Now THIS is a really unpopular opinion. As I disagree with you, take an ~~invite~~ upvote.
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
26 points (93.3% liked)
Unpopular Opinion
7071 readers
76 users here now
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
- If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
- If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesnβt provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Where's the invite to? Is it Bruce's jet?
Edited π
Speaking of getting burned at the stake, Iron Maiden stole their sound from Anvil. The truth hurts people's feelings
Clearly he was wearing the gold record pants for the solo stuff.
Ooooh, damn!
Well, unpopular as the opinion is, you have a point.
However, I think you over state it. Bruce's solo work is definitely his best vocal work on average (imo, obviously). But his solo work being better than Maiden is a hard sale.
Reason being that bands are synergistic when they're working right, and Maiden has a ton of synergy every individual musician is top tier, but the way they work together is more than the sum of their individual talents.
Yeah, Bruce sounds amazing on his own. But, He also pretty much ran the show, and the songs suffered from that, on average, compared to the gestalt if Maiden songs.
I'd also argue that the best solo songs are on par with great, but not best Maiden songs. I mean, c'mon, the entirety of somewhere in time is packed with songs that, individually, are as good or better than any of Bruce's solo songs, and as an album, it smashes his albums across the board, and SIT doesn't have a majority of tracks being their best ones
But I dig where you're coming from for sure. Bruce's solo stuff doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
Really, SIT? I'd say that Fear Of The Dark (EDIT: I spoke too quickly, add Piece Of Mind to that) is the only Maiden album that even comes close to Bruce's solo work. Which, to be fair, I'd say Fear Of The Dark could give any solo album except A Tyranny Of Souls a run for its money. But I'd say that even Accident Of Birth, the weakest of the solo albums, equals most Maiden albums in quality.
I tend to prefer vocal work in music more generally, though, so there's a definite bias there.
Yeah, if you only go by the quality of vocals, his solo stuff is nuts. I'm going by overall song crafting.
He just never managed to make songs that were as iconic on his own. Great songs, yes. But they never really hit that magic point where they're a cultural treasure the way Maiden could
I mean based on Chemical Wedding alone! Love that version of Jerusalem, weirdly.
Blaze Bayley's first 4 solo albums are better than Maiden of the same era (and all the Bruce stuff)