"The Halford-Priest reunion in 2002 should be interesting... gotta be better than that DOA atrocity Maiden just committed."

Hi John,

I've always been a Maiden fan, but I've never been a HUGE fan, if that makes sense. I like most of their stuff, and absolutely love some of it. But all in all, I've always much prefered Priest and a number of other bands to Maiden. I appreciate what they've accomplished and all that, but I still don't think I could consider myself to be a huge fan or anything. Now that that's been said, here goes: I bought "Brave New World" and like it very much. I've seen very mixed reactions to it from Maiden fans, and each time I listen to it I try to figure out what makes it so sub-par in the minds of some Maiden fans. Can you shed some light on this for me? Is it the songwriting, or the playing/musicianship, or the production, or what? Thanks.
Don