Has anyone got the special edition of Maiden's A Matter of Life & Death, with the bonus DVD? There's a documentary on it about the making of the album. In an interview with Steve Harris, he is asked 'Who is Benjamin Breeg?' To which he replies, 'Ah well that would be telling... we'll, er... we'll have to find out about that.'

I just find that really hilarious. In fact I have done for a good few months now. I just thought it was about time I shared that with you all. You probably won't find it that funny unless you've seen it. Have you seen it?

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is the only really excellent song on the album.

Replace that with The Legacy and that is how I feel about the album. The rest of it's good (apart from These Colours Don't Run which is one of the most horrible songs Maiden have ever written, despite the fact it's quite fun live), but no way near the standards of Maiden. BTATS is actually really good though, probably the best one out of all the others. The Longest Day would also be the best if it were a bit less repetitive with the bloody chorus which really isn't even that good.

Since Bruce's comeback:

1st: Dance of Death
2nd: A Matter of Life and Death
3rd: Brave New World


All of which are better than Fear of the Dark and No Prayer for the Dying.

Brave New World was amazing, I love that album like my mother. But then, along with Seventh Son, it was the album that got me into Maiden, so it'll always be special to me. Dance of Death, although I enjoyed it at first, has grown to be a real disappointment for me. I just find most of the songs pretty weak, with the exception of Paschendale, Rainmaker and Face in the Sand, and the production is horrible. I don't really get any enjoyment from that album any more. Similarly, AMOLAD was amazing at first, but I have also started disliking it more over time unfortunately. It's like they're caught in a limbo, and can't decide whether to fully turn into a progressive metal band or to stay like Iron Maiden, and as a result, the songs have become a bit boring and mostly uninspired with pretty much the same structure and same chords every time, making it anything but progressive. Take 'These Colours Don't Run' for example - the verse, bridge and chorus all have exactly the same chord structure, which is a pattern used in every bloody song ever made. It just sounds like they're being lazy, and it's a shame. But there you go.

At least it wasn't as bad as United Abominations.

But back to my original post. "We'll have to find out abou tthat." Hilarious.

Doesn't sound that hilarious but then I haven't watched it.

On the more interesting topic of this thread though - I thought AMOLAD was total shit the first time I heard it, and I still do.

Thousand Suns the best track? That's totally lame repetitive bullshit. Who wants to hear a track like The Legacy. I think These Colours Dont Run is one of the slightly more entertaining tracks actually, despite the already mentioned point of the laughable chords.

The Pilgrim is more listenable, and Benjamin Breeg is probably one of the most solid moments. The only track I would ever bother listening to now is Different World, simply because it is a tiny bit more energetic and rocky - not that it's a good song in any way.

Everyone hate's prog metal - what are they trying to achieve?

When I met Nicko last year, before the album was out, he said it was the "best one yet" - come off it Nicko, surely you're not even convincing yourself!

Lol. I love prog metal. And that thing is hilarious, but only when you watch it.

But yes, Iron Maiden and prog just don't really go together very well (apart from when I write my songs ). At least not in the way they're trying to do it. I'm glad you don't like the album, I'll now get more angry about it. Different Worlds is shit. I don't like it at all. It's boring and completely unoriginal, I mean compared to Maiden when they are good. There's no creativity there. It's so by-the-numbers, it's got a bit of energy and fun, but any band could've made a song like that. This is Iron Maiden for good's sake.

These Colours Are Rubbish is even worse, as I've already mentioned. I hate it.

Brighter Than a Thousand Boys is something I do enjoy. I enjoy the 7/8 timing, though admittedly they could've done it much, much better. I like the main riff as well. But the middle section where it goes fast is really stupid. I really like the last chorus though. And it is deifnitely quite repetitive, a flaw that nearly every single track suffers from.

The Pilgrim is great, actually. A modern classic sounding Maiden track, if you will. No criticisms really for this one. Again, it's not too original, but it's more creative than Different World. Now imagine if this was the opening track of the album. That's be fantastic.

The Longest Day has amazing moments, especially the middle section which is brilliant. But the bridge and chorus are way too repetitive and annoy me quite a lot.

Out of the Shadows... for fuck's sake. I hate it almost as much as These Colours Don't Run. Absolutely terrible. Rubbish, next?

Benjamin Breeg. Pretty good. A good groove and quite nice, but lacking energy. Not much more to say about it really, it's not that interesting a track.

For the Greater Good of God. Perhaps the most hilarious moment of the album, with a chorus of extreme hilarities, mainly brought about by the multi vocal tracking of the words 'Of God' which make me laugh every time. I do like this song though. It feels very epic and has some good moments. And I really love the bridge. HOWEVER, the verse uses the same chord pattern as most of These Colours Don't Run, and The Wicker Man/Out of the Silent Planet/The Thin Line Between Love & Hate choruses... you know. And that annoyed me immediately. And they're still doing the bloody stupid acoustic intro/outro thing. It's fine once or twice, but not on every damn song for good's sake.

Lord of Light. Hmmm. Quite interesting in places, but also quite boring in others. A bit of good old Maiden fun in the verse, but that chorus is shite. Good middle section again though.

The Legacy. As I said before, I do think that this song is amazing. The acoustic intro for once actually serves the song well and sounds different from their other acoustic intros. It builds up nicely, and the verse is great, and the bouncy bit at the end is amazing with greeat melodies and harmonies and all sorts. And it is quite progressive, which I personally love. Great stuff.

But overall, a bloody disappointment. Pull your socks up boys!

James wrote:Everyone hate's prog metal

I don't.

I've got the special edition DVD but I've never watched it because I couldn't be arsed. I thought the album was good though. Benjamin Breeg seems heavy as fuck compared to alot of their other songs.
I never end up watching DVD's for some reason. I got the new Anthrax live DVD for my birthday in March. Still not watched it yet, even though I love Anthrax!

James wrote:Doesn't sound that hilarious but then I haven't watched it.

When Jon says hilarious he doesn't mean funny. He means like, 'and then I found out my mother was dead. Hilarious!' It kind of means tragic but in a light-hearted way. Disgraceful to the point of amusement.

Oh and everything is hilarious. Which is nice.

STD_Caps wrote:

James wrote:Doesn't sound that hilarious but then I haven't watched it.

When Jon says hilarious he doesn't mean funny. He means like, 'and then I found out my mother was dead. Hilarious!' It kind of means tragic but in a light-hearted way. Disgraceful to the point of amusement.

Oh and everything is hilarious. Which is nice.