MicShazam

Both right and wrong

While it is one of my favorite Maiden albums (so ok, spot on) I don't like Alexander the Great much. Favorite track of mine from this disc: Wasted Years!

I guess one of the things I like a lot about this album is that I - unlike you - really find the songwriting appealing, plus I really like the guitar tones on this album.

And I do like this song quite a bit. It's got this folk metal feel that I think cool, even if it's no Blood Brothers in that regard. The quiet intro is quite nice too. There are better songs on the album but the only bad song on the album is the Angel and the Gambler... which you seem to think is the best one!? Heresy!

The Batlord

Nah, "Prowler" is the only song as good.

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Trollheart

I don't think I said it was your favourite, did I? I remember you going on about it, particularly that ****fest "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"...
I don't actually particularly LIKE A&tG, but it's the one on that album I hate least.
Well, you're The Batlord so I guess you must be right. Can I go kill myself now?

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The Batlord

No idea why you've waited this long.

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MicShazam

I don't remember doing that, but I like it, so it's possible. A song I could gush and go on about is Sea of Madness. It feels pretty unlike other Maiden songs of that time. It is another Adrian Smith penned tune, along with Wasted Years (so my two favorites off the album is from Adiran... they should have let him write more!)

Trollheart

I'm scurred...

Yeah I like "Sea of Madness" and "Heaven Can Wait" too. Like I say, it's not as if I hate the album or anything, but following up Powerslave was gonna be a big ask and I feel they fell somewhat short here.

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MicShazam

Powerslave is good, but I always hated that one song, Back in the Village.

Trollheart

Track title: “Infinite Dreams”
Album: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Year: 1988
Written by: Steve Harris
Subject: Dreams/Foretelling the future
Type: Hard to say: starts slow, picks up, epic rocker but a good headbanger too.
Length: 6:03
Familiar? Not that much, no
Rating: 7.8/10
Back to Seventh Son we go, and the second track on the album, one of three written by Harris solo. I'll probably get stick for this but who cares: I feel two of the three he writes solo are some of the weakest on the album, though the title track is pretty sweet. Still, when he teams up with the likes of Bruce and Adrian I feel that's when the really good tracks come through, like “Moonchild”, “Only the Good Die Young” etc. Sometimes it seems Harris needs someone to keep a rein on his ideas, though having said that he is of course a wonderful songwriter, but in general I think he works better in collaboration with another writer.

This song sounds to me like it has a real Powerslave feel to it, got a real punch and I like the way it goes through some changes over its – to be fair – not too long run of just over six minutes. I love the way it speeds up in the middle with a big roar from Bruce, and though it does sound to me like they're recycling some guitar riffs and melodies here, it's a great guitar attack and a good finish, shades of “Revelations” from Piece of Mind. Cool.

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Trollheart

Track title: “The Alchemist”
Album: The Final Frontier
Year: 2010
Written by: Janick Gers/Steve Harris/Bruce Dickinson
Subject: An alchemist, I guess
Type: Fast rocker/headbanger
Length: 4:29
Familiar? Not at all
Rating: 4/10
This is one of those albums I know virtually nothing about. Like Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death and to an extent The Book of Souls, I've heard The Final Frontier just once I think, and even then I don't recall being terribly impressed by it. But maybe I was judging too harshly or hastily. Let's have a listen. Rocks along like a Maiden song of old, anyway; actually sounds a little familiar, so perhaps reusing those riffs again lads eh? Touch of “Aces High”, “Two Minutes to Midnight” and other songs in there too. The guitars are smooth rather than biting, the ubiquitous solo is of course there, and yeah, they pack a lot into four and a half minutes. Still not overly impressed though, and I doubt I'll remember it by the time the next track has started.

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Trollheart

Track title: “When the Wild Wind Blows”
Album: The Final Frontier
Year: 2010
Written by: Steve Harris
Subject: The fear of nuclear war
Type: Epic
Length: 10:59
Familiar? I kind of remember it a little
Rating: 5/10
Seriously? Another track from The Final Frontier? And this one an epic, a Steve Harris-penned monster just one second shy of eleven minutes. I half remember liking this though – and as I said in the last entry I was not impressed by the album on my one listen, so maybe this is a good sign – and I know it certainly made some impression on me at the time. Whether that was good or bad, I guess we'll see. Wind sounds, unsurprisingly, to start it off and then a dark instrumental intro which turns into something of a “Fear of the Dark” idea, but in fairness is not too long. It's one of those doomsayer songs, about, I assume, nuclear war. Quite restrained for the first two minutes before it breaks loose, though in fairness again it's just Bruce's voice getting louder; the song basically stays the same for now. The guitars get a little harder, yeah, but not a huge change really.

Good instrumental section around the middle when the guitars fire up and get going properly, kind of a militaristic feel to the melody – rather apt I guess – but it's hard to see how this isn't stretched out way too long. I mean, eleven minutes? No way it needs to be that long. It's the closing track, so maybe they felt like they wanted to make a statement, and it's not that it's a bad song, not at all, but like I said before about Steve, others need to rein him in. This could be eight, nine minutes tops. The guys do fill in the time with some good solos, but a well-written song shouldn't need things to fill it out. Then, again like “Fear of the Dark”, we reprise the opening by returning to where the song began. Hmm. Still not convinced really.

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