Iron Maiden - Dance of Death

Not everything I write on this blog is insightful. Often, I write entire posts where all I do is state the obvious. Like “Stairway to Heaven” is the greatest classic rock song ever; or “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Defenders of the Faith” are Judas Priest’s best albums; or Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” is highly influential and important. I am hardly performing any sort of great service writing such essays, but this is just a hobby and writing exercise for me, so I write about what I like, and sometimes my opinion does not differ very far from the general consensus. Sometimes I posses no additional information outside of the sphere of general knowledge.

Not today.

Today I have an opinion I wish to express that I am confident is in the extreme minority. I hold that, Iron Maiden’s “Dance of Death” is one of Maiden’s best albums.

Now I am not insane; I acknowledge the reality that “Number of the Beast” is by far Iron Maiden’s best album. Furthermore, I acknowledge that “Powerslave” is often considered an appropriate nomination for best Maiden album. I hold both of these albums in higher regard than “Dance of Death,” and I firmly stand in the “Number of Beast” camp regarding the debate for greatest Maiden album. I also really love “Somewhere in Time,” that is a favorite of mine, and I really should get around and picking up a copy of “Piece of Mind” one of these days, but honestly, reflecting on my own weird subjective tastes, and now that I am putting myself to the test to decide my own feelings on the matter, I think I rank “Dance of Death” third, after “Number of the Beast” and “Powerslave.”

No one is going to agree with me on this.

“Dance of Death” was released in 2003 and is the album that follows “Brave New World.” Thus, this is the second album in the second era of Iron Maiden being fronted by Bruce Dickinson.

In the previous Music In Review, I wrote at length about the power, importance, and longevity of Bruce Dickinson’s singing voice, and his involvement in Iron Maiden. But as I now discuss my love for “Dance of Death” I would like focus on the guitars of Iron Maiden. While Bruce is awesome on this album, it is the four string instruments and what they do that makes me love “Dance of Death” so much.

As discussed previously, Dickinson’s return to Iron Maiden was a big deal. However, I am more charmed by the story of the return of guitarist Adrian Smith.

Smith had been troubled by his lack of involvement in the creative process in Iron Maiden, so he started to look outside of the band to explore his imagination. In 1990 Smith released the Adrian Smith And Project (ASAP) album “Silver and Gold.” It did badly. That same year Smith would decide to leave Iron Maiden, where he was replaced by Janick Gers.

So the years go by, Janick kicks some butt and Smith is struggling. Smith and Dickinson were always good friends, so when one decided to go so did the other, and that put Steve Harris, the leader of Iron Maiden, with a interesting decision to make. Does he deny the return of Smith because they no long need him now that they have Gers? Or does he let Smith replace Gers? But Harris is smarter than that, he sees the idea of only having two guitarists is a false dichotomy. Harris made the right decision; Iron Maiden would have three guitarists going forward.

Steve Harris is a freaking genius.

What I think is so charming about the return of Adrian Smith to Iron Maiden, was that everyone wins. It was like Iron Maiden went from five friends working together to six. There was no need for rivalry between guitarist, with more guitarist, Iron Maiden could kick more ass.

“Brave New World” has some really great solos, intros and bridges with the three guitarist working together, but “Dance of Death” is a next level. Of all the Iron Maiden albums that exists, I believe “Dance of Death” is the most guitar focused. It could also be said that “Dance of Death” is the most acoustic album Iron Maiden has ever produced, which I suspect goes a long way to explain some fans disillusionment with the album. Metal fans are not also happy when artist mellow or soften, but I am little different, I like the contrast of soft openings to heavy climaxes; and there is a lot of that in “Dance of Death.” The title track “Dance of Death” does this very nicely.

Opening with a rhythm guitar, which is soon joined with Harris’s bass, then a very different chord set performs the intro, and then departs for Dickinson to come in and sing the first verse. Bass and rhythm march forward while the other two guitars filled the entering and retreating notes of the harmony. Sure enough, everything intensifies as we go deeper into the song, just as the story darkens.

Once Dickinson pronounces these words, hell unleashes:

“And I danced and I pranced and I sang with them,
All had death in their eyes.
Lifeless figures they were undead all of them,
They had ascended from hell.”

