This is the thread where we talk about Iron Maiden!!

*rocking, not rocks my, jebus.

I'll have a much more in-depth review done in a couple weeks, but after a month of immersion in <i>The Book of Souls</i> I thought I'd offer some quick thoughts on Twitter.

http://bit.ly/1IJh5UV

Their best since 7th Son? Count me in!

The single is not bad.

yeah it's ill....kinda bluesy and truckin' hard rock reminds me of the paul dianno era a bit

Here's my complete take on the new record. I would have been perfectly happy with an album on par with the last four, but they've outdone themselves with this one.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/196855-iron-maiden-the-book-of-souls/

That was a very enjoyable review. As a new Maiden fan who's working through the discography chronologically, I am now excited to catch up to The Book of Souls in... well, considering my current pace, probably five or six years.

Excellent review. I'm gonna come to s'toon and make you buy me beer if this record doesn't kick my ass, ok?

"empire of the clouds" is incredible. sounds like they've been listening a little to motorpsycho and steven wilson

I ended up tearing through the whole Maiden discography over about six weeks last month in preparation for seeing them live. The whole process was one of the most rewarding musical experiences I'd ever had. So much so, in fact, that a lot of other music, even stuff I like, is sounding a little drab in comparison. This band is just bursting with energy and riffs and hooks and fun.

My top favorites ended up being Somewhere In Time for the early run and The Final Frontier for the 2000-2010s era. But I bet I'd have a different opinion if I did it over again.

I doubt, however, that anything will displace "Caught Somewhere In Time" as my single favorite Iron Maiden song.

I listened to Piece of Mind the other day for the first time in a long while and marveled at how mild and basically arena rocky it sounded. When I was a kid, Maiden was like the heaviest sounding shit ever, but now it sounds polite.

Still love 'em.

They often strike me as a rather un-heavy heavy metal band. The word that kept coming to mind as I was listening to them, especially on the faster numbers of course, was "fleet". Maybe it's all those galloping rhythms and songs about aviation, but for me they evoke swiftness alongside size and power. But I don't often get that sense of thudding wrecking-ball heaviness from them that I do get from, say, Black Sabbath.

When I was a kid

Key point. I think until I was well into high school, the only Sabbath song I'd ever heard was Paranoid (on the radio).

Iron Maiden has the gallop, which is their unique swing on the heavy metal thing.

finally listened to Bruce's version of "Remember Tomorrow". I never did in the past cos I usually don't like hearing him on most Paul songs but dare I say I think he does this one better. it's so jarring hearing him sing notes that are so low (for him), because he so rarely did, and he sounds...different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPG0GNGVx-Q

Nice, I think Bruce Bruce handles pretty much all the old songs pretty well. I was just reading last year's comments about not being that heavy, well to be fair they did develop their sound throughout the 70s, inspired by the likes of Jethro Tull and Wishbone Ash. There's always been a progressive element that they return to more on certain albums. Here's Opeth in 1998 covering the same song:

https://youtu.be/k-ZfPeC14qw

lol the OPeth version was the first I heard and I didn't know it was a Maiden song.

expecting Maiden to be "heavy" is kinda missing the point IMO, outside of the first two albums. like Priest were a more 'aggressive band' (though also were more AOR at times), Maiden were more exploratory and textured.

I'm also mega jealous of anybody who saw them play together back in the day

Well, not really about Maiden, but...behold.

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/vancouver_singer_for_clown-themed_iron_maiden_cover_band_arrested_for_allegedly_smuggling_7_million_of_drugs_into_japan

hey all Maiden has another live album from their last tour and like all Maiden live albums it's a lot of fun and reminds me a lot of that tour.

the guitars sound like buzzsaws and the bass is nice and present. also Bruce sounds gee-reat. obviously how many diff versions of these damn songs do you need, but hey, right now we CAN'T GO TO CONCERTS so fuck u for your attitude

k i'm sorry u didn't deserve that

New song "The Writing on the Wall" just premiered on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhBnW7bZHEE

really weird that they decided to cover the Sam Smith James Bond song

Admittedly I've only been half paying attention to the viral build up this week, is "Belshazzar's Feast" the name of the new album then?

not a bad tune, but somewhat lacking for a first new single drop.

Admittedly I've only been half paying attention to the viral build up this week, is "Belshazzar's Feast" the name of the new album then?

