Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls - Out now!

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Crimson
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:53 pm

Starbreaker wrote:strawberry float yeah!

93 minutes though. And nice to see a return to form of the awful cover after the beauty of AMOLAD and the okay-ness of TFF.

It's very simple but I like it. At least it's not DOTD.
Starbreaker wrote:Also Brucie did a song called Man of Sorrows. Odd.

Yeah, strange. I thought it might be a reworking of that song but since he didn't write it I guess not.

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Squinty
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Squinty » Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:22 pm

Corazon de Leon wrote:Wasn't a huge fan of The Final Frontier stuff, hopefully this is quite good. Also good to see them recording and stuff after Bruce's cancer. :wub:


I assumed this was recorded before he went for treatment. Either way, I'm very excited. I just hope the songs aren't long for the sake of being long. Smith/Dickinson collabs though :datass: :datass:

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:30 pm

SquintyMcSquint wrote:
Corazon de Leon wrote:Wasn't a huge fan of The Final Frontier stuff, hopefully this is quite good. Also good to see them recording and stuff after Bruce's cancer. :wub:


I assumed this was recorded before he went for treatment. Either way, I'm very excited. I just hope the songs aren't long for the sake of being long. Smith/Dickinson collabs though :datass: :datass:

Yep, they started writing last summer and recorded it towards the end of the year.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Sun Jun 21, 2015 2:15 pm

Have to say, the album artwork has grown on me a lot. After how busy TFF's cover was, I really like how simple and minimalist this one is. Also Tribal Eddie > Space Eddie

There's a few pre-orders up on the likes of HMV and Amazon so far with international ones due to appear next week. Makes me hopeful we could see the first single very soon. Strange they didn't immediately drop it with the announcement like the did with the last album (and maybe the one before that too if I'm remembering right).

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:57 pm



Presumably that's from Speed of Light, due out on August 14th.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:59 pm

First review. Overwhelmingly positive. 9/10 from Team Rock. https://www.teamrock.com/reviews/2015-0 ... k-of-souls

Strap yourself in and say a quick prayer to Eddie as Maiden pull out all the stops – and Bruce gets epic on the piano.

A new Iron Maiden album is always a big event, not least because the band have somehow sustained a startling level of popularity for the vast majority of their three decades.

What is less frequently acknowledged, however, is that since the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith for 2000’s Brave New World, Maiden have not only cemented their status as metal’s most revered band but, audaciously, built upon it, becoming ever more dominant and in-demand as a result.

Of course, The Book Of Souls arrives amid an additional storm of drama, Dickinson’s genuinely shocking brush with cancer erecting an unexpected and unwanted backdrop of struggle and triumph behind a long-awaited album – Maiden’s 16th – that didn’t exactly need an extra boost.

Completed before their singer received his jarring diagnosis, The Book Of Souls is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers, both individual and collective, and Dickinson’s own performance gives no clues whatsoever as to his then vexed state of health. One might glibly note that this would have been an excellent final statement for all concerned, but it’s hard to think of another band of this vintage that would be capable of sounding this vital and inspired.

It begins with one of two songs written solely by Dickinson. If Eternity Should Failstarts with an eerie, almost psychedelic intro, the air raid siren’s restrained tones floating in shimmering space, before the first of countless towering riffs crashes in. Dark in tone and texture and a dash heavier than Maiden have ever sounded before, its eight-and-a-half minutes rush by in what seems like half that amount, soaring choruses and a typically deft change of pace midway through adding bite to the barrage.

Maiden’s recent albums have been notable primarily for the epic and progressive nature of their contents, and while The Book Of Souls certainly saunters down that avenue on numerous occasions, it is also an album that brims with flashes of succinctness. Speed Of Light, Death Or Glory and Tears Of A Clown all climax at around the five minute mark, and all three are instant top-notch Maiden anthems, the shrewd songwriting hand of Adrian Smith making its presence felt and bringing plenty of that off-kilter edge that was sometimes missed during the decade he spent away from the line-up. Meanwhile, both The Great Unknown and When The River Runs Deep speak volumes about the intuitive chemistry between Smith and Steve Harris, their collaborative efforts producing monstrous mini-symphonies for Dickinson to unleash that vein-popping vibrato over.

Nonetheless, The Book Of Souls will doubtless be celebrated most for its epics, and if you thought Maiden had pulled out all the stops in the past, you may need to strap yourself in and say a quick prayer to Eddie this time round. The Red And The Black is Harris’ only sole composition here, but it’s one of the most exhilarating and fluid things he has ever written; nearly 14 minutes of interwoven rhythms and riffs, a brief nod to the dramatic thud of Flight Of Icarus here, a dewy-eyed salute to Thin Lizzy there and a healthy slab of mob-friendly backing vocals that must surely mean that this will become an immediate live favourite when Maiden take The Book Of Soulsout on the road.

