JezWray wrote:Yeah it's a good song, but not truly great. Like I said before, Paschendale is the only truly great song on that album

I listened to it this morning

Oh yes and also, the other reason why DOD is so poor is the production. It's horrible. Absolutely horrible and terrible. I can't believe Maiden have made such a poorly produced album. There definitely was a big lack of quality control on that release in general!

I think Paschendale is quite overrated. Yes, it's a nice epic and cool to see live, but to say it's oh so much better than the rest of DoD is an overstatement in my view. I often skip it in favour of the following two tracks.

Jon, what is the huge deal about the DoD production? I've never been all that fussy about production, but even if I was, I'd have to be really nit-picking to claim that the production on DoD is seriously detrimental to the music. It really isn't: you can hear everything quite fine, the longer tracks have plenty of power to them... yes, the guitars sound pretty poor at times, but I really can't say I'm put off in any way by the sound.

Lev - Pulverizer wrote:

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:

terrorizer wrote:

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:Virus owns on Blaze's live album though

I fucking love Dance of Death, mainly because of the nostalgia it brings to me, being the first heavy metal album I bought

Good god you are YOUNG!

I'm 20 years old dammit! Older than some members of Pitiful Reign! It's just the fact I didn't grow up with such music, so until I was about 16 I was isolated from the orgasmic media that is Heavy Metal! I had to rely on the Internet to discover new bands

God damn. What did you listen to before hand?

Nothing really, I was a video game nerd

James wrote:I think Paschendale is quite overrated. Yes, it's a nice epic and cool to see live, but to say it's oh so much better than the rest of DoD is an overstatement in my view. I often skip it in favour of the following two tracks.

Jon, what is the huge deal about the DoD production? I've never been all that fussy about production, but even if I was, I'd have to be really nit-picking to claim that the production on DoD is seriously detrimental to the music. It really isn't: you can hear everything quite fine, the longer tracks have plenty of power to them... yes, the guitars sound pretty poor at times, but I really can't say I'm put off in any way by the sound.

I just find that it has such a horrible sound, especially when you've just listened to any other decent souding album and you put DOD on straight after, you can notice the difference. The drums have no power in them at all and are pretty low in the mix - compare this to this drum sound on AMOLAD, which is far superior, to see what I mean. The guitars sound really muddy and have a rubbish tone, on most of the tracks. For some reason they sound better on some, maybe thats just my head making me hear that because I like some tracks more than others. Journeyman's the only track that actually sounds really good because it's acoustic and not marred by the muddy messiness of the heavy tracks. And the whole thing's generally a bit too compressed, there's no dynamic range, especially in Paschendale actually. The 'blood is falling like the rain' bit always always me, because the bit after that where the guitar solo comes back in should be the most powerful moment, but when you listen to it in headphones, it just stays flat and is always a bit of an anti-climax, not because of the music, but because of the production. I wasn't actually bothered by any of this when I first heard, but as I began to compare it to more and more albums I began to find it rubbish. I always have been bothered by production, that's why I decided to study it, that's just me. I can obviously still enjoy good music with bad production, if the music is good enough, but for me, on DOD it isn't. Which is probably why I notice the bad production more, because I generally think it's a pretty poor album.

What do you think of the production on Iron Maiden? I think Steve Harris exaggerates when he claims it could have been a classic but is not because of the poor sound.

On that album, the tracks are so good, and sum up Maiden's earliest songwriting, that I couldn't care less - and besides, it has a raw and quite charming primitivity (a word?) to it!

James wrote:What do you think of the production on Iron Maiden? I think Steve Harris exaggerates when he claims it could have been a classic but is not because of the poor sound.

On that album, the tracks are so good, and sum up Maiden's earliest songwriting, that I couldn't care less - and besides, it has a raw and quite charming primitivity (a word?) to it!

I absolutely love the production on Iron Maiden. Nothing I would change about it. If I had to choose an album based on production it would be Killers blates, it's so perfect for the songs and when it's cranked it sounds so awesome.

Good old Birchy boy.

James wrote:What do you think of the production on Iron Maiden? I think Steve Harris exaggerates when he claims it could have been a classic but is not because of the poor sound.

On that album, the tracks are so good, and sum up Maiden's earliest songwriting, that I couldn't care less - and besides, it has a raw and quite charming primitivity (a word?) to it!

You're absolutely spot on there. Steve Harris is a bit of an idiot it seems when it comes to production. He produced The X Factor and Virtual XI, for example. Iron Maiden has brilliant production, perfectly suited to what it is. It's the kind of production that I wouldn't get very good marks for if I handed it in as an academic piece of work, but it works so well for the type of music and genre. The tracks are amazing and they just sound raw and energetic, it's example of the great kind of energy that is sorely lacking from their recent efforts. It's got a kind of punky feel to it too because of the production, it's just basically unbelievably amazing. Phantom of the Opera still blows my mind every time I listen to it. Unbelievable. That definitely is one of the best heavy metal songs ever made.

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:

Lev - Pulverizer wrote:

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:

terrorizer wrote:

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:Virus owns on Blaze's live album though

I fucking love Dance of Death, mainly because of the nostalgia it brings to me, being the first heavy metal album I bought

Good god you are YOUNG!

I'm 20 years old dammit! Older than some members of Pitiful Reign! It's just the fact I didn't grow up with such music, so until I was about 16 I was isolated from the orgasmic media that is Heavy Metal! I had to rely on the Internet to discover new bands

God damn. What did you listen to before hand?

Nothing really, I was a video game nerd

ftw

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the production on Iron Maiden, in fact I think it makes songs like Charlotte the harlot and Phantom of the opera that little bit better, since it's so raw (almost as if it had been recorded inside an empty tin of beans) but still so clear

Darkweasel wrote:

\m/Steve\m/ wrote:Virus owns on Blaze's live album though

Virus is easily one of the worst songs Maiden ever recorded. I find it highly doubtful it would own anything apart from a strong desire to be forgotten.

JezWray wrote:There's absolutely nothing wrong with the production on Iron Maiden, in fact I think it makes songs like Charlotte the harlot and Phantom of the opera that little bit better, since it's so raw (almost as if it had been recorded inside an empty tin of beans) but still so clear

Indeed.

I have been on a Maiden binge recently and have come to the conclusion that Iron Maiden and Killers are the best two, love the production!

Atom wrote:I have been on a Maiden binge recently and have come to the conclusion that Iron Maiden and Killers are the best two, love the production!

Yes, it is true beyond belief.