Then, one of the guitarist, I do not know which one, breaks into this electric lead melody that juggernauts throughout the rest of the song, until the mellow outro, which brings us back to continuity.

This is very layered song, and it appealed to my upon my first listening, that this would become one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs. I just love guitar, and the charm of later days Maiden is that they have three, and what might be their best collaboration maybe “Dance of Death.” This is a big claim, and no one is going to agree with me, and since I am posting this on the internet, I anticipate a lot of balanced counter arguments accompanied by some harsh negativity, some of it probably deserved.

There are so many words in “Dance of Death” and yet no chorus. Remember that old complaint that some say that Dickinson repeats this single sentence chorus without imagination, well “Dance of Death” certainly showcases an opposite side to things. There are fourteen verses in all.

The song “Dance of Death” reads like an old prophetic poem, not unlike Dante, and this accidently demonic discovery, reminds me a lot of “Number of the Beast.” I sometimes wonder if “Dance of Death” is a deliberate return to form for Iron Maiden, at least in theme, to that iconic album and song. Whether or not, similar inspiration are awakened in me when listening to either.

On a final note, I really like the end of the album “Dance of Death.” The final two tracks “Age of Innocence” and “Journeyman” play somewhat similar to “Dance of Death” insofar, that softer acoustic guitars brings us in gently and the centre of the song is a soaring climax. All three songs are lengthy and have a sense of long journeying discovery, mixed with anxious danger. Yeah, good times.

In the unlikely event someone agrees with me that “Dance of Death” is one of Maiden’s best albums, I sure hope they comment.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

Iron Maiden - Blood Brothers

“Brave New World” is not my favorite Iron Maiden album, but it is a very important album. It was the return of vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith.

Like most of the human race, I naturally love Bruce Dickinson. So much so, I have never given any time to any of the Iron Maiden albums that did not include him. Perhaps I have been unfair to Steve Harris and the rest of Iron Maiden by being so loyally linked to Iron Maiden only when Bruce is present. Perhaps the early albums with Paul Di’Anno are great and I foolish never listened to them. Perhaps the two albums in the nineties with Blaze Bayley are great but I stubbornly abandoned Iron Maiden without Dickinson and missed out. Perhaps I am bad person because of this; I do not know.

What I do know is that Bruce Dickinson is the man; probably one of the top ten greatest front men of all time.

Freddy Mercury is clearly the greatest front man ever in case you were wondering.

In 1993, Dickinson left Iron Maiden to pursue his solo career, which I never followed. I guess as much as I love Bruce Dickinson without Steve Harris my interest in him is waned. In that time Harris and the boys would carry on, but to the opinion of most it was a lack luster time. With Bruce, it was not the same.

In the year 2000 Iron Maiden re-unites, and they release “Brave New World.” This act alone makes this album significant. However, this album is the ushering in of the modern era of Iron Maiden. A short two album gap of seven years without Dickinson and Smith, represents a time of limbo and the moment it ended, a new era began.

“Brave New World” is not my favorite Iron Maiden; in fact, it is not even close. The overall quality in my opinion is a little stunted, it was almost like Harris and the boys were re-learning how to be metal gods again, and the final product is missing that razor edge we need as metal fans. But in the end, songs like “Blood Brothers” and the title track, combined with the strong conclusion brought to us with “Out of the Silent Planet” and “The Thin Line Between Love & Hate” make it a very good album. I think the best effort is “Blood Brother,” and this song is the talking point of the day.

Honestly, “Blood Brothers” makes the album for me; it is the only song I would consider truly great off of “Brave New World.” It follows the title track, which is probably my second favorite song from the album, and it has pretty much has everything I want in a song. It is long, over seven minutes, and it takes it time to build itself up and presents all it’s unique sounds. The overlays of the guitars play nicely, despite there being four strings instruments all playing at once they never crowd or interrupt each other.

