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Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death review



Reviewer:
9.0

1609 users:
7.87
Band: Iron Maiden
Album: Dance Of Death
Release date: September 2003


01. Wildest Dreams
02. Rainmaker
03. No More Lies
04. Montségur
05. Dance Of Death
06. Gates Of Tomorrow
07. New Frontier
08. Paschendale
09. Face In The Sand
10. Age Of Innocence
11. Journeyman

Iron Maiden's 2003 release was something that by the first listen didn't convince me much. I even went this far thinking to myself Bruce Dickinson should have rather continued with his solo career, but luckily I've waited long enough to change my mind.

Concluding there must be something entirely different to previous releases (which was also true for the Brave New World album) to make a die hard Iron Maiden (incl. Bruce Dickinson) fan shake his had (and I don't mean bang of course). The first thing that disturbed me was the first single ... It sounded rather poor and still does in comparison to the rest of the album. I mean it evokes the right feeling, continuing on paths of Brave New World, but on a much lower level and yes it took me some time to get into B. N. W., too... Anyway the second song' Rainmaker', that is still my favourite on the album, takes the opposite direction, entirely satisfying from the start, somehow something that I expected to be and it came out just right (thinking of nothing in particular though) the result is Rainmaker, an awesome song. Then at first I found other tracks to be rather lame and unsatisfying (for sure, I wouldn't have to state that I changed my mind, would I?). This category was filled by 'Dance Of Death' and the tracks from 'Paschendale' to the last song 'Journeyman'. I simply couldn't find the relation to older what I've heard before, indeed I rather thought, this is not really Maiden, this is some band of old dudes that will retire in the very near future.
Well, some of these songs develop rather slowly, but unveil an energy and a spirit unmatched by former works of Maiden. I am not saying that tis is their best album, but to those having difficulties in approaching this records inner core I can only say: 'Dig deeper andtil the full truth unfolds and you get a glance at a let's say rather sterile beauty that has a different feel and a different meaning than other Maiden albums. Some sort of growing old with dignity rather than reproducing the old stuff again and again (although you can't say that there was a clear tendency to that in the past, excluding albums done with Blaze Bayley, I tend to rather take this as comparison with other bands).
A song that still splits my own opinion is 'Montsegúr' which has a great verse, but when it comes to the chorus (which is instrumentally repeated more often than by the vocals) I dislike it. As for the slower pieces, like the title track, I do really enjoy them all now, for they have calmness but reaching a climax that is far beyond that, with the orchestral addition (still I wonder if this not all just keyboards) reaching spheres that are totally different from older Maiden material.
This album is definitely stronger than I first expected (though the cover art is not the greatest ever, but well, let's focus on the music) so I give it 9 points.

Written by Pierre Tombale | 14.09.2004



Guest review by
The Silent Man
Rating:
8.5
Dance Of Death. What a bad title. What a bad cover. What strange titles. Push play: what a banal opening! The single Wildest Dreams is one of the worst songs of this album. Why such a bad choice? Skip track and listen to the others. This album is great. I loved Brave New World but this one seems to be innovative and even better than his predecessor.

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published 18.09.2003 | Comments (8)

Guest review by
Hyvaarin
Rating:
6.0
Singer Bruce Dickinson's return to Iron Maiden in 1999 was unsurprisingly met with a great deal of anticipation. Could his return bring the Irons out of the arguable rut into which they had fallen during the Blaze Bailey years? The energy and conviction of 2000's 'Brave New World' suggested that Iron Maiden were very much headed for the top once again. Unfortunately, this momentum was not to be sustained by the 2003 follow-up 'Dance Of Death'.

Read more ››
published 19.02.2007 | Comments (16)


Comments

Comments: 5   Visited by: 142 users
28.11.2008 - 12:35
Rating: 9
Powerslavex
Alexskywalker
Similar to Brave new world, i really like rainmaker, dance of the death, no more lies, Journeyman
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05.05.2009 - 15:19
Rating: 7
Ph0eNiX
Fire from Above
Out of all of the albums Iron Maiden put out this one unfortunately was kinda boring. Nothing really jumps into your face and says "IRON MAIDEN" the way various other albums did. Steve Harris should consider talking with Roy Z from Bruce's solo project to make the writing pick up a better pace than it was at with this album.
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05.05.2009 - 21:09
Rating: 8
Deadmeat
Necrobutcher
This is one of my first heavy metal albums and i love it. i do not hear to heavy metal now but i really appreciate that album. i like the sound of it: it's really dark... almost every song is great or at least has some good moments...
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Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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25.09.2009 - 14:03
Rating: 8
Ellrohir
Heaven Knight
One of Maiden's best...
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My rest seems now calm and deep
Finally I got my dead man sleep


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05.01.2017 - 01:50
Rating: 8
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
I agree its better as we expected before, but cover is worst maiden cover ever IMO. even fits into tittle, but its like eddie became emo somehow
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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