Pekka
Who knows, it might have been exactly ten years ago today that my friend rang the door bell with Brave New World in his hand and made me an Iron Maiden fan within minutes. My most obsessive fanhood days are long gone, but it's always a great thrill when there's new Maiden material to listen to. Even though you can always pretty exactly guess what's coming.
But unexpectedly the track opens with a bit of pure chaos, so much so that my first thought was wondering if this was some sort of tribute to Metallica's Hit the Lights, before an equally unexpected Wasted Years quote made me return to Maiden land. Rarely had Maiden referenced their own material so explicitly, and the opening line of "Gotta tell you a story" again bears strong similarity to Dance of Death. Luckily the galloping riff is new, and lets me concentrate on the actual song rather than trying to spot similarities. Bruce sings the verses quite low and somewhat powerlessly, and when he jumps to the higher range chorus it's quite a shift. In my opinion Bruce's higher range voice has never been quite as effective as some other big metal frontmen have, but when comparing with the young Bruce, he hasn't really lost anything along the years. Harris' bass has that good old rattling sound and the three axemen gallop and shred like they always have, but...
When one listens to a song enough times it's bound to get stuck in the head, but for very many of the first times I couldn't remember much when the track was over. Except the strange feelings caused by the beginning. Over repeated listens, hopefully not too many so that the song doesn't feel like and overfamiliar bore when listening to the entire album, I've come to enjoy the track to some extent, but comparing to other leading singles of the last decade, like the brilliant Wicker Man and The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, El Dorado ranks right there at the bottom of the barrel battling with and likely losing to Wildest Dreams, which at least had a great mid-section. This track is ultimately an enjoyable but unmemorable piece of middle-of-the-road Maiden.
Still a couple of weeks to go, then we'll see...