Love this track, might be my favorite from the album. Is this the first real epic song they did in terms of theme and the song structure? Either way, a spectacular closer to probably my favorite maiden album.
Wait, what? Dream Theater covered NotB and PoE in their entirety? Like, did every single song? Whoa. I don't need to hear that. Jumping ahead for a minute, I'm a bit confused by @The Slug Man as his comments alluded to the two songs from Powerslave being about swords. That confused me as I was under the impression "The Duellists" was based on the Ridley Scott film of the same name which involved two French soldiers of the Napoleon era being involved in a long standing grudge against each other (if you haven't seen the movie, its good. It stars a young Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel). I don't know if Harris just spun the lyrics to match what he wanted, but they certainly don't follow the movie. /confusion (I guess we can talk about this further when we get to the actual album - sorry bout that). As to the song at hand: here starts a series of long songs that are, again, usually based on Harris's interests. This one, as our leader has stated, is based upon Frank Herbert's novel "Dune". It's a noble effort to capture kind of a eastern sounding flavor in some spots, but the song, overall, is overwrought and gets dull pretty quickly. There's some brilliant instrumental sections in it, but the lyrics are bad and the song just kind of peters out for me.
To Tame A Land Why couldn't this have been an instrumental? I tried a few times as a kid to like "Dune". Never could. I also don't understand why a band would promote a song live that's based on a novel when that novel's author threatens to sue you. I would have been, "Well Herbert, we reach 20,000 kids a night so your loss." That said I really do like the section from 2:52-4:00. Good bass work from Steve. I wish I could like this one more but the lyrics (for me) drag this one down. (1.5/5)
That's an interesting point about going ahead with a song when the author threatens to sue you. My feeling is since Harris had already written the song and put a lot of effort into it he wanted to go forward with it and put it on the album. I'd be kind of pissed if I was Harris in that the song is essentially a fan writing a song about a work he loves and the creator says, "yeah, thanks, but no thanks". Maybe they worked something out in terms of the name change and things were hunky dory between Harris and Herbert in the end. Who knows?
Listen to the intro of the live version on the previous page. They didn't work it out and Bruce was being nice here compared to other shows on the tour.
Piece of Mind What an amazing album! They took the greatness of NOTB and with Nicko's help propelled themselves even further along. Although there are for me, a few less than stellar tracks this is the best they've done thus far. The greatness of the stronger songs out weigh the lesser songs. This was also Steve's favorite until Seventh Son. 1. The Trooper (5/5) 2. Where Eagles Dare (5/5) 3. Flight of Icarus (5/5) 4. Revelations (5/5) 5. Die W/ Your Boots On (4/5) 6. Sun and Steel (4/5) 7. Still Life (4/5) 8. Quest For Fire (3.5/5) 9. To Tame A Land (2/5)
Just curious, what has Steve said about Powerslave? Because I can think of at least four of the eighties albums he's had a problem with.
"I still think it's a really strong album. I think there are four stand-out tracks on there, all of which we did live."-Steve Harris. Run To The Hills page 254
To Tame A Land: I was never into this song in the 80's. I listened to it recently and the song has aged well for me. There are several parts of the instrumentation that remind me of songs on "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son". (Particularly, the title track) "To Tame A Land" isn't a favorite of mine but it's a pretty solid closer and a decent recovery from the 2 previous songs. Overall: Eagles: 4.5 Revelations: 5 Icarus: 5 Boots: 3 Trooper: 5 Still Life: 3.5 Quest: 2 Steel: 2.5 Tame a Land: 3
My ratings would look something like this: Where Eagles Dare 3/5 Revelations 4.5/5 Flight of Icarus 4/5 Die With Your Boots On 2/5 The Trooper 4/5 Still Life 4.5/5 Quest for Fire 1/5 Sun and Steel 2/5 To Tame a Land 2.5/5
I rate the songs on PoM like this: Where Eagles Dare - 5/5 Revelations - 5/5 Flight of Icarus - 4/5 Die With Your Boots On - 5/5 The Trooper - 5/5 Still Life - 5/5 Quest for Fire - 3/5 Sun and Steel - 4/5 To Tame a Land - 5/5 It is my favorite Iron Maiden album. I was 14 when I got this on cassette - it was my first of theirs I owned. The warm tone of the guitars on this album in particular stand out. Before PoM, Rush were the only band I really listened to repeatedly looking for more information, more detail. Btw, the cover art for PoM is a top 3 for me. The colors are so striking. The red logo agains the golds and brown...I even love the scripted letter font of the album title.