I don't think that's been confirmed yet. In trying to figure this out, I discovered that "Belshazzar's feast" is the name sometimes used for the Bible story that gave us the phrase "the writing on the wall". So it may just be something they were using to tease the new single.

i dunno, i thought the song was pretty good!

i said to mr veg, the storyline of the animated video kinda lost me at times but it looked like it was dreamed up by a 14 year old while bored in math class (which is a compliment ie it looks dope)

It's a perfectly fine middle-of-Side-One Iron Maiden song, but a leadoff single? Nah. Iron Maiden used to write fast songs; they need to get back to that.

in the context of modern era maiden ie the past, 15 years, i think it’s fine & no slower than most of their other recent stuff

i know this corny but i am super fucking grateful that they do not suck. I mean, they could happily retire if they wanted but instead still pushing out pretty fkn decent tunes in 2021 & staying in their lane.

Agree 100%. And the fact that they continue to absolutely destroy live is amazing to me. I've never gone home from a concert happier than the nights I saw Iron Maiden.

yeah same

that was my first thought: new single = new album = new tour weeee 😃

I don't think that's been confirmed yet. In trying to figure this out, I discovered that "Belshazzar's feast" is the name sometimes used for the Bible story that gave us the phrase "the writing on the wall". So it may just be something they were using to tease the new single.

thanks! i just saw that name popping up too, so I assumed that to be the name of the first single before today. waiting until i can hear this on something other than shitty laptop speakers, but def excited for more new Maiden! \m/

It's a perfectly fine middle-of-Side-One Iron Maiden song, but a leadoff single? Nah. Iron Maiden used to write fast songs; they need to get back to that.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:39 PM bookmarkflaglink

this is how I feel tbh. not so much about the tempo, as some of my favorite tunes on Book of Souls (which I loved) were mid-tempo, but this doesn't feel like a leadoff single to me.

if I heard it in the middle of the album, I'd like it just fine.

Agree 100%. And the fact that they continue to absolutely destroy live is amazing to me. I've never gone home from a concert happier than the nights I saw Iron Maiden.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:45 PM bookmarkflaglink

I genuinely got chills when I saw them in Tampa two years ago, because the lights were as such where the crowd became mega visible, and you could see the 21,000 seat arena was fucking FULL and screaming their heads off. 20,000+ people to see Iron Maiden, in the 21st century. Priest, on the other hand, who are also still going strong, are mostly doing Hard Rock Lives and things with much smaller capacities (though I'm guessing in Europe they draw bigger).

by comparison, I saw Slayer's last arena tour, and, not gonna lie, the attendance was pretty dope, but....the arena was not filled. there were empties.

(it was an awesome show/tour, and Slayer's popularity was probably as high as it had been in 20 years, but you could tell that an arena tour was a little lofty in 2019 for Slayer, as opposed to 1991)

they are ok.

great post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkYGNiBkso

steeeerike two

I recently saw a clip of Brexiter Bruce complaining about all the ways Brexit has made things harder for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lku0bf3grts

hey mods uhhh

those are kinda fun tbh

tho actually (unintentionally?) make a great case for Maiden's songcraft and ability to write indelible guitar melodies

so the whole Belshazzar's Feast thing was a red herring? anyway, who cares, new album imminent. cover art is badass. up the irons! \m/

https://www.ironmaiden.com/media/images/teddy.jpg

1. Senjutsu (Smith/Harris) 8:20
2. Stratego (Gers/Harris) 4:59
3. The Writing On The Wall (Smith/Dickinson) 6:13
4. Lost In A Lost World (Harris) 9:31
5. Days Of Future Past (Smith/Dickinson) 4:03
6. The Time Machine (Gers/Harris) 7:09
7. Darkest Hour (Smith/Dickinson) 7:20
8. Death Of The Celts (Harris) 10:20
9. The Parchment (Harris) 12:39
10. Hell On Earth (Harris) 11:19

lol at 3 10+ minute songs

i hope this is as ridiculously OTT as Book of Souls, which I loved

same. i have no problem with current era epic length Maiden songs.

Book of Souls material went over really well live too. in fact that fuckin' tour was maybe my favorite, though the last one was great too.

I'm not sure what I expected from an Iron Maiden song in 2021 but I didn't expect most of it to sound like country to me

sounded more like ZZ Top-influenced Maiden to my ears. this is the type of song that woulda fit in the middle section of The Final Frontier I think.

weird choice for a lead single unless the whole album is like this.