The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls

[Glasser]

https://bravewords.com/news/iron-maiden-icons-paul-di-anno-bruce-dickinson-meet-for-the-first-time-in-zagreb-photos-video


I am frankly shocked that Bruce and Paul had never met before. That almost doesn't even make sense.

So..... Bruce is playing Yankee stadium???

[nick_z]

Here's mine:

1. Powerslave
2. Caught Somewhere in Time
3. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
4. The Number of the Beast
5. Dance of Death
6. Fear of the Dark
7. Killers
8. The Book of Souls
9. Brave New World
10. No Prayer for the Dying
11. Iron Maiden
12. Senjutsu
13. The Final Frontier

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

My Maiden rank

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Somewhere In Time
The Number Of The Beast
A Matter of Life And Death
Powerslave
Piece of Mind
Dance of Death
The Book of Souls
Brave New World
Iron Maiden
The Final Frontier
Killers
Senjutsu
Fear of the Dark
The X Factor
No Prayer For The Dying
Virtual XI

[Dream Team]

^ Nice. I'd have TFF higher but that's pretty on point.

[pg1067]

1. SSOASS (2)*
2. Powerslave (3)*
3. The Number of the Beast (5)*
4. Fear of the Dark (21)*
5. Caught Somewhere in Time (22)
6. Iron Maiden (31)
7. Brave New World (45)
8. Killers (48)
9. No Prayer for the Dying (69) (this would rank much higher if I did the ranking again)

The other 4 didn't rank in the top 75.  * Indicates highest ranked song from those albums.

[Zantera]

I'm due for another discography re-listen soon since I haven't heard some of them in a while, but just going from memory I would probably rank the albums something like this:

Powerslave
Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
A Matter of Life and Death
The Number of the Beast
Killers
Iron Maiden
Piece of Mind
The X-Factor
Dance of Death
Brave New World
Fear of the Dark
Senjutsu
The Final Frontier
The Book of Souls
No Prayer For the Dying
Virtual XI

Rankings are a bit misleading because overall I think their discography is very strong. Like I have Piece of Mind as my #8, and I still consider that a great classic album even if it's my least favorite from the 80s run. I think The X Factor is better than its reputation, I kinda prefer Dance of Death to BNW (Imo title track and Paschendale alone are better than anything on BNW) and Fear of the Dark has actually grown on me over the years. I like the variety on it. Virtual XI and No Prayer for the Dying being the bottom 2 are really the only easy picks to put down there IMO. No Prayer failed to live up to the previous decade of albums and Virtual XI felt like the flame had gone out (aside from The Clansman). As far as TFF against BoS for my final mini battle, I think TFF has a pretty weak first half but gets going after that. BoS I honestly haven't relistened to since it came out and I'm due for another spin of it. I think at best it could climb 1 or 2 spots, at worst it would just stay the same. I did enjoy Senjutsu more than both.

[MirrorMask]

Bruce Dickinson played Alex the Great in Greece! according to setlist.fm, it was not the whole thing, but he played it at the end of his show.

That is so cool - Maiden never played Alex and when they finally did, they skipped Greece in the tour. Now Bruce gave the greek fans what they wanted.

It's also the end of his tour. I hope he will be true to his word when he said "we'll see you soon"!

[Mladen]

I saw the video and it was only the riff and the chorus. It was enough for the audience to go insane, though. 

Something tells me we'll have another European leg of The Future Past tour next year. They've only played several shows in the entire Eastern Europe.

[MirrorMask]

Mmmmh I don't know, this is more of a niche tour, where 10 songs of the show are dedicated to only two albums and one of them is the latest one, and where they discarded all of their major hits from The Number of the Beast. I can't see a massive demand for it.

Even though Bruce said in his solo shows that they would not "go anywhere", so maybe when they work on another album they could do once again like this year - both Bruce solo shows AND Maiden shows. We'll see...

[Mladen]

I'm confident there's quite a demand. There are fans in Austria, Hungary and maybe even Greece that could fill arenas. Perhaps it won't be a massive European leg, but maybe something along the lines of the 2017 leg of The Book of souls tour.

[cramx3]

Could just mean another Bruce solo tour is in the works and not IM.  I know us Americans would like Bruce to come around.

[Zydar]

Iron Maiden to No Longer Perform Songs That Nicko McBrain Has Difficulties With | Ultimate Guitar (ultimate-guitar.com)

Don't know if it's already been posted, but here's a recent quote from Nicko about having to adapt his playing after his stroke.

"It ain't the old Nicko, it's not the old one by a long shot. But at least it's part of me. And my band, bless their hearts, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys turn around and say, 'If you can't do something in a song, we just won't do that song.'"

[Mladen]

And yet, he did five songs from Somewhere in time just months after the stroke. I wouldn't worry about it too much. 

[MirrorMask]

Yeah, I think the setlist is what they wanted it to be. I'm no drummer, are The Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name the most demanding songs ever in Maiden's catalogue? it was stunning that all of those songs were dropped altogether (never before in Maiden's history) but I think it was a choice and not a necessity.

[Grappler]

All that quote says is that the band is absolutely willing to drop songs if he can't play them, but not that they already have. 

He also mentioned how there is a section of Caught Somewhere in Time where Steve gave him an idea to play it differently.  He was very honest that some fans will say "he's not playing it like the record" and he says...well that's because I can't! 

[TAC]

None of this is really news.

[cramx3]

None of this is really news.

Yeah, but it is refreshing to hear bands openly state this stuff. And also to see my favorite band show that respect for the drummer. 

