"The Book of Souls" - Official pre-release thread (CONTAINS ALBUM SPOILERS)

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Have you seen Blabbermouth is announcing "Speed of Light" as a single for August 14th ? Maiden's official site doesn't say anything about this, and I wonder if this single has anything to do with their warning about imitations.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/iron-maiden-to-release-speed-of-light-single-in-august/

Looks like it links to a Warner Music press release... which doesn't say anything about "Speed of Light".

Unless it did previously, and Rod and Co. got to Warner Music and raised some hell, which is what I assume happened. :p
 
Don't you think that I saved you
Don't you think that I saved you
Don't you think that I saved your life
Don't you think that I saved you
Don't you think that I saved you
Don't you think that I saved your life
 
I showed the video to my son last Friday and he's crazy about the end. Now he wants to see it everyday!
"I want to see Eddie destroying that planet! It's so silly and funny!"
 
Blabbermouth reports an inside band source as saying the new album is actually a rock opera that taps into the band's fascination with British culture, literature and fantasy.

Apparently, it tells the tale about the struggles of girl trying to make her way through the first year of Hogwart's School For Witchcraft and Wizardry as the Harry Potter saga reaches it's crescendo.
The source supplied the website with the following song-by-song outline:

If Eternity Should Fail (Dickinson) 8:28
We meet our protagonist Eternity Cooper as she struggles to keep up with her course load and the expectations of her domineering mother under the piercing eye and barbed tongue of professor Snape

Speed Of Light (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:01
Bullied by Pansy Parkinson, our hero discovers the shabby slippers gifted to her by her grandmother on her 8th birthday imbue her with the magical gift of super-speed

The Great Unknown (Smith/ Harris) 6:37
Eternity has her fingers crossed for Gryffindor as the first-years get acquainted with the sorting hat

The Red And The Black (Harris) 13:33
Enter a shadowy cabal within the Hogwart's faculty that may be experimenting with the dread forbidden practice of voodoo

When The River Runs Deep (Smith/ Harris) 5:52
A wrong turn in the shuffling network of Hogwart's staircases leads Eternity to vast subterranean river where she encounters a mysterious decaying individual calling itself Edward Hunter

The Book Of Souls (Gers/ Harris) 10:27
Edward and Eternity recover the legendary Book of Souls, a horcrux of unimaginable evil

Disc 2
Death Or Glory (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:13
Edward reveals he is caught by a spell in a doorway between life and death. Opening the Book of Souls will allow him to reach his destiny, but will it be glorious, or will it signify his doom?

Shadows Of The Valley (Gers/ Harris) 7:32
Eternity braves the dread lands below the Forbidden Forest in order to recover the amulet that could ensure Edward's safety

Tears Of A Clown (Smith/ Harris) 4:59
She confides her dilemma to jolly Hogwarts percussion teacher Sir Nicolas MacMindus only to discover she has made a terrible mistake

The Man Of Sorrows (Murray/ Harris) 6:28
Armed with her amulet, Eternity defies the Council of The Red and The Black and opens the Book of Souls to save her friend

Empire Of The Clouds (Dickinson) 18:01
Boosted by the slippers of super speed, our heroes take to the skies on broomsticks to fulfill a now-healed Edward's lifelong dream of becoming a Quidditch star

Band manager Rod Smallwood says the album is also being adapted in a stage musical starring Emily Blunt with Hugh Jackman as Edward. It will debut in London in February of 2016.
 
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Blabbermouth reports an inside band source as saying the new album is actually a rock opera that taps into the band's fascination with British culture, literature and fantasy.

Apparently, it tells the tale about the struggles of girl trying to make her way through the first year of Hogwart's School For Witchcraft and Wizardry as the Harry Potter saga reaches it's crescendo.
The source supplied the website with the following song-by-song outline:

If Eternity Should Fail (Dickinson) 8:28
We meet our protagonist Eternity Cooper as she struggles to keep up with her course load and the expectations of her domineering mother under the piercing eye and barbed tongue of professor Snape

Speed Of Light (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:01
Bullied by Pansy Parkinson, our hero discovers the shabby slippers gifted to her by her grandmother on her 8th birthday imbue her with the magical gift of super-speed

The Great Unknown (Smith/ Harris) 6:37
Eternity has her fingers crossed for Gryffindor as the first-years get acquainted with the sorting hat

