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Hiya son

Post 1

Mike A (snowblind)

Give us a bell when ya get back from wherever you've been, please.


Hiya son

Post 2

Arctica

Hi - I'm back now from holiday. What's up?


Hiya son

Post 3

Mike A (snowblind)

Well, I've been back from mine for a while. Great time. Now in school, doing GCSE coursework smiley - sadface, but have a mosh-pit ticket for the Iron Maiden gig in Birmingham smiley - smiley.
Samson are not playing my hometown on my birthday, but I'm making up for it by buying more Slipknot and Iron Maiden stuff in the near future. LPs instead of CDs. Cunning.


Hiya son

Post 4

Arctica

Ah, a youngster smiley - smiley I did my GCSEs in 1988, the year they replaced O-levels. Jeez, twelve years ago! Now I feel old. I was just getting into AC/DC at the time, having hitherto been brought up with predominantly classical music - and I didn't get into Maiden until '91 when I was at university.

I'm afraid I've not heard any Slipknot, but I don't get much exposure to metal these days.

Do you have all Maiden's albums? Which are your top 5 favourites (in order)?


Hiya son

Post 5

Mike A (snowblind)

Up the Irons! Curiously, I went through all my Maiden albums for a kid on the bus yesterday. I've got 11 of their 16. And between our little local gang of Maiden fans, we have all the albums on CD.
Top 5 (this is hard):
1. Iron Maiden
1. The Number Of The Beast (joint first, definatly. Depends on my mood which one I like)
2. The X Factor
3. Killers
4. Brave New World (because I've listened to it lots recently - and its very good)

I mainly thrive off the old Maiden material...after Number Of The Beast, they mellowed out slightly, but noticeably. For the better? Depends how Thrash you like your metal, really.

Now, Slipknot are an age ahead of Maiden. A rather Slayer-esque guitar sound, but instead of solos (NO solo on any Slipknot song!) they have hip-hip style wierd noises from the mixing deck. A nice, heavy kick in the ear...complete with swear-filled lyrics to appeal to teens like moi.

Coincidentally, I'm listening to AC/DC while doing me GCSEs (though I ain't got into any coursework yet - only two days back in school!). Back In Black - great album. Great songs: Hells Bells (and the whole A-side) is addictive. Which one has that addictive riff? Duh me, all of them do!
Highway To Hell, meanwhile, ain't as hot as people say, methinks. Title song, Girls Got Rhythem and Touch Too Much are great songs. The rest? Hmmm.
Still, there's other classic albums from the smelly Scots to listen to. Rock on, mate!


Hiya son

Post 6

Arctica

My own favourites are:

1. Powerslave
2. Iron Maiden
3. Piece of Mind
4. The X Factor
5. Killers (or maybe Brave New World)

I wasn't keen on Number of the Beast... okay, there are four terrific songs on it, but there are also three really dire songs, and one which is rather mediocre (Run to the Hills).

Well I don't listen to AC/DC any more, but Highway to Hell was always my favourite album. Girls Got Rhythm was the worst song on the album though, IMO. The title track, Walk All Over You, Touch Too Much, Shot Down in Flames, If You Want Blood and Love Hungry Man are all great songs ... and the best? Night Prowler! A real gem, tucked away at the end of the album there.

Swearing in song lyrics tends to put me off. It's unnecessary and smacks of shock value as a replacement for compositional creativity. One of the things I love about Maiden is the intelligence of their lyrics - the words to some of their songs, eg Hallowed Be Thy Name, are sheer poetry. So you've not yet convinced me to try Slipknot smiley - smiley but I will get around to it sometime.


Removed

Post 7

Mike A (snowblind)

This post has been removed.


Hiya son

Post 8

Arctica

Of course it's only my opinion, but I hated The Prisoner, Invaders and Gangland. Run to the Hills I thought was rather mediocre. I haven't heard Total Eclipse - I only have the old versions of all the albums.

Angry music, especially f-word-laden music, tends to turn me off. I love the literary themes of Iron Maiden's songs and the songs I like least are the simple ones with repetitive choruses (From Here to Eternity, I'm talking to you!).


Hiya son

Post 9

Mike A (snowblind)

Repetitive chrouses and you pick From Here To Eternity over The Angel And The Gambler? You never cease to amaze me, me old fruit!


