The Gathering

I also think Silje would do a great job singing some old stuff. I hope they'll do some old stuff at their concerts.
I cant wait to see them again

Is there any chance TG realising FAST enough how incompetent the new singer is and find someone who really has the talent to stand behind TG microphone? Even one of the 2 guests of the new album who seem to fit much better.
I didn't even know this Silje,but she completely screws the new album for me with her mumbling and heartless singing,and she manages to make the old-great-songs seem mediocre!...
Don't misunderstand me,i think she can sing,but she definately can't sing for TG.

I know there is no chance of the band admiting they made a huge mistake so fast,but it's rather sooner than later. Personally i just can't stand it.

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you own me...

You need some fiber.

I sorta agree with Petros point of view. his words are kinda direct and sometimes arrogant for sure, but he assumes what he says. This is the Petros i know! ahahahah...

I also think Silje is a talentuous singer but at any time she doesn't sing better than Anneke. Anneke timbre is different but noone said yet her level is far above Silje one. The old songs leave me cold for today. it lacks of magic.
I'm pleased someone like Petros got the balls to say this.

but the new songs sounds better on stage to me anyway.

obviously what we are saying wouldn't change anything, but's it was sincere to espress it.

What is Maiden without Dickinson?

I was watching that docu about The Number of the Beast album and how M. Birch if I'm correct and experts/critics of that time said that he brought the music to "a whole new level". That is the impact a singer can have on otherwise great bands.

What was Maiden without Dickinson? I bet Harris knows it all too well. Anneke is made of the same wood simple as that. Singers do have that impact.

With Anneke on board they were a superband, they still are to me but I just don't see it happening now.

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Well well, how can I heed you?
I wish you did not exist..

I'm agree with Petros.
I don't like Silje sing old songs... (Have a shiver on my back when I heard Travel... but didn't have an emotion on this. I just remember the old better version... That's the same for Great Ocean Road.) I didn't say that she's not a good singer but I prefer her voice on the new songs... and just say that she fits more with Octavia...
Sorry, but it's just my opinion. And I don't want to be cataloged as "an Anneke fan"!
I like the band as great musicians to make so powerfull songs. (Have the one called "How to measure a Planet?" in my head for example.)

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i do not agree. i was at the gigs in purmerend and heerlen. silje fits in the band, she can sing the old songs very well, much better than i expected, and i almost forgot there was another singer at that moments... her voice is different than anneke, but i think its beautiful..but its a matter of taste..

That is right, Silje is really part of the group, there is positive chemistry between them, especially with Marjolein (from what I could see on the stage). Someone wrote on the concerts topic that Travel was not good, but I thought it was. Silje sung with more power in her voice than in the other songs. It will always be difficult to hear someone else sing your favourite songs. For me, as much as I like Marcela on Pale Traces, I don't like what I saw on youtube in her Gathering tributes. We just have to accept that it is different now. I personally can't wait to see them again.

As long as I was not convinced so much with the West Pole , this was not a big surprise for me ,maybe I expected more with the old songs but finally no emotions at all . So yet it is a matter of taste and I'm not going to say I love it cause TG the Big band ever is back and so on...

I didn't use the word"Anneke" anywhere because i didn't want to get reaction like "Anneke is gone,get over it blah blah blah",i don't care about Anneke,i'm not making comparisons.

(btw Anneke left to make this silly songs. I expected much from her solo career but she has the exact opposite problem. Tremendous talented voice,but she is just lame as a songwriter/composer, the stuff she does is so boring,i don't care anymore.End of this Anneke theme)

Silje is just bloody Cold.
Listening to the West Pole is like an anger management exercise. You are really calm,you put the disk on and just count how much time it takes to feel the anger. All this mumble mumble mumble in my ears gets my brain roasted. I don't get what she says except from words here and there,but above all the singing is so flat. Cold and flat like a straight line. And in a constantly low tone,it really gets on my nerves

I bet she can sing different stuff,but her passionless,heartless,flat,boring style just doesn't fit with TG.
There were so many choices,and their was that????
OK this is their choice and they have to support it now,until finally realising the mistake. But the choice should be considered more than something like "i don't want any anneke wannabes,i don't wanna hear about anneke anymore,i'm so mad,etc etc".

Anyone who is a singer can sing any song. But there's more than that. And this girl just can't get another level. It's on an LP,it's on live perfomances on older songs,what more does anyone need? Just hearing the songs with just "someone on the mic" (really anyone just decent could sing like Silje) is so far below even simply satisfying (not to mention awesome as it was before).

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you own me...

i agree to say this is a matter of taste because of the different singing and timbre, but as the emotion is not transmitted as its best as Anneke did, this is also a matter of level.

It's not easy an task to substitute Anneke anyway. Silje fits better the new songs to me from an objective point of view. Anneke's presence will always be here for the earlier fans.

