Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'm pretty sure I heard that. I mean, I did listen to each album once, but can I say the same about anything from the debut to Fear of the Dark, and then Brave New World? No, I can't, cos they're all excellent albums. Ok, No Prayer for the Dying has its bad moments, as does FotD ("Weekend Warrior" guys? Really?) but in general they're all albums I'd listen to over and over. I might skip the odd track but I'd listen to them. I'd want to listen to them. The "new" ones have not had that effect on me. I think some of it has to do with the overpreponderance of epic tracks. I mean, I love love love Maiden, but I don't want a ten-minute song every second track. There's only so much of that you can take, I feel, and now they've almost broken the twenty-minute barrier.

And let's be honest, "Empire of the Clouds" is interesting when you hear it the first time - if not only for the long piano intro - but are you really gonna listen to it over and over? Nah: it's a novelty and once you've heard it, that's kind of it. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", on the other hand - even though it's like five minutes shorter - I'll listen to over and over again, cos its well put together and never gets dull. If "Empire" comes up here, I'll listen to it, certainly, but I'll be struggling through it and likely glad when it's over. I never wanted to have to say that about a Maiden track, but there it is. I feel The Final Frontier can suck my balls too.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.