I've been listening to the Blaze albums pretty much continuously over the past few weeks after being yelled at my equally Maiden-mad friend for completely dismissing them without ever giving them a fair chance.

..and you know what?. He was absolutely correct. While i still think Blaze is a really (at best) average vocalist, there are some really good songs spread out over the two albums. The problem is.. there just isn't enough good stuff to fill two full albums, and all of the filler makes listening to either album all the way through seem like really hard work.

But.. if you took the best tracks from that period, and made them into a single disc, you end up with a really good - and perhaps even great album.

This would be my complete Blaze-era album:

01: Sign of the Cross
02: Lord of the Flies
03: Man on the edge
04: Look for the truth (This song in particular exposes Blaze's limits as a vocalist for Maiden. He absolutely murders the "Whoooaaaooohhhh ohhhhh" hook in the chorus. Really gorgeous melody and solo on this track, though).
05: Virus
06: Futureal (just for the solo!)
07: Lightning Strikes Twice
08: The Clansman (in my top 10 Maiden tracks of all time)
09: When Two Worlds Collide

There we go. Would anyone else like for them to record a few of these in the studio with Bruce, maybe as future b-sides or whatever, like they did with a few of the Dianno tracks (with mixed results, to be fair)?.

Bruce versions of Sign of the Cross and The Clansman would be especially nice.

They very well could have, I just don't remember. Especially if it was a song I was unfamiliar with. The only reason I remember 'The Clansman' was because of the giant backdrop the band played in front of during the song. It looked like Eddie as William Wallace from Braveheart.

Oh, here it is...

I loved Bruce's rendition of "Clansman" when I saw Maiden on the B.N.W. tour, but I still groaned when they went into "Sign of the Cross." Even Bruce on vox couldn't save that track IMO. You can't polish a turd.

Saw 'em in 2003 and they trotted out The Clansman to my total musical edification....!






ok I'm a sucker and my youngest son is the lead vocalist.... but the rest of the guys are seasoned musicians.....

What do ya think?

Impressive stage set up!!! Band plays pretty good and your son sounds great!!!! The need a dual headling set with The Iron Maidens

I have to agree with your assessment when it comes to comparing The Final Frontier and A Matter of Life.., as much as I like the Final Frontier it does not come close to A Matter IMO

Another shameless plug for INVADER.... performing MOONCHILD.... and I won't post anymore here in this thread.....



[youtube][/youtube]

Iron Maiden have released yet another compilation - this time a 2 disc album covering the 1990 to 2010 period. How many compilations is enough?

I hope it's ok to write in this older threats? In some forums they go crazy for 'ressurecting old stuff' and i was just too late in registering here (should've done it earlier)

Anyway, Iron Maiden was the band that brought me to metal. My parents owned Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind and i always listened to their vinyls and the first time i heard Number of the Beast i was blown away. Before that i mostly listened to Pink Floyd, Toto, Dire Strats, Deep Purple and thought Metal wasn't something for me (i was about 10 when i really discovered Metal) as we kids were always told that it was 'evil'.
I remember a schoolbook that had various articles about dangerous materials. There was an article about video games and how bad they are and another one about the evils of Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden was the focal point of it and they named them "satanists" because of Number of the Beast and "just look at the cover!!"
So i thought "OK, that's music to avoid", then i thought "Wait a minute...if my parents own those albums, how bad can they be?"
So one day i just started the album and was blown away. Great music and it still holds up, though some of the later albums are slightly better.

Funnily enough, i never could get into Killers, i think that album would sound better with Bruce Dickinson, there's something about the sound and production that doesn't mix with Di'Annos voice. Though i really like their debut album. Strange World is a great song.
I've seen Maiden several times live and one thing i hate is that they rarely change their setlist. Always the same stuff and they constantly ignore two of my favourite songs (Flash of the Blade and Wasted Years).

I also like their change in style from the past 10 years going into a more progressive, interesting direction and once they dropped the "repeat the chorus 500 times" thing, they got really good - if only Martin Birch would still produce them.

I think my favourite albums are Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, A Matter of Life and Death and Number of the Beast, i would include the first album as a Top 5 without live albums. They're awesome live and i enjoy Live after Death and Rock in Rio a lot.

You can chime on whenever you want on these threads and comment on whatever album you wish to comment on

[quote="thejokeriv"]

ShadowAngel wrote:

I hope it's ok to write in this older threats? In some forums they go crazy for 'ressurecting old stuff' and i was just too late in registering here (should've done it earlier) I've seen Maiden several times live and one thing i hate is that they rarely change their setlist. Always the same stuff and they constantly ignore two of my favourite songs (Flash of the Blade and Wasted Years).

Just as an FYI - they have never play Flash of The Blade... many fans wish they would! I'd love to hear it live!

Wasted Years was last played in 2008 & 2009.