Wraithchild said:
Okay, the bottom line is that Iron Maiden is not capable of recording a bad album
(unless you replace Bruce with a singer who doesn't quite fit & the rest of the band members become uninspired 
) because everyone in the band is a very talented and gifted musician.
In my opinion, Dance of Death is Maiden's best effort since Seventh Son.
I just don't understand how someone who considers himself/herself to be an Iron Maiden fan could say any of their music sucks. It's not like Iron Maiden haven't stayed true to their metal roots; they have always maintained the same sound. We already have Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, and Powerslave; why would we want more albums that sound exactly like them down to the smallest detail?
Bruce and the band must be getting some kind of flak for evolving musically, or else why would he have recently said in concert "We don't want any fair-weather, greatest hits fans who only own Number of the Beast to listen to one or two songs".
I do think this topic would be much better suited for the IronMaiden.com board since the majority of us here really like Dance of Death. As I said before, on the offical board, there are many very rude, immature comments posted about Iron Maiden and Dance of Death, and with "fans" like them, Maiden certainly doesn't need any enemies.
I'll disagree with that. First of all, the quality of an album is subjective as it is music. Whether it is good or not is in the opinion of the listener. Remember, beauty is in the eye (or, in this case, the ear) of the beholder. Yes, there is a lot of talent within the band, but that's not to say that the band isn't capable of producing a bad album. (As an example, Morbid Angel's most recent CD was crap compared to their other efforts (my opinion and the opinion of many others). Does this mean that I'm just going to stop liking them because of one misstep? If that was the case, I would have stopped listening to Kiss a
LOOOOONG time ago.)
Am I a fan? Yes. Do I pay for the band's albums? You bet your ass! As such, I don't think that it's too much to ask for an album that doesn't sound like a retread of previous efforts (other people have said that several songs on this album sound like previous material in their reviews. Don't make me go look for those quotes, because you know I'm right). Sure, they've stayed true to their Metal roots and they do have a definable sound, but that doesn't mean that the band can't write material that doesn't differ from what they've done before (
Journeyman is a perfect example of stuff that breaks from the Maiden mold and works great as a Maiden tune). I don't want them trying to make
Number of the Beast II or
Powerslave II, either. My problem with the album is that it doesn't break new ground on 73% of the material and that material sounds like it's stuff that's been done better by them.
There's only 2 albums by the band that I don't have (this may change with a little more income coming in two months), but from the material that I've heard from those albums, I'm not in a rush to buy them. Does this make me a "fairweather, greatest hits" fan with only
NOTB in his CD collection? No. It's a misstep, plain and simple. If it were me producing and not Kevin Shirley, I'd sit the band down and tell them that I thought the material was sub-par and to work on new material. When the band comes back to the US in support of Dance of Death and
IF I get the opportunity to meet them, I won't have any reservations in telling them that I think the album sucks. (Remember, it's just an opinion. They're grown men, they can handle it. Hell, people have told Gene Simmons the same thing about his music to his face for years. Has he quit yet? Can we get him to quit? Is it possible to stop him? "No," "no," and "I don't know.")
See my previous review about how I feel about this album. I'm not changing it to meet with someone else's opinion about what makes an Iron Maiden fan. :Smug: That kind of conformist crap went out with school, as far as I'm concerned.
