Fully agree regarding Nicko's inability to make the song really move. Disagree on Hellion/EE -- while the lyrics on EE are superb, there's a quality to March-Wrathchild that scream pure metal power. Not that Hellion doesn't - but the melody of Hellion could be played on a Casio Keyboard, Ides of March would be very difficult to play on a synth with its ripping solos and rough edges.
The Ides Of March/Wrathchild. As mentioned above...ranks alongside Priest's The Hellion/Electric Eye album openers. Brilliant start to a very good follow up, tho for me, not matching their debut. I've never felt it sounded better either. More clarity...but lacking the omph of their debut. My fav Maiden album cover....and I'm on my 3rd T shirt now all these years later. I don't like any of the Bruce takes on any Di'anno songs.
The Ides Of March A good intro for the album, march style (March style?). I don't know what to think about this now after hearing the Samson thing. I'll just cut to Wrathchild As a guitarist I can totally get why they keep playing this. I 've never played it but it sounds like a real fun song to play. The riffing never stops, there's fun guitar stuff even during the vocal parts. Check out Clive too on the drums, much more than keeping a beat, the drums follow the song all the time. There's a cool break after the solo. I like this one a lot. Very anthem-like, and again there's that street vibe. The sound on the first two albums? It would be silly to compare my German Fame 1985 DMM pressing of the debut to my worn-out Yugoslavian pressing of Killers, but what I can hear is that the production on Killers sounds fuller and heavier, closer to the subsequent Maiden albums. This is good for Killers but I wouldn't want the debut to sound that way, I find it perfect the way it is.
Well, to be fair, one could easily play the March melody and solos on a Casio too - at least, I can But your point is taken, in that March has more to it than Hellion. However, Hellion still sounds better to me. Put another way: when I listen to Killers, I start at track 2. When I put on Screaming, I start from the very beginning.
I thought I'd comment a bit on "Ides of March/Wrathchild" a bit on a slow Thanksgiving morning. So "Ides of March" is another song that has iffy songwriting credits for Harris due to the Samson song? Interesting as it has just come out that "Hallowed By Thy Name" has been in the news due to a lawsuit concerning how much Harris lifted from a band named Beckett and their song "Life's Shadow". Apparently, Harris settled with one of the songwriters of that song, but not the other, hence the lawsuit. It makes me wonder how much other stuff Harris has lifted from other acts without giving them a songwriting credit? I only bring this up because in the KISS thread I did there were several instances of the band taking credit for a song that they only either partly wrote or added a verse to a song and wanted a songwriting credit equal to the original writers. Anyway, my point is, songwriting credits and lifting from earlier songs seems to be a fairly common thing in rock. Who knew? Right? To the song itself, it provides a good build up with its moody, ascending lines that become more frantic as the song matures, but, wisely, goes back to the beginning before the blistering riff of "Wrathchild" comes in to provide the contrast that "Ides" is there for. I think the notion of it being like "The Hellion/Electric Eye" is right on, but, in this case, this is Iron Maiden doing something before Judas Priest did. Back in the early 80's, Maiden was kind of (unfairly) seen as Priest Jr. and there was a lot of rivalry between the two bands (who actually toured together). So, maybe, just maybe, Priest took the idea from Maiden to use a moody, build up piece to segue into a high energy rocker as a one/two punch. All that being said, I still think something like "Ides" could have been a good stand alone song in itself instead of relegating to instrumental/opener status. "Wrathchild" has been covered pretty extensively on this thread, so I'm not sure that I can add that much to what's already been said about it so I'll just comment that when this thread started I mentioned it was one of the songs one of my crappy cover bands played when I was a teenager. This was a fun song to play but tough. The bass is all over the place and the song is itself is doing very rapid, on a dime changes in terms of its structure. That being said, the song is fairly "boxy" in terms of the figures that are present for it. That is to say, it runs off some variant of D to E in terms of the riff and works off the notes that are present on the neck. Of course, it goes in different places, but it's still working in a box like figure. What is incredibly difficult about the song is matching Harris's wild bass fills and because the song is pretty quick in tempo; it's challenging. I haven't kept up with all the power metal bands in this day and age so I can only use Harris as an example of in terms of what he does in terms of style and it's pretty damn amazing. His right hand is just incredible in terms of its dexterity. By all accounts, Harris was a very good athlete and wanted to play football before becoming a musician. It certainly shows in his bass playing; he should be mentioned more in discussions regarding truly elite musicians. He’s one of them.
