Review: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls | |||||||
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The Book of Souls | |||||||
Label: Parlophone Records Year released: 2015 Duration: 1:32:15 Tracks: 11 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: Review online: September 12, 2015 Reviewed by: MetalMike |
Readers' Rating How do you rate this release? Rated 4.13/5 (82.67%) (90 Votes)
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Review | |||||||
I've been listening to The Book of Souls, the 16th full-length from British legends Iron Maiden, non-stop for the last several days. I wanted to make sure to give it a fair shake as I've not felt like the albums the band has released since Bruce Dickinson returned in 1999 have been all that great but that opinion has changed with The Book of Souls. Musically, the band is in top form. Maiden have never been about hitting fans over the head with their talent. They can all play but the songs have always come first, a formula you'd think more bands would try to adopt. To my ears there is warmth to The Book of Souls that elevates it above albums like Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death or Brave New World. Those records sounded like sterile, digital creations whereas The Book of Souls sounds like a BAND. The Book of Souls contains over 90 minutes of music so you can be sure almost anything you've enjoyed hearing Iron Maiden do in the past is represented. You've got speedy rockers like "Speed of Light" and "Death or Glory," tales of inner struggles on "Tears of a Clown" and "Man of Sorrows" and lengthy, epic and historical journeys recounted on "The Red and the Black" and the longest song of Maiden's career, "Empire of the Sun." It is clear that everyone brought their A-game to the writing table (with the exception of drummer Nicko McBrain who did not contribute) and there are no weak tracks despite the album's great length. No greater testament to the songwriting can be that listening to The Book of Souls doesn't feel like an hour and a half. Every individual performance sounds great and the Kevin Shirley production makes sure every instrument has room to breathe and be heard. My gripe with this effort is one that has plagued Iron Maiden since Bruce returned and that is they get into these ruts where they repeat a riff about twice as many times as they need to and it gets to the point where I want to shout "move on!". Nowhere is this more evident than on the two longest tracks "The Red and the Black" and "Empire of the Sun." It occurs at the end of the former and before the solos on the latter. Each song could be at least two minutes shorter and suffer not one bit. Oh, and they recycled the opening riff from "Wasted Years" on "Shadows of the Valley." At the end of each listen I was left knowing that The Book of Souls is an excellent release from a band that has been at the top of the Heavy Metal heap for a long time and shows no signs of giving up their perch. |
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More about Iron Maiden... | |||||||
Review: 12 Wasted Years (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: A Matter of Life and Death (reviewed by Chaossphere) Review: Brave New World (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Brave New World (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Brave New World Tour (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Brave New World Tour (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Classic Albums: Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Dance of Death (reviewed by Larry Griffin) Review: Dance of Death (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Fear Of The Dark (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Fear Of The Dark (reviewed by Mjölnir) Review: Flight 666 (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Give Me Ed… 'Til I'm Dead Tour (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Iron Maiden (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Killers (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Live After Death (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Live in Quebec City, July 2005 (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Maiden England (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: No Prayer For The Dying (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Piece of Mind (reviewed by Iwarrior) Review: Piece of Mind (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Powerslave (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Raising Hell (reviewed by Eddiethe'Ead) Review: Rock In Rio (reviewed by Pierre Bégin) Review: Senjutsu (reviewed by Christian Renner) Review: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (reviewed by Mjölnir) Review: Somewhere In Time (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Somewhere In Time (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: The Book of Souls (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Review: The Final Frontier (reviewed by Larry Griffin) Review: The History of Iron Maiden Part 1: The Early Days (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: The Number of the Beast (reviewed by Eddiethe'Ead) Review: The X-Factor (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Virtual XI (reviewed by Michel Renaud) | |||||||
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