You know, I'm listening to this more, and I have to agree, this is a grower for sure, like this album as a whole.
Wow, I had all but forgotten about Trust. Isn’t that the band Nicko came from? I remember I have one album of theirs. I have Savage which was the English version of Marche Ou Crève. Wasn’t Clive in the band, too? Nicko also played with Pat Travers as I recall.
Yes he came from Trust, and Anthrax covered Antisocial by them. I know Samson had Clive as well as Bruce, albeit at different points And I will talk about both bands when we cover solo careers and side projects. EDIT: Yes, Clive was in Trust at one point.
Yes, I think they met during that tour. Because Trust were a French band, I spent at least 10 years assuming Nicko was French, too. So it came as quite a shock the 1st time I heard him speak
ANOTHER LIFE Is this the one that goes "As I lay here lying on my bed, sweet voices coming to my head"? If so, yes, this is a lesser track. One of two or three tracks on Killers that are quite same-y. The Di'Anno equivalent of "Quest For Fire." Actually, I kind of like the instrumental section in the middle--at the time I first heard it in '87, I probably thought the sliding chords sounded kind of like Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me." Now I recognize it as more of a Sex Pistols/New York Dolls thing--no matter what Steve Harris says about punk.
OP - Just want to say thanks for an amazing thread. I know I won't be following it day to day (I can never keep up with giant threads...) but one day when I get around to it it'll be some good reading. I might pop in here and there but just wanted to thank you and everyone for making another legendary thread. Keep on, Up the Irons!
Genghis Khan: And now we come to the instrumental of the album, named after the warrior who lead the Mongolian Empire. While Steve acknowledges this track could've had a vocal melody, he found it too good an instrumental, so an instrumental it remained. It begins with the Twin Terrors attacking their guitars with a live doing some killer rolls, with the bass coming at :09, and this track really captures that sense of war, battle, and Clive's sort of matching drums and erratic, anxiety-ridden fills do such a great job of conveying the song's story, and feeling. To me, this track is what an instrumental should be, it's exciting, it's not self-indulgent, gets it's point across, it tells a story without words, I can see why ol Arry left this alone, and I love the guitar harmonies at 2:11, and the little riff that backs it, makes rather tasteful use of the gallop. Remember when I mentioned my favorite Iron Maiden instrumental? Well here it is, I love Genghis Khan, one of the highlights of this album, I give it winning a world war on a scale of one to ten, awesome, awesome track.
Another Life Very weak lyrically, as there are only 4 verses repeated 3 times in the song. The guitar work and drums are rocking, though. 5 Cranks on the 1-5 Crankable Scale. Ghengis Khan Not as strong an instrumental as Transylvania, but still good and an enjoyable listen. I give this one 3.5 Cranks on the Crankability Scale.
Genghis Khan is an impressive instrumental with a lot going on in terms of its movements. As noted, it's about the great Mongol leader who's empire spanned further than any leader before him. I'm not sure if either Alexander or the Roman Empire exceeded his conquered territory or not. I'm not a history professor (my dad is), so I get a pass . (Edit: neither Alexander or the Roman Empire did. Genghis Khan had the 2nd largest empire in history behind the British; so there you go). The fast section is really notable in terms of what Clive Burr is doing with his bass drums. He's sticking it in terms of following what Harris is doing on the bass. Of course at 1:46 comes the relief if you're trying to play along with this tune (as I used to do in my bedroom as a young bass player) as it slows down for the soaring twin harmonies of Murray and Smith. The thing I like the most about the instrumental is that it's pretty short and doesn't wear out its welcome. No section is excessively repeated and it's a tight, economical piece. If I remember correctly the fast riff runs off a G to E to F run then down to A to B to C to E figure. I don't have my guitar in front of me, but I think that's it. I think it was wise to keep this one as an instrumental. Given the often frenetic nature of many Iron Maiden songs there's no reason this couldn't have had vocals to it, but it probably works better without them. Funny, Maiden for all their acumen as musicians haven't really done many true instrumentals, but, if you think about it, many of their longer pieces are instrumentals in the middle sections (often for a long periods of time) so you always get some of that with them.
Genghis Kahn Am I crazy, or could this be fashioned into a really cool jazz song? Maybe it's just me. As @Musicman1998 noted, it really captures the sense of battle. We start off with the march, go into the chaotic frenzy of fighting, then finish with the Mongols finishing off a defeated army. Anyways, that's how I read it. Oh, and Clive kills it, as usual.
Genghis Kahn: Fantastic track here in which Clive Burr shines throughout. A stronger instrumental than Transylvania imo and definitely a highlight of the album. A jazzy vibe indeed.
Another Life: Loved it when I was a kid. Listening to it now for the first time in almost 30 years, it just sits there. Genghis Khan : One of my favorite tracks from this album. The individual sections fit together seamlessly.
I think it's very great that you actually brought this up, as I was listening to the song and reading the lyrics at the same time (really concentrating on it), I also got some little hint of Nick Cave's The Mercy Seat. I like the way these things are told and some single line might change it around. It must be that the person in the song is some schizophrenic freak, the ending where doctor has told that "he had done it before" was clue but also I get the impression that he also liked to be around when people were alarmed or around when the crime was noticed. Isn't it very usual that if there is some crime like arson, the person who did it most likely has been there on the crime scene among other people, just staring at his little accomplishment. I like these little things in the lyrics..
GENGHIS KHAN Great instrumental. I like it better than "Transylvania" but not as much as the underrated "Losfer Words." I like it how towards the middle it sounds like things are about to fall apart, then they suddenly shift into the patented Iron Maiden Triplet Gallop. I also like it better than Ace Frehley's 2009 instrumental with the same name.
These early Maiden instrumentals may have been an important influence on thrash metal. The fast part on Genghis Khan and the slow riff after that are not unlike something Slayer would do. The song Crionics from the first Slayer album from 1983 has Maiden written all over it. I remember reading that Maiden were not particularly flattered with thrash bands citing them as a major influence, but that's the way it goes.
That's possible aswell. We don't know the truth here, maybe the person has different personalities..he might know what some other did or most like won't know at all, or if he's innocent then the doctor plays tricks on him. Pretty creepy and scary song, now as we're discussing the lyrics here.
"Another Life", this starts with very cool drumming provided by Clive. After that the whole band starts and we go on. Did Harris have sort of writers block or why does it just reply the same verses around? This is ok feeling and we get to hear some excellent harmonies from Dave and Adrian, but also have to mention that Harris bass sounds the usual, the rattling frantic attack, which is always great thing. Unfornately, I think I have always like felt that eventhough this song has it's own charm, it kinda fells between other greater songs on the album. It's part of the album and I listen to every time as all the other songs. Not bad but not great aswell. Im pretty ashamed to say this as it's my precious Maiden we're talking here about..this is and feels like average song. Next!
"Genghis Khan", this is of the highlights and finest moments on the album. And I like that little jazzy-feeling present in Clive's playing, so this could be really great as true jazz-version @Standoffish like you said. I think this logical continuation from the debut-albums epic (POTO) and instrumental-song (Transylvania) and is fine presentation of the group's chemistry now that Adrian joined the ranks. Each performance from the guys is what the song needed, I really like the whole flow and feeling of the song, it just works great. The part around 2 minutes and on is my favorite part of the song here. This song sort of works as little teaser of what's it truly holding in the future for Iron Maiden, examplary musicianship, ambitious songs with carefully crafted parts...Great song and among the very best here on offer.
