Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Iron Maiden
Label: Parlophone Records
Release: 2015
Length: 92:11
Rating: 4/5
»The Book of Souls« is the sixteenth studio album from heavy metal institution Iron Maiden, and it had already set a few major milestones in their career before it even came out. »The Book of Souls«, hands down the most eagerly awaited metal album of 2015, is their first double album, arriving five years after its predecessor »The Final Frontier« (2010). That’s also the longest gap between two Iron Maiden studio albums in their history so far, while the 18-minute epic »Empire of the Clouds«, composed by singer Bruce Dickinson, is the longest piece they’ve ever recorded, knocking the »Powerslave« (1984) classic »Rime of the Ancient Mariner« off the top spot.
At 92 minutes it’s also their longest album, and if the main yardsticks of quality in music were the length of individual tracks and the ambition of the project, »The Book of Souls« would be the undisputed winner of their discography so far. Besides »Empire of the Clouds«, there are two more feature-length epics: the just-over-13-minute »The Red and the Black« and the title track, which runs a good ten minutes.
Old hand Kevin Shirley was back behind the board for a solid production, while the album’s release was pushed back by several months because doctors found a cancerous tumor on Dickinson’s tongue, so everyone first had to wait for him to recover. Bruce luckily pulled through the intensive treatment in good shape and handled his vocal duties on »The Book of Souls« pretty well, though you can often hear his vocal power slowly but inexorably fading with the years. To be honest, that’s perfectly normal at his age, so nobody expects him to sing the way he did at, say, thirty.
The band’s head honcho, bassist Steve Harris, who also played keyboards on the album again, started mulling over how to bring Iron Maiden back closer to the sound of their ‘golden era’ and to what most people today call progressive metal, years after the concept masterpiece »Seventh Son of a Seventh Son« (1988). That was especially obvious on the records they’ve put out over the past fifteen years, led by »The Final Frontier« (2010). The latter already came very close to the desired stylistic direction, and you could expect »The Book of Souls« to be the next step down that ambitious road.
As expected, there are no shocking musical surprises from a band that peaked creatively in the eighties. To be honest, the only track on the album with any convincing link to prog metal/rock is the superb »Empire of the Clouds«, which I’ll get to in the last part of the review. Dave Murray and especially Adrian Smith once again shine with their distinctive, well-placed guitar solos and trademark dual harmonies, which will delight every longtime fan, while the ‘weak link’ of the band is once again Janick Gers, whose hard-rock guitar ‘noodling’ occasionally irritates a little again, even if it doesn’t do any major damage to individual songs. Still, credit where it’s due: he co-wrote the title track with Harris, and that’s among the best things on »The Book of Souls«. Drumming jester Nicko McBrain is solid as ever throughout the album and stays in rhythmically predictable waters, which means no special solo experiments this time around.
Despite all this ambition, though, »The Book of Souls« isn’t a concept album, so »Seventh Son of a Seventh Son« remains their only concept record, even though most of the lyrics on the new studio effort revolve around souls, immortality, the question of life and death and similar themes that are pretty typical for Iron Maiden, most noticeably on the title track.
The opening energy catalyst »If Eternity Should Fall«, originally meant for Dickinson’s future solo album, has a slow, dramatic intro (with an oriental motif this time) of the kind the listener quietly expects from Iron Maiden, followed by the inevitable punchy shift into an epic section where triple-guitar harmonies rule. The standard, long-running recipe that still works is backed up by a mighty, well-executed chorus, so on that front too this is a track that keeps up Iron Maiden’s long tradition of strong opening numbers, one that was only rarely broken in the past. The only surprise is the short, closing narrative bit where Eddie’s ‘cousin’ Necropolis speaks up, since Iron Maiden last allowed themselves a similar ‘cinematic’ monologue on »Rime Of The Ancient Mariner«.
»Speed of Light«, whose opening riff slightly recalls the track »Futureal«, came out as a single and is also one of the few compactly built songs on »The Book of Souls«, which is otherwise dominated by tracks of enviable proportions. At heart the new single is nothing special, and the same goes for its unspectacular chorus. By usual Iron Maiden standards it’s almost a hard-rock effort, and in the context of the whole album, where it sits in just the right spot, it comes off a lot better than it does on its own. It’s one of those tracks meant to be a radio hit, to compete with past classics like »Two Minutes to Midnight«, »Wasted Years« and »Can I Play With Madness«, but it doesn’t pull that off at all, although it’s far better than past single flops like »Wildest Dreams« and »Holy Smoke«. »Speed of Light« will stick in the collective memory more for its very interesting accompanying video, inspired by the history of video games, than for its musical content.
