Track title: “Alexander the Great”
Album: Somewhere in Time
Year: 1986
Written by: Steve Harris
Subject: Um, Alexander the Great?
Type: Epic cruncher
Length: 8:38
Familiar? Yes, a little
Rating: 5/10
Again,
Somewhere in Time, though I like it, is not one of my favourite Maiden albums. I feel it suffers from some very weak tracks (cue argument with MicShazam) and this is one of them. This is not to say it's a bad album at all, but compare it to any of the previous ones and it's hard not to feel that the boys were beginning to slip slightly on this one. Well, it's hard for me not to feel that way. **** you: I don't care what you think.
Odd enough for a proghead to admit, but I'm not really a fan of the long, epic Maiden songs, with the obvious exception. I just prefer their snappier, more immediate, more metal songs, in general. I find their epics, especially after
Brave New World, seem to wander about a little aimlessly, and it makes it hard to remember them, for me anyway, and so harder to enjoy them.
One thing Harris has been very careful about through Maiden's career is to try to integrate his love of history into their music. Maiden don't tend to sing drinking songs, or songs about women (much), or riding motorcycles (all that often), and you'll find in their lyrics more references to battles, gods, historical figures and events than you will with most metal bands. This of course focusses on the Macedonian general whose empire had stretched across most of the known world by the time he was thirty years old. There's that long introduction we'll end up becoming used to in the future: almost two minutes of it, including a quote from King Philip II of Macedonia, and the intro sound a little
Powerslave-y to me. Anyway, once it gets going it's a decent rocker but I always felt it was a little stilted; some of the lyrics don't seem to scan very well and I find the ending a bit meh. Good buildup in the middle to a decent solo, but is there not too much of the main theme to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in the melody here? No? **** you, then.