Metal Reviews

AMOLAD was one of the albums of the year for me, so if they keep going on in that style it would be great. At their age, I didn't think they could come up with something that awesome TBH, so now I have total faith that whatever style Maiden want to continue with, the album will be killer.

AMEN

IMO, "Dance Of Death" is as good as any of those... Although I do think the tracklist is less consistent. You have the already mentioned catchy "Rainmaker", the epic with amazing storytelling to end all epics; "Dance Of Death", the dark war-lyrical journey in "Paschendale", the heavy "Montsegur" and the beautiful "Journeyman"... This album slays, although I do see the reason for people disliking it. Guitars are a bit "darker", Bruce's vocals a bit less clean, and you also have those sub-par songs as "Gates Of Tomorrow" and "Wildest Dreams"

It would be interesting to have a short album of around 45 mins with prog elements and of course shorter songs of about 4-5 mins. And as someone else mentioned in this thread, I just hope they stop having a chorus repeated a zillion times in a song.

Ho yeah, that is annoying!

Personally, I've found the last three Maiden albums to be my favorites. Now that's saying something because I've been listening to these guys since 1982. I hope that they continue doing what they've been doing since Bruce and Adrian returned. My only wish is that they master the next CD because AMOLAD sounds like shite due to Steve's decision to not master it.

AMOLAD does not sound shit. You can hear all the instruments clearly.

I realize that plenty of fans welcome and enjoy what Steve decided to do in regards to the production on AMOLAD. I'm happy that you like it. I, personally, really dislike how the album sounds without it being properly mastered. The levels are just too low.

Am I the only one who would love for them to go back to music like on Iron Maiden and Killers?
Too bad Bruce's voice is less fitting for that style but still, I would like to see it happen.

I think it's already incredible how their last album turned out because of their age, although personally I prefer the sounds of NOTB or SSOASS than their earlier stuff, which is also awesome. TBH, I really like the new direction so I think they should make a few more albums in this new progressive style.

I love speed and intensity in metal so I'm all for that. But it should also have some sort of epic piece much like Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Hallowed Be Thy Name.

Going by rotation frequency in the last in the last couple of years the Maiden albums with the highest are Seventh Son and Dance of Death. Both tend not to drag and have a lot of creative vocal and guitar melodies. Third is probably Piece of Mind because of the strength of the secondary songs .. so how about a tight, interesting, powerful CD with a couple of great songs and no filler? Don't have 14 songs for the sake of 14 songs. Pare it down.

That, and not every single bloody song needs to have an acoustic intro and outro. AMOLaD has some great individual songs, but it's as hard to listen to straight through as a Dragonforce album.

I think that if all those acoustic passages continue to be as diverse and interesting, they should just have them on the next one too. Yes on some albums I also think it's easier to just pick out single tracks, but on this album the flow feels so natural in the tracklist so I don't mind one bit cranking the whole shit when I put the CD on.

Come on dude that's harsh. And anyway I liked all the acoustic parts in AMOLAD.

By the way, is there anyone here hoping for a return to the SIT or SSOASS sound?

Not going to happen.

K, I was definitely way too harsh. And the problem isn't with any of the acoustic parts themselves. It was just the same thing over and over again and felt like lazy songwriting; even if there's nothing wrong with the music, not all those songs needed those acoustic intros and outros. Of course, this is all just opinion, but besides Virtual XI, which is just an awful album, and maybe Fear of the Dark due to the fact that some of its songs are horrible, AMoLaD is the Maiden album I least listen to straight through, though I will listen to individual songs quite often.

I want these guys to go all post-rocky on us. That'd be cool.

I have to agree with all the points raised here:

#1) The chorus repeating has become painful. "No More Lies" and "For The Greater Good Of God" would both be monumentally better without hearing the chorus repeated so much.

#2) The long intros are a huge source of negative criticism for me. I also agree that they're tolerable once or twice on an album but when 85% of the songs on the CD start slowly/acoustically it does become dreadful to listen to.