The same goes for the title track, an almost ludicrously grandiose and theatrical affair that crams more smart ideas into its ten-and-a-half minutes than any band this enduring should have left in the tank at this point. And if Dickinson could sound any less like a man about to discover a tumour in his throat... well, needless to say that his recovery has been perhaps the least surprising thing about Maiden’s recent history. The interplay between the Three Amigos reaches a similar peak on the rumbling sprawl of Shadows Of The Valley and, best of all, on Harris and Dave Murray’s dark and unsettling The Man Of Sorrows, wherein Kevin Shirley’s powerful, unfussy production shines a light on the sublimely organic interplay between these six musicians.

So far, so brilliant. And yet even the most wildly optimistic Maiden fan might find themselves momentarily gobsmacked by The Book Of Souls’ conclusion. The longest song the band have ever recorded, Empire Of The Clouds is essentially an 18-minute heavy metal opera, replete with Dickinson on piano for the first time and sumptuous orchestral flourishes that add hugely to the song’s cinematic feel.

A detailed but poetic account of the R101 airship disaster of 1930, it’s a stunning piece of work and clearly a labour of love for Dickinson, the song’s author, in particular. And coming at the end of such a consistent and remarkable slab of idiosyncratic heavy metal, it poses one obvious question: is there anything that Iron Maiden can’t do? The Book Of Souls suggests not.

Given that this sounds nothing like the work of a band nearing the end of their love affair with music, the future may even hold greater wonders. Bloody hell.

FINAL VERDICT: 9/10


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Squinty
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Squinty » Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:09 pm

I'll wait a few months after release to pass judgement on it. But damn, Empire of the Clouds sounds amazing. I've always wanted Maiden to incorporate more piano/keyboard into their music.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls out September 4th
by Crimson » Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:15 pm

SquintyMcSquint wrote:I'll wait a few months after release to pass judgement on it. But damn, Empire of the Clouds sounds amazing. I've always wanted Maiden to incorporate more piano/keyboard into their music.

I've always enjoyed the little bits of piano in Bruce's solo stuff so I'm expecting it to be similarly great here.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Starbreaker » Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:28 pm

With only a few weeks to go I thought I'd dedicate a couple of days to each album, like renewing wedding vows. I haven't been this childishly excited for about eight hours or, prior to that, five years.

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Crimson
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Crimson » Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:10 pm

I've been listening to a lot of Maiden over the past few weeks. Jumping around a lot, not really focusing on anything in particular although strangely the Blaze era have been quite prominent in my listening. Those albums are alright, definitely prefer to them to FOTD or NPFTD.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Squinty » Sun Aug 09, 2015 10:37 pm

Been doing the same. I was focusing on listening to some of the reunion tracks that everyone kinda forgets. Montsegur, The Thin Line Between love and Hate, The Legacy etc.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Crimson » Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:32 am

Good interview with Adrian and Janick/preview here: http://thequietus.com/articles/18529-ir ... -interview

This paragraph in particular stands out.
The Quietus wrote:Having been privy to an advance listen, tQ is happy to report that The Book Of Souls is a mighty cleaving stave of a record; an epic that - despite the 92 minute timeframe - positively rages along, never feeling remotely bloated. It is also, very possibly, the finest album that Maiden have ever made. From the raw gallop of ‘Speed Of Light’ and ‘Death Or Glory’ to the 18 minute vaudeville odyssey of ‘Empire Of The Clouds’ The Book Of Souls is a titanic romp through Maidenisms of every vivid hue; it is also an album that - as we shall see - has benefited from perhaps the most organic and immediate recording process in the bands history.


French review from Radio Metal: http://www.radiometal.com/article/iron- ... uls,188952 (Google translate at your own risk. Mostly positive but a bit down on the second half.)

Last edited by Crimson on Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Crimson
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Crimson » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:51 pm

Track by track review.

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Crimson
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Crimson » Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:50 am


I'm kind of amazed they went with something so experimental for the video. strawberry floating awesome.

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Squinty
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Squinty » Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:58 am

That song is definitely better than Different Worlds and El Dorado. Video is excellent, they really nailed it.

Wait a sec, they mentioned possibility of a Bruce solo LP.

Image

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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by Tragic Magic » Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:43 am

Good stuff. Nothing like hearing a new Iron Maiden song.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light single out 14/8 (TBOS 4/9)
by zXe » Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:34 pm

Tragic Magic wrote:Good stuff. Nothing like hearing a new Iron Maiden song.

Agreed man, I love hearing some new maiden.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light out now (TBOS 4/9)
by Crimson » Tue Aug 18, 2015 1:35 pm

Think it's my favourite single since Wicker Man. 10/10 in the latest issue of Metal Hammer. :datass:

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light out now (TBOS 4/9)
by Infibeyen » Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:33 pm

This has got me into a proper Maiden kick, not listened to them properly in ages. :D

I wish, WISH that I could play bass like Steve Harris. I cannot.

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PostRe: Iron Maiden - Speed of Light out now (TBOS 4/9)
by Tragic Magic » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:57 am

A Matter of Life and Death :datass:


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