In these days of streaming services, playlists and just being able to buy single songs, its easy to forget that the album and it's order of songs can be part of the artistic expression of the band. Not just for concept albums, it's not unusual for bands to weave the songs with an intent: a soft ballad to cleans the palette after a heavy hitter. Sometimes they are intros or combo tracks, like Hall of the Mountain King with the lead in of Prelude to Madness by Savatage, or the way Revelations (Mother Earth) blends into Steal Away (The Night) by Ozzy.
Maiden is a thinking band, and Steve isn't one to just let things like order go to chance. So I decided to do all the Maiden Albums, in order, in order. Starting with Iron Maiden, then going to Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, you get the point. And listening to it from back to front, being mindful of the "flip" where an LP would stop and have to be flipped over. I've really enjoyed the journey so far, and it's really been fun to get into the some of the deeper tracks and hit some of the earlier stuff. Here's my thoughts from each so far.
Iron Maiden
It's easy to forget how polished they were straight out of the box. Adjusting for late 70s recording tech, they have a layered and complex sound right out of the box with Prowler. The lyrics are at times raw and under developed, but this is a great beginning. Remember Tomorrow could easily be from Brave New World or some later album, it's complex, layered and complex in structure. Great live, I think the Anthrax cover of it is an AMAZING tune. Running Free is a concert stable, but this is from their punk adjacent roots and isn't prog metal that is their hall mark. If I played you Blaize or Paul doing Running Free and Bruce doing Remember Tomorrow you would say they are different bands altogether, that's how different RF is from RT. (Yeah, I'm shorting them, it's a typing handful to keep up with the names). It's not that I don't like RF, its just not my favorite. Maybe because it means the show is almost over when seeing them live, but clearly it doesn't exactly fit into their future directions. Phantom, of the Opera and Strange World are more progy fit into the RT vibe of the album. Santuary, Charlotte and Iron Maiden are all raw, punk like and if the latter wasn't the name of the band, I doubt they would play it that much. Perhaps they love a simpler song at the end of the set, but Iron Maiden isn't anything special and makes this end on kind of an odd note. All the lyric complexity of RT is gone here, the music isn't dynamic either. No I didn't forget to listen to Transylvania, its a good song, I appreciate the musicianship, but long term like most bands, they will out grow the instrumental songs, for better or worse. 9 Songs 41 minutes. Knowing that Mariner and Empire are 20 minutes each, it's fun how short some of these are.
Killers
Speaking of instrumentals, this album starts right out the box with one. Ides of March, I like how this builds like Without Warning from Dokken or the start of Blackened by Metallica. Wrathchild is a proto punk outing, and seems oddly put next to Murders in the Rue Morgue. Murders is sweeping in scope, Paul's voice has the perfect timber for this song, even the mighty Bruce when doing this live doesn't seem to have the same fullness as the Paul album version. Another Life is odd one, time changes, soaring speedy solos, lyrically a little more punkish, but this points off in the direction of some of the stuff we will hear in later albums for sure. Genghis Khan as an instrumental feels out of place here. It seems like Steve wanted to put lyrics on it, but didn't have the skills to make something work. The title suggests something deeper, but its a fun little galloping jaunt. This "galloping" sound will be heard later. Innocent Exile has similar themes to Killers, making me think that Steve was reading some murder books and layering those themes onto their jam music. Killers is a cracker song, I actually like Paul's more strained "Yow!" versus when Bruce does it live (since Bruce has such a larger range). Twilight Zone is one of those songs that you can forget they've done. I know I did, I love the speed change at "go" at 40 seconds in. This song is up there for Paul, this song if done on the album by Bruce would have hit better. Prodigal Son is Steve showing his emotional side, which I love it when bands do personal stuff. Blood Brothers is another. (As much as Metallica gets grief for the Unforgiven tracks, I appreciate the honesty). PS with it's starts and stops doesn't really work for me, it takes me out of the flow of the moment. I think they can do emotional song way better in later albums (Paschendale comes to mind) but I like they are exploring. The backend of PS is way better than the first half. Purgatory shows Paul's limitations, I think Steve is feeling like he cant' hit his full vision with Paul about this time in the album. The "another time, another place" part of the song works for me, I love that rift change. The "Take me away" part repeats a little too much, and the Paul can't really hit that screech in way that builds the song. Last up Drifter. It's funny how the last song of their albums are so often the statement songs "Hallowed be Thy Name", or something they are really exploring with Journeyman, Empire of the Clouds, but this doesn't feel like either. I think drifter ties into Running Free thematically, but just ends the album on an odd note. I get the "sing along" part is aimed at ending shows with, and he's treating the album as live event, but Drifter doesn't' hit the mark, which makes the album end on an off note.
Reviewing the Paul years, I can see how the band ended up splitting from him. There is a lot of Punk (Pauls' supposed wanted direction) and lots of Prog (Steve's want) and you can hear that more range is required to hit what Steve is thinking. These two albums are a treat, and do show flashes of what is to come. The keepers for me are Remember Tomorrow, Murders, Phantom, Prowler, Killers and frankly not much else. The rest are good songs, but not listen to daily like those five. I didn't really hear any running threads or structure to the order, except Drifter clearly being a "get the crowd chanting" song that would end a show, except it fell a bit flat to do that. I would say Killers is the worse of the two, seems like it was "Back to the studio" that the suits would demand from a freshman hit. I wouldn't call it a sophomore slump album, but Maiden is a band that needs time between albums.
