Something that’s come up a few times on the #TalkingMaiden podcast is their connection to Janick’s prior band, White Spirit. Several WS songs were reused later in Maiden (c. Y2K). But I just learnt about the undeniable similarity between ’2 Minutes to Midnight’ (1984) and ‘Midnight Chaser’ (1980/1).

I mean I don’t hate it. I’d probably give it a 6.5/10 on some Pitchfork style scale. I concur with the #TalkingMaiden guys that it points towards The X Factor more than anything else in their canon up to that point. FOTD is such a hodge pitch of styles. It’s certainly dropped down my ranking now.

The #TalkingMaiden guys made an interesting point in that No Prayer was a return to basics of sorts, following Ade’s resignation and Janick’s recruitment. Stripped down live shows. Denim/leather/trainers look. More economic sound/song structure. In some ways they were ahead of the curve pre-grunge.

Doing a weird route through my vague attempt at ranking all 17 #IronMaiden studio albums. I’m timing them with listening to the #TalkingMaiden podcast deep dives. Anyway, I find myself at “Fear of the Dark” (1992). I think the first album I ever bought on release day. Funny feelings for this one…

There is arguably a decent 3:30 minute b-side hiding in ‘Angel and the Gambler’. Edit all the shit bits out of ‘Dance of Death’ and there’d only be the guitar solos left.

As Josh and Nesbit correctly point out in #TalkingMaiden, Maiden walk a fine line between gravitas and camp.

I think the title track of “Dance of Death” achieves the amazing feat of actually being WORSE than ‘Angel and the Gambler’. Here’s a clip taken from about 19 mins into episode 12 of the ace #TalkingMaiden podcast which TOTALLY nails how and why this song is a steaming pile of 🐕 💩 !! So funny!!! 🤣

Potential hot take ⚠️
I’m moving forward through the 2nd era Bruce albums, now, alongside listening to Josh and Nesbit go through them on their #TalkingMaiden podcast. As good as I think “Brave New World” is, I also think it would benefit from pruning.