Blabbermouth reports that during a conversation with Rock FM, Bruce Dickinson talked about the time when he rejoined Iron Maiden back in 1999.
During the interview, Bruce said that he had one condition for the group in order to return to the fold – no nostalgia.
He explained:
“All I needed to know was that we were not gonna come back as some sort of a reunion-type thing. I didn’t want to go back to the past.
This was gonna be about putting a band together that was looking ahead to the future – to do a great new album and to really restart the whole impetus and direction of the band.”
Bruce added:
“And Steve [Harris, bassist/bandleader] said that’s what he wanted to do, and I was, like, ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
And, of course, the first album we came out with after that was ‘Brave New World’ – I think one of the best Maiden albums that we’ve ever done.”
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BNW one of the best you’ve ever done until then? I didn’t know you use heavy drugs, Bruce.
You got the nostalgia bug. BNW is a masterpiece. As a album it is one of the best even though other albums have more important individual songs. Nothing beats hallowed be thy name, but BNW as a whole is better than the number of the beast
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Well, I disagree 100%. The Number of the Beast, while not my favorite is still a lot better than BNW and will always be a landmark in the history of the genre, BNW being the introduction to what would be the renewed Maiden sound to this date.
Comparing BNW to all its previous siblings, it’s only better than the Blaze era’s albums, Fear of the Dark and No Prayer… it’s miles behind the rest.
I doubt anyone would say BNW is as good, or better, than Number of the Beast, but that doesn’t mean BNW isn’t a great album.
I never said it’s not good, just not as good as the older classics, but almost any Maiden album is amazing by any other band’s standards. Even X-Factor and Virtual XI have fantastic tracks.
Ghost of the Navigator and Brave New World are two of Maiden’s best songs and there’s also Blood Brothers and Wicker Man on that album which are both great songs. BNW stands as one of Maiden’s better albums.
Definitely, one of their 9-10 best! ?
I would put BNW on par with their classics. I’m not going to rank them, but if someone had a collection and they had Killers, Somewhere in Time, etc but they didn’t have BNW, I would be “WHERE IS BNW YA WEIRDO!”. It’s a GOOD album. When it came out after the first listen I was “Hly sht! THAT WAS GOOD! Unexpected!” and now it sits among the best for me.