Originally Posted by Bal_Sagoth:
“I have been a fan of the band sinse 1990. I was 12 back then. My first album from the band was Number Of The Beast. But my first ever item of Maiden's I bought was the 7inch single of Holy Smoke. My love for the band grew and grew. Untill recently. The past two albums from Maiden: Dance of Death and also A Matter of Life and Death. They IMO are by far the weakest entries into the Maiden arsenal. They just do not have any life to them I think. The songs, all of them, on Matter of Life and Death sound flat. There is no decent riffs in the music. At this moment in time in my eyes the band has only one way to go now... UP.
There is no longer the excellent music writing skills of Powerslave or Somewhere in Time in any of Maiden's newer projects. All we get now in terms of real Metal is burnt out 50 somthings trying to cling onto what they once had in terms of sheer dominance in the Metal scene during the 1980's.”
Having first seen Iron Maiden in 1980, with Paul DiAnno, and followed them ever since, I'd disagree with your view on the songwriting for the last two albums. I'd say that A Matter of Life and Death is one of the best albums, in terms of the songs, Maiden have written for a long time, the problem with the album, as others have said, is with the production which is flat and dull.
As for being burnt out because they're in their 50s, again I'd disagree! I've seen many, many, bands less than half the age of Maiden, and the one thing they consistantly fail to do is live up to their hype and, more often than not, are really dull and boring to watch live. It seems to me that these days you form a band, get a record contract with huge amount of publicity and hype, ususally with the label of "the next big thing" attached somewhere, then go straight on to an arena tour. Steve Harris formed Maiden @ 1973 -75 so when they finally got a record contract in 1979 they'd been gigging for at least 5 yeards and had learnt how to play live. See Maiden live now and what comes across is usually an amazing show performed faultlessly by a band who know exactly what's required to deliver a performance people will long remember. It's no accident that other"old" bands, such as AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, are also rated amongst the best live bands, because they've had to work hard to get where they are and they work just as hard to stay there.