Full disclosure: Bob Cock has only listened to The Final Frontier once in its entirety. He also got it just a couple days ago and still has a few other things he’s working on, but this isn’t about excuses.

Let’s face it, though: once a band has become an institution like the almighty Iron Maiden, it’s not so much about the new albums as it is about the band’s legacy. Whether it’s classics (see: Powerslave, Fear of the Dark, Killers, Piece of Mind, etc.), the venerable band’s more recent “comeback” catalog (Brave New World, Dance Of Death, A Matter of Life and Death), the swing and misses (anything – aside from a few songs – with Blaze Bayley), or the underrated (Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, Iron Maiden), you know you’re going to buy it.

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Inspired by Ozzy Osbourne’s recent declaration that Bruce Dickinson “needs a fuckin’ psychiatrist,” this week we decided to ask our writers:

WITH WHOM DO YOU SIDE IN THE NEWLY RE-HEATED OSBOURNES VS. DICKINSON FEUD?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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In case you somehow don’t remember, Iron Maiden were one of the mainstage headliners at Ozzfest in 2005 (which I think was pretty much the last really good year for Ozzfest), and while I’ve never quite understood how it all started, there was some kind of beef between the Maiden/Ozzy camps — more specifically, between Maiden and Sharon Osbourne. And on Maiden’s last night of the tour, someone fucked with their power and some people pelted them with eggs and engaged in all other manner of pranks, and Sharon actually called Bruce Dickinson “a prick” on-stage in front of thousands of metal fans. (You can read all about that little incident here, or enjoy video of Sharon’s speech above.)

And that was really the last we heard about it… until now. I don’t recall Ozzy himself ever commenting on the incident before, he recently did during an interview with The Quietus:

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Photo credit: MS photographic wiz Jacqueline Cheng. More pics (including lots of opening act Dream Theater) coming soon!

The setlist of Iron Maiden’s current U.S. tour has been the topic of much debate lately. At first I was bummed to hear that it would consist of mostly material from Brave New World and newer, the album on which Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was actually a pretty cool thing for the band to. I LOVED Brave New World so it would be a treat to hear those songs live again after 10 (!) years, and though I couldn’t possibly ever tire of hearing Maiden’s classic songs live, I’d seen them performed on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour less than two years. Maybe it was time for something different, and maybe it was time for everyone to stop whining and to let the band do their thing. They’ve earned it after all these years.

By the time I was standing at my seat in Madison Square Garden on Monday night I was 100% behind the idea of a Maiden set focusing on new material. And Iron Maiden did a fucking fantastic job with it, putting on a stellar, captivating show as always and giving us, the fans, something just as fun, albeit a bit different, than what we’re used to.

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Photo courtesy Hardcore Shutterbug, via Brooklyn Vegan

Well, here’s an idea so delightfully silly I’m shocked no one thought of it sooner: Phil Freeman has interviewed Eddie for Cleveland Scene. Yes, Eddie. Yes, the decaying corpse zombie that’s been Iron Maiden’s mascot for thirty years. And, yes, he’s a fictional character — but that hasn’t stopped Nathan Explosion or Andrew W.K. from giving interviews, so whatever.

Here’s an excerpt that tickled me:

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Just a few hours ago my pal Axl declared that of the re-Bruced era of Iron Maiden, all of their output since the highly excellent Brave New World should be re-monikered Iron Mehden, and I’d have to agree. Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death aren’t bad albums, but they also aren’t that good — I don’t think I’ve listened to either one since they came out. And I’m certainly not alone in these sentiments; when Maiden toured the States on A Matter of Life and Death in 2006 and played the album in its entirety, fans were mighty pissed.

Get ready to be pissed again, because Metal Insider is reporting that the band’s forthcoming U.S. Tour with Dream Theater — which kicked off last night in Dallas — features mostly songs from the band’s past four albums (including the new, as yet unreleased The Final Frontier). Here’s the setlist:

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Last week our homeslice Anso D-muthafuckin’-F got people arguing about which Maiden album is the worst in their discography. But that seems so silly to me, when, clearly, the correct answer is, “Anything from the Blaze Bayley era.” Seriously, I think the band’s post-Brave New World material (including the new single, “El Dorado,” which does nothing for me) should have been released under the name “Iron Mehden,” but it’s all still better than anything from The X Factor, which sounds exactly like 8,000 terrible unsigned bands from New Jersey, all of whom have e-mailed us or mailed us their life-shortening demos.

No. That discussion is a waste of time. Sorry. Clearly, what we should be focusing on is that which will define the band’s legacy long after they are gone: their album art.

