So I was cleaning my apartment today, so I set my iPod to shuffle. After a few songs, the song Ghost of the Navigator by Iron Maiden came on, and it reminded of how much I love their album Brave New World... so much so that I turned off shuffle mode and played Brave New World through in its entirety. Epic.
So of course I have to write a blog post about one of their better albums (I can't say "best" albums, because they have so damn many "best albums"... Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, to name a few). Here is the brief history of Brave New World.
Once upon a time, Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden, in 1993, and everyone thought the end was near for sure. But, Iron Maiden released two albums after his departure, X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998). You will never hear me say this again about Iron Maiden probably... but those albums were pretty bad. The only good songs to come from the Blaze Bayley era (Iron Maiden's singer from 1994-1999) were The Clansman and Sign of the Cross. Some other songs which didn't suck, but were maybe average at best during Bayley's time were The Angel and the Gambler (meh), and Man on the Edge (double meh).
Needless to say, from the perspective of any Iron Maiden fan, the return of Bruce Dickinson in 1999 was a super huge relief. He reassured the world that they would not have to commit world-suicide. People were happier, because they now knew for sure that Y2k was not going to happen. All was well. Bruce Bruce and the Iron Maiden gang followed up on their promise of world peace and released Brave New World in 2000. It was, and is, epic as all hell.
Brave New World, in my opinion, was Maiden's last album to have an edge throughout, although it still was pretty produced. After Brave New World, Maiden has released three albums to date (Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, and The Final Frontier). These three are certainly more produced, which is why I don't like them as much. I like that raw.. live feel.. to music. I don't like pumping beats through some computer so the pitch is perfect, etc (Metallica is guilty of this), and the timing is perfect to the atom (I'm pretty sure that Computers are almost able to keep time as well as Neil Peart).
But anyway, you should go out and download Brave New World, or at least check it out somewhere online (youtube maybe?). Favorite songs on Brave New World (other than all of them): Ghost of the Navigator, Brave New World, Blood Brothers, Out of the Silent Planet, The Thin Line Between Love and Hate.
So of course I have to write a blog post about one of their better albums (I can't say "best" albums, because they have so damn many "best albums"... Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, to name a few). Here is the brief history of Brave New World.
Once upon a time, Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden, in 1993, and everyone thought the end was near for sure. But, Iron Maiden released two albums after his departure, X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998). You will never hear me say this again about Iron Maiden probably... but those albums were pretty bad. The only good songs to come from the Blaze Bayley era (Iron Maiden's singer from 1994-1999) were The Clansman and Sign of the Cross. Some other songs which didn't suck, but were maybe average at best during Bayley's time were The Angel and the Gambler (meh), and Man on the Edge (double meh).
Needless to say, from the perspective of any Iron Maiden fan, the return of Bruce Dickinson in 1999 was a super huge relief. He reassured the world that they would not have to commit world-suicide. People were happier, because they now knew for sure that Y2k was not going to happen. All was well. Bruce Bruce and the Iron Maiden gang followed up on their promise of world peace and released Brave New World in 2000. It was, and is, epic as all hell.
Brave New World (2000)
Brave New World, in my opinion, was Maiden's last album to have an edge throughout, although it still was pretty produced. After Brave New World, Maiden has released three albums to date (Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, and The Final Frontier). These three are certainly more produced, which is why I don't like them as much. I like that raw.. live feel.. to music. I don't like pumping beats through some computer so the pitch is perfect, etc (Metallica is guilty of this), and the timing is perfect to the atom (I'm pretty sure that Computers are almost able to keep time as well as Neil Peart).
But anyway, you should go out and download Brave New World, or at least check it out somewhere online (youtube maybe?). Favorite songs on Brave New World (other than all of them): Ghost of the Navigator, Brave New World, Blood Brothers, Out of the Silent Planet, The Thin Line Between Love and Hate.
