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Dance of Death

Iron Maiden - Dance of Death Audio CD

A fair review of the Iron Maiden "Dance of Death" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Iron Maiden reviews here, or go back to the Iron Maiden tabs.

Band: Iron Maiden
Title: Dance of Death
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-09-09
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Wildest Dreams 2: Rainmaker 3: No More Lies 4: Montsigur 5: Dance of Death 6: Gates of Tomorrow 7: New Frontier 8: Paschendale 9: Face in the Sand 10: Age of Innocence 11: Journeyman

On a Maiden kick...
To be honest, I really only purchased Ed Hunter since Seventh Son, as I sort of quit expanding my library and had less and less time to listen to music. I've loved classic Maiden for so long, it is a part of me like favorite things from your youth often become.

Well, I found myself breaking out some old Maiden albums lately, and I did a search to see what they were up to. I saw that this was one of their most recent albums, and I had to give it a listen (yes, years late but since I've been disconnected from the music scene, it was as if it was just released to me!).

I love this album. I mean I absolutely love it. I hate buying albums today because they are all one, maybe two good songs and the rest complete garbage filler. Maiden wasn't like that in the past, and they aren't like that now. Even if there are songs that aren't your cup of tea, you can still listen to them and admire the rolling guitars, the lyrics, whatever. . . you don't feel like they just threw a song on because they needed another 7 minutes on a cd.

As for individual songs, my favorite so far is Montsegur. I've listened to this song over and over, and I love how it rolls over itself and then opens up to a sort of anthemic cascade. I'm sure that as I listen to the cd more and more other songs will start to compete for the top spot in my opinion, but for now this one is smokin'!

In any case, yes this review is years late, but since I just got the album from Amazon and I really love it, I just had to give it the rating it deserves in this time when buying albums is really buyer beware.

A side note: If someone was ranking just Maiden albums alone, would this get five stars? Hmmm. . . well, probably not, since there has to be seperation between their top work and the rest. It would be hard to give this album the same rating as say Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast for instance. However, I would give this a solid 3 1/2 to 4 just within Maiden albums, and that is saying ALOT!

LONG LIVE MAIDEN!.

Does Iron Maiden still have *it*? Yes.Big time.
But I do know Iron Maiden is without a doubt the greatest thing to happen to the metal genre as we know it. Does Iron Maiden need an introduction? Am I even qualified to write a review on this band? I don't know.

Dance of Death is the 2003 follow-up to 2000's aptly named Brave New World. On Brave New World, Bruce Dickinson re-united with his old band after a long hiatus. Expectations were high, and they were met with a very good outing by the band in Brave New World. Well, that album was just warm up.

Dance of Death kicks off with "Wildest Dreams". This was the first song I heard off the album, and during the song I thought "Oh %#%^, this album might actually suck". Wildest Dreams is not impressive. At all. But "Rainmaker" is a super-catchy song spear-headed by some of Dickinson's best work. "No More Lies" starts off with some catchy guitars and builds. . . and builds. . . and builds into some wailing by Dickinson. I am not sure what Iron Maiden was trying to prove as Dickinson begins to wail at 2:14. Maybe that Dickinson's vocals can somehow be impressive and oppressive at the same time. The song usually receives a quick "previous" or "forward" at this point.

"Montsegur" is a very heavy song a la Powerslave era. Then the title track comes. This isn't Iron Maiden's greatest song to date. But it will probably find itself in many metalhead's top 5 Iron Maiden songs of all time. The song is ludicrously catchy. It starts simply with some guitars, and soft singing. Then another guitar comes in, and the song builds. Then the third guitar comes. And the song sounds much fuller, while still maintaining a "slow" tempo. At 3:00 the song kicks into overdrive. And still the song continues to build into fuller, richer, and faster sounds.

Upon hearing the title track, I honestly didn't think there would be another song on the album that would top it. I was wrong. I can comfortably say (without expecting physical retaliation) that "Paschendale" is Iron Maiden's greatest song. Even better than "Hallowed be thy Name". It is an 8 and half minute long epic about one of the bloodies battles in WWI. The band has been known to give history a little bit of the Iron Maiden treatment in the past, and this is no different. It is simply an amazing song. Epic, grandiose, equal parts heavy and melodic. . . I can't really give this song an adequate description of it's power. "Face in the Sand" is also another gem, as the song builds and builds into some more of the band's patented combination of drumming, wailing, and melodic guitars.

The bottom line? Dance of Death contains some of Maiden's best. And some of their worst. If every song on the album was as good as "Paschendale" and the title track, we would have Iron Maiden's strongest album yet. If every song was like "Wildest Dreams" or "Age of Innocence" we would have a strong contender for Maiden's worst yet.
.

One of Maiden's best, if not THE best
This album did take some getting used to, but I've come to think it's Maiden's best work, and that is from someone who owns every Maiden album and loves all of them. The album already has over 500 reviews on Amazon, alot of them really well worded and detailed, so I'll be brief. It's at least as good as Number of the Beast, but very different and, I think, marginally better.

Give the album a chance and I think you'll be very pleased.

Better with each listen
It gets better every time I listen to it. This is one of the better Maiden albums I have heard. Not as good as Piece of Mind, but what is? Unexpected from a classic metal band in their 50's in the mid 2000's, but I just can't stop listening to it. My favorite songs: Montsegur(great), Paschendale, title song. Highly recommended.

maiden must have
like this one as much now as i did when it came out. maiden has put out another solid one.

You can see a complete list of all Iron Maiden discography, or go back to the Iron Maiden tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.