Review Summary: They've made nothing but great music for the past 40 years, it's just fantastic to know they're still at it.
Every artist has eras. Some are as simple as ‘’the good era’’ and ‘’the bad era’’, while others are split up into many like ‘’the early era’’, ‘’the best era’’, ‘’the experimentation era’’, the back to roots era’’ etc. Iron Maiden, more than any other band or artist, is most definitely the latter, since Maidens 2000 record Brave New World (an album many would call a return to form) the band has taken the progressive inklings they indulged in briefly on epics like Hallowed Be Thy Name and Rime Of The Ancient Mariner and expanded them to whole records, an evolution they were working towards since The X Factor. Now Brave New World was the bands twelfth studio effort and the fact they sounded as fresh and energised as they did 15 years earlier on Powerslave is a tribute to just how well they managed to change and evolve without losing what made their music so enjoyable in the first place.
Brave New World would also become Maidens last youthful record, and the music reflected that with the album having a joyful and light touch. After that, with each new release, you could hear age creeping into the band. Bruce’s high notes became ever more strained, Nickos drumming was slower and even a little sloppy, the three guitar attack that once tickled me silly, tickled me no longer. And while I enjoyed much of Dance Of Death and found A Matter Of Life And Death fantastic in it’s more sombre tone, I could still sense the end was approaching, and for a while the end was The Final Frontier. An album that had it’s moments and even a pretty great epic, but sadly magnified all the problems that before were only minor gripes. Bruce was sounding old and tired, the band was sloppier in their performance and the writing just wasn’t up to scratch. Even the artwork and production were lacklustre. It seemed that Maiden had finally hit the brick wall we all knew they would hit at some point, age had finally seemed to tame the beast and The Final Frontier really seemed to indicate that.
So how, I ask you, is The Book Of Souls the best record Maiden have written since Brave New World. It seems ludicrous that a band could have not one, but two comebacks within the space of 15 years. As a fan of ‘’The Blaze Era’’ I never fully understood how most Maiden fans felt when Brave New World was released, but now I do. It’s not just that the music is better written, or the lyrics and subject matters are more interesting, it’s the fact the band sounds like they did 15 years ago and that’s no exaggeration, Bruce’s voice still isn’t as good as it was but together with the better use of his higher register and the fact the man was singing with a cancerous tumour in his throat, he sounds pretty damn good if you ask me.
So let’s pop the hood on this double disk, 92 minute beast, Maidens longest record to date and I tell you no word of a lie when I say it doesn’t feel its length at all. With 3 songs exceeding 10 minutes in length and the shortest being a little under 5 minutes, frankly it’s either a miracle or musical genius this doesn’t become too hard to swallow at any point.
Bruce bookends the album with two songs credited to him alone (the first time since Powerslave) If Eternity Should Fail and Empire Of The Clouds are both epic tracks in both length and content with Empire Of The Clouds becoming Maidens longest song at a staggering 18 minutes long. Opening with an eastern flavoured, horn filled synth line, Bruce sings ‘’here is the soul of a man’’ and I am utterly captivated, it recalls Satellite 15 from the previous album but much better realised and unlike The Final Frontier, the main section of the song is a far cry from the grade school lyricism and repetitive chorus of that track, instead we have a really interesting opener with a great chorus and a wonderful spoken word outro that I can’t get enough of. Empire Of The Clouds begins with a simple yet beautiful piano progression and from there builds and builds and it really does have everything you could want from an Iron Maiden epic, even ending in an orchestral, cinematic way to close the album.
The rest of the longer tracks are joys as well. The Red And The Black, despite indulging in a 6 minute instrumental section, has a chorus destined for live shows and The Book Of Souls is reminiscent of the theatricality the band experimented with on Dance Of Death. The shorter cuts are exactly what the doctor ordered to break up all these insane epics, Speed Of Light and Death Or Glory are fast paced, balls to the wall mashers, reminiscent of 2 Minutes To Midnight or Aces High, while When The River Runs Deep reminded me of a local band I’ve seen play live a number of times, and these guys are half the age of Maiden. Tears Of A Clown is a genuinely heartfelt tribute to the late Robin Williams but its lyrics are vast and personal enough to speak to anyone with depression, the lyric ‘’smile for cameras, all ok’’ has strong meaning in a world where everyone has a camera on them and lives are documented daily without thought. It recalled Harris’s writing on Look For The Truth from The X Factor in how personal it felt, rather than the larger than life experiences Maiden usually write about.
Production is a big step up from the previous album. The instruments have real presence on these tracks and Bruce’s voice is mixed in perfectly, it feels like Brave New World with a bit of A Matter Of Life And Deaths grit thrown in for good measure. The artwork is a grower. At first I hated it, it looked unoriginal and boring, but now I feel it suits the album, it’s just Eddie, it’s just Maiden, no less.
The Book Of Souls feels like a confident record for Maiden, which some could mistake for complacent but it really isn’t. Not since 2000 have the band felt as tight and assured in their song writing ability as they do here. If this were to be the true final frontier for this band, it would be a fine way to go out, but I would like to think they have at least one more left in them ...or ten, I just want these guys to go forever really.
Favourite Track(s): Speed Of Light, The Great Unknown, Tears Of A Clown, Empire Of The Clouds
Least Favourite Track(s): Death Or Glory, Shadows Of The Valley
