The Book Of Souls

You know that feeling when you first got into Iron Maiden and you had such high expectations for each track after track, let alone each album.....and each track seemed to have a hook all of its own that made your chest burn in delight........well this is one of THOSE records........... Simply outstanding. My favorite albums before this from the Maiden were Beast, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son, Fear of the Dark...at least couple of those will be in yours too if you are a long time fan...........Ive had to re write this review a little to let you know oh doubter of the maiden (if that is you!), that every song on here is class but the final 4 tracks in my opinion are stunning.....outstanding track that you will hum is the THE MAN OF SORROWS..................all the other albums since the fab Fear of the Dark and Powerslave, have good moments but as a whole dont add up to the sum of their parts in quality............until The Book Of Souls that is.......... This is masterfully realised and epic. I kid you not, Ignore those who say its slightly too long or silly complaints about sound quality (music comes in all shapes and sizes so make sure you adjust headphones slightly, on mine this album is awesome)....... On second listen you think the whole record def as long as it should be...................this is a classic band delivering at their own pace and rightly so.......the guitar work is phenomenal and Brucie sounds as great as ever.........each track has choruses / key changes that are epic in scale and virtuoso cameos appear all over the place, but dont feel out of place. Its actually a technically great record as well as being bulshy, dark and soul searching style wise. The references to older albums help tell the story - like the obvious Wasted years intro later on the album...........same track mentions the sea of madness......and makes you think the band are saying a hello to all us long time fans out there........... What a year for the oldsters! I have been delighted by the fact that all the albums Ive had to repeatedly listen to this year on first listen were by acts long thought past their prime by many....... My top album of the year is The Book of SOuls closely followed by the outstanding FFS album (thats Sparks guys with their new buddies - a great team!),.....which is proudly just in front of The Prodigy's The Day is My Enemy. All three are modern masterpieces but also twist the sounds slightly that you might expect from them......each act to me is fearless in what they do and should be proud. My only complaint with this album is .....had to fiddle with preferences so tracks 1-11 play in order because i did download - don't like how it gets jumbles unless you change the order back so my first listen was out of sync!!. Oh and the artwork is as iconic as the above mentioned albums and rightly so....so well done there - visually a bit more minimal than usual which is pretty fresh looking too Im so impressed with this - hit me again with that heavy deep rusty strum which kicks of The Redhe Black and T.........wow......Absolutely great......lead me on to the magnificent Man of Sorrows chorus which springs out of a typical maiden build up.....go and have a listen to the album of the year........and in metal terms, the album of the decade!

Firstly let me start by saying that I'm unbiased with Maiden albums. My favourites are Brave New World, Piece Of Mind, Seventh Son and I even thought Final Frontier was a masterpiece especially with "when the wild wind blows". Yes the 90's albums were under par in my opinion but had some great songs on, "fear of the dark", "no prayer for the dying", "sign of the cross", "the clansman" to name a few. I understand why people disliked A matter of life and death and the final frontier, there's a progressive nature to them and it doesn't sound like "old maiden". We're not in the 80's anymore! Having said that The Book Of Souls has something for every Maiden fan! Those 92 minutes fly by and there's no absence of quality. I don't want to ruin it so I'll pick a few highlights from the album. "If eternity should fail" is both modern, heavy and catchy. Also really groovy drums from Nicko on the chorus! "The red and the black" has all the cliche Maiden characteristics with a somewhat reflective solo section. The musicianship of the guys really shines through on this. The title song is both heavy and epic with deep and thought provoking lyrics. "Tears of a clown" based on Robin Williams depression contain delicate and touching lyrics from Steve, the only song under 5 minutes albeit by 1 second haha. And then theres "Empire Of The Clouds". This is something special. Freddie Mercury's magnum opus was "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Empire Of The Clouds" is Bruce Dickinson's. Bruce has admitted he's only recently started dabbling in piano and only plays with two fingers. On that note alone (pardon the pun) it shows the sheer imagination and drive he has to create such a complex and intricate song. Anyone who says Maiden have become self indulgent are so wrong. They are simply musical story tellers. Let that be an inspiration to you all, you don't need to be Mozart on the piano to produce such an elegant and EPIC song! Theres orchestra, morse code and a tonne of time changes which signify the next part of the story for the last day of the R101 airship. Oh yeah and it also has Nicko playing his gong with a cello string to create the sound of the crash! I've said enough about this now, I'll leave you to listen to the whole album. I'm on my 4th listen now and each song just gets better and better as it all sinks in. This is one heck of an emotional and epic journey. If this is their last then they've gone out with one of their greatest albums. Now grab a Trooper beer, gaze at the outstanding artwork and let your imagination roam. Up the Irons!

Que voy a decir de Iron Maiden, el grupo de mi vida....Los sigo desde que tenia 13 años, actualmente tengo 40...El disco, yo creo que su canto de cisne, es un discazo. El book de la edición deluxe es una preciosidad. Sobre las canciones pues hay un poco de todo, desde sus guitarreos "a caballo" que ellos crearon, a temas mas lentos que son precisamente los que mas me han llamado la atención, especialmente el ultimo del disco, un tema que empieza... a piano!!!! tocado por Bruce Dickinson y que pone realmente los vellos de punta u otro llamado "Tears of a clown" que me parece una maravilla, dedicado al actor Robin Williams y a su suicidio...Y por supuesto al ser un doble con 11 temas, los temas son de un metal progresivo con muchos cambios y solos de guitarra...Me parece un discazo sin duda. IMPRESCINDIBLE.