I had the same feeling this morning whan i was listening to Helloween's earlier album. It was my second fave band after Maiden in 89. Andie Deris is not a good singer to me and i don't like his timbre (Silje timbre is quite ok). Michael Kiske WAS the Helloween singer.

as Silje IS now the TG singer

ps: some old helloween fans will remember this rumour about who was gonna substitute Bruce in Maiden: Michael Kiske!!! mais lol

Blaze level is above Bruce ones for sure. he did a wonderful job since X factor album. I appreciated his contribution as Paul did during Killers. So this is a matter of taste; level but also history. Bruce is a better frontman. not necessarily the best Maiden singer.

Martin was always considered as the ghost Maiden member (the sixth ones in the past) for sure but come one, everyone know the late maiden albums are kinda untasty (not to say the cheesy", "different" and so on ans so on) today, especially after Seventh Son.

Maiden is mythic today. that's it

and for many fans like me, Bruce is not Maiden.. Steve Harris is Iron Maiden

This doesn't belong here whatsoever. All the same, stop telling nonsense like suggesting that Blaze Bayley is better at singing than Bruce Dickinson, this is flat-out dull.

i won't stop talking. sorry. because i love talking...about music! The first reason why i suscribed here

I prefer Bruce too like you. but i (like some maiden fans i know) admit technically he's not as good as Blaze. if you're a fan, you should know too Bruce sings false very oftenly in most of the live performances, especially lately, i mean on stage. you could have realized this when listening to Live after Death recording (On Beast over Hammersmith recording, he was great!)
it didn't get better with time.

To me, Iron Maiden evolution (and viewing all their singers), considering their perennity, can be a good point to apprehend and understand TG evolution. My view was wider than a just a single singers comparison.

oh i forgeaot... I'm very quite. thank you guys! ^

What's that about Maiden? it's a very nice example but on the opposite direction,that of a very huge mistake called Blaze=Silje.. I am the biggest maiden fan,and i tell that. X-Factor is on my top 5 maiden albums ever,and Virtual XI is maybe number 6. I say that to show how much i love the 2 albums they made with him. But Maiden had at that time so much inspiration that the serious seeeerious flaws blaze had, seemed ok on albums so damn good.

TG didn't make a special album with west pole,it could be pretty nice though with a different singer.

anyway,hoang your above post is like a joke,have you heard blaze live? he really sucks,it was a crime to sing the old songs. really. i like him but he sucked. and Bruce is like the god of singers you know. just don't spit out things like that

stay on the subject. Silje is pretty lame for TG

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you own me...

wookay dude!
To me Blaze is a great and underrated singer and better technically than Bruce. i love his Maiden era even if it was short. obviously more for the songs since X factor like you
i disagree with you but i don't mind.
Bruce is my icon too... he's part of my youth... and probably yours too!

To Me Freddie Mercury was the God of Rock Singers. Not Bruce. come on.

so back on topic... i love the West Pole songs and Silje performance. She fits the new era, but not the old one. finito!

She (Silje) did ok on the new songs.

But please... let the old ones go... please...

TG used to be something special, but now they are yet another "female fronted rock band". She lacks anything special as a singer, she is just "plain" on the old songs. The new songs suit her plainness (dont think that is a word? lol) much better.

There are plenty examples to think of besides Maiden with Bruce or Bailey. If someone sais Sabbath with Ozzy was superb, with Dio it sucked, this could be believable because it is a matter of taste. But if he sais it's because Ozzy is a level or two above Dio is going emotionally bananas. Saying the opposite would be a sane thing to do!
Personal taste and a set of ears are two separate things.

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Well well, how can I heed you?
I wish you did not exist..

I brought Maiden up because I wanted to express how difficult it can get. Harris can call virtually anyone on the planet if you catch my drift.

When Anneke is at one side of the spectrum, Tarja Turunen is at the other end and they are both upper league. But Tarja is a 100% wrong choice for TG’s repertoire to name only this example.

You should realize that your posts on this page are below the waste.
Silje deserves a fair chance. There’s no need to be this negative!

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Let me put it this way; if Iron Maiden is the cake, then Harris is the oven. But Dickinson is the one who hands the cake out to the audience. That’s how big of importance a singer is. In reality he’s the one who sells it!

If there is one thing I’d like to say to Hans & the band, THIS IS the natural cause of things (!) even when they felt before that Anneke was sometimes to much at the centre of the attention, intended by record companies and or the media.

_________________
Well well, how can I heed you?
I wish you did not exist..

who is this bullshit who always wanna get right? lol

I think people who attended BOTH shows have seen the difference regarding Silje's performance... She was taking her marks and some of you just don't seem to notice that... I guess that's pretty natural... Marjolein also took some gigs to really let go...
Doesn't matter which band it is, i think it takes a few gigs for a band to adapt when a new band member comes and has to be sort of "accepted" by the audience.
Technically speaking Silje might be less skilled than Anneke but honestly, she blew me away on On Most Surfaces which is definitely NOT the easiest TG song to sing! and still I feel she has a margin to progress and embrace her place on stage fully... Next test for her is Graspop, I hope all will go well

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me