The Watering Hole

Just bought the new Iron Maiden CD today.

Overall, very good.  My favourite track is the last one "When the wild wind blows" - very catchy but then I realised why, the main theme at the beginning and again at the end of the track has borrowed the phrasing and rhythmn pattern from JS Bachs Bouree....not a direct rip-off by any means, but the influence is there for sure....but even so very enjoyable.

The only other crisitism is that just about every song is in the same key and the whole album really sounds like one long song....although I suppose that's what concept albums do, as of course there is a common story running through the whole album.

If you like Iron Maiden, then you will probably like it...if you don't like them then there's no reason to suspect that you would like this one.

Jon — Aug 22, 2010 The only other crisitism is that just about every song is in the same key and the whole album really sounds like one long song....

Are you sure you didn't buy a Ted Nugent album by mistake?  ;D

Iron Maiden... gonna get you... no matter how far...

Jon — Aug 22, 2010Just bought the new Iron Maiden CD today.

Overall, very good.  My favourite track is the last one "When the wild wind blows" - very catchy but then I realised why, the main theme at the beginning and again at the end of the track has borrowed the phrasing and rhythmn pattern from JS Bachs Bouree....not a direct rip-off by any means, but the influence is there for sure....but even so very enjoyable.

The only other crisitism is that just about every song is in the same key and the whole album really sounds like one long song....although I suppose that's what concept albums do, as of course there is a common story running through the whole album.

If you like Iron Maiden, then you will probably like it...if you don't like them then there's no reason to suspect that you would like this one.

Just bought this one too, as I'm a big Maiden fan.
Overall, it took me a while to warm up to the record. After the first listen I was like, "WTF where they thinking"?
I guess the reason for this is, that most of the songs have so many changing melody and rhythm-patterns in them, that
it's hard to remember a song for what it is (its essence, if you will).
As you said, the whole record can sound like one big song.

After a few rounds of listening, I like a few songs but also don't care for many.
E.g. the 4:30 minute intro on the first song, I could do without. Other than that first song is my favorite as it is very catchy and clearly structured.
I've also come to really like the "man who would be king"-track, after initially don't liking it at all.

The last track (when the wild wind blows), to me, is by far the the worst of the whole album, as it's classic "bad" Harris-songwriting, which means "recycled" melody-lines and heard-to-death chord sequences. It sounds like every other "written by Harris" track in the last 15 years.
It's too predictable, I instantly knew where this song was going, breaks, melody, rhythm patterns etc.
Gone are the times when a song written entirely by Harris was a true masterpiece (like Alexander the great, to tame a land, rime of the ancient mariner etc.)

Anyway, overall it's a good record but nothing you shouldn't miss...