Iron Maiden/YMMV

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  • And the Fandom Rejoiced:
    • The return of Bruce Dickinson (replacing Blaze Bayley) and Adrian Smith (3 GUITARS!!!) to the band. It's very interesting to note how the band came to its actual lineup: after Harris and Dickinson talked, Bruce told him that he would return to the band if Adrian Smith (who has played with him in his latest two solo albums at the time) came back as well. And Smith himself asked Harris to not to dismiss Janick Gers in order to came back. Both things were done.
    • Gosh, they're doing another album and the coverart sucks... wait... WAIT... THIS IS A SONG FROM THE NEW ALBUM? AWESOME!!![1] Bonus points for Harris' classic bass lines from The Eighties.
    • It seems like The Final Frontier in it's entirety can be considered as a huge Fandom rejoicement album. It peaked at #1 in more than 30 countries, for Eddie's sake!
  • Award Snub: They have yet to be inducted at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But at least the 2009 Brit Award for Best Live Performance was won (deservedly), and in 2011 they got their long overdue Grammy (Best Metal Performance of 2010, "El Dorado").
  • Non Sequitur Scene: The upbeat and happy istrumental section in the otherwise dark and depressing "The Man Who Would Be King".
  • Come for the X, Stay for the Y: As a VH-1 list said: "Even classical music would sell more if their albums had zombies in the cover!" In short, come for Eddie, stay for the Epic Rocking, Dickinson's Large Ham, the Filk Songs, the awesome shows and of course, the awesome music.
  • Crazy Awesome: Nicko McBrain, in equal parts.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Bruce Dickinson dedicated the performance of "Blood Brothers" to the late Ronnie James Dio during the Final Frontier North America tour.

"You are the fucking Rainbow In The Darkness!"

    • And in the Australian wing it was dedicated to the victims of the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand.
  • Ear Worm: Some songs are sticky, particularly the choruses. "I ONLY DREAM IN BLACK AND WHITE..."
    • RUUUUUUNNNNNN TOOOOOOO THEEEEEEEE HIIIIIIIIIIIIILLS!!!
      • RUUUUUUNNNNNN FOOOOOOOR YOOOOOOOOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES!!!
    • SIX! SIX SIX! THEEEE NUUUUUMBER OOOOOF THEEEEE BEEEEASSSTTT!!!
    • YOUR TIME WILL COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!
    • YOU TELL ME WEEE CAN START THE RAIN
    • EL DORADO COME AND PLAY! EL DORADO STEP THIS WAY! TAKE A TICKET FOR THE RIIIIIDE!
    • CAN I PLAY WITH MADNEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!
    • SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UNDERSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!
    • DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON'T WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT TO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!!
    • RUUUN! LIIIVE TO FLYYYY! FLYYY TO LIIIVE! AAAACES HI-IIIIIGH!
    • THE FINAL FROOONTIIIEEEER! THE FINAL FROOONTIIIIEEEER!
  • Ending Fatigue: "The Angel and the Gambler", a 10 minute song which ends with 10 straight repetitions of its chorus (the single shortens it to just 2).
  • Epic Riff: Many, such as "Aces High", from Powerslave; "Wasted Years", from Somewhere In Time; "Iron Maiden", from Iron Maiden; and "Paschendale", from Dance of Death from 3:19 to 4:30.
  • Even Better Sequel: Paul Di'Anno left. Then, Bruce Dickinson came. The rest is history.
    • The song "22 Acacia Avenue", which is sub-titled (in the original liner notes only) as "The Continuing Saga of Charlotte the Harlot" which was the name of a song on their debut album.
  • Dork Age/Fanon Discontinuity: The only albums which don't fall in this are the ones going from The Number of the Beast to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Otherwise:
    • No Maiden existed before Bruce Dickinson arrived. (Denial of the Di'Anno era)
    • No Maiden existed without Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson (Denial of the Blaze Bayley era)
    • No Maiden existed after Adrian Smith left (Denial of everything post-Seventh Son of a Seventh Son... sometimes including the four albums in the Turn of the Millennium)
  • Face of the Band: Either Eddie, Bruce Dickinson or Steve Harris.
  • Fan Dumb / Misplaced Nationalism: While Maiden's fandom is not so bad, go to any YouTube video of "Alexander the Great" and there will be a Flame War between Greeks, Macedons and nearby Balkanic nations. Best summed up in this comment:

