Bruce Dickinson - Skunkworks (1996)

This is a lonely album in the Bruce Dickinson discography; it's style is quite unique. No cheesy hard rock (like on the debut), no mixed bags like Balls to Picasso and yet no semi-trash metal like it's two successors. Skunkworks focuses on effective song-writing with traditional heavy metal arrangements and a slightly experimental mind-set. All songs are relatively short, but most of them are really catchy.

This album has two kinds of songs. Space Race, Back from the Edge, Inertia, Faith, Solar Confinement, Inside the Machine, Meltdown, Octavia and Innerspace are all great melodic songs that have memorable moments. Most of them are up-tempo, but all are melodic and powerful. Bruce's vocals are brilliant and all songs have some instrumental parts and a sufficient (but often simple) guitar solo.

The other kind of songs are Dreamstate, I Will Not Accept the Truth and Headswitch. All have a very distinctive (negative) atmosphere but fail to get my full attention. Headswitch might appeal to some, because it's a chaotic up-tempo and psychedelic song.

The ending track Strange Death in Paradise is a low paced ending track with a strong ending section. A good ending.

Conclusion. This album is mainly attractive for it's good song-writing and I think it's easily underrated. Memorable stuff. Four stars.

Avantasia - The Metal Opera

Ok I admit. I really like this album, which was actually one of my favorites when I was 15/16 years old. Now I'm 21 and I have been in a nostalgic mood lately. I re-listened to some of my old favorites and Avantasia is one of them.

Avantasia plays power metal (or pussy metal..) with superb musicianship. Great melodic guitar solo's, nice main themes and catchy (but cliché) vocal parts. The problem is, it sounds like cheese! The vocals of Tobias Emmet are horrible at times and the extremely theatrical mood of the band does sometimes work against them.

The concept of the album did really help to make a good power-metal album. Especially the two ending songs are good, but there's quality to be found in every song.

Ok, it's like this. If you can accept the cheesy approach of Avantasia you could have this amazing metal opera with catchy theatrics and bombastic arrangements. If you can't accept this sound you will nothing more then a good laugh. I myself still like it's bombastic appeal.

Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark (1992)

First of all, the album's arranged beautifully. Iron Maiden has a sound only featered on FOTD. Less epic then other albums, more into the solid rock song thing of the eighties. This may sound a bit dissapointing, but wait... it's still Iron Maiden! They made a lot of great songs for this album. They did succeed in making total new atmospheres, contrary to those of records Iron Maiden made before this one.

Be quick or be dead is the heavy uptemp starter for this record. Heavey, rough.. One of the heaveyest sounding songs of Iron Maiden's long career. But anyway, a great opening thriller. From here to eternity is a storytelling song with an poprock influence. This is a weak point of the song, but still I nice song that has an Iron Maiden feel and muscianship.

Afraid to shoot strangers is an highlight of this album, it's an true masterpiece. A long opening part with atmospheric feel played by soft guitars and Bruce's great vocals. The big explosiong of the symphonic/heavey rock guitar solo's part makes this song one of the finests of Maiden career. Great theme's played by double guitars scaffold into a great melodic piece. It truly feels powerfull.

Fear is the key is a bid of a moodcrasher... it's slow and very moody. Still is has some nice parts and might just turn out to be an aquired taste. Childhood's end a beatifull epicfeeling song with nice drums (they almost sound a bit african). The chorus is very atractive here. Great atsmopsheres!

Wasting Love is again a moody song wich begins to work when you listen to it more frequently. It's again a daring song for Iron Maiden, it has an strange mood.

The Fugative is a great hard rocker with lots of emotional guitar parts. The rytmic parts are very interesting here. After the heavy beginning suddenly a smooth guitar part arises making you believe Bruce's lyrics (on a cold oktober morney...). Those lyrics are great by the way, I realy feel the connection between the words and the music.

Chains of Misery is a kind of playfull song. I like the opening riff. Kind of strange are the football team like choir sounds in the chorus. Still a nice song.

The apperition is again a song with a structure and mood/sound that Iron Maiden never had showed before. This I like about this album, it's not so Iron Maiden-like. Judas be my guide is nice mooded song with some speed in it. This was just what the album needed at the time. Good joice!

Weekend Warrior is aging totally unMaiden. The vocals sound kind of bullying, but the lyrics are actually of the protest kind. It's about a hooligans life. The middle solo parts of this song complete the song with some very great melodies. It works!

Well... I'm nog going to discribe how nice the song Fear of the Dark itself is!

Conclusion. Oke, this is a strange album in the Iron Maiden discography. It has a distinctive atmosphere whilst featuring both art rock and long-hare-street-type metal. The song-writing is very strong and the guitar solo's are even better then on most Iron Maiden albums. Some of the classic of this album are real winners. Four and a halve stars for this underrated Maiden album.

