book Of souls. One of the worst things I've heard is that bass intro to The Red And The Black.
Tbh I'd much prefer to hear some more Bruce Dickinson solo stuff.
The last 3 albums he released are way more consistent than most maiden full lengths.
The Chemical Wedding is one of the best things Bruce ever did for me. Classic album.

[Carnage]

That and Tattooed Millionaire are the only solo albums of his that I've heard, I thought both were quite poor to be honest. I've never seen the appeal with his solo stuff, though I'm aware that I'm in the minority there.

[blessed1]

I always thought the problem with the newer stuff was that the songs are too long but it's not that. They wrote brilliant long songs before it's just now that they are really boring.

[Kunt 4 Life]

As much as I love the newer albums, I wouldn't mind if they did release an 8 track album with 7 songs around the 5 minute mark and one track around the 8 minute mark. Would fit perfectly on one side of a 90 minute TDK tape.

Could be nostalgia talking there though. Having said that I do rate those new albums along with the classics.

[Eoin McLove]

The songs have become so bloated it has become unbearable to sit through a full album for me. I tried Book of Souls on a long flight with a few beers on board. Should have been ideal circumstances to enjoy the thing as I had no other distractions. I made it through maybe one song and had to kill it. The monotony of the song writing is brain damaging. Verse x 1/ chorus x 20/ verse x 2/ chorus x 40 / lead solo/ chorus x 100/ suicide...

[Don Gately]

The songs have become so bloated it has become unbearable to sit through a full album for me. I tried Book of Souls on a long flight with a few beers on board. Should have been ideal circumstances to enjoy the thing as I had no other distractions. I made it through maybe one song and had to kill it. The monotony of the song writing is brain damaging. Verse x 1/ chorus x 20/ verse x 2/ chorus x 40 / lead solo/ chorus x 100/ suicide...

OK I grant the Book of Souls is overlong and a few fillers especially later in the album. Try Brave New World or A Matter of Life and death, if you haven't.

[Eoin McLove]

AMOLAD was indeed a good one. I liked it a lot at the time, despite it still being unnecessarily bloated, but I haven't listened to it in years.

[The Heretic]

The songs have become so bloated it has become unbearable to sit through a full album for me. I tried Book of Souls on a long flight with a few beers on board. Should have been ideal circumstances to enjoy the thing as I had no other distractions. I made it through maybe one song and had to kill it. The monotony of the song writing is brain damaging. Verse x 1/ chorus x 20/ verse x 2/ chorus x 40 / lead solo/ chorus x 100/ suicide...

100%

[Cosmic_Equilibrium]

BNW is a good album but the production isn't heavy enough. Hilariously, people trash VXI and worship BNW while not realising that some of the songs on BNW were written for VXI.

DoD is where the reunion era truly clicks, great production, fantastic song writing and just exuberant to listen to. Paschendale is one of their best ever songs. Only downside is the cover art which should have been a Dave Patchett painting but the band inexplicably went with the computer mock up image instead.

AMOLAD is IMO the pinnacle of their career. Fantastic song writing, The Legacy is a serious candidate for the top 5 Maiden songs of all time IMO. Mood is like a mix of BNW and The X Factor, a meditation on the human condition. Should have been their final album as they would have gone out on a phenomenal high and they couldn't top it.

TFF is alright, a step down though from the previous highs. Running order is a bit screwed up. Isle Of Avalon is a fantastic song and would have worked better as the closer.

TBOS didn't need to be a double album. Lack of serious Harris contributions for the most part affects it (too much or too little Harris is not great for the song writing), there's some total filler and Empire Of The Clouds is half finished and should have been left off the album. The Red And The Black is great though.

Another Dickinson solo album would have been a better option I think.

[The Butcher]

AMOLAD was indeed a good one. I liked it a lot at the time, despite it still being unnecessarily bloated, but I haven't listened to it in years.

Pretty much the same, the bloat starts to becomes very obvious on AMOLAD, ended up not listening to the last 2 albums yet because of my fear of being bored to death by them. This thread made me realise with all the latter Maiden era - BNW/DoD & AMOLAD - while they are decent albums, I haven't revisited them at all since listening to them around the times they came out.

[Floss]

AMOLAD is a highlight for sure. I love DOD too, and most of BNW. TFF is prob the one I listen to the least, a bit too much filler on that one but Isle of Avalon for sure is a stand out.... I loved BOS but it has a few fillers for sure (not Empire  - I love that)  but speed of light, tears of a clown, man of sorrows... I could skip those.

Overall their output in the last 20yrs is very high quality for the most part I think. Long may it last.

[livingabortion]

They came out swinging with Brave New World, (although it was said, by someone on here I think, that it was meant to have Blaze Bailey singing on it, maybe there was reworking needing to be done too), but 'The Wicker Man' was a strong opener. The anthemic 'Blood Brothers' goes down great live. 'The Mercenary' is good Prisoner-esque song. 'The Fallen Angel' was good uptempo song. I thought the longer songs were unnecessarily long, 'The Nomad' could have done with being 3 or 4 minutes shorter and played faster too,  and 'The Thin Line Between Love and Hate' hung around too long for a closer.


Dance Of Death was another cracker. While opening with some cheesy youthful exuberance, it wasn't a bad song. 'Montsegur' and 'Paschendale' were the standard Maiden historical war songs. The title song 'Dance Of Death' just amazing, it was over eight and a half minutes but didn't feel a second too long, it captivated and held you throughout it's entirety. 'Age Of Innocence' was good look at the changes in modern times and 'The Journeyman' was a solid closer.


A Matter Of Life And Death I didn't listen to a lot. The standout songs were me were, 'These Colours Don't Run', 'Brighter Than A Thousand Suns', I preferred the mythology around 'The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg' to the song which was ok and The Legacy was another solid song to end with.


I haven't listen to 'The Final Frontier' in long time so I don't really remember it, and I haven't listen to 'Book Of Souls' yet.