Paschendale (song)

Song infobox
Name = Paschendale


Artist = Iron Maiden
Album = Dance of Death
Released = September 2 2003
track_no = 8
Recorded = Sarm West Studios, London in 2003
Genre = Heavy metal
Length = 8:28
Writer = Adrian Smith
Steve Harris
Label = Columbia Records, EMI Europe
Producer = Kevin Shirley, Steve Harris
Chart position =
prev = New Frontier
prev_no = 7
next = Face in the Sand
next_no = 9

"Paschendale" is a song by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden from their 2003 album Dance of Death. It is the eighth track on the album, following "New Frontier" and preceding "Face in the Sand". The song has a length of 8 minutes, 28 seconds, and includes three guitar solos played by Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers respectively.

The song, sharing similar lyrical ideas with both "The Trooper" and "Aces High", describes a young soldier who dies in the Battle of Passchendaele, the Third Battle of Ypres campaign, during World War I, and his experiences. Paschendale begins with drummer Nicko McBrain's rhythmic tapping on the hi-hat, simulating the Morse Code used for communication at the time. The song then alternates between sections of loud and soft dynamics, reflecting life in the trenches of World War I, which alternated between fighting and periods of boredom for the soldiers.

The muddy conditions of the battle are reflected twice in the lyrics, with the lines, "In the smoke, in the mud and lead" and "Drown in mud, no more tears." The machine gun, a relatively new weapon on the battlefield, is referenced in the line "Rapid fire and the end of us all." The barbed wire that was used by both sides to impede the movements of the enemy is referenced twice, in the lines "Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire" and "Dodging shrapnel and barbed wire." The line "Surely a war no one can win" recognizes the stalemate that was occurring on the Western Front of the war, where the battle took place.

The no man's land between the trenches is referenced in the line "In No Man's Land God only knows". The battle was one of the bloodiest of the entire war, as reflected in the line "Allied troops, they mourn their loss". The war was one of the first where propaganda was heavily used by both sides, partially reflected in the line "German war propaganda machine/Such before has never been seen". After the two guitar solos, the song becomes an account from the soldier's perspective of an unsuccessful charge on the enemy's trench. After a final chorus, the song ends as it began, slow and poignant, as the soldier describes his soul joining those of his fallen comrades and enemies, in peace.

The part "into jaws of death we go" is a quote from the poem The Charge of the Light Brigade

The live version of the song on the album Death on the Road includes an intro where Bruce Dickinson recites parts of the first stanza of the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, a British war poet who was killed in the First World War a week before the signing of the Armistice.

Credits

*Bruce Dickinson – vocals
*Dave Murray – guitar
*Janick Gers – guitar
*Adrian Smith – guitar
*Steve Harris – bass guitar
*Nicko McBrain – drums