movinghemispheres

How is Killers worse than Virtual XI???????? Never a big fan of both but Drifter is by far the worst song they've ever done imho (except the blues inspired solo in the middle) and the rest of Killers is just average for me, except for Purgatory and Wrathchild so here it is

Fates Warning: 1. A Pleasant Shade of Gray 2. Perfect Symmetry 3. Theories of Flight 4. The Spectre Within 5. Parallels 6. No Exit 7. Disconnected 8. Night on Bröcken 9. Inside Out 10. Darkness in a different light 11. Awaken the Guardian 12. FWX

Iron Maiden: 1. Seventh son of a Seventh Son 2. Piece of Mind 3. Somewhere in Time 4. Powerslave 5. The Number of the Beast 6. A Matter of Life and Death 7. Brave New World 8. Book of Souls 9. The X Factor 10. Dance of Death 11. Iron Maiden 12. No Prayer for the Dying 13. Fear of the Dark 14. The Final Frontier 15. Virtual XI 16. Killers

I had a Rush exclusive week-end, listened to almost all of their albums, starting with Hemispheres (one of my very favorites), then Grace Under Pressure (specially because of the lyrics of Afterimage) and finished the week-end watching the R40 Bluray.

I'm really shocked and devastated. I attended a symphony concert last night that was an hommage to the music of Ennio Morricone and I wondered if he was still alive and I checked and noted that yeah still alive and almost 92 years old and I was like "wahouuh what a long life he has been enjoying, this is great" And then I came back home and just before going to sleep I checked the news and I read...this and...well I'm speechless. Music is a huge part of my life and Rush has been, with Iron Maiden, my very favorite band, a true inspiration and Neil's lyrics had a huge influence on me so it's hard to believe that one of my heroes is no longer with us My thoughts are with his family, his friends, Geddy and Alex Rest in Peace Professor. Suddenly, you were gone From all the lives you left your mark upon

Working Man Anthem Bastille Day 2112 Xanadu Hemispheres Natural Science Red Barchetta Subdivisions Red Sector A Marathon Time Stand Still The Pass Bravado Everyday Glory Test for Echo Vapor Trail Far Cry The Garden

I've been reading Wandering the Face of the Earth (great, great book btw!!) and although they state that there was no evidence of any part of The Fountain of Lamneth ever being performed live and that crew recollections support that it wasn't, the review of the show of November 4 1975 by UTE News has this info that makes me wonder that after all it might have been played! Here is the quote of the UTE News in the book that got me thinking about it: "Several of the tunes perfomed Tuesday dragged and plodded semi-melodically while vocalist Lee tried to keep up, screaming lyrics like: Panacea-passion pure/I can't resist your gentle lure..." I can't think of any reason why the author would have invented this passage! Well, in the end the whole story of this song being or not being played live will probably remain a mystery but I found this information quite interesting

A Matter of Life and Death: With the exception of Different World, a top notch album, The Legacy is one of their best album closer and one of the best Janick has ever written Brave New World: The Wicker Man, Ghost of the Navigator, Brave New World, Blood Brothers are imo pure Maiden classics. Fallen Angel is an hidden gem along with The Thin Line Between Love and Hate (love the chorus on this one) Book of Souls: at first I was a little bit afraid of that 18 minutes thing but now I love it even if I think the title track is even better. Along with these two monsters, some great songs as well, If Eternity Should Fail, Tears of a Clown, The Great Unknown Dance of Death: A strange album because it's got two of my very favorites songs of the 00's (the title track and Paschendale), one of their best short-rockers as well (Rainmaker) but also some evident filler (Gates of Tomorrow, New Frontier, Age of Innocence) The Final Frontier: I can't say it's a bad album because Maiden have done far worse, specially in the 90's but still its just a good album without any song that really stands out. Not bad, not great, just good...but with Maiden, good isn't enough! Well, maybe Isle of Avalon being an exception

Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, Firth of Fifth or The Musical Box...Watcher of the Skies is great as well (well I'm a huge Genesis (PG era only) fan so...)

Get well soon Bruce! Take the time you need to fully recover. As a huge fan, I still prefer to wait the time it will take to listen to another album and see you - in great health - on tour

It was my very first hard rock album so it always will be kinda special...even if nowadays it's not my kind of music anymore. But still it's always fun to listen to some of the songs (Welcome, Rocket Queen, Sweet Child), brings back some good memories!

Great ones: Cut to the chase Animate Nobody's hero Leave that thing alone Good ones: Cold fire Double Agent Everyday glory Stick it out Alien shore ..the rest: Between sun and moon The speed of love

Anthem closely followed by By-Tor and Fly by night

I can't compare CA to MP but still CA is a very good album with some great songs as well (The Garden, Headlong Flight). And let's not forget its an album made by a band that's been around for 40 years, so with that in mind, I think the album is really great. How many bands do the same? Most of the groups this age just keep on releasing best-of(s), greatest hits and when touring they keep on playing the same old setlists with the same "hits".

