the Blaze years have definitely grown on me, but I can't fathom anyone trashing the Powerslave years - that album is as close to a universally loved Maiden album as just about anything. one of the bigger mysteries for Maiden fans is why Loneliness was dropped from the setlist so soon, and why Harris (or other band members) shy away from playing Somewhere In Time-era tunesto such as great extent.
Praying Mantis - A Cry for the New World (Dennis Stratton) Rise Up Again - garden variety power metal, but I enjoyed it. Reminded me of Dragonforce. A Cry for the New World - nice, catchy power metal. A Moment in Life - I like the Flamenco style guitar, and the orchestral background. Nice melody. Letting Go - the intro reminds me of Halloween. I really like the vocals, and this song is crazy melodic. A pretty sweet guitar solo. It's over 7 minutes, but doesn't feel like it. One Chance - well played and sung, but cheesy, generic stuff. Dangerous - boring song with no hooks. Pass. Fight to Be Free - I like how they quickly kick in with the dramatic guitar. Some really good guitar work, with a little Egyptian feel. Just good fist-pumping power metal. Open Your Heart - a poor man's Dokken. Not bad but forgettable. Dream On - nice power ballad. I like the chorus, and the solo accents the song nicely. Thumbs up. Journeyman - we start off with a Maiden-style gallop, with some tasty guitar work. The song is pretty mundane until around the 4 minute mark. The song takes a turn with some cool soloing - it made me appreciate The chorus more. The Final Eclipse - good guitar sound, and a nice moody way to end the album. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this.
Satalite 15 At odds with most...a pointless intro..boring. 1/5 El Dorado Love the intro, to this and to be honest, this track gave me false hope for the album...as it was released prior as a single, if memory serves. A very good song. 4/5
Satellite 15: I am also at odds with most. ...or at evens with Yam Graham! I seldom listen to albums straight through. Yes, when they first are released, I listen to them repeatedly as a stand alone release, but then once i become very familiar witht it as a work on its own, I add the songs I like into a playlist that I constantly curate for my own enjoyment. This goes for most bands, not just Maiden. So while I applaud them for trying something new with this intro, and while I think it mostly works as an intro to The Final Frontier (the song and the album), once I added these songs to my playlist, with more than 50 songs on my reunion era playlist alone, I don’t want to spend 4 minutes of my precious time listening to programmed drumming and space sounds when I can be rocking out to any one of 50 other songs. So while I give it a thumbs up as an effort, I just don’t listen it often. Now by contrast..... The Final Frontier: Rocks! Yes, I am a blasphemer, I edit out the space gurgling and go straight to the riff that introduces the song TFF. Sorry, I know ‘Arry would ‘ave me ‘ead and all but I got to get to the rock. ...and rock this song does. It’s basic and by the numbers maiden, but it is a short (for Maiden), to the point, blast of old school riffs and solos with no silly elongated, tacked on, slow beginning or end (assuming my edit out of the 4 minutes of silly elongated, tacked on, slow beginning that is Satellite 15).
While waiting for the next song to be discussed and reviewed, here's couple short-videos posted to Iron Maiden's official youtube-channel: Bruce climbing:
El Dorado: Didn’t like this one at all at first. In fact, I think I disliked it so much that it soured me on TFF as a whole. It took me a few years to go back and rediscover the album and this song. Once I did though, I liked both the song and the album a lot. I find this a little different for Maiden as a single, it seemed long and sort of not their typical style, what with the crashing beginning (I can’t think of another song they start like this) and the slightly grittier style (read: less smooth and less perfect playing than usual). ...but once I focused on the words and the anology they were making with the lyrics, I grew to love it and, around the same time, to embrace the album, also very different to their other releases, as a whole. I like the riff, enjoy bruce’s vocal performance and get excited when it comes on, so I guess that is surely the mark of a great song and thus I can only give the SammyJoe style 5 of 5 which it clearly deserves!
Mother Of Mercy: And now Track Three, written by Adrian and Steve and it revisits similar lyrical territory as "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", delivering the point of view of a soldier praying for the atrocities surrounding him to end. The song starts with a dark-colored riff that sets a mournful tone for the track, with Bruce coming in at :19, delivering a soft but firm delivery, conveying a soldier who must do what he dreads doing, and holding out on a faint hope that this can all end and that he can be forgiven for what he's done. The track gradually builds up, and Bruce rises to with the melody, belting out a borderline operatic tenor on this song, and Adrian unleashes a stellar solo at 2:54, his best so far. I could do without the repetitive chorus near the end but a good song is a good song, and this is a good song, best so far.
Mother of Mercy This one has a very unique sound to it. Guitar wise it could only fit on this album. The Final Frontier overall has a different sound to it than the other albums and I like that. Here I think I prefer the verse melody over the chorus. Really good solo from Adrian. Lyrics are indeed very reminiscent of Afraid to Shoot Strangers and that is a subject Maiden usually does good with. Solid 3/5
Mother of Mercy - This song is a nice motif of the album for me. It has some creative elements but also a bit of No Prayer for the Dying type “going through the motions”. In short: it’s inconsistent. Some of the lyrics are thought provoking, others generic. I really like the ending but overall, this one falls a bit flat for me. 2.5 stars out of 5.
