Iron Maiden, one of the most beloved and biggest bands in all of music. Not just metal music, but MUSIC. Its always exciting when they release albums and announce tours however a sense of the end is always near nowadays and a retirement announcement always seems right around the corner. Hopefully the corner is really far off. The previous tour was a history of maiden tour from the "7th Son of a 7th Son"era, and this album sounds influenced by that tour and album to an extant. Its proggy and incorporates synths, which is good because I love that album. Like the last release "The Final Frontier" I expect a good part of this album to show up on the set list for the tour. But lets get to the album itself. It's their first double album, and just because the sheep fans who let pop culture influence their taste in bands won't understand why there is only 11 songs instead of 30 let me say to them to keep listening to Five finger douche bags or the horrendous Butcher babies bullshit. Your not going to like this album anyway. Starting off with "If Eternity Should Fail", it sets the tone of the album and is a solid album opener much like I thought "Satellite 15....the Final Frontier" did for that album. An eerie instrumental with Bruce singing over it that blasts into a hard charging galloping riff and never lets up, an essential maiden trait that seems to never get old.. Next up is "Speed of Light" which really is much better in the context of the whole album than just a single, I thought it flowed better from the opening track rather than by itself. Its also the shortest song clocking in at 5:01.Up next is the "Great Unknown", its not bad but nowhere the best track on the album. If your familiar with 2nd era with Bruce it falls in line with many other songs going back to "Brave New World", (songs you know but cant remember the name of). The "Red and the Black" is the second longest track on the album and is pretty damn awesome, however I think a couple minutes towards the end cut out of it wouldn't have hurt any. Some awesome riffs hidden in this gem! "When the River Runs Deep" I put in the same category as "The Great Unknown". Now the title track, "Book of Souls". Such as good song and quintessential Maiden. I think its among their best title songs from their entire career("Powerslave", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Number of the Beast", 7th Son, etc..) If this song isn't the set piece with Mayan Eddie emerging ill be really disappointed. My favorite song on the album followed by my close 2nd favorite "Death or Glory". This just has high energy live song all over it and I love the lyrics for this one. Bruce Dickinson has a way of singing simplest choruses that doesn't sound over repeated and this one will be sung by the audience loudly. "Shadows of the Valley " is next up and I thought it would be a cover of an earlier song of theirs "Wasted Years" as it borrows from the intro riff from that song heavily but it veers from that path pretty quick and is very much its own song. The following song "Tears of a Clown" is written about Robin Williams and deals with depression and suicide. A big departure from the rest of the album subject matter. "Man of Sorrows" is next and starts off like a ballad, doesn't stay that way long though. Pretty solid mid tempo song I could see being in the tour set. Now the finale "Empire of the Clouds is a whopping 18 minutes and what a song. Penned by Bruce himself its such an epic song. You really should listen to this on headphones. Something about it just grabs your attention. The lyrics are amazing, painting the picture of everything he's singing about in your head, and the song has a shitload of layers to it. Just listen for yourself even if your not a Maiden fan, its incredible song writing, a talent that should be way more commended than it is current day. As always everyone in this band is top notch in their craft, just solid performances and playing all around from this band as in every album really.
4.5 out of 5 meadhorns