Next up features a guy from Sampson, and then the drummer from Trust. Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.
Let me know what you think down below.
Maiden is a thinking band, and Steve isn't one to just let things like order go to chance. So I decided to do all the Maiden Albums, in order, in order. Starting with Iron Maiden, then going to Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, you get the point. And listening to it from back to front, being mindful of the "flip" where an LP would stop and have to be flipped over. I've really enjoyed the journey so far, and it's really been fun to get into the some of the deeper tracks and hit some of the earlier stuff. Here's my thoughts from each so far.
Iron Maiden
It's easy to forget how polished they were straight out of the box. Adjusting for late 70s recording tech, they have a layered and complex sound right out of the box with Prowler. The lyrics are at times raw and under developed, but this is a great beginning. Remember Tomorrow could easily be from Brave New World or some later album, it's complex, layered and complex in structure. Great live, I think the Anthrax cover of it is an AMAZING tune. Running Free is a concert stable, but this is from their punk adjacent roots and isn't prog metal that is their hall mark. If I played you Blaize or Paul doing Running Free and Bruce doing Remember Tomorrow you would say they are different bands altogether, that's how different RF is from RT. (Yeah, I'm shorting them, it's a typing handful to keep up with the names). It's not that I don't like RF, its just not my favorite. Maybe because it means the show is almost over when seeing them live, but clearly it doesn't exactly fit into their future directions. Phantom, of the Opera and Strange World are more progy fit into the RT vibe of the album. Santuary, Charlotte and Iron Maiden are all raw, punk like and if the latter wasn't the name of the band, I doubt they would play it that much. Perhaps they love a simpler song at the end of the set, but Iron Maiden isn't anything special and makes this end on kind of an odd note. All the lyric complexity of RT is gone here, the music isn't dynamic either. No I didn't forget to listen to Transylvania, its a good song, I appreciate the musicianship, but long term like most bands, they will out grow the instrumental songs, for better or worse. 9 Songs 41 minutes. Knowing that Mariner and Empire are 20 minutes each, it's fun how short some of these are.
Killers
Speaking of instrumentals, this album starts right out the box with one. Ides of March, I like how this builds like Without Warning from Dokken or the start of Blackened by Metallica. Wrathchild is a proto punk outing, and seems oddly put next to Murders in the Rue Morgue. Murders is sweeping in scope, Paul's voice has the perfect timber for this song, even the mighty Bruce when doing this live doesn't seem to have the same fullness as the Paul album version. Another Life is odd one, time changes, soaring speedy solos, lyrically a little more punkish, but this points off in the direction of some of the stuff we will hear in later albums for sure. Genghis Khan as an instrumental feels out of place here. It seems like Steve wanted to put lyrics on it, but didn't have the skills to make something work. The title suggests something deeper, but its a fun little galloping jaunt. This "galloping" sound will be heard later. Innocent Exile has similar themes to Killers, making me think that Steve was reading some murder books and layering those themes onto their jam music. Killers is a cracker song, I actually like Paul's more strained "Yow!" versus when Bruce does it live (since Bruce has such a larger range). Twilight Zone is one of those songs that you can forget they've done. I know I did, I love the speed change at "go" at 40 seconds in. This song is up there for Paul, this song if done on the album by Bruce would have hit better. Prodigal Son is Steve showing his emotional side, which I love it when bands do personal stuff. Blood Brothers is another. (As much as Metallica gets grief for the Unforgiven tracks, I appreciate the honesty). PS with it's starts and stops doesn't really work for me, it takes me out of the flow of the moment. I think they can do emotional song way better in later albums (Paschendale comes to mind) but I like they are exploring. The backend of PS is way better than the first half. Purgatory shows Paul's limitations, I think Steve is feeling like he cant' hit his full vision with Paul about this time in the album. The "another time, another place" part of the song works for me, I love that rift change. The "Take me away" part repeats a little too much, and the Paul can't really hit that screech in way that builds the song. Last up Drifter. It's funny how the last song of their albums are so often the statement songs "Hallowed be Thy Name", or something they are really exploring with Journeyman, Empire of the Clouds, but this doesn't feel like either. I think drifter ties into Running Free thematically, but just ends the album on an odd note. I get the "sing along" part is aimed at ending shows with, and he's treating the album as live event, but Drifter doesn't' hit the mark, which makes the album end on an off note.
Reviewing the Paul years, I can see how the band ended up splitting from him. There is a lot of Punk (Pauls' supposed wanted direction) and lots of Prog (Steve's want) and you can hear that more range is required to hit what Steve is thinking. These two albums are a treat, and do show flashes of what is to come. The keepers for me are Remember Tomorrow, Murders, Phantom, Prowler, Killers and frankly not much else. The rest are good songs, but not listen to daily like those five. I didn't really hear any running threads or structure to the order, except Drifter clearly being a "get the crowd chanting" song that would end a show, except it fell a bit flat to do that. I would say Killers is the worse of the two, seems like it was "Back to the studio" that the suits would demand from a freshman hit. I wouldn't call it a sophomore slump album, but Maiden is a band that needs time between albums.
Next up features a guy from Sampson, and then the drummer from Trust. Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.
Let me know what you think down below.
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