mista

In music, there’s only one activity that you can engage in at the highest levels without having musical talent, without any sensitivity, and even without understanding a damn thing about music: that activity is "EXPRESSING CRITICAL DISDAIN." It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you go, as long as you say stuff like "The band XXX (better if they're well-known and have played on the radio or MTV) is total garbage, you wouldn’t even know where real music lives," and suddenly you'll be enveloped in an aura of a true connoisseur and inflexible listener. Join the Club; inside you can find anyone, both those who understand music and those who don’t get a damn thing about it, but the beauty is that you can’t tell them apart...

Well, I still don't understand... but don't the guitar phrases belong to the composition of a piece? Do you mean by composition only the notes of the vocal melody - which by the way the Megadeth know how to compose -? Because if that were the case, then all the death metal bands or, I don’t know, Pantera, would be worth nothing compositionally... The truth is that a good part of thrash or heavy metal bands would dream of writing pieces that are as compositionally cool and original as those of Megadeth.

Bah, I don’t consider it the best Megadeth album either, but the review contains quite a bit of nonsense that I don't feel like listing. Mustaine is one of the most eclectic and original songwriters in the thrash metal scene, as well as one of the best rhythm guitarists. The fact that he played with Metallica unfortunately draws the ire of fans of the four horsemen of this shit, which, in my opinion, includes the reviewer.

Then my second-to-last comment referred to sinaftersin, not to the review.

Yes Aniel, but since rebellion and anger in Maiden's music are mostly present "nolenti", I don't see the point in emphasizing their importance so much.

Wow, while I was subscribing to Lostinspace's post, I turned into a human case... I'm afraid of the contagion...

I'm sorry, but I have to endorse the long post by lostinspace; I can't stand Mariaelena's subdued arrogance, her syntax, her ostentatiously refined and excessive vocabulary, just like her reactions to jokes. How on earth do you call someone a nobody because they haven't written reviews and then lament about hellish spirits? Bah...

I dare to intervene again to contradict the entire argument about sinaftersin. The structures of Iron Maiden's songs would be punk?! I would say the exact opposite, in that they often abolish the simple structures of rock and punk, paving the way for prog metal! The Iron Maiden deviate from the genre by creating a simple and rough sound???!!! Quite the contrary, the contribution of Iron Maiden lies precisely in the greater compositional and technical complexity (which finally involved the rhythm section) that they brought into metal (the contemporaneous Priest were dozens of times simpler and rougher). As for the sound of the album, just know that Harris himself still states that he was never pleased with the dirty sound of the recording, which was essentially imposed by the negligence of the then sound engineer (see the DVD Early Days). He would have preferred a cleaner and more precise sound, proving his attitude far from the punkish roughness and simplicity that you are so eager to attribute to the band.

Moreover, I do not share this emphasis on denunciation and social rebellion, which certainly isn’t a defining characteristic of the group. I also don't like when the group is described as a handful of inexperienced youngsters; Iron Maiden reached the milestone of their first album after a lot of hard work and with a certain mastery of their abilities. Contrary to rage, if there is one thing that characterizes Maiden's music (especially the earlier albums), it is precisely the attention and care given to arrangements, melodies, rhythmic interlocks, and technique, at the expense of the frenzy and "gratuitous" violence that other metal bands (those perhaps more influenced by punk) used as a means of affirmation.

The review is quite well written, but allow me to say, it smells a bit like a write-up from someone knowledgeable but who doesn’t have perfectly tuned ears for the genre. There's too much emphasis on punk influences. In my opinion, Iron Maiden features a lot of three-guitar arrangements (one being Steve's bass) that owe much more to classical music. If you look closely, the riffs aren't based on the compactness and impact of power chords (as in punk and general metal) but on harmonized melodies crafted using all seven notes of the scale rather than the five tones (plus the occasional blue note) of the blues.