Dance of Death

[rabies]

Well...I'll be the first to post about it I guess. Sorry if you don't have it yet.



There are some songs on this album that I know I will like for the rest of my life. They are:
Wildest Dreams, Rain Maker, Montsegur. Those are the top three for me. I can't step playing those over and over. RainMaker in particular for me may be one of the best Maiden tunes ever.

Couple of other favorable metions are New Frontier and Paschendale. Paschendale is a particularly large departure from anything I have every heard them do. Musically, it is pretty ambitious. Other fans rave about it. For me, I think it will be a grower.

I don't like the title track. What is with Steve and these 'celtic' type riffs? Does not suit my taste at all.

All the other tracks have kinda melded into one for me...meaning they either are not great, or they need more time before I can make a better determination. This includes Journeyman, which I was excited about in theory, but in practice, it is not very 'acoustic' at all.

 

[Mr. Hyde]

I think it's going to take some time to grow on me.
There are some things I really like, the first two tracks are really good. Wildest Dreams has grown on me and I really like Rainmaker.
I wonder why they chose Dance of Death as the title track. It's a little weird I guess. What should I expect from a song with that title though!

 

[rabies]

Who knows. best title maybe? I definately think Paschendale is a better 'epic' song than Dance of Death. Hell...isn't there lyrics in DOD like..and I danced and pranced with them? Pranced??!

The more I listen to Paschendale, the more I really like it. I say we cover that one next!

..also I am starting to like Montsegur less. That pirate shanty part after the chorus is a bit much.

Gates of Tomorrow is growing on me. I keep bouncing between this disk and Blaze's silicone messiah. All good stuff.

 

[Constantine]

Holly shi*, I forgot the new album is out.!

Will stop off and purchase tonight.
I will gladly give some feedback in a few days.
Constantine

 

[Eddy]

Got it on tuesday but as it won't play on my computer I only have had the chance to listen to it in my car.

Don't have a clear opinion in my head yet but IMO it's helluva lot better than BNW.

The beginning of song 9 is awesome, the drumming I mean. Ol' Nicko shows what he's made of.

 

[rabies]

Can't play it on your computer? Copy protection?
That has to suck..

 

[Eddy]

Yep, copy protection. Quite effective too. If you insert the disk to your cd-drive it starts to spin the disk as it always does but this time it won't stop spinning. You can't get the disk out of the drive without rebooting and opening the tray before the drive tries to read it.

 

[Constantine]

Well I got the CD last night and I was blown away. I don't know where to begin.
A few songs that I'm really enjoying are:

No More Lies
Montsegur
Dance of Death
Paschendale

One thing to mention, I'm having trouble playing the cd in my car. It will always start on track 1. If I want to move forward I have to fast forward it. Can't just hit next track

Rabies, you are correct with the Celtic riffs. They are all over the place.

I know the album will prove to be challanging for me to learn as I feel they are not the typical ECD note run. Also abit to many cords playing during the songs. Steve should just stick to bass runs. 3 guitar players are enough

Sounds like alot of accoustic bass on a few songs. It will grow on me.

Bruces voice sounds great. Attacking those high notes.
anyway, I have to get back to work. It's a shame I can't play the cd on my notebook computer in my office.

take care
Constantine

 

[Eddy]

This is good...



Wildest Dreams went straight to no. 1 on the Finnish single chart last week. And supposedly DoD sold gold in 3 (three) days and went also straight to no. 1 in the top40 chart.

 

[rabies]

This album is growing on me everyday. Man. Now I love Gates of Tomorrow, New Frontier, Paschendale is KILLER! That eagle scream! No More lies is pretty good....a bit repetitive...

Great news Eddy. I pre-ordered the single from amazon.com as an import. It has yet to show up. I guess the single market in America was not worth them releasing it as a single here..

 

[Constantine]

are you guys having problems with fast forwading the cd to the next track? It is also taking me about 30 sec for the cd to begin playing.
Not sure if it's the cd or the new copy protection.

 

[jim]

Hey all - long time!

All I can say is the first time I listened to DoD, I was pretty disappointed. Nothing really jumped out at me. But now after 4-5 times through I LOVE IT!! Ain't it always like that?



Montsegur is cool - especially if you know what the tune is all about. New Frontier, Pashendale, etc. etc. All very cool....!



TTYL!



J

 

[rabies]

Hey Jim,

Always glad to see you drop in here now and again. Yea..Maiden albums are always growers for sure. However, this time around, both Rainmaker and wildest dreams jumped out at me right away..and never let go.

 

[Eddy]

Great news Eddy. I pre-ordered the single from amazon.com as an import. It has yet to show up. I guess the single market in America was not worth them releasing it as a single here..

Yea, I've heard Maiden don't release singles in America because it would be 'pointless' as those never get any airplay anyway...

What version did you order? On the website I ordered it from (cdon.com), they had three versions of the single listed. I got the most expensive one, which turned out to be actually a DVD-disk with videos of Wildest dreams and 'making of DoD' and newly mixed versions of blood brothers and some other song I can't remember now. Good stuff but I didn't notice why the remixes were called as 'rock mixes'...

Nice to hear from you Jim.

 

[rabies]

I got the 'audio' version of the single...which was dissapointing...as I thought I had ordered the version you got. My version has no video, and the tracks Pass the jam and the orchestral mix of Blood Brothers.

Does the DVD mix play on a DVD player (or ..say..a sony playstation 2) and the video pop up on screen like a normal movie? Is the 'making of' any good?

Constantine: I don't have any problems with my CD...but my understanding from reading the IM BB is that Europeans (except England) and Canadians got 'copy protected' versions of the CD...which is causing lots of people major problems. Sounds like you got a copy protected version..and it is playing havoc with your car stereo. Sorry man. The copy protected version has an extra 'track 1' that is probably throwing off your CD player.

 

[Eddy]

Yea, the dvd mix plays on a regular dvd-player. Tried it at my friend's place as I still don't have a dvd-player myself.



It's like a normal dvd-disc. You insert it into your player and a menu pops up. From there you can choose either the WD video, the remixes or the making of-video.

The making of is okay. The biggest minus is that it's only 2 minutes long... Could have been longer, IMO.

What kind of tune is 'Pass the Jam?' Any good?

Btw, that avatar of yours looks... Pervy.

(Edit: Damn that quick reply is acting up.)

 

[rabies]

I cannot find the DVD single anywhere here in the states!

Both Pass the Jam and the orchestral mix are passable. The Orchestral mix sounds exactly the same to me as the original version, only the 'orchestra' parts are mixed in much louder. woopeee.

Pass the jam sounds...well..like a jam. It is kind of neat, but I don' imagine I'll be listening to it repeatedly. It is certainly not at the same level as Reach Out, Total Eclipse, Sherriff of Huddersfield, etc.. I ripped it to .mp3..I can share it with you if you like.