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Welcome to a new feature here at MetalSucks, “Question of the Week.” Each week (duh) we’ll ask our staff a question (double duh) based around a recent hot button issue.

Unfortunately, this week there really were no hot button issues, so inspired by the Ozzfest “Unholy Matrimony” VIP package, we decided to ask our writers a silly question instead:

If you were going to be married at a metal concert, which show would it be and why?

Their answers after the jump.

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Digging for duds in the formidable Iron Maiden catalogue is kinda like bitching about the heat at a beach picnic: It makes you seem like an ungrateful, silly jerk-off. But this fact doesn’t make it any less true that by 1990′s No Prayer For The Dying, Maiden was sounding a little tired, uninspired, and probably worst of all, short of patience. The entire album plays like the work of a budget bin Iron Maiden tribute band, rife with shortcuts and pressboard production. Even the usually stellar cover art looks cheap!

But this is old news, and the stunningly attractive and informed MetalSucks readership really doesn’t require a reminder that Maiden’s best record (the flawless, ass-tight Seventh Son rules your world – don’t deny it) was followed by a contender for their worst. Instead, I want to proudly defend this clunker, and I’ll start by saying that I still wear an expression of hurt surprise when NP4tD is described as “an out-and-out shitturd.” That is simply not true. Not true at all, I say!

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Hey people, remember that IRON MAIDEN are touring the U.S. this Summer!? Yeah, I kinda forgot for a minute there too. Amidst all sorts of shitty festival tours hitting the pavement thank God we’ve got something to look forward to. At 52 Bruce Dickinson is 10x the frontmen of all of his contemporaries let alone anyone in modern metal. Side note: will there ever be another metal band big enough to play arenas? Worth thinking about.

The magical qualities of Bruce-Bruce aren’t lost on our Be-she-moths over at Reign in Blonde, who posted a video of Team Joddski covering “Run to the Hills” at a Finnish Norwegian choir competition. The level of dorkery rivals that of the a cappella concerts I saw in college, but I can’t recall ever seeing anything this epic.

-VN

What’s the non-metal crowd’s take on Sigur Ros? Our friend Tommy Wee is a HUGE fan, and based on his strong recommendation, I went with him to see them play live last year. Their music is beautiful and they put on quite a show, but I found Jónsi Birgisson’s high-pitched vocals to be kinda irritating. After the show, I made my complaint known, and Tommy called me a hypocrite, seeing as I enjoy the work of such apparent-eunuchs as King Diamond, Bruce Dickinson, and Rob Halford. But I dismissed his accusations as those of a fan so enamored with the band that he couldn’t handle any critique of their music whatsoever. “What Dickinson does and what Birgisson does aren’t the same at all,” I told Tommy.

And as it turns out, Tommy may have been right and I may have been wrong.

Birgission has a new solo album, Go, coming out in March, and was on WNYC last week to promote the release. Tommy happened to be listening when the interviewer asked Birgisson about his vocal style. Here’s a transcript of that exchange:

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Like everybody, I have metalphobes in my family and the workplace, but still among those unfortunate dolts are some otherwise trustworthy fans of strong, melody-based non-metal. So there’s a persistent temptation to debase myself and metal by pressing on them with samples of pop-ish metal like Testament’s The Ritual and Bruce Dickinson’s fabulous Skunkworks. I mean, is heaviness an automatic deal-breaker for these dunces? Let’s say there be a perfectly crafted/really heavy song with all the touchstones of major pop satisfaction (and lyrical themes containing no allusions to face-raping a corpse), would it still resemble psychotic noise to lamewads? Or do good hooks transcend genre and pussyness? Are “Enter Sandman” and “Cum On Feel The Noize” both examples of flawless hit-making or of novelty successes like the “Where’s The Beef?” lady and ”The Bartman?”

As usual, it eventually occurred to me that the answer to all things is Devin Townsend.

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Can we all agree that Iron Maiden 2000 comeback album Brave New World was a fucking phenomenal return to form? The return of Bruce-Bruce and the triple guitar attack of Dave Murray, Janick Gers and the recently rejoined Adrian Smith meant an end to the god-awful Blaze Bayley era and spawned an album full of a decade’s worth of pent-up vintage Maiden gems. The presence of Dickinson and Smith in the writing process made that much of a difference for Steve Harris, as the band cranked out now-classics such as “Ghost of the Navigator,” “Out of the Silent Planet,” the album’s title-track, and this, “The Wicker Man,” the album’s opening cut and first single. Maiden hasn’t matched this level of excellence in their two efforts since Brave New World, but at least we’ve got this one record that restored dignity to the once great band and no doubt allowed Maiden to return to their superstar, stadium World tour status of today.