El Dorado: Didn’t like this one at all at first. In fact, I think I disliked it so much that it soured me on TFF as a whole. It took me a few years to go back and rediscover the album and this song. Once I did though, I liked both a lot. I find this a little different for Maiden as a single, it seemed long and sort of not their style, what with crashing beginning (I can’t think of another song they start like this) and slightly grittier (read: less smooth and perfect playing than usual). ...but once I focused on the words and the anology they were making with lyrics, I grew to love it and, around the same time, to embrace the album, also very different to their other releases, as a whole. I like the riff, enjoy bruce’s vocal performance and get excited when it comes on, so I guess that is surely the mark of a great singer!
Mother of Mercy Good to hear Bruce singing more softly. A good melody. The different parts even fit together. Best so far by far.
Mother Of Mercy Hearing this reminds me of how spontaneous the sessions for this albums are described. Because to me, this song could have been much better if more care was taken. The instrumental segments (including the solo) sound fine and segue fine from one into the other, all is well done here. What really annoys me is the sheer amount of lyrics that's crammed in here. Strangely, what looks like a classic 'Arry-case, hass indeed been flawed by H this time... The choice of words is good, but it's just all too much. In the chorus, it even sounds if Dickinson's part been edited, and it wouldn't surprise me if it is the case - there's no to almost no pause to take a breath! With all that hectic singing of important words the song tends to over-saturate and therefore feel longer than it is. It's a bit sad, because as I said before, the song definitively has strong elements, and Bruce sings really beautiful in the soft parts. He even convinces within that cliché "I'm a soldier of war!"-part at 1.23. Kind of an okay/not okay toss-up of a song.
"Mother Of Mercy", this perhaps bears little feeling of AMOLAD for me, not only as it's about song about soldier in war but somehow maybe this was something that was left out from that album. Maybe it was some ideas flown around those times and was already in some sort of work in progress and so it was completed for this album. I think this was among the few songs on this album (other was "Isle Of Avalon" for sure), that really clicked with me almost instantly as I heard the album for the first time when it was released. Now thinking maybe this lacks that "it" to finally break and click with, so this is more like song that divides opinions. But yes, AMOLAD is one of the albums that I have really liked and loved, so anything resembling those themes and situations of that album feels like instant bonus for me. This ain't quite that dark feeling song but would suit those other war songs anyways, this has somewhat same feeling as "Paschendale" or "The Longest Day" had. Great to hear some softer and more calm interpretation from Bruce here. The chorus and lyrics are many, so it must have been difficult session to do for him. I think this has good build up and nice progressive feeling and so I think I never get tired during this song, as it really never repeats the same stuff over. I really dig the guitars during the choruses, it's that haunting feeling tone, painting that merciless vision of the battlefield and it's horrors screaming around. All in all, I feel the music is done very great here, it's really good flow going and feels so natural, the vocals go nicely with the music and as the song ends I think I just have listen to it couple more times. I know I haven't much at all commented on the whole album, of how I feel about "The Final Frontier", but it has really opened to me in the later years and so I think this is as awhole very strong album. I certainly wouldn't have said straight away in 2010, but now I feel that there's not single weak-song on the album. So, I need to give this song the rank it deserves: 4½/5 This is solid song and I dig it, but as it could feature that final "it" and next gear..I have to take ½ point away.
Mother of Mercy (Smith, Harris) I like the "ringing" feel in the intro of the guitar melody line combined with Steve's bass chords. The vocal melody in the verses is kind of bouncy and it's obvious it's one of Steve's. That part is only OK for me. The song really picks up once we get to Bruce's "I'm a soldier of warrrr" and the heavy guitar riff. I really love the guitar riff that comes on top of the heavy part. Very cool riff. The song then settles in for a familiar mid-tempo gallop. This song is so wordy! Bruce can barely get the words out...listen to him on the line right before the first chorus: "the making of a man is fire, not giving in to our desires, within the truth that lies, within the only thing..." What a mouthfull! Steve still needs an editor. Finally we get to the chorus and I really like the descending chord sequence that Adrian wrote. Bruce sounds pretty bad here, to be honest. Sounds like he's really struggling. Then we come around to the bridge and he sounds good. Who knows. Adrian takes the solo and it's a good one, complete with a reprise of the cool riff from earlier. After that cool part we're back to a verse with another set of too many words and then Bruce struggling in another chorus. I don't want to point out the time, because you can never un-hear it, but in one of the choruses there's a bad splice and it's obvious that it's 2 different takes of the vocal. Bugs me every time. After the ending choruses I really like the decision to keep the same music, but there's another verse sung. That's a really cool songwriting choice and not something we see very often from Steve. I love that as an ending. Overall, ehhh...there's some good parts, mostly Adrian's contributions to this song. I'm ok with the feel of it, but the wordiness and Bruce's straining (and the bad edit) make it a song I'd rather not listen to. If I'm listening to this album straight through I don't skip it, but it's honestly just a "meh" track. Nowhere near as good as the first two songs.