"Do you realize that you all seem like retards fighting about anicent [sic] history on a youtube clip of a dude doing a fucking kazoo solo?"

  • Hate Dumb: Janick Gers wrote the riff that opens "2 Minutes to Midnight" for a song by his previous band White Spirit, called "Midnight Chaser". Adrian Smith, a friend of Gers, borrowed the riff with Gers' permission. People constantly bash the way he plays the riff live, failing to realize he wrote the riff, and the way it's played by him is how he plays it on the White Spirit song.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Once, Adrian said that he expected Iron Maiden to do 15 albums before quitting. The title of Maiden's 15th. album is The Final Frontier.
  • I Am Not Shazam: "Blaze" is just a Stage Names of Bayley Cook.
  • Magnum Opus: The Number Of The Beast.
  • Misattributed Song: No, they didn't do covers of "The Ripper", "The Zoo" nor they have a song called "Silver Wings"! And "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is sung by Bruce Dickinson but it's NOT a song of the band. Neither are every song which Bruce did outside of Maiden. (Read: His solo career.)
  • Misblamed: Blaze Bayley.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • Back in 1982, Maiden put out a little song called "The Number of the Beast". Based on either a Nathaniel Hathorne story or a nightmare Harris had. To this day, many people still think they're evil Satanists.
    • Another victim of this is Blaze Bayley, who, despite his excellent solo career, will always be remembered as the Maiden singer who tried to replace Bruce Dickinson and failed.
  • Nostalgia Filter: Appliable to their fandom. Despite all (or at least, most) of the newer material being as awesome as in their "golden years", and despite having the same ol' lineup (along with Janick Gers) of that time, most fans will always prefer The Eighties' material over their new work. Sometimes without having heard the newer material, or hearing it while thinking in the Good Ol' Times. A pretty big part of the issue is that the band underwent somewhat of a Genre Shift after Blaze Bayley left and Dickinson came back, and went in a more Progressive Metal direction, which is really ironic, since "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" still remains as the longest song in the history of Iron Maiden, (The longest song of The Final Frontier, according to reports, is 11 minutes long) and Maiden always had a prog-metal feeling even in it's heyday. (Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, anyone?)
  • Paranoia Fuel: "Fear of the Dark". * Shiver*
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • Averted with Bruce Dickinson: he's almost universally regarded as even better than his predeccesor Paul Di'Anno.
    • Blaze Bayley replaced Bruce Dickinson in the mid-nineties. A part of the fandom still bashes him because he tried to replace Bruce Dickinson and isn't Bruce Dickinson.
    • Early on, Janick Gers replaced Adrian Smith during The Nineties and felt into this, though less so now that Adrian returned to the band.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Blaze Bayley, thanks to his solo career, which a lot of people sees as far superior to his two albums with Maiden.
  • Sequel Displacement: Iron Maiden and Killers weren't bad albums, but both are overshadowed by The Number Of The Beast.
  • Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying: "Quest for Fire" from Piece of Mind, though that was loosely based on a movie.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Sacking Di'Anno and putting Dickinson as the singer really worked out, it seems.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: A recent tour focused on the 2000's material. Parts of the Broken Base and many reviewers criticized because staples such as "The Trooper" had to leave the setlist.
  • X Meets Y: 70's Progressive Rock meets Judas Priest.
  1. ↑ This, of course, doesn't apply to the Fan Dumb with the Nostalgia Filter on, but rather everyone else.
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