»The Great Unknown« has a promising setup with a slow intro, where Dickinson’s vocals in particular slowly but successfully build a tense atmosphere. The rest is far less exciting: despite some good ideas and tasteful guitar harmonies, the thing never develops in the right direction to earn a place among the ‘eternal’ Iron Maiden standards. A rather bland, easily forgotten chorus contributes to the failure too.
The epic »The Red an the Black«, Harris’s 13-plus-minute pride and joy, opens with a short bass solo before moving into a sinister rhythm and a main riff that slightly recalls the central theme of the old instrumental classic »Genghis Khan«. The melodic motif is well executed, but the poorly thought-out weaving-in of the »vo-oh-oh-oh-o« chorus we’ve heard plenty of times before, a transparent ploy to get the live crowd singing along, comes across as extremely cheap and badly drags down the overall value and quality of this ambitiously conceived epic. On the other hand, the instrumental sections with their epic arrangements, Murray’s and Smith’s guitar ideas and Dickinson’s singing deserve praise (everywhere except that aforementioned cheap chorus, which is the Achilles heel of an otherwise very solid epic).
By usual Iron Maiden standards, »When The River Runs Deep« is a pretty average effort that leaves no deeper emotional mark and at times sounds like a bunch of arrangement ideas hastily glued together, with the song’s central message never flowing the way its potential promised. The only really interesting thing about this quickly forgotten track is the good guitar passages, delivered with Murray and Smith’s usual effectiveness.
The bad impression left by the previous track is firmly corrected by the title epic, which is without a doubt one of the highlights of »The Book of Souls« and one of the few pieces on the album that deserves future Iron Maiden classic status. The possessed, dark opening section with sharpened riffs and a furious-sounding Bruce fits nicely with the tense lyrics about Mayan occultism, while the epic harmonies create a grandiose atmosphere. The mighty chorus, backed in the background by a solemn keyboard arrangement, is truly excellent this time and deserves sincere congratulations. The overall vibe strongly recalls something made in the middle of the golden Iron Maiden era, so they finally managed to hit that long-sought target. The brilliant transition into the instrumental section clearly echoes the »Powerslave« instrumental evergreen »Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)«, while the epic guitar harmonies deepen the successfully recreated nostalgia and magic of a long-gone, romantic era.
»Death Or Glory« is again one of the few compactly built efforts on the album, with guitar phrases once more drawing on a hard-rock foundation. Again it’s not exactly a spectacular achievement, but thanks partly to its fighting chorus it’s still more interesting than »Speed of Light« and might have been a better pick for the album’s lead single. Murray’s and especially Smith’s guitar ideas are once more top-notch, while Dickinson’s bravura singing isn’t shaken even by the rather below-average lyrics.
»Shadows of the Valley« is another example of a track with an ambitious, promising setup that promises plenty in the intro but ultimately fails to deliver, despite a nostalgic nod to »Sea of Madness« in the lyrics. In atmosphere and structure it at times recalls the »Dance of Death« (2003) standard »Paschendale«, and its lyrics likewise deal with the suffering of soldiers in the First World War. The epic ending is again slightly marred by ‘oh-oh-oh-oh-o’ vocal harmonies, though this time they don’t come off as too tasteless. It’s also yet another stretched-out Iron Maiden song that would probably have had more impact if it had been at least a little shorter.
One of the better pieces on the album is definitely »Tears of a Clown«, with lyrics inspired by the depression and tragic death of the popular American actor Robin Williams. It has a fairly atypical, unpredictable setup, and the keyboards laid down effectively in the background contribute a lot to the melancholy mood. The lyrics are among the best on the album, and with the help of Dickinson’s heartfelt singing and the melancholy arrangements, they convincingly paint the picture of a tragic comedian on the brink of a fatal suicide. Among the shorter tracks on »The Book of Souls« it’s surely the closest to future classic status.
