iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 9h

Oof. News I gave up on hearing. A new David Sylvian album.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 9h

How to buy this without my better half intercepting. I need this!

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Strategic Tape Reserve @strategictaper.bsky.social · 13h

Rather than pop songs, what the supermarkets should really be playing over the PA is longform, slowly developing drone and sound collage kind of stuff because shoppers would stay in the supermarket to find out what the sound does next, and during that time they’d buy additional stuff.

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J @metalhoosier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Released on this day in 1986, happy 40th to "Somewhere in Time". I didn't go to school the first two days after it was released, listening to it on repeat, then leaving the house before the old man got home, 'coming home from school', and listening a few more times. What an album!

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This song! It’s just 🔥 !! This is the orchestral mix from the ‘No More Lies’ EP. Beefs up the strings and - unless my ears deceive me - adds some bell action. The instrumental section with Bruce intoning “Blood is falling like the rain/Its crimson cloak unveils again” in the middle is fuckin deadly.

youtu.be

Iron Maiden - Paschendale (Orchestral Version)

YouTube video by Ratdogcat1

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Something that’s come up a few times on the #TalkingMaiden podcast is their connection to Janick’s prior band, White Spirit. Several WS songs were reused later in Maiden (c. Y2K). But I just learnt about the undeniable similarity between ’2 Minutes to Midnight’ (1984) and ‘Midnight Chaser’ (1980/1).

youtu.be

"Eppure mi ricordi qualcosa..." Ep. 4 (White Spirit vs. Iron Maiden)

YouTube video by Iron Maiden FTM Italia

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Wedding anniversary at Chez Thrak today. 12 years. So how better to celebrate than a doctored video cover for a band my better half doesn’t really like? 🥳 Love you “Mama”.

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Dark Archangel @d4rk-arch4ngel.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Repost from time to time for health and prosperity. #mrsandman #punch #nazis

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Remembering Rik @rememberingrik.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

More Bad News #RememberingRik #RikMayall #ColinGrigson #BadNews

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

As great as the songs are on the self-titled debut #Maiden album, Wil Malone’s flat, fizzless production doesn’t do them much justice. I really wish Martin Birch had produced it. Imagine these classics with that “Killers” depth, dynamic, and power. Yowza!

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

One such #Maiden song from “Dance of Death” is ‘New Frontier’. The instrumental stretch from 2:47-3:25 is, to my 👂, pure “Number of the Beast” vibes, without really sounding like any particular song from that album. Great stuff!

youtu.be

New Frontier (2015 Remaster)

YouTube video by Iron Maiden - Topic

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I love when (good) songs sneak up on you and become an earworm. This is in there right now. A banger from an album I’m really growing to like more and more. #IronMaiden

youtu.be

Gates of Tomorrow (2015 Remaster)

YouTube video by Iron Maiden - Topic

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Would I drop any tracks from “Dance of Death”. Yes: ‘No More Lies’ and the title track. There’s a decent song in the former, and Indo like how it starts. But the “chorus” is like being bludgeoned over the head. In that economical “No Prayer” mode this would be a good one but here it’s bloated.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#IronMaiden grudge match: “No Prayer for the Dying” (1990) vs “Dance of Death” (2003)

Iron Maiden “No Prayer for the Dying” (1990)

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Back to this one now, to duke it out for the bottom of the pile.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Moving on from this one now. I like it less than I did a week go. In the end, Maiden wrote the album’s epitaph in ‘Judas Be My Guide’: “Is that all there is? Is that it now?”

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I used to think FOTD might be salvaged by shaving 15 minutes/3 tracks off it. I’d drop ‘Eternity’ and ‘Chains’ in a heartbeat. But that’s only 7 minutes. So let’s drop ‘Fear is the Key’. That’s 12.5 minutes gone. Leaving a 45 min/9 track album. I’d structure it something like this.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

And, a not-so-hot take: ‘Fear of the Dark’ - the song - is overrated and overplayed. Sure, it’s one of the better songs on a meh album, but it’s so repetitive (the title is repeated 28 times). Hot take: ‘Mother Russia’ is a better song.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

My favourite uninterrupted stretch on FOTD is ‘Childhood’s End’ - ‘Wasting Love’ - ‘The Fugitive’. Trying out new ideas, sounds they hadn’t necessarily done before. Three very solid tunes including perhaps my favourite on the album.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@bluetapes.bsky.social - you know your proto-heavy metal album listening mission? Have you been compiling a faves playlist at all as you progress?

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I, rather bullishly, used to hold ‘Fear Is The Key’ up as evidence that Maiden don’t just write songs about WW2 or the devil. Sanctimonious to a T, I would say “This one is about the AIDS/HIV crisis”. Now, when the decent opening slides down into that meat and potatoes riff of the verse I cringe!

youtu.be

Fear Is the Key (2015 Remaster)

YouTube video by Iron Maiden - Topic

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Never been a fan of the FOTD cover art. I remember the teaser campaign in the pages of Kerrang! Me and my bestie speculated for a few weeks and then…meh! Our ideas were better. Here’s Derek Riggs’s abandoned idea. Also not great. Is the sign of a naff concept to run with? A song about nyctophobia. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ is an odd one. Nothing quite like it in the Maiden canon. Really synth heavy, almost drone-like quality to the first near 3 mins with sparse militaristic drums. My favourite part is the instrumental/solos section in the middle (3.45-4.50). But it’s sooo repetitive…

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Uboa @uboatheflesh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

But yeah, if you don't like harsh noise - and want posters of my collage art (including this cover) + Secret DIY Tapes - I am currently making a lot of stuff for a Ko-Fi fundraiser to get the rest necessary for SRS.

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The Flenser @theflenser.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Listen to Uboa’s new release "Every Reactor Four a Friend”. 100% of proceeds from Bandcamp sales received in the next 30 days will go toward covering the cost of Xandra’s SRS. uboa.bandcamp.com/album/every-...

uboa.bandcamp.com

Every Reactor Four a Friend (Live at Roadburn 2024), by Uboa

3 track album

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Maiden were all over the shop during this period. Like: the “epic” on No Prayer is ‘Mother Russia’ (5:32). There are *five* songs longer than that on Fear. The only two “epics”, however, are arguably just ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ (6:57) and the title track (7:18). Really odd.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I don’t think I was ever wholly convinced by “FOTD”. I *loved* ‘Be Quick’, but *never* liked ‘From Here To Eternity’. The latter’s tired innuendo, sub-cock rock, and misplaced machismo… eurgh! Always seemed like a b-side to me. It would be the first one I’d drop from the running order.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Doing a weird route through my vague attempt at ranking all 17 #IronMaiden studio albums. I’m timing them with listening to the #TalkingMaiden podcast deep dives. Anyway, I find myself at “Fear of the Dark” (1992). I think the first album I ever bought on release day. Funny feelings for this one…

Tree-Eddie from Iron Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark” (1992)

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Our eldest has started watching “Centaurworld” on Netflix. This dude popped up in an episode. Apparently he’s called The Nowhere King. He’s badass and metal as fook.

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Robin Rimbaud - Scanner @scannerdot.com · 20/09/2026

Amazing to hear what is probably the earliest live recording of British electronic beat combo Autechre, in Rochdale for Darrell Fitton's birthday party 1990 youtu.be/M70jmp-RCeY?...

youtu.be

Autechre - AE_LIVE_ROCHDALE_221290

YouTube video by icari

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Peter J Woods @awasteofredmeat.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

For anyone wondering about what's happening with my union work these days, here's a quick refresher about where we are at.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Idly looking at what was No. 1 in the UK around when Maiden scored their one and only. Some right tunes!

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don’t go in shops much. But there was a killer Halloween section in the one we frequented this morning.

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I think the title track of “Dance of Death” achieves the amazing feat of actually being WORSE than ‘Angel and the Gambler’. Here’s a clip taken from about 19 mins into episode 12 of the ace #TalkingMaiden podcast which TOTALLY nails how and why this song is a steaming pile of 🐕 💩 !! So funny!!! 🤣

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oof. Might have to get this. Seminal label for me in late 90s/early 00s. Game changers

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