I love “Brave New World.” I’m too busy right now to post a lengthy review, but I think the song has WAY more energy than anything on FOTD. The chorus repetition doesn’t bother me for some reason. It does on many reunion tracks.
I've fallen a bit behind what with my general lack of enthusiasm for Bruce's solo career. I have listened to Accident of Birth and Tyranny of Souls a few times recently and I start off getting more into them than ever but eventually after 5 or 6 songs I run out of gas. Somehow I think if they were 25 minute ep's I would think higher of them but they just don't hold my attention for a full album. The Chemical Wedding on the other hand is a stone cold metal classic. I loved it instantly (even though I was way late in first hearing it) and it has always held my attention from beginning to end. It absolutely gives reunion era Maiden a run for its money, but it's the only solo album that does. Brave New World. I was out of Maiden at the time and I remember taking it out of the library a few times but barely even giving it a chance. My first real exposure to its material was through the Rock In Rio DVD and Cd and I was sufficiently impressed to finally get BNW and from there on I got all the rest of the studio albums on release day. Because of this when I look at all 5 of the albums since the reunion this one always seems a bit less familiar to me than the rest and I would have trouble ranking it amongst the other four. The Wicker Man. I was really taken with the great energy and the simple palm muting of the guitar intro on the Rio album. It really comes bursting out of the speakers but I will say that as the first song on the first reunion album we're immediately hit with the fact that quality recording and mixing is pretty much a thing of the past. I'm not a fan of the snare sound and it's so far out front that it's damn near St. Anger level distracting. Slight exaggeration but you get my point. In terms of guitar it seems like the first time in ages that an Iron Maiden song had some lead work that sounded well thought out. Adrian Smith ladies and gentlemen! "Your time will come" seemed designed for an arena to chant along. Great song, not the most original but exciting and fairly short for this era of the band. Ghost of the Navigator. Eventually I would come to see this as part two a of three part nautical trilogy; Rime of the Ancient Marnier, Ghost of the Navigator and The Talisman. Not for the last time I'm going to say that this is actually a fairly Blaze era-like track that gets a major lift from having such a dynamic vocalist in Bruce Dickinson. This song didn't grab me on the Rio album nearly as much as The Wicker Man but I've come to really love it. Solo wise I feel like Adrian has had an immediate effect on Janick as the latter's guitar solo seems way more thought out than usual. Brave New World. This one always seemed a bit clunky to me and I always looked a bit when Bruce would mention 'dying swans'. Like, what??? Another song that seems like it could be straight out of Blaze's era but saved/elevated by a dynamic singer. You can just shutter imagining Blaze monotone singing "a brave new world" 25 straight times until you want to learn sign language while you gouge your ears with pencils. I think all three of these songs are good (for an album track) to great but I'd much rather hear them with the well recorded twin guitars of Smith/Murray. Not even criticizing Janick as a player but I've never gotten the sense that this vaunted three guitar lineup has paid actual dividends on record. Between the clutter of guitars and Kevin Shirley it's just always a sonic wash with no clarity. Fortunately I generally enjoy what they've done for the past 18 years enough that the sound doesn't ruin it for me.
Yeah. I think a lot of reunion songs stand up with their best work but I can't remember any particular guitar bit or solo. Steve Harris, what a maroon.
When I listen to reunion albums on vinyl and with headphones, I dig the sound much more. I’d still like more separation of instruments and dynamics, but I get much less “sonic wash” than listening out loud via CD.
Brave New World I like that the opening doesn't follow the typical opening of a Maiden epic - it's quite pretty instead of foreboding. Then it gets heavy, but you could still play that melody to a child on an acoustic guitar. Then we get an angry Gallop. The chorus is lyrically repetitive, but Bruce sings it in different ways and delivers it so well. Good solos with Nicko bringing it on drums. This is an epic that gets its job done in less than 6 minutes!
Hm. Your way of thinking is kind of a sacrilege, but I guess that's why I like it and find it really interesting. I have a Beatles songbook (with analyses instead of notes or lyrics) where, in the introduction, the writer says how he's not anti but a great fan, but that it's necessary staying critical instead of adulating to keep the experience and musical qualities fresh. You seem to walk the same path. I must admit, in some deep corners of my mind, I too thought of Bruce maybe sounding a little bit bored. I guess I just didn't bother, as I'm acostumed, sadly... Well, I still rate the song above average nonetheless.
The author of that Beatles book is right, except I do both. Praise when they deserve it (which is often with Maiden) and criticize when they fall short or just write music that's flat out repetitive. I hold them to a high standard because they've shown themselves capable of true greatness on many occasions.
Blood Brothers: And now Blood Brothers, written solely by Harris, the first on this record, and written in tribute to Steve’s father. The Song would later be dedicated to Ronnie James Dio in concert. We start with a dramatic sounding opening driven by Steve’s bass and keys with what sounds like a string section. Nice guitar to go along with it, and Nicko provides a strong rhythm as always. Bruce comes in at :35 and is in pretty strong voice. I will criticize the repetition in the chorus, we does become fairly fairly tedious. I will give credit to Dave at 3:11 and Janick at 5:43 for very strong solos, but overall the song feels somewhat lacking and also overblown. This is defintely my least favorite song so far and weakens the momentum established by the first three songs.
Blood Brothers – Fantastic and triumphant sounding intro with beautiful bass and guitar interplay. Is that orchestration I hear? Whatever the case, it works well. Very strong and catchy melodies throughout the song in both the instrumentation and vocals. The production really shines on this song as well. I love the imaging of the instruments. Very dramatic and powerful track, particular the guitar solo near the end. I didn’t properly appreciate this song until seeing it live on the Final Frontier tour in 2010. I think finding out what this song was really about also gave it a boost. (I had falsely assumed this was a war song) This could be Iron Maiden’s most emotionally powerful song…EVER. 4.5 stars out of 5
I love Maiden to death, but I never liked the song itself right from the beginning. ...so you have my support. With such a great list of classics that never get played, that one would be an automatic pull from the set list for me. As with many on here, I wish they would do a Pearl Jam and shake up the setlist show to show. Seriously, most the fans going to see Maiden aren’t newbies going for the hits only. Why not dig deep for us die hards?
Blood Brothers I like the Celtic vibe on here. The syncopation of the instruments is a cool touch and both of these aspects add another layer to the band's sound. All of the build to the chorus is great, but then the lack of creativity for the lyrics and melody of the chorus really hurts it. I will say this though, I appreciate that the first and second choruses don't repeat that much and there's another verse in between them. It's a slight songwriting change, but it really helps to break up the choruses. I like that Steve did that. I love the sort of lilting 3/4 feel of the music and how it keeps this throughout. Some days I could say that the vocal melody is blocky, but it really works for this song especially the way the rhythm is. Bruce's voice is straining a bit in the bridge, but it's not that bad. I really like the section after the 3rd chorus, Nicko is doing some great stuff and the guitars open up even more than we've seen so far in the song. One of them is chugging along with the rhythm and the other two are doing counter melodies. There's been this constant growth and opening up during the course of the song and I really dig that. Each new part adding some other layer. Dave plays a great solo and I love the way it leads into that melody line. There's no harmony here, but for some reason (and I've criticized this in the past) I think it works in not varying it. The slow down section is a nice touch with the keyboards. This section really comes alive when played live. The introduction of the new melody is cool and then having Bruce sing the lyrics after that is great. I love this section of the lyrics, my favorite of the song. This slow/mellow section is just gorgeous, and it leads perfectly into Janick's solo. Remember how we complain about his solos? Damn, this one is perfect, maybe his best one of the catalog. The chorus takes us out, adding another layer with Bruce's background vocals and then the final tag. Ok, what in the hell happened? If you would've asked me last night about my thoughts on this song I would've said "eh, it's ok, kind of repetitive", but now it really opened up to me and I love it. My sticking point was always the lyrics to the chorus, but it works here even if it's not very creative. They aren't repeated endlessly (as on the last song) and more importantly the whole song works together. Nothing feels stitched together, the entire song flows perfectly from one section to the next. Steve wrote a classic here, good job all around. Great song.
I can't stand "Blood Brothers." Musically it's in the Maiden sub-genre I think of as "log rollers," songs that seem to just circle around without going anywhere; two others examples I loathe are "Quest for Fire" and "The Prophecy." As for the title, if they're trying to say something about the band they should have called it "Reluctant Co-Workers Who Can't Find Similarly High-Paying Jobs Anywhere Else."
another good song, not the strongest so far, but not a skip track. i think in essence this is a live song. although it may have deeper themes involved in the lyric, in a live scenario it works as a bond between band and audience, and simple choruses are easier for crowds to sing along with. perhaps my thoughts are this way due to my first hearing of this was the rio dvd?
I love the first three songs on this album, but I really dislike “Blood Brothers.” It plods along for 7+ minutes and goes nowhere. I find the rhythm irritating. I find Bruce’s vocals annoying. When the song slows down around the 4-minute mark it just goes...absolutely nowhere again. The subsequent solos do nothing for me. I resent the fact that this subpar song somehow became a latterday staple. It’s on three live albums. THREE! Of all the Maiden songs that could become a regular in concert, why this one?! Ugh. NEXT!
Before today I completely agreed with both of you. I was really sick of hearing it live so often. I have no idea why or how it clicked for me this morning, it just did. I've listened to this song since the day it came out and I never gave a crap for it. It's weird how these things sometimes happen.
Blood Brothers: Coming right after the title track, I always get a sense of fatigue when I hear the first sounds of Blood Brothers... It's not bad by any way, but too me, it's the first track that featurs that Über-bombastic direction Iron Maiden like to exercise since their reunion. It's the verses I like best in the song, the way the vocals float free atop the staccatic rhythm is beautiful. But apart from that, I find it quite repetitive. Of course, it's all nicely worked out, but I feel some serious overlengths here and there. And finally, I really would have preferred an uptempo-song here. The song was/is my first indication of Maiden getting old. I WANT METAL!!
Yeah, this song is the true introduction of Modern Maiden Template #3 or whatever. They’ll come back to this well often.
Blood Brothers Good song but not great. I can understand why Maiden chooses to do it live as it can be a good sing-a-long but the song is overrated. (at least by the band) Second verse is actually quite strong. I remember first hearing the song on my first listen to the CD and being a little let down. Again, its not bad but I need a little more from my Maiden ballads. I'm having trouble reviewing this song. I like it but I also don't like it. Why, I don't know. Definitely a song that works better live. With all that said, Janick's solo at 5:45 is amazing and makes the song less likely to be skipped. 2/5
"Blood Brothers", this is yet another excellent song and it's even a bit epic length. There's some real gloomy and melancholic mood in the melodies but it luckily gets some positive bursts going there in the feelings as listen to it. This is very powerful song, emotionally and it's among the most powerful songs Steve has ever written. I really dig the melodies and dynamics here, the orchestration adds another element to the music and it's very beautiful. And this is one of the cases, where they might have even earlier tried some orchestrations, but on this it's perfectly executed and added to the song. I really dig the long instrumental-sections and solos, I could listen to them so long. This has been great song in the live-concerts everytime I've heard it and for example, when I saw them 2010 Sonisphere Finland in Pori, it was touching moment as Bruce dedicated it to Ronnie James Dio and I had tears running I couldn't help it. Also it was special show as there was huge storm, downburst. I think 40 injured, 2 critically and other one of them died. It was really long day and we didn't know for sure if Maiden and etc bands would carry on. As you know during summer time, in Scandinavia and Finland, it's very bright late in the evening, so it was kinda good that Maiden's show started few hours late from the original time. Normally you wouldn't get as dark, gloomy atmosphere in any outside venue here during the summer. It was absolutely fantastic show, Bruce praised the audience and Rod Smallwood said it was the best show ever in Europe. It might have been but I think they said the kinds words as the people behaved so nicely, the storm, tragedy of the day and all the delay etc meant that everyone wasn't sure if the festival was going to go as planned. In some other place or country, the audience might have behaved hostile and wreck the whole site. Everything in this song is perfect, all the performances shine and serve the purpose exactly. Great solos and Bruce rules! I love this song and it's going to get another full rank from me, I can do no other to be honest, so here it goes 5/5 and it has deserved it. Iron Maiden - Blood Brothers - live at Sonisphere Pori, Finland 2010 Here's bit about the storm: Forty people injured as powerful thunderstorm batters Finland | Daily Mail Online It was frightening to witness that storm coming out of nowhere, some of the stalls flew with the wind, and I was really close to the place where some people got hit and had severe injuries. And that was one of the moments so far in my life, that I really thought is this it for me? That was nightmare but luckily the storm went away soon and it ended pretty quickly. That was one of the most memorable concerts as the whole day had been full of doubt (as we didnt really know would Maiden cancel etc) and frustfration but luckily Maiden started few hours late in dark, gloomy Pori and atmospherewas awesome as the lights and show were more visible than in summer daylight.
Blood Brothers: I am going to go listen to this song again, but my initial prognosis was as follows: it did not get my attention from when I bought BNW until just recently, despite repeated revisits to BNW. Recently I took my girlfriend to see them live on the BoS tour. She is young, 27, and has no working knowledge of Maiden other than when I played them for her. She was quite blown away by the show, btw. For me, when they played Bloodbrothers I knew it was to be the first of the two song encore, and I was actually contemplating leaving, but I wanted to hear Wasted Years , which I knew was to be the final song. It turned out I loved blood brothers live! Despite that, I just still don’t feel the studio versionwhen I play it. I am going to revisit it one more time with very careful attention and see if that helps.
Brave New World I like one too. Bruce gives the chorus the full beans, and although it is a little repetitive...its not like some of the borefests they have written in the last 10 years. A great song. 5/5 Blood Brothers After 3 gems, this one sits a notch below for me. A good song....but not great. 3/5
Brave New World - Another good one, never been that hot on the chorus though, maybe its the change just before but for me the chorus lacks something. But overall a decent song that keeps up the quality and flow. Blood Brothers - Like this one too, a better chorus but it get repetitive as already mentioned.
Blood Brothers exemplifies the entire album for me. Good ideas but drawn out and repetitive chorus syndrome abounds. I really like about half the tracks but the album as a whole needs some serious editing. They would rectify this with the next album but there are leas good ideas overall.