The Red And The Black (Harris) 13:33
Enter a shadowy cabal within the Hogwart's faculty that may be experimenting with the dread forbidden practice of voodoo

When The River Runs Deep (Smith/ Harris) 5:52
A wrong turn in the shuffling network of Hogwart's staircases leads Eternity to vast subterranean river where she encounters a mysterious decaying individual calling itself Edward Hunter

The Book Of Souls (Gers/ Harris) 10:27
Edward and Eternity recover the legendary Book of Souls, a horcrux of unimaginable evil

Disc 2
Death Or Glory (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:13
Edward reveals he is caught by a spell in a doorway between life and death. Opening the Book of Souls will allow him to reach his destiny, but it will be glorious, or will it signify his doom?

Shadows Of The Valley (Gers/ Harris) 7:32
Eternity braves the dread lands below the Forbidden Forest in order to recover the amulet that could ensure Edward's safety

Tears Of A Clown (Smith/ Harris) 4:59
She confides her dilemma to jolly Hogwarts percussion teacher Sir Nicolas MacMindus only to discover she has made a terrible mistake

The Man Of Sorrows (Murray/ Harris) 6:28
Armed with her amulet, Eternity defies the Council of The Red and The Black and opens the Book of Souls to save her friend

Empire Of The Clouds (Dickinson) 18:01
Boosted by the slippers of super speed, our heroes take to the skies on broomsticks to fulfill a now-healed Edward's lifelong dream of becoming a Quidditch star

Band manager Rod Smallwood says the album is also being adapted in a stage musical starring Emily Blunt with Hugh Jackman as Edward. It will debut in London in February of 2016.

It atleast explains the cover
 
"ENKAI IS COLORED
He is called Parmuain, “many colored” or Enkai narok, “God is black”; Enkai Naibor, “God is white”; Enkai Nanyokie, “God is red”. The colors used to call Enkai are in reference with the colors of the sky. Enkai is black when the sky is black with thunderheads, which will bring rain. Enkai is white when the sky is white filled with clouds announcing the arrival of rain. Enkai is red during the dry season like the sky at that moment. The Maasai believe that when Enkai is red, it means that he is angry that is why he withholds the rain. He is no longer near. He is far away."

So far as Maiden goes: seems much more likely the song is about the book.

But that god's name is awfully familiar to anyone who knows old Babylonian mythology. I wonder what is the relation to Enki, god of water (and beer making!)
 
I preordered last night, on amazon.uk and this image appeared in there, too, this morning. It wasn't there last night. Obviously, the book on the image is part of the product package.

My feelings about the vibe on The Book Of Souls is that the band have made their definitive splash on Progressive Metal waters and it makes me admire them more and more 'cos they didn't fell bait on the 'shorter songs' demands from old morons that think it's still 1985, as if there wasn't long songs with mid/slow tempos parts.

Bruce writing 2 songs on his own makes me believe in - apart from the usual incredible lyricism - heavy riffs, maybe real downtuned guitars (perceivable, so to speak) and on Empire Of The Clouds I hope he have, finally, achieved the idea he always had of making a real prog metal epic with nods to Van Der Graaf Generator, Arthur Brown, Tull, King Crimson, Atomic Rooster with real heaviness.

The cover art is pretty simple, but, the painting is really masterful as it seems like a blend of oil painting style with the one implemented on The X Factor; the full logo back is another thing! Fantastic, plain and simple! The soul felt greater when I saw the artwork with the full logo!

Some titles are clichéd like Death Or Glory, The Man Of Sorrows, Tears Of A Clown, Speed Of Light (so much that I thought it was fake when it was first revealed by some french journalist), but, it's the content of these tunes that will turn these titles into something remarkable. 2 things that made me worry were Eddie's frontal view as on the first album cover and the release date is on a Friday (last of the weekdays) as for most albums were relased on Monday. Hope it's not a sign.

All in all, I feel a really Heavy and remarkable opus coming. UP THE IRONS!!! \m/


As from July 2015 all new albums and singles will be released on a Friday worldwide in order to make chart counting easier.
 
If that is true Mckindog (and it does not sound believable in my ears), I don't think I like a bit of it. Dozen in a dime novel writing.
 
Sorry guys, someone of our own on purposely fooling someone else, that didn't happen on the first 27 pages. :)
 
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