Great quality with the best of maiden...up the irons !!!

Cinq ans après le déjà très progressif The Final Frontier qui eût cru que la Vierge de Fer remettrait le couvert avec un double album bien saignant de heavy metal progressif ? Il fallait oser, ils l'ont fait, et Dieu sait s'ils ont eu raison. Car même si à la soixantaine approchant les gars de Maiden n'ont plus rien à prouver, ils tentent le coup, celui de surprendre, celui de se faire, et finalement, de nous faire plaisir. De prime abord cet album surprendra peut-être les fans hardcore qui attendaient sans doute un autre style d'album, plus évident, plus direct, plus simple. Et même les fans plus séduit par la touche prog' que distille ouvertement le combo britannique depuis A Brave New World en 2000, seront étonnés, pour ne pas dire déroutés par un tel parti prit. Car l'album est long, difficile aux premières écoutes, pas facile de se repérer dans les ambitieuses compositions dépassant allégrement les 10 mn pour certaines, de réussir à digérer ces 92 mn de musique. Pourtant, une fois apprivoisé, une fois compris, cela se fera au bout de trois/quatre écoutes, cet album usera votre platine CD. C'est puissant, épique, inspiré, sombre, grandiose ! Même si Maiden ne révolutionne en rien son style, c'est du Maiden pur jus et ils sont en très grande forme ! Entre grandes fresques progressives, ambitieuses et inspirées du 1er disque, et ce même pour les titres les plus "courts", ou des morceaux plus directs et plus classiques, tels The Speed Of Light (le single), Death Or Glory qui ouvre le 2e CD ou Shadows of the Valley qui le suit, il n'y a pas de réels faux pas dans cet opus, si ce n'est un titre peut-être plus moyen, plus anecdotique que serait The Man Of Sorrows. A noter la magistrale conclusion de ce double album : The Empire Of The Clouds, entre une improbable introduction au piano et la majestueuse orchestration symphonique de la deuxième partie. La présentation de cette édition Deluxe, est pour Maiden, une première, et la finition est soignée. Pour autant, considérant d'autres éditions "spéciales", "collector" ou "limited", l'on peut être à juste titre déçu par le peu d'efforts accordés au contenu : une seule photo du groupe (!) à la fin d'un livret bien ordinaire, pas de CD et/ou de DVD bonus. Pourquoi ne pas avoir proposé, par exemple, la version de l'album en 5.1 ?! C'eût été génial ! Décevant. Alors oui les mauvaises langues argueront également que Maiden ça n'est peut-être plus ce que c'était, que c'est trop long, que The Empire Of The Clouds qui conclut ce double album est imbuvable, prétentieux, grotesque... Alors oui tout n'est pas parfait, mais qui peut prétendre encore aujourd'hui à un tel bilan et à un tel niveau ?! Perso je ne boude pas mon plaisir et vous eussiez tord de vous priver.

This excellent work feels more fluid and free than their previous releases. It's full of references to their 80's work while maintaining their trends of the last decade. Overall I love most of the tracks, my highlight picks being: If Eternity Should Fail (best intro track since Moonchild or Be Quick or Be dead) The Red and the Black (another anthem by Steve Harris, although not 'perfect') Death or Glory (feels like Running Free here and there) Man of Sorrows (excellent creative moment courtesy of the amazing Dave Murray) Empire of the Clouds (although I don't think it's the masterpiece everybody's saying it is). My negative points (read 'less positive') are: 1 - The production - I'm not going to be specific about Kevin Shirley's production. I just wish Martin Birch still produced Maiden. I'm missing the fabulous sound and mix of albums like Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of A Seventh Son. 2 - Bruce's singing, although being more mature over the years, doesn't have that latitude of earlier times anymore - and that's only natural. But, in spite of that, he tries to reach higher than ever before with less good results imho. Still, he delivers a very good performance; it's hard to believe the man was so sick when he recorded this album. 3 - Janick shound't solo, period. 90% of his solos are a mess, they go against the melodic and harmonious sonority that Dave and Adrian's beautiful guitar playing bring to Iron Maiden - a trademark since 1980. Fortunatley there aren't many Janick's solos in this album. I give 'The Book Of Souls' 5 stars not because it's that good in the frame of all their work but because it's their best of the last 25 years. It's better than all the reunion albums, including Brave New World and yes - much better than Fear of the Dark. Up the Irons!

Para empezar, la entrega se realizó en excelente tiempo y el CD llegó sin ningún detalle, ahora bien, en lo verdaderamente importante, el disco es muy bueno, por momento nos lleva a aquellos temas de la antigua Iron Maiden de los 80's en donde tenemos una serie de temas muy bien estructurados y ejecutados a la perfección por Harris y compañía, mezclando ese característico sonido de Maiden con un toque más progresivo y melódico (yo soy muy fanático de las bandas melódicas, es por ello que resalto este punto) en donde destacan canciones como Death or Glory, When teh River Runs Deep y la fantástica y Heavy Empire of the Cloud; es un disco muy bueno con excelente calidad de edición en donde esta presentación de edición especial es particularmente bella para coleccionistas y fanáticos de Maiden, les recomiendo adquirir este excelente disco de Iron Maiden. Saludos!