Then there is Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson was always a talented singer, but time had passed. He had performed on numerous Iron Maiden albums and he had toured constantly, and most vocalist after that series of endeavours would begin to lose some of their voice. I do not know when Dickinson decided to stop drinking alcohol altogether, but I believe it was fairly early on. The rationale being that Dickinson knew his voice would fade with time and the best to preserve his talent was to avoid bad habits that would have a harmful effective on the health and longevity of his singing voice, and I think these later albums in Iron Maiden’s discography and the continued high quality of Maiden’s live performance to this date. “Brave New World” holds some significance to me because this is not only a second era of Dickinson fronted Iron Maiden, but I also see it as the second era of Dickinson in general. He has maintained an absurd high level of performance very late into his career, and I see “Brave New World” as the beginning second great marathon.

One criticism, I once heard of the lyrics of Iron Maiden is repetitive choruses. It is true, Dickinson and Harris, and however else helps write the lyrics, often use a single sentence repeated four times, and there you go, that is the chorus. My song of the hour “Blood Brothers” is also guilty of this.

“We’re blood brothers.” x4

I understand this complaint, it does feel uninspired sometimes. An example of it being done in a way I do not appreciate is “Seventh son of a seventh son,” I love that song, but I do find I am burned out by the chorus by the end every time I listen to it. For “Blood Brothers” however I like the approach. Repeating “we’re blood brothers” comes out as a proudful declaration of union and togetherness. Like a warrior battle cry, we are in this together, we are blood brothers.  The repetition this time feels appropriate.  As brothers of battle should never forget their connection. Yeah, bad ass.

“Brave New World” is not Iron Maiden’s best album, and that is the general consensus. However, for all the reasons I have detailed above, I believe it should also be the consensus that “Brave New World” is a good album and very important to the legacy and careers of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson and Maiden fans everywhere should be very grateful for it’s existence. Second eras are rare for bands. Iron Maiden is one of the few to have accomplished this and they started it with “Brave New World;” and on this album no song captures that metal spirit better than “Blood Brothers.” When I said earlier that the chorus of “we’re blood brothers” sounds like a declaration of unity, I think of it as Bruce singing about Iron Maiden as a whole. They are blood brothers and together they are Iron Maiden.

- King of Braves

Helloween - The Keeper's Trilogy - A Retorspective

It’s Halloween.

In 2010 Helloween released “Unarmed” a compilation album of reworked versions of their biggest hits. This was a great opportunity for the current line up to record versions of Helloween hits that they were not originally a part of. Primarily it gave Andi Deris a chance to sing studio quality versions of all the great songs originally sang by Michael Kiske, which is nice since Deris had been part of the band for nearly two decades by this point.

Given the chance to re-imagine and retool some of their classic songs was not wasted by Weikath, Grosskopf and the rest of the band, who made many fun changes to several Helloween favorites. They introduced a jazz stylization including saxophones to the monster rock song “Dr. Stein.” Operatic indulgences were made to the high emotion “A Tale that wasn’t Right” which was definitely a good idea. One of the most charming songs on the album is “Eagle Fly Free” which is sort of a cover of a cover. Sweden’s “Hellsongs” did an acoustic cover of “Eagle Fly Free” and the Unarmed version is combining aspects of the original Helloween version and the acoustic Hellsongs’ version. The Unarmed version of “Eagle Fly Free” is literally a duet by Andri Deris and Hellsongs singer Harriet Ohllson, and both bands are fully collaborative in this studio recording.

The entire Unarmed album is great but the track that made me take notice was “The Keeper’s Trilogy” a seventeen minute rock opera that combines all three primary tracks from the Keeper’s saga “Halloween,” “The Keeper of the Seven Keys” and “The King for a 1000 Years.” The idea of combining all three songs came from live performances and time restraints therein.

Andi Deris explained in multiple live concerts I have seen online that everyone always wants to hear “Halloween,” “Keeper of the Seven Keys” and “The King for a 1000 Years” in concert, but playing all three songs is approximately forty minutes worth of music, and a concert is only so long, so they combined all three songs into one reasonably long song.

