Iron Maiden Guitar Woes

[JayKeeley]

Janick Gers. Why?

 

[XTREME666]

Gers is not a bad guitarist, not aas good as Murray + Smith though. Their last album didn't use the 3 guitars properly but it has a lot of potential they should stick with 3. why chuck Janick out?

 

[maestro_al]

Pre-No Prayer fantastic.

No Prayer for Dying complete disgrace. Fear of the Dark boring. X Factor, heh...heh heh....Virtual XI...HA HA HA...Hoo Hoo

*wipes tears from eyes*

anyhoos, BNW was slightly better because Bruce and Adrian came back. Could have been even better if you could actually hear Adrian.

There is a link here somewhere me thinks.

*puts Chemical Wedding into CD player*

 

[ShaneBarnes1982]

Originally posted by maestro_al
Pre-No Prayer fantastic.

No Prayer for Dying complete disgrace. Fear of the Dark boring. X Factor, heh...heh heh....Virtual XI...HA HA HA...Hoo Hoo

Dang, I loved all those albums. And I see nothing wrong with the 3 guitarist lineup, I think it kicks ass.

 

[Annie]

lol i like oooold maiden.. like somewhere in time.. powerslave.. and all those oldies kewl stuff..
Brave New World is boring...

 

[The Wanderer]

i voted they leave it as is. its fine. but i dont think BNW is the best one yet. i like seventh son best.

 

[JayKeeley]

Originally posted by phyre
Bruce should have stayed solo.

Perhaps. But then Blaze Bailey wouldn't have been asked to leave, and then he wouldn't have gone solo and made Silicon Messiah, which IMO, is much better and darker sounding than BNW.

Funny how things work out. Bruce can still do solo stuff - and if his albums are of the calibre of Chemical Wedding, then that can only be a good thing. Roy Z deserves some credit too.

By the way, I don't think age has anything to do with their demise. I wouldn't think of them as old, but 'mature', and BNW certainly had a more mature sound for Maiden IMO. However, Janick Gers tries to steal all the limelight and should step aside for two better guitarists. Did almost every solo have to be played by Gers (and poorly I might add)?

 

[LucioArgento]

Come on - there is no doubt that Janick Gers is just terrible. Some of the things he plays make me laugh out loud.

In this day and age, where there are so many phenomenal musicians in the metal scene, Janick is pure shit. Does he have to play all the live parts too now? So with Adrian back, Janick still gets to play the intro to 2 minutes to midnight on stage?

If Maiden are obsessed about having a "three guitar sound" then there are plenty of better guitarists out there than Janick.

Now of course if you are 12 years old and No Prayer for the Dying was your first Iron Maiden album then I guess this is what you're used to. Thankfully, most Maiden fans have been listening to them since 1978, and most do agree that Janick is the achilles heel.

 

[DarkWolf_777]

I've been listening since '86 w/ Somewhere in Time. Some good stuff. I agree, after No Prayer, things started going downhill. I think Fear was decent, had some good stuff, hell, even No Prayer had some good songs (not many, mind you). Brave sounded to me more like the Maiden of old ... back to the basics. A helluva lot better than X Factor, and Virtual XI. My gripe with those is Blaze. He sucked. He probably would have been ok if he wasn't trying so hard to sound like Bruce.

 

[DarkWolf_777]

Might have to give him another chance on something non-Maiden related. I just know that the two albums he fronted were IMO the worst Maiden albums. I would have preferred them to be fully instrumental albums, than to have to listen to that voice.

 

[maestro_al]

Originally posted by phyre
Poor solos by Janick don't mean shit if the songwriting itself sucks, and the songs have sucked a lot of the time on the post-Adrian albums, even if Gers had nothing to do with writing the song.

Dude -it's not just the solos, but the playing generally. And if you've seen him live, you'll know what I mean. I guess you have to play guitar to really appreciate the good from the bad. I don't know of any guitar players that aspire to be like Janick!

And o you assume that all the fans of early Maiden have just vanished? The average age at a Maiden concert (somewhere half civilized) is probably around the mid-30's mark. Maiden were around for 7 or 8 solid albums before No Prayer came along.

IMO Bruce Dickinson hit an all time low with his vocals on No Prayer and Fear of the Dark. Everything about those albums spell boredom, but Bruce redeems himself. What else can Janick do except continue to infect a great band?? Shame really.

 

[DarkWolf_777]

Originally posted by maestro_al
IMO Bruce Dickinson hit an all time low with his vocals on No Prayer and Fear of the Dark. Everything about those albums spell boredom, but Bruce redeems himself. What else can Janick do except continue to infect a great band?? Shame really.

No doubt. No Prayer was the worst Dickenson album. Bring your daught ... to the slaughter was good. I can't think of anything else that was good on the album.

 

[maestro_al]

I agree 100%. Thing is, I have so much admiration for a band that were once great that I have to believe they can do it again!

I just think that if Steve Harris allowed Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson to contribute more in the writing, I think the songs would improve. Smith wrote or co-wrote some of the all time greats. Now he's back, they should give him a chance.

I guess the problem is, Janick Gers somehow gets more say in the matter and nobody else gets a look in. I wouldn't miss him therefore if he left.

I don't think Maiden could get back to their Powerslave era, but I definitely think they can do better than anything from No Prayer onwards. BNW was a step in the right direction, so you never know what we'll get in the next one!

 

[LucioArgento]

Originally posted by maestro_al

The average age at a Maiden concert (somewhere half civilized) is probably around the mid-30's mark. Maiden were around for 7 or 8 solid albums before No Prayer came along.

It's a different breed of fans though. For those who were into Iron Maiden throughout the 80's and actually saw them on their World Slavery Tour, they will always fondly remember them from that era.

It's a bit like Metallica - still around, still huge, completely different fan base to those who saw them on the Puppets or Justice tour.

Believe it or not, but some people think Maiden actually got better at No Prayer. I remember when Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son came out - man, they were slaughtered for using synths. Back then, it just wasn't 'metal' to use keyboards and guitar synths. Just listen to the intro to Moonchild!!

No Prayer saw them go back to basics....but the song writing was bad, Smith left, and the production was just terrible.

Maybe Maiden should call it a day?

 

[SlaughterofSoul]

Do you see the shit that Janick does onstage? He looks like a Poison reject.

 

[JayKeeley]

Amazing that Steve Harris wrote tracks like Phantom of the Opera. Very guitar oriented so all the more impressive to be written by a bass player.

Dickinson/Smith combination ->

 

[Phyros]

The Killers line up was their best - bring back Paul D'Ianno!!!!!

-phyros

 

[anvil(old)]

I say replace Gers with Dennis Stratton.

 

[Satan666HellDie]

To those who want Paul and Dennis back i only got one thing to say. Listen to the album "The Original Iron Men/Paul Dianno & Dennis Stratton" from 1995 then you will understand that it might not be such a good idea. uke: uke: uke:

 

[JayKeeley]

Killers is probably one of the better Maiden albums though (when Smith joined up).

Although I like Bruce, I still prefer the original Wrathchild too - I didn't like his version as much on Ed Hunter.