too many lyrical similarities not to acknowledge (at the very least) a nod to Beckett in the Number of the Beast's liner notes. However, I'll side with Steve Harris in saying that the writer of the lyrics deserves compensation, but not the writer of the music. A few similarities in scales/melodies, but not any that strike me to the degree that the lyrics do. However, the rather turgid progression that begins around 4:40 could be any post-Reunion Maiden jam section, some of which I find to be dull.
although I must say that Beckett's take on hard rock sounds closer to "Chamber Music" than perhaps any rock band I've ever heard before.
Murders In the Rue Morgue: And now we come to Track Three, Murders in the Rue Morgue, inspired by an Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, where a man has killed two French girls and is running from the French police, and is so paranoid he keeps running no matter how far. It starts with a little guitar riff that has some cool bass harmonics from Arry, gives me a Jaco vibe, and I love the little licks from Murray in the intro, and then at :55, Clive kicks off the song in a way that I clearly hear how he influenced Benante and other thrash guys, and God, does Di'Anno give this track some real bite, and he totally sells these lyrics. Oh, we must mention the harmonized solos at 2:58, yeah, they found their guy for damn sure. This song is so badass, so vicious and so spot on at the same time, I absolutely adore this song, it's a ****ing brilliant piece!!!!!!
I probably shouldn’t have brought up the “Hallowed” deal right now, but I only did because of the Samson discussion of “Ides”. Sorry my post was so poorly edited, but I usually do that after a re-read but we lost power in our neighborhood as I was writing so I had to go with my saved draft on my iPhone :/.
Wait, isn’t “Murders” about unsolved murders that turn out to be a baboon or something? Or am I thinking about another story?
Killers was my first Maiden album in late 1983. I had never heard them before and this album blew me away. This became one of my go to albums throughout 1984. I was so new to their music that I didn't yet realize that the singer had left the band not long after the album was released. When I heard "Aces High" several months later, Bruce Dickinson's voice took a couple listens to get used to. Ides Of March: What a powerful opener. A gerat way to segue into... Wrathchild: As illustrated by the Youtube videos posted above, Clive Burr's drumming was an essential ingredient to Maiden's sound during is time with the band. Each section features a drum part that fits the music perfectly. On the Metal For Muthas version, Doug Samson sounds like hadn't been playing drums for very long. He keeps steady time but that's about it.
and oh how those individual solos soar after the tandem harmony lines at 2:58, and then a seamless transition to the crunchy rhythm guitar parts (which dont sacrifice an ounce of melody in their crunch, I might add). I don't think I've heard anything as complex as the rhythm guitar progression supporting the guitar solos in any recent Maiden tune -- if I'm missing several tracks that have this (a soaring lead with a rhythmically complex/jagged 2nd rhythm guitar backing it up) in post-reunion Maiden, please alert me to my failures!!
Charlie Benante's Clive Burr influence is wonderful to listen to. This apt comparison called to mind the excellent rhythm guitar playing in Clive-era Maiden and thrash-era Anthrax. Perhaps guitarists are absolutely forced out of their comfort zone (simple rhythm bits that sound good but don't tear the roof off quality wise) by drummers such as Burr and Benante, two men who play with such passion and reckless "about to fall off a cliff" abandon. I love the Somewhere In Time album, but post-Powerslave, something began to be lacking in the rhythm guitar quotient for Maiden, to my ears at least.
fantastic post it was! one of the finest ways to become accustomed to new music is to be turned on to the artists that influenced bands that you love. I'd probably have never heard of Beckett had it not been for this thread, and now I'm blessed with a decent sounding "chamber metal" band in my library!
That is because you are a gentleman and a scholar; I love that album more than any other Maiden album. I can’t wait to see just how devisive that album is with the confines of the thread.
and I'm certainly not one to talk about takin a thread off in dizzying directions with tangents, lol! Rue Morgue? Easily a top-20 Iron Maiden track for me. Who was the primary influence for those soaring guitar leads? Paul Kossof? Allman Brothers? Jimi Hendrix? Clapton? Luther Grosvenor?
SiT is probably my fave Maiden album overall, absolute perfection to these ears - but Killers and Powerslave are always right up there with it!
