Music Banter - The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

Ah yes, May. Spring is here. The birds are ... sheltering in the trees from the pounding rain? Bloody Ireland! Still, at least the sun is shining down in Journaltown, even if it is a lightbulb sun! (In-joke for progheads!) So what, as they say, has been happenin' man? Come with me...

Anteater is looking at a release by one of my alltime favourite bands, Iron Maiden, in a new section entitled “Overlooked and underrated albums” in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...n-dollars.html

while having dealt with the Pixies Black Francis is now looking at the solo careers of the individual members after the band split. In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-journey.html he's first taking on the solo work of his namesake, Frank Black. Oh, and throwing in some skating music too!

Briks and I will be unleashing Nickelback Week upon you in a fortnight (he's been beta-testing it, sort of) but until then what's happening down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html? Well, er, Nickelback actually. Have to have a word about that with him. The albums are all great (not) and all, but surely people want to know the real man behind the music? Like how Chad won World War II? And how he reunited Italy? And surely the story of the first ever Christian Roman Emperor, Chad I, must be told? Watch this space!

A new journal already gathering many fans is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ack-sound.html, where this week Cicatrice is looking at The Meat Puppets and the hilariously-named Satan's Satyrs! Don't miss it!

And a new journal begun only today comes from http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-journal.html where he's talking in his first entry about the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and also supplying Spotify links. Nice!

Having not been bothered to write an update last week Goofle is making up for it this week with artistes such as Jon Connor (thought he was leading the resistance against the Terminators?), Slowdive, Nancy Elizabeth, Strikeforce Diablo and the Lightning Seeds, plus a whole lot more that come under the heading of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ening-log.html

Lots of good vibes from the 70s in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ic-memory.html as Ladyislingering listens to such artistes as The Association, Country Joe and the Fish and Argent, to name but three...

... while an old member returns and reignites his journal, as Musicphantom reopens http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-musings.html (after four years!) with a piece on Neutral Milk Hotel, while at the same time starting a new journal, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...p-samples.html with music from Nujabes, Gangstarr and more.

Plankton has a new journal! Check out http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html where so far we have Godsmack, Winger, Clutch and more!

Nickelback Week is coming! Just thought I'd warn you, er, plug it again. Until then all I have for you in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html are the two latest albums on the list of PA's top 100 prog of 2013, with Sonus Umbra and The Twenty Committee, neither of which to be honest impressed me. Don't panic! though, as we begin our coverage of Douglas Adams' classic sci-fi cult comedy show “The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy” in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html, as well as a new section, in which I take you on a trip through “The Very Worst of The Twilight Zone”! To make up for so little in the Playlist this week I've managed to squeeze an update into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-reviews.html, so go check out Edge of Thorns. I found them a bit meh though.

Unknown Soldier comes close to revealing his top album of 1981 in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html but it ain't Maiden's “Killers!” That's at number 3, just above Motley Crue. So what will be number one? Keep reading to find out.

After something of an extended absence, William the bloody is back! He's leaping http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ta-coffin.html (yeah I know but what can I do with a title like that?) at ya with music from Ceremony and Violent Femmes. Welcome back man!

And we close on yet another new journal, from the esteemed Wpnfire, who's looking at electric guitar music in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...irtuosity.html with contributions so far from Jeff Beck, Deep Purple and Front Line Assembly. Great start man!

People accuse each other and everyone else of being in cliques, and this could be true of Unknown Soldier, Anteater and I. We did after all start the Prog Rock Album Club and we can be seen discussing the same music. The two guys will also hopefully be helping m out with the new, barely-formed embryo we call The Heavy Metal Album Club. But all that aside, I feel I have to award this week's
http://www.trollheart.com/quill.jpg
to my man Ant, for his succinct and yet bang-on review of Maiden's “No prayer for the dying”, as below...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anteater (Post 1448959)

http://i59.tinypic.com/icp7gz.png

http://991.com/NewGallery/Iron-Maide...The-335945.jpg

So lets start off by stating the obvious: yes, 1990's No Prayer For The Dying wasn't within spitting distance of Seventh Son.. quality-wise, and the relatively lukewarm reception this album received from the hardcore Maiden fans upon release wasn't completely undeserved either. Whilst the musical landscape was beginning to change as the rumblings of "alternative" and "grunge" music echoed in the distance, the synth-laden approach Maiden had adopted on their two previous outings was still in vogue for most of the fans. Nobody went up to Dickinson, Harris or Smith and asked them to "strip down" their sound, but strip it down they did after their massive world tour wrapped up in '89. It didn't help that Adrian Smith decided to vacate about halfway into pre-production either, forcing Dickinson to recruit his buddy Janick Gers on axework to pick up the slack. No wonder people were pissed: the album hadn't even been recorded and many people had already convinced themselves it wasn't going to be any good! And as the saying goes...most prophecies are self-fulfilling ones for those that have already made up their minds beforehand.

In retrospect though, the truth is that No Prayer For The Dying is far from a bad album. It is definitely weaker than anything they band had done from '81 onwards up until that point...but this is Iron Maiden we are talking about. Even a 'by the numbers' release from them is going to be better than what others of their ilk might have cooked up as long as their classic lineup was mostly intact...and intact it was in 1990.

So instead of writing up a long review of why you should give this underrated record another shot if you had dismissed it previously based on a collective rep, I'll sum it up in five quick points-

1. It's an interesting album sonically. Bruce Dickinson not only snarls and curses a fair amount throughout (which is unusual for a Maiden album), but it seems like he and the band actually developed a sense of humor as well. ('Public Enema Number One', 'Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter', etc. etc.)

2. 'The Assassin', 'Run Silent Run Deep', 'Fates Warning' and 'Hooks In You' are all here, and those songs are prime goodies that would have fit well on any of the past classics.

3. It's one of the shortest albums in the IM's discography, with no cuts running longer than 5 minutes, which actually makes the experience fairly breezy regardless of how much you enjoy (or despise) the music contained therein.

4. Great album cover, and the last one where we'd see "classic" Eddie for awhile.

5. It's better than 'Fear Of The Dark' or anything recorded with Blaze Bayley...a LOT better! *shudder* :yikes:

So that's my take folks. Anyone got a second opinion? :love:

I'd just like to say before closing that it is great to see so many new journals starting up, both from members who have been here a while and yet never took the plunge, and from ones I don't know at all but who look like they really have something. That's what it's all about: you don't have to be here three years or know everyone on the forum before you can start your journal. All it takes is the will and a bit of determination and effort, and you can really make a go of it. So fair play to those of you who have decided to take a risk. I know it won't be in vain.

That's it for this week; see you all next week as we draw closer to Nickelback .... okay, I get the message. I'll stop now.

May the Chad be with you all. :D
Toodles!