»The Man of Sorrows« of course has nothing to do with Dickinson’s solo composition of a similar name, other than that the intro has a melancholy, ballad-like section, which doesn’t last long, as it quickly shifts into a punchy section with sharpened guitar passages and an inventive use of keyboard backdrop. The chorus is again very well done, while the guitar harmonies once more sound nostalgic at times. It’s another good track that confirms the second half of »The Book of Souls« is a bit better than the first.
The most ambitious piece on the album, »Empire of the Clouds«, is Dickinson’s ‘baby’, and for the first time ever features Bruce on piano, while the lyrics were inspired by the crash of the airship R101 in 1930. Bruce’s piano and the orchestral arrangements with violin, which are the product of Harris’s keyboards, aren’t anything staggeringly exciting, though in an Iron Maiden context they sound innovative and deserve praise on that score. Despite some very good, fresh ideas, though, this ambitious ‘super-epic’, which clearly flirts with prog rock elements, leaves somewhat mixed feelings in the end. The epic, symphonic intro is, to be honest, a little drawn out and has a fairly repetitive motif, while things only get a bit livelier and more interesting somewhere after the five-minute mark. The triple harmonies are, as expected, brilliant, while the transition into the longer instrumental section, an interesting ambient twist, is certainly among the finest moments of this album, with individual band members, led by the Murray-Smith duo, showing off a generous helping of instrumental creativity. The ambitious ‘super-epic’ is convincing in its instrumental moments, but less so in Dickinson’s lyrical attempt at a dramatic retelling of the historical airship disaster. The ending of the epic is, as expected, excellent and just emotional enough to leave a very good impression. Any comparison with »Rime of the Ancient Mariner«, which, like a few other epics from the ‘golden years’, is rather out of place in the context of modern Iron Maiden, would be ill-considered, but the band deserves special credit for the extra effort on »Empire of the Clouds« and for creating one of their best achievements since the end of the eighties.
Contrary to the extremely pompous announcements that were popping up even before the album’s release (the most absurd being Murray’s statement that this is the best Iron Maiden album in their entire history), »The Book of Souls« is no great leap forward for these long-lived and wildly successful heavy metal champions, since the quality of what’s on offer is pretty mixed. But it’s definitely their most ambitiously conceived album since the end of the eighties, one that genuinely wows a few times with unexpected ideas and conjures up the ‘good old days’, though it can’t possibly be compared with their best work, when the band was in much better shape.
There’s hardly any need to even mention one of the most boring covers in Iron Maiden history, where Eddie (for the first time without any backdrop whatsoever) looks like the undead cousin of Dhalsim from Street Fighter, the work of renowned graphic designer Mark Wilkinson, who was known in his day for excellent, imagination-filled covers for Marillion. The only praiseworthy things about the cover are that Eddie finally looks like Eddie again and the return of the original Iron Maiden logo, last used on »The X Factor« (1995).
Iron Maiden are known for their extremely loyal followers, who in recent years have forgiven their darlings plenty of mistakes, exaggerated claims and corporate-minded, you could even say lazy, moves, but not all of them will surely fall for the artificially created, overblown »The Book of Souls« euphoria that took hold amid unrealistic expectations long before the album came out. Those fans will know how to judge the new album more realistically: as a very solid record that holds its own against most of their albums released since Dickinson and Smith’s return. That’s still a very nice achievement for a long-lived English collective that has faced numerous ups and downs since the end of the eighties and that shouldn’t have to prove in the studio anymore that they’re not ready for the scrap heap, yet they still make good music and remain a one-of-a-kind live attraction.
Line-up
Bruce Dickinson – vocals, piano on “Empire of the Clouds”
Steve Harris – bass guitar, keyboards
Dave Murray – guitar
Adrian Smith – guitar
Janick Gers – guitar
Nicko McBrain – drums
Production
Kevin Shirley
Track list
CD1:
1. If Eternity Should Fail (8:28)
2. Speed of Light (5:01)
3. The Great Unknown (6:37)
4. The Red and the Black (13:33)
5. When the River Runs Deep (5:52)
6. The Book of Souls (10:27)
CD2:
1. Death or Glory (5:13)
2. Shadows of the Valley (7:32)
3. Tears of a Clown (4:59)
4. The Man of Sorrows (6:28)
5. Empire of the Clouds (18:01)