-VN

[Sorry about the choppy video/audio midway through -- best I could find]

Iron Maiden are at the point in their career where they can get away with just about anything (see: wearing their own shirts on stage). And while some “best ___ ever” claims are unquantifiable, some hold weight without a shadow of a doubt. Exhibit A: the new Iron Maiden video game is quite possibly the best thing ever. Not only is it timely by way of referencing the band’s recent Bruce Dickinson-piloted jet jaunt around the world, it’s fun as hell and easy to play. And like all classic, simple games, it gets fucking hard in a hurry…. which only makes you want to play again.

That sound you hear is the collective productivity of the entire metal-loving Internet population going right down the drain.

-VN

[Iron Maiden Flight 666 The Game, via MS Maniac "bear wizard"]

By now word is out that Iron Maiden have made a documentary, entitled Iron Maiden: Flight 666, which chronicles the first leg of last year’s totally bitchin’ Somewhere Back in Time tour. A press release tells us that the film will be released (allegedly theatrically!) in April.

But, hey, so long as the dude who made Bruce Dickinson’s other movie isn’t involved, I’m onboard (rimshot!). Here’s the trailer:

-AR

On several occasions I’ve heard someone refer to Def Leppard as part of the British New Wave of Heavy Metal, and that band’s inclusion into the genre never made sense to me; it’s not that I don’t enjoy vintage Def Lep (for better or worse, I do enjoy it, very much so), but uttering the words “Def Leppard” in the same breath as “Judas Priest” or “Iron Maiden” just seems… wrong.

Well, I guess the fellas in Iron Maiden disagree with me. Maybe this is old news, but in a recent interview with Inside Out, the Def Lep guitarist discusses how he almost ended up battling giant Eddies on stage:

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So as you’re probably already aware, Bruce Dickinson co-wrote a horror film entitled Chemical Wedding (you can watch the trailer here). There’s gonna be a “special screening” with director Julian Doyle at The Two Boots Pioneer Theater here in NYC (155 East 3rd Street between Avenues A and B). It’s at 12:15 a.m. this Sunday night/Monday morning June 15/16, and maybe I’d lose the sleep and go… if the movie didn’t look like such a pile of dog turd.

So here’s the offer I’d like to extend to you, our faithful readers: if anyone wants to go to the screening and review the movie for MetalSucks, I will pay for your ticket. If you’ve never been to the Two Boots Pioneer, it’s actually a really cool, really small and intimate theater, and I imagine only die hard Maiden fans will be at this thing, so it could actually be fun.

If you’re interested and live in the New York area, e-mail me at axl [at] metalsucks.net and we’ll make arrangements.

-AR

Remember Chemical Wedding, that movie Bruce Dickinson wrote that is kinda but not really gonna be at the Cannes Film Festival? Well, the trailer has been released, and, um, it definitely looks like a movie!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/r9rVv483BTA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[via Blabbermouth]

-AR

Vince and I are seeing Iron Maiden live tomorrow, and I’m very excited about the show. ‘Cause the last time we saw them, they just played A Matter of Life and Death in its entirety, and even if I didn’t think that that album sucks (which I do), I didn’t pay no arena ticket prices so Steve Harris could feel like he’s still young and musically relevant. Suck a dick and play “Number of the Beast,” shit heads.

ANYWAY, NME.com reports that Iron Maiden vocalist/tour jet pilot Bruce Dickinson has co-written a horror film, Chemical Wedding, “which is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival.”

This is a fucking lie. And you should all know it’s a fucking lie, because the program for this year’s Cannes fucking film Festival hasn’t even been announced yet.

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So who’s excited about the return of Lost tonight? The show has sure had its peaks and valleys, but it ended on a good note last May, and besides, with the ongoing writers’ strike, what the fuck else are you gonna watch?

Will we ever find out what the smoke monster is? Will the origins of that four toed statue be revealed? What the hell do those numbers mean? Can Hurley complete a sentence without saying “dude?” Does Desmond have to call everyone “brother” every time he opens his fucking mouth? Will Jack and Kate ever stop whining and just fuck already? Hopefully we’ll get some answers tonight; in the meantime, here’s some Lost clips edited together to a soundtrack of Bruce Dickinson’s “Tears of the Dragon.” Enjoy.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/o2feJt_qdkA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR