Iron Maiden and why I never cared that much for them

You think of the extremely important bands in the world of heavy metal and what are you bound to come up with? I'm sure you're thinking of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica and yes, the topic of this rambling, Iron Maiden. Now the magnitude of their impact cannot be denied for they were the front runners of The New Wave of British Heavy Metal which not only defeated metal heads in it being unable to shorten and but it combined the heaviness of metal with the speed of punk. But what I can debate is if Iron Maiden actually deserved to be as beloved as they are. And just to make it clear, I am talking about the Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden. I don't have that much knowledge of Paul Di'Anno and nobody gives a crap about the Blaze Bayley years.

My main problem with them is them emphasizing how smart and literate they are instead of how much they rock. Don't get me wrong, telling a story and showcasing how smart you are is not a bad thing. Look at Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime album, it told a pretty smart story and it rocked your face off with fist-pumping rock. Now Maiden has songs such as "Run to the Hills", "Number of the Beast", "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus" which were history lessons or myth recaps, which are fine but it doesn't make me rock. My fist barely gets to eye-level which is border-line pathetic. But before I get too down on them they do have songs that do rock but they don't tell a real story like the above songs like "Wasted Years", despite it being on thematic concept album, "Can I Play with Madness", despite it being on a real concept album, and "Fear of the Dark", despite it...well just being a song about being afraid of the dark. However, I will concede that "Aces High" combines the rock and the history to make it extremely awesome.

Another thing I never got with them is that I think that their musicianship was overrated. I'm not talking about Dickinson cause he is awesome, especially his live performances now. And shocking, I'm not talking about Steve Harris, the bassist. You can actually here the bass lines in the songs(try naming some Judas Priest songs that have them and no "Breaking the Law", "Diamonds and Rust" and "Revolution" don't count) and they're good bass lines. But since Harris is the ringleader and the creative force of Maiden, I'm not sure what part of the audible bass is ego and which part is talent. But I am talking about the guitars and drums. There was never any growth, any change they all just sounded the same on almost all the records, just the same drumbeat and techniques & the same watery sounds the guitar solos had. The only real growth in any part of their songs were just the lyrics. And if they were as always as good as people said they were...why did they need Eddie so much? I know it's their gimmick and it was extremely important for the first couple albums to establish their identity but to bring them out

But I think there is something to admire about Maiden is their audacity. They never bowed down to trends and always were Iron Maiden. Even when "Can I Play With Madness" came out and they almost became commercially accessible, the feel of an Iron Maiden song is still there. If you watch that Iron Maiden: Flight 666 movie that just came out on DVD, CD and Blu-Ray there's even more moments of their audacity. I mean going to 21 cities in 5 continents over 45 days in their own personal Boeing 757 with Bruce Dickenson flying the damn thing is kinda awesome! Then Dickinson wears a sombrero while singing "Can I Play with Madness"! That's kinda awesome but, alas, he wasn't audacious enough to wear it in a goofy fashion.

So yeah, that's kinda my ramblings about Maiden in general and how I never can warm up to them no matter how hard I try. Oh, just so you know, I didn't mention their album covers cause everybody knows that they're awesome. Why should I just repeat that fact?