Trollheart

Judgement of Heaven (5:10)

Two more solo Harris compositions coming up, with - for this period anyway - typically morose subject matter. Once again the vocal is low and indistinct, the guitars almost rock and roll in a way, then they punch through and the vocal comes up, but my question is why does it take so long? Why can’t these songs start off going for the throat, instead of creeping up on you and sussing you out first? We want the mad killer from 1981 who stalked the streets spreading terror, not some fucker cowering on the ground, raising his fist to the sky and cursing god. Fuck that. Having said that, once this song gets going it’s not without its charm, but still not a patch on even anything from Fear of the Dark. At least though there is some life in it and we hear the familiar twin guitar attack, which does help.

Blood On the World’s Hands (6:00)

And here’s his other one. Another bloody epic - well, six minutes plus at this stage of their career would have been considered an epic for Maiden. Opening on an almost jazzy bass line which makes you wonder if a piano is about to join in, it’s almost a bass solo, which, to be fair, Harris has never to my knowledge attempt - oh wait. Isn’t there “Losfer Words”? Is that a bass solo? Can’t remember. Anyway, the song does eventually get its shit together, but it hasn’t in any way been worth waiting for, slouching along with its hands in its pockets and head down, one of Maiden’s politically-themed songs, in case you hadn’t guessed. It retains a very proggy/jazzy feel in the melody, and I can’t see too many people headbanging to this. Well maybe: there are people who, if drunk or out of it enough, would probably headbang to “Fur Elise”. But it doesn’t elicit that kind of reaction in me.

The solo is a bit confused, as if Dave or Janick aren’t quite sure what they’re supposed to be doing, or what’s expected of or to be tolerated from them, and the song proceeds along without any real direction that I can see, with a fairly obvious chorus, but at least a good performance from Bayley. Sounds very progressive metal to me. Hell, at least there’s some aggression here, something that has been mostly missing from the album.

The Edge of Darkness (6:39)

Whatever about the wisdom, or not, of including two tracks with the word “edge” in them, this is another slow starter, very moody, very sombre - reminds me a little of Bon Jovi’s “While My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms” from These Days - and again we have a barely-heard vocal from Blaze, a slow introspective guitar and bass opening, though Bayley’s vocal does start to come into its own here once the song gets going. For a short time, yeah, you could convince yourself this is Bruce. Not for long, but for a while. It’s a very familiar Maiden riff once it gets going, though I can’t quite place my finger on it. Sort of an almost Celtic feel to it maybe.

I do like the solos, though they kind of remind me of first Big Country and then Thin Lizzy, not something I’ve ever said about Maiden to this point anyway. I still hear no hook, and in fact to be perfectly honest I don’t even hear a chorus or any real kind of song structure, which is fine: plenty of artists throw the rules out the window. But Maiden are not known for doing this, and while I don’t insist they stick to verse-verse-chorus-verse, their songs, even “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, do tend to observe some sort of rules, and this doesn’t. Makes it very hard to follow it.

2 AM (5:37)

Has anyone else noticed that since “Man on the Edge” every song has been at least over five minutes, many over six? That’s not the norm for a Maiden album, though as I think I said earlier it does point the way towards how their work would develop over the next decade. Another low vocal which thankfully explodes fairly quickly, but this is pretty much a self-indulgent song as Blaze sings “Here I am again on my own”. Yeah we get it Steve: you’re hurting, and we sympathise, but you have a job to do here, and it’s somewhat unprofessional and not very fair to use the album that was supposed to confirm Iron Maiden as still being a force in heavy metal to pour out your troubles to us and cry into your beer. Do that on your own time, guy, yeah?

In terms of tempo, it’s a slow, marching sort of thing, with heavy drums and grinding guitars, which makes an attempt to kick itself up the arse late on, some all right guitar solos spilling out into the tune, but they’re almost incidental, and gone as soon as they begin. Even an extended instrumental section just more or less marks time till Blaze comes back in to whine again in Harris’s words about how cruel and miserable life is. Heavy metal Morrissey? Not far from it.

The Unbeliever (8:05)

Sigh. Yes indeed. An eight minute closer. But wait! What’s this? A lively, sprightly guitar riff to open the song? Could it be… surely not. Now that sounds like keyboards there though they’re gone as quickly as they come in. Oh dear. The rhythm is poor with a hurried vocal. Oh no wait. That dramatic bridge is not at all bad. But then we’re back to bouncing along and then back to drama. Where in the name of Bruce Dickinson is this going? Little riff there almost reminiscent of the debut album, then it turns into something from Seventh Son with a little “Two Minutes to Midnight” thrown in. A pastiche? Perhaps. A mess? Possibly.

If this is building to a big solo then maybe there’s hope. But no. It stops and goes to a bass part, with a sort of apology for a solo - more a rhythm part really in the background, bass definitely taking the lead. Oh and now there is a solo, and hey it’s really not too bad. Is it too little too late? Maybe not. Where do we go from here? If it ends well then it might not be the worst closer. Okay, back to the bouncing rhythm of the verse, dramatic bridge, and still basically no chorus. I suppose I could be generous and say the bridge is the hook, and it kind of is, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. Bridge to nowhere? Sorry. But it should have led to a big chorus or something and it doesn’t, so I’m left waiting. And it ends on some sort of mad “chopsticks” thing. Oh dear.




I didn’t have preconceptions originally when I came to listen to this album. Like most Maiden fans, I expected and hoped to like it. But as I slogged through it - and it’s the only description that fits really - I began to realise something was very rotten in the state of Maiden. You might be surprised to hear that I was not testing Blaze Bayley, ready to light up the fire and pile up the wood (or is that the other way around?) as soon as I could declare “he’s no Bruce!” No. I didn’t expect him to be as good, but I wasn’t too bothered. What was done was done, and as long as he didn’t sound like, I don’t know, George Michael or yer man from Air Supply or someone, I would have been happy.

What I did feel crushed about was the poor quality of the songs, the overlong running times, the dark, pessimistic, self-pitying atmosphere emanating from the music, and the fact that only about two tracks - if that - impressed me sufficiently that I could remember them when the album was finished. I laid the blame for this, as I saw it, gross failure directly at the feet of Harris, McBrain, Murray and Gers. They were the ones who should have known better. Bayley was the new guy: what did he know? Of course, he ended up taking much of the flak for the album’s dip in quality from previous releases, but that was I think projection. People were unwilling to blame the boys, and didn’t have far to look for a scapegoat.

What The X Factor proved to me was that Iron Maiden actually could not continue without Bruce Dickinson, and their next offering only served to confirm this. It was going to be a long five years.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018