El Dorado Great start, then that bass, superb from Arry, i know its not much but any low bass grumble is to be encouraged. This shapes up well from the start to be a Maiden classic, it doesnt quite get there, the pre-chorus is okay but the chorus feels like its been shipped in from a different song, doesnt quite fit for me - vocal is too high. Good tune, 3/5 but lacks something. Mother of Mercy Slow start, another that doesnt quite reach its potential for me, the chorus is okay. Always thought this album started slowly and peaked later on. 2.5/5
It took me a few listens to get into this album. I'm not really sure why, the songs are fine, i just didn't get captivated by it. Brave new world, matter of life and especially book of souls got me immediately. This one kind of sat there saying what do you reckon, and i didn't have a reply. I like the intro well enough, it does its job, and i always think of it and el dorado as one song. Mother of mercy works well, doesnt blow my mind, but i dont skip it. A grower of an album for me.
"Mother of Mercy," definitely the second-best song on the album. Dickinson sounds relaxed and engaged, the song builds nicely from verses to pre-chorus and the chorus pays off with sturm und drang. Funny that people complain about the number of words but love Somewhere in Time, most of which's songs sound like someone is trying to win a phone book speed-reciting contest.
Ah, so it IS Steve's work, thank you! No H to blame... It's not that I totally disgust editing vocals or whatsoever, I take it as a common practice. But Iron Maiden, being foremost a live band, should really avoid such things. Mother Of Mercy won't get a live presentation, that's quite sure I guess. Concerning SIT you're right, but at least it sounds makeable somehow, not obviously born to die in the live sector.
Happy 13th Anniversary to the "The Essential Iron Maiden" compilation-album which was released on july 5th, 2005. Wait..What, weird cover as there's no Eddie at all? I couldn't find official release-info or such, some websites claim the date to either 4th, 5th or 12th, but I went with what's supposed to be the real one. So, based on the more general date 5, I went with it here. Anyways this 2cd-compilation was only released in the US (+Canada) and contains songs from the whole catalogue (from the self-titled debut to the then most recent studio-album "Dance Of Death") and some selections from the live-albums aswell. "The Essential Iron Maiden" was only released as to coincide with their 2005 tour (first history-tour consisting of material from the first 4 albums) but I still have my copy of this set in my Maiden-collection. Not necessarily essential compilation to own, maybe it somehow found some new fans I suppose? but if you're like me, like to collect some Maiden-related stuff and released then this is worthy addition. I might post couple of these important dates, anniversaries or other important events but Im not gonna keep checking these daily. Once in a while if I remember some important one, I will post here it here if needed.
Mother of Mercy: As with the rest of this album, it didn’t click for me at first. I actually can’t even recall this song from when I first got and listened to TFF. I really didn’t give this album a fair shot the first time around. I am sure I was probably not in a metal - listening phase at that time. I may have been off on one of my country music kicks. I suspect I downloaded it immediately just because it was new Maiden, played it once or twice while I was running(admittedly not the best time to listen to new, challenging music),didn’t hear what I wanted and then wrote it off. When I went back a few years later and relistened to, I was immediately hooked. I loved the sound, specifically the guitars, which seemed clearer and more distinct then on AMOLAD. Bruce was in great form and it sounded like he was right in your face. I am surprised that MoM didn’t click for me immediately, seeing as it sounds a bit like Children if the Damned, which I love. I like the way the opening riff is played by an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar. ...and that the production is sufficient to allow the listener to hear it. I like Bruce’s impassioned vocals, I like when the feeling comes through in his singing. Adrian delivers the solo you want, he certainly doesn’t let the side down. The build up and faster harder riffing delivers as well, as does Nikko’s drumming in support. I am actually most mystified of late as we go through the reunion era material as to how infrequently ‘Arry’s bass work jumps out at me. When I go back and play older maiden, it stands out that he always played a bass solo in key spots, always played something exciting that counterpointed or enhanced the guitar work. On the reunion era stuff, he is mostly noticeable for his absence. Sure, he plays rock solid bass, but the flash is gone. I get it, he is maybe playing more in service of the song, but isn’t the flash exactly why we love maiden? Because H and Dave continuously deliver riffs, harmonies and solos that blow your socks off? Because Bruce’s operatic vocals wail and transcend? Because Nicko pounds that massive drum kit for all it’s worth? Isn’t that what we love. I want Harris to be over the top too! Always! There is no room for restraint in Maiden, let it rip!!!! As the songs have gotten longer and “proggier”, you’d think there would be more room, not less, for Harris to show off. ...but otherwise, great song!!!