[TAC]

Anyone listen to the new Paul DiAnno album? I'm actually really digging it. A number of really cool songs.
The Doubt Within, Forever Bound, Going Home. Good stuff!

[cramx3]

Anyone listen to the new Paul DiAnno album? I'm actually really digging it. A number of really cool songs.
The Doubt Within, Forever Bound, Going Home. Good stuff!

Didn't really put any thought into checking it out.  I kind of slipped on Blaze's new release too.

[wolfking]

Anyone listen to the new Paul DiAnno album? I'm actually really digging it. A number of really cool songs.
The Doubt Within, Forever Bound, Going Home. Good stuff!

I'll give it a spin today.

[TAC]

I'll give it a spin today.

It's only like 36 minutes. Not a huge investment. I do find the second half, probably starting on Track 4, stronger.

[wolfking]

Anyone listen to the new Paul DiAnno album? I'm actually really digging it. A number of really cool songs.
The Doubt Within, Forever Bound, Going Home. Good stuff!

I just had a listen now.  I was getting worried as the first couple of songs really sucked IMO. it does definitely get more interesting from around that track 4 mark.  Those songs are definitely the highlight, but I'll add Here Comes the Night.  That might have been my fav.  I think I'll be able to handle the first couple of songs now that I know it isn't all like that.  Pretty cool.

Although Tequila, WTF?! 

[TAC]

I just had a listen now.  I was getting worried as the first couple of songs really sucked IMO. it does definitely get more interesting from around that track 4 mark.  Those songs are definitely the highlight, but I'll add Here Comes the Night.  That might have been my fav.  I think I'll be able to handle the first couple of songs now that I know it isn't all like that.  Pretty cool.

Although Tequila, WTF?! 

Yeah, tequila is like a heavy metal version of the Pee Wee Herman theme. But it's cool though. Considering I had zero expectations for this, the fact that I really like at least half of this is a huge unexpected surprise.

[wolfking]

Yeah, tequila is like a heavy metal version of the Pee Wee Herman theme. But it's cool though. Considering I had zero expectations for this, the fact that I really like at least half of this is a huge unexpected surprise.

Oh yeah, I know the song.  I didn't see it there and it started and it completely threw me. 

Some nice old school Maiden moments in the second half.

[Stadler]

I didn't care for most of this, to be honest, and the first half not at all.  The Doubt Within was pretty cool, though; sounded almost Priest-like. Forever Bound didn't suck, but it's not something I'm probably going to go back to.

This was (my) problem with Di'Anno even back in Maiden; he wasn't a song-writer and his voice wasn't quite strong enough to carry subpar material (not that there was a ton of subpar material in Maiden, though). 

[TAC]

I didn't care for most of this, to be honest, and the first half not at all.  The Doubt Within was pretty cool, though; sounded almost Priest-like. Forever Bound didn't suck, but it's not something I'm probably going to go back to.

This was (my) problem with Di'Anno even back in Maiden; he wasn't a song-writer and his voice wasn't quite strong enough to carry subpar material (not that there was a ton of subpar material in Maiden, though). 

I've always liked his voice generally, and bought pretty much everything he was on throughout the 80's. Music wise, he was on some shaky albums for sure.

[faizoff]

Will see if my current ranking changes after a straight through listen of all title tracks, as it stands this is how I'd rank them

1. Fear of the Dark
2. Brave New World
3. The Number of the Beast
4. Dance of Death
5. The Book of Souls
6. Powerslave
7. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
8. Killers
9. Senjutsu
10. Caught Somewhere In Time
11. Iron Maiden
12. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
13. No Prayer for the Dying

So I listened to this playlist and first thought was that this surprisingly flows really well, you can hear the progression through the years.

My order didn't change much but I did realize I think Senjutsu is ranked too high, it's a good song but it feels kinda bland at times. Caught somewhere in Time was a lot better than I remembered and prefer it to Killers.

Also goes without saying any live version of Fear sounds a ton more lively and preferable than the studio version. 

So revised rankings are

 1. Fear of the Dark
2. Brave New World
3. The Number of the Beast
4. Dance of Death
5. The Book of Souls
6. Powerslave
7. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
8. Caught Somewhere In Time
9. Killers
10. Iron Maiden
11. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
12. No Prayer for the Dying
13. Senjutsu

[nick_z]

I've always liked his voice generally, and bought pretty much everything he was on throughout the 80's. Music wise, he was on some shaky albums for sure.

I very much enjoy Di'Anno's voice on the first two Maiden records. It fits the music great and it has a whole...coolness...to it?

Tim - I did try the new album, and it didn't really do it for me there's some good energy in certain spots but overall it didn't grab me...

[wolfking]

I don't think I've heard anything from paul outside the first two albums and this new one.  I've always liked his voice well enough, it gets the job done.  Nothing amazing but nothing wrong with it.

[TAC]

Well, there's always this one...

[wolfking]

Is it any good?

[TAC]

Is it good...? It's mid 80's AOR. It's interesting.. and fucking lightweight.

My favorite song on the album is Tales Of The Unexpected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QUUdqC_ps

[nick_z]

Well, there's always this one...

That's some cover!

[Glasser]

I don't think I've heard anything from paul outside the first two albums and this new one.  I've always liked his voice well enough, it gets the job done.  Nothing amazing but nothing wrong with it.

Have you checked out Dianno's Battlezone?

[TAC]

Yeah there's wardrobe credits on the back cover.





The band's outfits kindly supplied by Wrangler from their Spring 1984 range.