From the brutal to the sludgy to the experimental to the symphonic, we raise our horns in welcome and warning to the coming week: we are here to ROCK.
A new millenium, a new chapter in the Eddie Chronicles. With 2000’s Brave New World, Iron Maiden really did have something to prove: Bruce Dickinson & Adrian Smith had returned, so were they going to go back to being the Iron Maiden of old, or would they try something new?
Both/And is, of course, the correct answer.
Taking advantage of their 3 guitar line-up, Iron Maiden recorded Brave New World pretty much live in the studio with a producer (Kevin Shirley) known for getting punchy, ‘live’ sound from artists. The resulting album remains a triumph of the Maiden catalogue, but closer “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate” is a triumph of triumphs. Galloping tempos, power balladry, face-melting solos, “Hotel California”-esque trade-off solos, some more solos…it’s all here in an extended track that reflects philosophically on the meaning, not only of death—as we’d come to expect from Maiden—but of life.
“I will hope, my soul will fly, so I will live forever/Heart will die, my soul will fly, and I will live forever”