To recap:

“Halloween” - The devil is haunting Halloween:

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2012/10/helloween-halloween.html

“Keeper of the Seven Keys” – A mythical adventurer goes out on a journey to slay the devil:

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2012/10/helloween-keeper-of-seven-keys.html

“The King for a 1000 Years” – The devil plots his return, all he needs is a mortal to be his terrestrial hand:

http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2012/10/helloween-king-for-1000-years.html

In each review I explained why each individual song is special and fantastic, and how together there is something more to notice, the history of Helloween subtly unfolding, and an adventure saga involving the devil. I wrote in my “Keeper of the Seven Keys” review “If there is one sure fire why to win my heart it is with a long fantasy adventure rock ballad” this is true of “Keeper of the Seven Keys” but even more so for the grand opera of high adventure that is “The Keeper’s Trilogy.” When incorporating all the elementals from all three songs we begin to feel the connection between these three tracks more so than before. The lyrics regarding challenging the devil and fighting for mankind in “Halloween” are the transition point to “Keeper of the Seven Keys,” and the conflict with the devil in “Keeper of the Seven Keys” is the transition point to “The King for a 1000 Years.” These moments flowing together also increases the scope of the adventure. The ordeal of dealing with the devil begins to feel ancient; an enemy of yesteryear will continue to threaten us at least a thousand years from a future date not yet reached.

Maybe it is just me but the whole fantasy element of “The Keeper’s Trilogy” reminds of me a lot of the old PC role playing games like Might and Magic and Ultima. Just compare cover art.

Keeper’s Saga:



Might and Magic 3-5:



Ultima 1-3:



Ultima 4-6:



The Ultima series really seems to fit the Keeper’s saga, the villain Exodus basically looks like Satan anyway, and looking at the cover art of “Keeper of the Seven Keys – The Legacy” the colorization and feel is similar to Ultima three and perhaps even more so Ultima six. The Avatar standing over a writhing demon could definitely be compared to the keeper challenging Satan. The mysterious wizard/cloaked man on all the covers of the keeper’s albums is presumable the keeper himself and he looks like he could very easily slip into any of the video game box art above battling strange creatures in even stranger locations. I think the comparison is apt.

It is funny that I never noticed the female features on the devil on the “Keeper of the Seven Keys – The Legacy” album art before creating the images posted above. For some reason the half metal she devil seems all too fitting for a metal cover. Also the use of computer graphics on the “Keeper of the Seven Keys- The Legacy” album art is typical of metal albums that came out in the 2000s. It reminds me a little of Iron Maiden’s “Dance of Death.”

It is amazing what a bunch of rockers can come up with as their flag ship songs focusing on a Halloween theme. You cannot tell me this theme was not being used, it comes up everywhere. There is of course the song “Halloween” but also all the reference to the devil thereafter call back to Halloween. Dr. Stein is a very Halloween themed song. Pumpkins are the band’s mascot and present even on the Unarmed cover art. In the “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 & 2” box set the cartoon artwork inside the booklet has a man listening to a song with repeating lyrics “Happy happy Halloween” and also his head turns into a pumpkin, I believe this to be a reference to the horror movie “Halloween 2” you know the one that does not have Mike Myers in it, the one with the television commercial that goes “happy, happy Halloween” and somehow the television broadcast was going to cause all the children’s mask, including a pumpkin head naturally, to seal around their heads and kill them. I am sure it is a “Halloween 2” reference.

How does Halloween tie into the Ultima series? I do not know, but I am glad Helloween went there.

Deris stated that it was kind of self indulgent to play all three songs of the Keeper’s Trilogy live given the tremendous length of time required. This gave me pause about doing a Music in Review for each one, because it might seem like I was being self indulgent. But I also remembered that I do not care, I love “Keeper of the Seven Keys” but if I was going to talk about “Keeper of the Seven Keys” I should probably talk about “Halloween” it came first and also it is an easier song to reference to introduce Helloween, but if I am going to talk about both “Halloween” and “Keeper of the Seven Keys” I should probably finish the series, but then there is “The Keeper’s Trilogy” which has all three, but explaining all three at once would be too hard to fit into one review. In the end this is what I ended up with, three Music in Reviews and one retrospective.

It’s Halloween and this is Helloween.