Hiya son

Post 10

Arctica

I just picked From Here to Eternity because it's the worst song on the worst album Maiden ever did. However I'll admit that Virtual XI pretty much sucks too, and contains more repetitive choruses than any other Maiden album. The Angel and the Gambler is indeed one of the worst offenders. I only bought Virtual XI recently, so I don't hate it quite as much as Fear of the Dark, but it's possible I might in the future. I don't know all the songs that well, but I haven't found any yet that I'd call good.

I recently made a compilation tape - Best of Maiden 1990-2000. On it I have 3 songs from No Prayer, 1 from Fear of the Dark, 7 from The X Factor (yeah, count them), and 3 from Brave New World. Maybe I'm being unfair to Virtual XI but I don't know - nothing on that album really leaps out at me.


Hiya son

Post 11

Mike A (snowblind)

I've borrowed Fear Of The Dark off a friend, and though it doesn't live up to what I ythought of it last time I heard it, I'll still say it's a fine album. I wouldn't recommend it - there's better fish in the sea, but it's still better than No Prayer For The Dying. That I did not like smiley - sadface

Virtual XI, while not being a legendary album, is still a fine peice. It's let down, imo, by Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger and The Educated Fool. Given the length of the songs overall, and the general sound of the album, I'd have to say that these two songs are a bit offputting to the overall feel. But looking at the rest of it, there are some damn fine songs that even I do not give enough respect to. One of which is The Angel And The Gambler.

I, myself, have just got into Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. It's taken over a month, but I'm loving this album!


Hiya son

Post 12

Katsy a.k.a. Esti

I saw a Slipknot album in HMV earlier, not sure which one it was though.......they've also been mentioned several times in this fortnights Smash Hits (I only bought it as a one off cos Skandal were in there, I'm not that sad), and Kian from Westlife confessed he's a secret Guns 'n' Roses fan......


Hiya son

Post 13

Mike A (snowblind)

Now which Slipknot album could possibly be in HMV? Hmmm....well, unless the mainstream major retailer has decided to start tracking down ultra-rare EPs, then I'd expect that the album you saw would be the self-titled debut smiley - winkeye

I read a 5ive interview where they were discussing how 'rock' they were. They seemed to think that by wearing Metallica, Iron Maiden and Motorhead t-shirts and admitting they went to parties and drank booze (mummy wouldn't like that!!!) they were 'rock'. No surprise, Kerrang put them at top spot of that week's Gob-O-Meter (666ยบ toss) with the quote: "We've been to New York. That's rock, isn't it?"
Snort a line of ants, bite the head off a dove, have a slash in the aisle of a plane, beat people who insult you in the streets, have some 'shocking' merchandise to flog, burn down some Norwegian churches, get banged up in an American prison for murder and then murder a rival musician (these are two seperate, unrelated incidents). Then I'll decide if you're as 'rock' as the guys I listen to.


Hiya son

Post 14

Katsy a.k.a. Esti

sorry but 5ive are SO NOT rock! No offense to them like!

You're gonna laugh at me now, but when Ally and me where in Our Price buying Skandal's single, behind us the queue was none other than Skandal's tour manager-Fletch!!!!!! He said Skandal are gonna be on Essex FM tonight doing a live interview so if we told him our names he would give us a mention, so when I said I post on their message board as Katsy, he says "Ah, so you're Katsy! I've seen you post there often!" SKANDAL'S TOUR MANAGER KNOWS WHO I AM!!!!!!!!!!
So Ally and me popped down to Essex FM and waited for 1 AND A HALF HOURS to meet them!!!!!! I also phoned when we were waiting outside and that DJ, Chris Brooks, thinks just cos my signal on my walkman isn't good he can make fun of me! I think he said something like "The signal is being beamed up to a satellite in space and back down, and she's in the car park and can't hear us!" Well my mummy was listening and recording it! I'm gonna phone up tomorrow night and have a right go at him!!!! The cheek of it! Anyway Fletch came up to us and say hello but can you believe this one...James actually came over to talk to us!!!!!!! Like cool or what! I showed him my archive of Skandal photos and some articles from magazines on them from last November and he was reading them with great interest! I think he was a bit surprised and hadn't seen the photos before! You know I almost feel like they are my friends now? Meeting them 3 times in a fortnight is pretty good going, and I'm not nervous when I meet them any more, just plain hyper!


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