Dance Of Death

[Dragontear]

When the album dance of death was released in 2003 . I was disappointed the first time from Iron Maiden cover.

There is nothing bad in the commercial idea of Eddie like the Death (its well drаwn) . but the awful CGI people dancing around it are just too ugly bad made and unnecessary

The first thing I did was to see who the artist is , but i couldn't find anything. Few ears later a came tho the following story in internet:

QUOTE

Although Eddie is still present ? albeit in a slightly different form than Riggs would have painted him ? he is surrounded by computer-generated characters that shocked many fans when the cover was unveiled. Eddie himself is depicted as Death, which gives a strange d?j?-vu impression. Isn't Death also portrayed on every Children of Bodom album cover? As for the weird cgi people surrounding Eddie, the controversy has arisen prior to the release of the album. Did Iron Maiden give a fake preview of the Dance Of Death cover in order to mock the hordes of fans that regularly check the Internet for an exclusive peep at the cover of the future album? Many fans couldn't believe that Maiden was actually going to release an album with such an untypical (and, let's say it, ugly) cover. These computer-generated characters are not even done properly: if you look closely, the "cgi woman" in the foreground has something horribly wrong with her neck and the rest of her articulations, also the baby's backside is not even actually touching the white wolf, and there are many other details do not quite match with a correctly made picture. Only the background, with the shrouded monks, indicates that some real artistry has taken place during the design of the cover ? sadly to be mainly occulted by the foreground characters.

The cover, although it is not mentioned in the credits, was made by David Patchett, the artist behind the Cathedral covers. Reportedly, Patchett's cover only included Eddie and the monks, but Rod thought it was really empty, so he hired someone from ironmaiden.com to design the characters surrounding Eddie using the programme Poser. Then, he gave the roughs back to Patchett and asked him to work on the skin and mask textures. Patchett did so but was unimpressed with the result and asked not to be included in the credits. The masks used on the Dance of Death cover were made by Goblin Art, a company based in Portland, Oregon. Although they bear a striking similarity with those that can be seen in Kubrick's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, Goblin Art never provided the masks for the film.

Според мен е наистина e голяма грешка за група която е вдъхвала такова доверие с обложките се да се остави толкова лесно да бъде подведена от нечий лош вкус. Според мен албума трябва да бъде преиздаден в специално издание леко пре мастериран (че имаше някои гафове) и най-важното с нова обложка

My personal opinion: Its a really big mistake for the band to experiment with their covers. After all their covers and Eddie have respected every heavy metal fan and are like icons. Its a nice idea the album to be re-released in a special or limited edition with bonus tracks and even remastered (there were little bugs in the sound) and the most important - with new cover

[ThePrisoner]

Don't get me wrong, I still like the album quite a bit... but I think of DoD as their most experimental album, in many different ways.

First, the songs. You've got a mix of all different kinds of stuff on there. I know the boys always liked Jethro Tull, but the song "Dance of Death" is perhaps their first song that blatantly shows that influence. You've got a completely acoustic number with "Journeyman", the first use of double-kick drumming from Nicko on "Face in the Sand", you've got a couple of nice singles like "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker" coupled with epics like "Paschendale". These songs are all good, but in terms of style they're all over the place.

Then, as you said, the production. I don't think this is Kevin Shirley's fault either... I think it was Steve Harris who ultimately approved what we hear on the album. It's got to be the worst production job in Maiden's history. There's plenty of areas where the music just sounds crushed and tinny. Again, I think this was another experiment, but this one didn't work out too well. I think this led to Kevin having a bit more control over AMOLAD's production, and it shows because that album sounds gorgeous.

Finally, the cover art.... yeah, it's pants. At least they didn't remove Eddie completely like it was rumoured before the album came out. There was really nothing wrong with the original picture... maybe a little bit bare, yes... but we could have lived with it, I think.

Some kind of remaster or reissue would be really cool.

[Dragontear]

Yeah DOD is really great album .. nobody will say different. I loved it from the first.. .. There were shits in the sound on a lot of places in the album. I think if they re-recorded Paschendale now it will sound just TITANIC - like For the Greater Good Of God .. Its funny because when i heard DOD .. Paschendale became my favorite. And I thought that this war concept is really cool and the band must concentrate on it .. And here you go ... 3 years later we have "A Matter Of Life And Death"
Actually The biggest problem of DOD is the cover. And the problem is not that Eddie is small and not catcing (in AMOLAD i thought that its not even there, when i first saw the cover)
Maybe the CGI BOLD people are just too much...

[Dragontear]

Here s the original Version of the cower

My opinion is that it kicks ass

[eliza]

ya so good so interesting post.i like it so much .I am also so much excited when When the album dance of death was released in 2003.