Synchronicity closely followed by Ghost in the Machine

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/98/Parallels_album.jpg/220px-Parallels_album.jpg Fates Warning - Parallels

Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying (1990) 1. Tailgunner 10/15 2. Holy Smoke 07/15 3. No Prayer for the Dying 11/15 4. Public Enema Number One 08/15 5. Fates Warning 09/15 6. The Assassin 09/15 7. Run Silent Run Deep 11/15 8. Hooks in You 07/15 9. Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter 08/15 10. Mother Russia 10/15 Overall rating: 09 The 90's didn't start that well for Iron Maiden. After seven albums in a row ranking from great to perfect (more details on later reviews), the 8th one is a true disappointment. Maiden decided to go back and write short rockers à la Killers instead of the epic songs they've been doing during the last few albums. But what worked ten years before doesn't work anymore, the songs aren't that bad, it's just that there is almost nothing you will remember once you've finished listening to the album. Apart from one or two nice songs like the title track (even this one sounds like it could have been longer but they deliberately decided to keep it at 4 minutes), there is nothing great in here. Let's not even mention Bruce's vocals, by far his worst in years (the only exception being the end of Run silent run deep, where for a few seconds he has that nice and clear voice again). So, not a bad album to listen to from time to time but not one you will be like "oh yeah, this is the album that has that great song, the one that starts with that killer riff or that amazing melody...and so on"

Here are some of my favorites: 1. Bruce Dickinson 2. Ronnie James Dio 3. Rob Halford 4. Freddie Mercury 5. Ray Alder 6. Geoff Tate (at least during the 80's!) 7. David Coverdale 8. Paul Rodgers 9. Ian Gillan (70's and 80's only) 10. Biff Byford

Fates Warning: No Exit, Perfect Symmetry, Parallels Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave Genesis: Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound

In sequential order of release: AFTK, Hemispehres, PW

Iron Maiden - Dance of Death (2003) 1. Wildest Dreams 09/15 2. Rainmaker 12/15 3. No More Lies 10/15 4. Montségur 11/15 5. Dance of Death 13/15 6. Gates of Tomorrow 08/15 7. New Frontier 08/15 8. *Paschendale* 15/15 9. Face in the Sand 10/15 10. <Age of Innocence> 08/15 11. Journeyman 11/15 Overall rating: 11 After the great return done with BNW (more on that one later), Dance of Death does not reach the same level of quality in spite of the fact that it has at least one song that is better than any on BNW (Pascendale). A little bit like Fear of the Dark, this album has a few very good to great songs, an amazing one but also some fillers (No More Lies is just a Clansman rip-off, New Frontier is fun because it's the first song ever written by the drummer but still an average song, Age of Innocence even if musically it's not that bad, the lyrics seem to have been written by a 5 year old kid), so in the end, just a nice album if you choose the right songs to listen to but as a whole it's a little bit disappointing.

http://www.backgroundmagazine.nl/albums/SilhouetteAcrossTheRubicon.jpg Silhouette - Across the Rubicon

I have to say that I love HYF but I'm not into pop music at all (apart from a few songs here and there). 90% of what I listen to is prog rock and melodic metal but still HYF is a great album both from the musical point of view but also the lyrics (probably one of my very favorite when it comes to Neil's lyrics)

From a guitar point of view only, it would be La Villa Strangiato. I know some parts of it but never had the courage to try to learn it all

Another Maiden album: Iron Maiden - Virtual XI (1998) Futureal: 11/15 <The Angel and the Gambler>: 5/15 Lightning Strikes Twice: 10/15 *The Clansman*: 12/15 When Two Worlds Collide: 9/15 The Educated Fool: 6/15 Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger: 7/15 Como Estais Amigos: 11/15 Overall rating: 7/15, their worst album ever? Yeah, probably there is real debate about it. The production is weak, the drumming is the worst I've ever heard from Nicko (is he really playing on the album??), the guitars are so quiet, no power here but worst of all, the songs are really, really average at best. Almost all of them start with a slow intro (this is still ok for one or two but almost all of them start this way!), they have very boring chorus that are repeated so many times I didn't even bother to count (the worst of all being of course The Angel and the Gambler, the chorus goes for more than 2 minutes at the end!). Didn't they notice while doing it that it was a "little" bit too much. It looks like each song had to be at least 6 minutes long so instead of trying to come with some creative instrumental parts, they just thought that repeating over and over again the same line was ok!!!! Even the "best" song of the album, The Clansman, suffers from this with the "Freedom" chorus repeated way too many times. But still a decent song on a very mediocre album. And at the same time, Bruce Dickinson released The Chemical Wedding a heavy metal masterpiece...but that's another story!