Along with a review of their latest album, I'll also be discussing their previous work & a few passion projects of mine that I occasionally revisit. In other words, if you dislike Iron Maiden then you might as well come back to this blog in October. If you don't really care about them, maybe give the next few posts a read as you may find your new favourite band as well!
As I stated in my brief discussion about "Speed Of Light", I was incredibly excited for this album but still a little concerned about the length of some of the tracks. When it comes to Iron Maiden, I much prefer the shorter, energetic tracks to the longer, progressive ones BUT I still like some 8+ minute songs. Whilst I wouldn't call this Iron Maiden's best album by any stretch, The Book Of Souls manages to perfectly balance the complex 11 minute epics with tidy five-minute rockers. It's an album that fans of earlier and later albums can enjoy, which is certainly more than can be said for The Final Frontier.
Kicking off the band's 16th record is "If Eternity Should Fail", a song which starts off like something from Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical but soon breaks into a hearty & familiar gallop. This is a good example of a longer track I can enjoy, although I wouldn't rank it among my favourites (before you ask, "Dream Of Mirrors" and "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son". The rest...meh). It's a slow burning album opener that contains most if not all of the Iron Maiden hallmarks, even if it sounds a little theatrical at times.
After this, we have a few songs that'll get heads banging on the first playthrough ("Speed Of Light" & "Death Or Glory") as well as slower, more solemn tunes for the music enthusiast to aurally dissect on repeat listens ("The Man Of Sorrows" and "The Book Of Souls"). As I said, it's a balance that works better than quite possibly any other Iron Maiden album since they first started experimenting with longer progressive tracks in 1983. However, those songs all look like radio edits compared to "Empire Of The Clouds", an 18 minute ballad about "the 1930 R101 airship crash" featuring Bruce Dickinson on piano, an impressive first.
My immediate thoughts regarding this piece were that it sounded like a musical score for either a film or modern video game with added vocals. It's less episodic than "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" or even other prog masterpieces such as "2112" - Rush but it also demonstrates the band's expertise at writing and performing something as grand as an opera suite, composing not just guitar riffs but orchestral melodies too. The entirety of both discs is a testament to the band's collective talent but this song probably showcases it more than any other.
The rest of the album could be easily summed up by taking snippets from the band's previous records and retuning them until they sound like they were recorded yesterday. I'm not saying Iron Maiden have pulled an AC/DC and rehashed old music for a healthy buck, although "Shadows Of The Valley" might as well be titled "Wasted Years Part II" for that opening riff. What I am saying is that there are many tracks that capture and refine the sound fans may remember from older albums like Dance Of Death or Somewhere In Time. It's almost as if the band sat down & revisited their favourite tracks from each album or decade before writing this one. That may sound like a criticism but, in my eyes, it's far from it.
There's nothing wrong with a band borrowing ideas from their past selves as long as they do something clever with it. Yes, "Shadows Of The Valley" might sound a hell of a lot like another song at first but the remaining six minutes or so develop into something brand new & very enjoyable. You could argue that this is the same for every band who've lasted more than a decade and released several different albums but there's a clear influence from earlier material in these songs. Whether it's the use of a specific tone for an intro like "Moonchild" ("When The River Runs Deep") or a dark bassline underneath atmospheric guitar like "For The Greater Good Of God" ("The Great Unknown"), this album learns from history & adapts without making the mistake of repeating it note for note.
Over the course of eleven tracks and about 90 minutes, the essence of Iron Maiden has been captured and reshaped into another great package of music. Perhaps that's why they called it The Book Of Souls; it contains the soul of each notable sound the band went through...or maybe it just sounded like a better name than anything else they could come up with.
Either way, I'm giving it an 8/10. Well written, superbly executed and an improvement from the previous effort. Whilst the last few albums have made fans question whether the band are considering hanging up their guns, this one makes them sound stronger than...well, the 90's at least. Up the Irons!
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