Iron Maiden=Prog Metal?

blazno wrote: I love Iron Maiden but they are not prog. Seventh Son... has some prog feeling to it and Rime of the... is a great epic song with shifing moods and rithems but this is not enough to consider IM a prog-metal band.

Exactly!!

 

They are just an excellent metal band IMO. Prog no. Maybe some tracks .

They were voted no by the band admissons team quite a while ago.

 

 

Powerslave, Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son are definitively prog, and some fans say that their later albums (Brave New World, Dance of Death) are even proggier. However, most of their other albums are not prog.

I think What makes a "prog" band "prog" is intent and purpus. Steve Harris is the biggest Genesis fan on the planet and has probobly seen them in concert more times than anyone here, but when he started a band he did not want to sound like them (the best bands are "influenced" by their influence and they do not just emulate them). Iron Maiden had a totaly different veiw on music than the old style that by this time had been done to death. Energy and emotion was their main draw in the early years and put the final death blow to the punk revolution, combining energy with Guitar sophistocation in a way no one had done before. When Bruce Dickinson came along they discovered the Art Rock asthetic and took influnce from classical roots that Prog mainly ignored (yes metal is as much based on classical music as prog just in different areas). Steve Harris once called Maiden's music as thematic which bases the music as a representation of visual things or pictures, a hallmark of the romantic era or even earlier in Vivaldi. You take The lonleness of the long distance runner, its steady drumbeat is purpusfull because it represents footfalls of the runner and the endless road he has to tread or Aces High you feel like your flying a spitfire to go shoot down a german bomber. Now compare this with Wakemans "anne of cleaves" or the whole album for that matter, this song could have been called anything because it is not intended to be a representation of anne of cleaves its more absolute music than program music or thematic music. Another song I pick from my playlist is Return to forever's "Deul of the jester and the Tyrant" it could be called "Sailing the seven seas of space" and I could not tell the difference. Iron Maiden is the metal equivilant of a movie soundtrack which is all about the image, the sound, and the emotion and the complexity of those rather than the band playing the instraments. If you saw their stage shows you would understand.

Classical influences

1.Vivaldi

2.Bethoven

3.Brahms or any similer composers from the romantic era.

Bands from prog that have similer thematic elements

1.Renaissance

2.Pink floyd

Are they prog? No, they do not come form the same source. Are they a classicaly influnced thematicly complex, emotionly driven metal band? As a classical enthusist and a university trained musical observer I objectivly say yes. 

Edited by reality

If Maiden are not prog, you can scrap half of all the bands listed in this site. Just listen to Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and tell me with dry eyes that that's not prog. Well... I'll tell you that you and I shurely have a different view of what's prog. Also the album "Seventh Son.."  is DEFINATELY prog by my standards. I know that the "pain" of inclusion is where to stop. When you add Maiden, where are you going to end? Metallica's ....and Justice is also very progressive in my book. Therefore I suggest that these bands are included in prog archives under  "prog related". Their main course may be metal, but they shure as hell produced some very progressive tracks and influenced others with that (Anyone for DT?). So when a vote comes along I'll shurely vote for inclusion in the "Prog Related" catagory. At least Queen will have some competition there (I consider them superior to what Queen ever did)  

its certainly prog related

reality: Don't worry, I read your post. Some very valid points indeed. 

^exactly....

stop making 'Iron maiden wannabe prog' threads