- Colin Kelly

Hellsongs - The Evil that Men do

Hellsongs:

Iron Maiden:

Way back in February Heath Gibson wrote - “Well I saw something that I am sure would interest you after this months song. Have yet to hear it myself but Hellsongs has a version of I Just Want You. http://hellsongs.bigcartel.com/product/pieces-of-heaven-a-glimpse-of-hell only placed I have heard it mentioned but I am sure you will be able to find the actual song somewhere.”

Or course I had no problem finding an actual version of the song on the Internet, it’s the Internet. I love feedback from my music in reviews, so thank you Heath for introducing me to Hellsongs.

Hellsongs is a Swedish group that does acoustic covers of hard rock and metal songs, or “lounge metal” as they have dubbed it. You will recall I reviewed Ozzy Osbourne – I Just Want You, back in February, hence Heath’s recommendation, and yes I really liked Hellsong’s cover of “I Just Want You,” because I freaking love that song.

Hellsongs is a good example of how to do cover songs right. They clearly respect the originals because they do not have any gross misunderstanding of the lyrical content or style used to perform the songs, and since all hard rock and metal songs by nature are, you know, hard, the softer acoustic approach makes every song different from the original. For the most part Hellsongs chooses songs that could logically be slowed and not lose either the message or feel of the original. Ozzy’s “I Just Want You,” is a romantic song and slowing it down to emphasize those feelings works. Others songs they do are more daring, giving Metallica’s “Blackened” an almost upbeat melody based on the same chords is... different to say the least. The one cover I thought stood out as a fantastic example of their good work was “The Evil That Men Do.”

While listening through Hellsongs’ discography “The Evil that Men Do” stood out, and I started to starch my head thinking, “who are they covering? Sounds like Iron Maiden.” I was correct, it was Iron Maiden, and a song I had heard before but I didn’t put the two together until I looked it up, Hellsong’s cover is that different. By slowing down the tempo the rhythm of the song is changed radically, but it doesn’t end there, they mix up the structure of the song, the verses come in different times, there is a dramatic pause missing in the original, and since we have a woman singing instead of a man the gender of the lyrics are reversed. It’s a great cover, and may Iron Maiden fans everywhere have mercy on me for saying this, I actually enjoy it more than the original.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly
Hellsongs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyO-5lDnigY
Iron Maiden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvrupTBsGco

Iron Maiden - Hallowed be thy Name

Iron Maiden, in my mind, is one of the pinnacle cult rock groups of all time. When Iron Maiden began they experienced only the most insignificant of success, until lead man and vocalist Bruce Dickinson gave them the extra edge they needed to become an international success. But even with a core group that would rock the world they remained far from a household name, but quickly became gods in the eyes of many hardcore rockers. Though through the years the group, like so many others, has experienced ups and downs, with many member changes even involving Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith both leaving and later returning.

Today Iron Maiden is undoubtedly one of the most influential and successful hard rock/heavy metal groups of all time. They’re success is a great accomplishment of amazing talent and creative ability, but also a testament of human spirit, Iron Maiden never received any form of commercial support, they never had radio support. The only support Iron Maiden ever had was their fans, relatively few at first, but loyal, loving, awesome fans.

I had the good luck of seeing Iron Maiden this month at the Saddledom. My friend Mitch, who I know through my big brother Sean, had an extra ticket and I was lucky enough to be the first to reply back to him. It was a double win in my mind, because Iron Maiden is awesome and I was going to get to see them, but also Mitch is a hilarious awesome guy so getting to hang out with him was also awesome.

Before the concert I asked Mitch what his favorite Iron Maiden song was, it is hard to choose one, but under the pressure of the question he chose “Hallowed be thy Name.” Which interestingly enough is my favorite Iron Maiden song. “Hallowed be thy Name” is the last track on the “Number of the Beast” Album (1982), which sadly is the only Iron Maiden CD I currently own. I need to get on that, and I will when I’m not so broke poor from being a student with no student loans. I got other priorities first, like shoes that don’t cut into my ankles when I walk in them, sadly that needs to take first priority.

During the concert, there were several songs I was hoping to hear, “Aces High,” “Fear of the Dark,” “Run to the Hills,” and of course “Hallowed be thy Name.” They played everything, and it was so awesome, last track of the concert “Hallowed be thy Name.” I always believe on ending on a good note, and apparently so does Iron Maiden.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly