Paschendale (song)
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Paschendale is a song by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden from their 2003 album Dance of Death. It is the eigth track on the album, following "New Frontier" and preceding "Face in the Sand". The song has a length of 8 minutes, 30 seconds, and includes two guitar solo sections. The song describes a young soldier who dies in the battle of Passchendaele, the third battle of the Ypres campaign, during World War One, 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 One, 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 shrapnal and barbed wire". The line "Surely a war no one can win" recognizes the stalemate that was occuring 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, partialy 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.