Iron Maiden - The Early Days (2004), subject (1976-1983)

Such an amazing band!

I'm in love with Iron Maiden now for 10 years, it al started when I was eleven years old. I saw the band live once, during the tour to promote this dvd. This was the best show I've ever seen and might see in my live.

On this super-complete dvd we've got lot's of interesting Iron Maiden material, covering the first four albums and some footage of the band before the first album.

The Early Days documentary. This 90 minutes of documentary that shows the prehistoric times of Iron Maiden. All former band members are discussed, the reason line-up changed, the circumstances they were in, who the material came to be, etc. This way we learn that there was an Iron Maiden that only had Steve Harris playing in it of all the current members. Interviews with the now unknown former members (1976-1979) are done in nice settings and it's nice to hear their stories. Steve Harris reflects on a lot of subjects and early member Dave Murray is also to be seen in some interviews. The old footage and photo's are nice for Iron Maiden fans. This documentary also shows a short making of of the first four albums and the line-up changes that occurred during that period. This dvd is a real threat for fans and it's fun to watch for people who are new to the band. The process of the creation of such an important band is interesting and fun to watch.

LIVE AT THE RAINBOW, Filmed at The Rainbow, London, December 1980 This is pure gold! This set shows Iron Maiden playing seven songs from their first two albums, though Killers wasn't record yet. This particular part of dvd is mega-essential because of the wild performance of lead singer Paul di'Anno. There isn't any better footage of the band in this phase of the band! Iron Maiden plays very motivated, the songs are great and the people enthusiastic. They were so good in their early days! As I said, essential for both fans and people who like the metal/hard rock genre.

BEAST OVER HAMMERSMITH, Filmed at Hammersmith Odeon, London, March 1982 One of the early shows Iron Maiden performed during the time Bruce Dickinson had joined the band and The Number of the Beast came to be. Iron Maiden plays unbelievably motivated and this can be seen as the one of the highlights of Iron Maiden's and vocalist Bruce Dickinson's career! Most tracks are from The Number of the Beast and the material is fresh! It's also nice the band included the important b-side Total Eclipse in their set. Essential metal footage.

LIVE AT DORTMUND, Filmed at Rock and Pop Festival, Dortmunde, Westenfalle, Germany, 1983 This concert was recorded during the Piece of Mind tour. Most songs originate from this album. Though the footage is almost as good as the Beast over Hammersmith from 1982, it's lacks some of it's bombastic enthusiastic power of Hammersmith. Still this is a very interesting show and fans will appreciate this very much!

EXTRA'S The first five clips of Iron Maiden and some top of the pops performances are nice, but they are less hard to find then the gigs on dvd one. Still a great bonus to complete the release.

LIVE AT THE RUSKIN, Home Video filmed at The Ruskin Arms, 1980 This is home video footage of the band in an early stage. This might only appeal to hard-core Iron Maiden fans for it's historical value.

Conclusion. This is the meaning of completeness! This is everything I could ever ask for, concerning the theme of this dvd. Five stars without doubt. Every fan should own this and others might be surprised on how energetic and complete this release is.

Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)

....and a brave new album as well!

With the return of lead-singer and front-man Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith Maiden had this amazing momentum. Both were also good song-writers that made important contributions to the Maiden discography. Everything feels right, good songs, fresh sound, lot's of good guitar parts, great vocals and some nice new experiments along the way. Even the artwork is great! The vinyl version of the album is a real treat.

The Wickerman is an energetic opener with nice guitarsolo's, but the real fun begins with Ghost of the Navigator with it's story-telling lyrics and great guitar sound. The atmosphere of the track is distinctive. Brave New World, the title track, has it all. Great emotional parts and honest vocals, great instrumental parts and a memorable guitar-solo. Great! Blood Brothers shows some 'coming to age' influences and is a very very mature song. The middle section has a great melody and amazing lyrics. The Mercenary is nice up-tempo metal-track, but it could have been shorter IMHO. Dream of Mirrors has a progressive, intellectual form and atmospheric use of an acoustic guitar in the quiet section during the refrains. The songs has a lot of lyrics, but they are really good. The Fallen Angel is a song-type like the Mercenary. Short, catchy and some nice melodies. The Nomad is another very progressive type song with the heaviest Maiden sound ever. The heavy riff and the eastern-like distorted solo is really good. The tension building in the middle section is also great. Out of the Silent Planet is another catchy song, it could have been a bit shorter. The Thin Line Between Love & Hate has again good lyrics and a sound as if Maiden had come to piece. A good ending track for the album, but it took me some time to learn to appreciate it.

Conclusion. This is Iron Maiden most mature album. It shows true skill, a great collaboration by a six-man band and the best of metal compositions. Some tracks like Blood Brothers, Brave New World and Dream of Mirrors stand out as very good epical songs. A great offering, essential for the metal-scene and very interesting for most proggers because of it's melodic and lyrical approach. Four stars.