Controversial Metal Opinions

[vinterland]

For reasons too numerous to mention Seventh Son is my favourite Maiden album by  quite some distance but I absolutely cringe when track 3 plays and always skip it. I honestly cannot see what the fuss is about and whenever they'd give a nod to their magnum opus on tour this is the single they'd  almost inevitably opt to play ahead of undeniable classics like Moonchild or Infinite Dreams.  They should have held it over for NPFTD two years later. It wouldn't have looked nearly as out of place there.

[Ducky]

Can I Play with Madness?! That's one of the songs that got me into music, nevermind metal or Maiden.

[Anton Arcane]

Can I Play With Madness is top tier Maiden for me and I'd go one further and say Infinite Dreams is the stinker on that album.  Maybe if it was sequenced later in the album it wouldn't be as bad but it feels like a total non event after Moonchild.

[Carnage]

It's definitely the worst song on the album (I'd argue that it's their second worst '80s song after Quest For Fire) and yes, it's completely out of place there, but I can't imagine the album without it, it'd be an overly po-faced affair with another 'serious' song in its place.

[Bomberman]

I've never even heard a Motorhead album.  Must pick up 'Ace of Spades' at some stage.

In that case I'd recommend starting with the "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" live album from 1981...I think it's a near-perfect 'best of' covering their early years, and probably has the best versions ever recorded of any of those songs on it...just my two cents...

[Bogmetaller]

I'm really going to take a hurley to a hornets nest here but fuckit here goes- seeing as the topic is Iron Maiden and all- people (who are in the minority I will concede) have a right to take umbrage at the flag waving during the trooper in this country. I'll no doubt get ridiculed for saying it but any one who has given even a cursory glance at Irish history should be understand why people would take offence to it. Would it be OK for Ted Nugent to play in Brooklyn and start waving the confederate flag there? And before anyone says that the song has nothing to do with Ireland nor is it intended to antagonise I am aware of that-but that's not the point.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Tying controversial in with conspiracy, I personally don't see any genuine difference between the Union Jack and the Swastika flag; both represent genocide, the only difference is that one "reich" did it in a way that kept them in the good books with the rest of "respectable" society (i.e. *cough-cough* all other colonial nations) . That said, I don't know whether that tips me towards "you should be able to wave a Swastika wherever you want" or "the Union Jack should be banned from public events in Ireland." In other words, I care but I don't care, but if someone who thinks the Swastika is bad doesn't understand why the Union Jack is just as bad, they just ain't woke bro!

[astfgyl]

This could get interesting...

As far as I'm concerned, whatever they think about waving that shit around in some places they should know a lot better than to do it here. It's only asking for trouble(s)

[ldj]

Napalm Death's later stuff is better than Scum/FETO, I get that at the time nothing like that had been done but it's pretty unlistenable imo. I'd rate Enemy of the Music Business and Apex Predator as among their best.

[Juggz]

The Union Jack waving at an Iron Maiden show is a piece of theatre and should be treated as such. Should we ban The Trooper beer here too and confiscate everyone's The Trooper singles and t-shirts? FWIW, I agree entirely with it and the Swastika being kindred emblons of genocide but British history and self-image is a shitshow of hipocrisy and a topic for another thread. I went to a one-man play about Hitler, years ago, and the set was essentially a giant Swastika flag. Both unsettle me but, in the context of theatre, I can get over it.

Come on stage wearing Union Jack shorts and waving your poxy flag bad-mouting Michael Collins, however, and we will fall out.

[Bogmetaller]

The Union Jack waving at an Iron Maiden show is a piece of theatre and should be treated as such. Should we ban The Trooper beer here too and confiscate everyone's The Trooper singles and t-shirts?

Not really the same thing there though. But I take your point about it being pageantry - it's what it represented /still represents in this country that's the problem.

[Juggz]

Yeah, I agree but it's part of the show. They do it in Germany, in India and all the other places where atrocities were carried out under that flag. I don't see why they should be selective where they do it, though. Everybody knows it is a part of the show, it is part of the fabric of Iron Maiden. My take on it would be that if I have an issue with it, I wouldn't go and if I had a really big issue with it, I wouldn't buy any of their fucking records either.

To turn it on its head a little, if you were Israeli and Kreator waved a Swastika as part of the show everywhere but Jerulsalem, would that still be alright?

[Bogmetaller]

Yeah, I agree but it's part of the show. They do it in Germany, in India and all the other places where atrocities were carried out under that flag. I don't see why they should be selective where they do it, though. Everybody knows it is a part of the show, it is part of the fabric of Iron Maiden. My take on it would be that if I have an issue with it, I wouldn't go and if I had a really big issue with it, I wouldn't buy any of their fucking records either.

To turn it on its head a little, if you were Israeli and Kreator waved a Swastika as part of the show everywhere but Jerulsalem, would that still be alright?

Hmmm good point there I suppose with regards to being selective - however they have carried out atrocities in our country much more recently than in say Germany for example. Germany is also a bit different because the playing field was a bit more level.

Well seeing as brandishing the swastika is illegal in most countries whereas waving the union flag isn't its a bit different - once again I see the point though.

[Nail_Bombed]

Napalm Death's later stuff is better than Scum/FETO, I get that at the time nothing like that had been done but it's pretty unlistenable imo. I'd rate Enemy of the Music Business and Apex Predator as among their best.

Scum/FETO were top class noise at the time, but certainly ND had better records down the line. Inside The Torn Apart being one of them.

[Carnage]

Barney's the only decent vocalist they had, as a consequence I can barely stomach the early stuff. Dorrian's barking was, well, dogshit.