Btw, this thread is KILLER. I have enjoyed reading every post each day. The next few weeks should be a lot of fun.
To Tame a Land Last track of the album and Piece of Mind's epic. The intro is stellar, great use of the modal melody by Dave. Guitarists - what mode is he playing in? I'm so bad with all that stuff. The intro really sets the mood for the song and lets us know that this isn't going to be 7 minutes of repeating choruses. Besides Dave's excellent playing (assuming Steve wrote that melody), I love the chord change at :19 and then Nicko's very subtle gong about :30 in. Another nice gong hit resonates after the heavy riff starts. There's that intro riff and then once the vocals start it changes slightly. I love it when Steve does stuff like that. The natural tendency is to keep the same riff going under the vocals; Steve changes it up. Great note hold-out by Bruce on the "ruler of the stars" line. This next section is a really cool change and sets up the bass pattern that Steve plays for the middle. Fun fact - he uses this pattern A LOT in Maiden songs. I know we've heard it in NOB and will hear it again in the middle section of Mariner. A variation of it pops in Clairvoyant too. Just like how he recycles chord progressions (usually E-D-C or similar), he will recycle patterns like this one. I actually don't care, because it still sounds cool to my ears. I think he perfected this type of middle section in Mariner, but it still works really well here. I love the little bass lick after "he has the power to make it all end". You know when Steve does that kind of bass line, serious stuff is happening and it'll burst into a solo section. Great harmony bit after the solos and I love how it slows down while Dave and Adrian continue the pattern and that leads nicely into a reprise of the intro. I love how there is no vocal reprise at this point - Bruce's last line before the bass and solo sections is the end. Speaking of the lyrics, there are a lot of them. Still, since the words are so mysterious (I haven't read the book yet) it works for me with Bruce cramming in all these weird words and phrases (Gom Jibbar!). Great song and I like it when Maiden ends albums with an epic. Yeah, it's their thing and they nearly always do it, but it still makes me happy. Final Piece of Mind thoughts: I wondered if my thoughts would change, but no - I still think Number of the Beast is a better album overall. While NOB's only weakness is the chorus of Invaders, Piece of Mind gives us Maiden's first real stinker in Quest for Fire. It gets a few good points (intro, solo), but it's such a mess otherwise. For the time being I put NOB first with POM right behind. Great songs: Where Eagles Dare Revelations Flight of Icarus Die With Your Boots On The Trooper Still Life To Tame a Land Good, but filler: Sun and Steel Bad: Quest for Fire
Yeah, they did NOB and Master of Puppets (and a few others). Trust me you DON'T need to hear it. It sounds like DT - played well, but too sterile and LaBrie doing his thing all over it. The only thing I really liked about their version of NOB was on Gangland they really turned it into a jazz song. It's a lot of fun. Otherwise, yeah, stick to Maiden.
The middle part of To Take A Land is kind of like a mini Rime of the Ancient Mariner. A proto version, if you will.
No - NotB and Metallica's Master of Puppets in their entirety - and Dark Side too. But yeah, you don’t “need” to hear anything you don’t want!
To Tame A Land Forunnner to Mariner....only not as long. When you consider this is/ what was thought of as the 'epic' album closer...you begin to realise just how lost they have become in recent years. This is...what 8mins long???? Isn't everything they do now 8 mins long????? Anyways.... I love this.... perhaps a little short of Hallowed & Mariner, but not by much. Epic. 5/5 Thoughts overall on Piece of Mind This grew on me more than the 3 previous album's. It took longer to sink in. I view this better than Number Of The Beast....but I understand why many feel otherwise. Despite the one dodgy track....it's a classic in every sense of the word..from the great artwork....the production and the superb tour that followed...joint top in all the years I saw them live. 5/5
