Pekka
As a thank you to fans for the highly succesful Dance of Death world tour, Iron Maiden released their very first EP since Maiden Japan in 1981. No More Lies was chosen as the leading track, and while in its seven and a half minutes it might not have gotten much airplay on the radio, it's a very good epic track in the modern Maiden tradition of intro, slow build-up, explosion, etc. Their earlier Dance of Death singles had some orchestral and rock versions of certain Brave New World tracks, and while I was expecting some grand reworkings, they basically mean that the string synth tracks have been turned up or down. Paschendale is no different, but with such prominent string arrangements this version is actually an improvement over the original version, which wasn't necessarily the case with the previous remixes. This is Grand with a capital G!
The electric version of the album closing Journeyman is the biggest reason behind this release. Originally visioned by Adrian Smith as a sort of a power ballad, they thought it fun to record an acoustic version to go on a b-side or some other future use, but the result was so wonderful that they chose to put that one on the actual album. This original version obviously doesn't capture the same intimacy as the acoustic re-recording, but here we have some guitar parts that they didn't include in it. I think they made a good decision on what to use on the album, but I also thank them for releasing this. And the cherry on top of this cake is a version of Age of Innocence, which is... hmm... sung? ok, kind of like sung by our beloved mr Nicko McBrain. Scary, isn't it?
And the sweatband, as cool as an Iron Maiden sweatband is, it's too loose for my skinny wrist. Despite that, this stuff is gold if you've got a soft spot for Dance of Death.