Best song contest - Round 1, Part 16

Which one is the best song in The Book of Souls

  • Speed of Light

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Great Unknown

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • When the River Runs Deep

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Death or Glory

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tears of a Clown

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Man of Sorrows

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    37
  • Poll closed .

Eli

Educated Fool
I was very happy to see The Talisman winning last part. Even though it's one of my top 3 songs, I wasn't sure it was loved that much. WTWWB and Starblind came 2nd and 3rd respectively which was not surprising.

If you don't mind I'd like to introduce the next album in an extremely personal way:):

Now comes the greatest album of the last 15 years. The best album (along with DOD) of the mighty Maiden. The album that contains the greatest Iron Maiden song ever (title track) and the best cover art. An album full of great riffs, melodies, harmonies and solos. The wonderful, the amazing, the stupendous, the marvellous, the fascinating, the magnificent, the brilliant, the masterpiece...THE BOOK OF SOULS. What an opening track! What a grandiose ending! What great epics and lovely songs in between! Even the weakest song on this album has some memorable parts. Thank you Iron Maiden, from the bottom of my heart for this record.

Now we can vote...

Already in round 2: Phantom of the Opera, Killers, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Revelations, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Caught Somewhere in Time, Infinite Dreams, No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark, Sign of the Cross, The Clansman, Ghost of the Navigator, Dance of Death, Paschendale, For the Greater Good of God, The Talisman
 
The Book of Souls! The greatest song ever until (and unless) Janick and Steve bring a greater epic on album 18.
 
As much as I love The Great Unknown, it's up against one of my top 15 IM in The Red and the Black.

Oddly enough I didn't like TRATB at first, and even now I find myself impatiently waiting through the first 4:40. However after that the song turns into something so gloriously triumphant, I watch the videos of live versions and am insanely jealous of the people in those crowds.
 
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My favourite reunion album :)
Voted If Eternity Should Fail (as a concert opener works great. Senjutsu on the other hand is very anemic.)
Also love:
Speed of Light
The Red and the Black (instrumental section makes my eyes misty.. Works well live.)
The Book of Souls (tasty guitar riffing)
Death or Glory (great short rocker. Fun live)
Shadows of the Valley
Tears of a Clown (best Maiden semiballad?)
The Man of Sorrows (has grown on me)
Empire of the Clouds (musical journey. Not my favourite epic, but certainly very interesting)
 
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After Senjutsu’s release, I think that people are starting to sleep on TBOS a bit, and they shouldn’t. This album is incredibly well put together, every song is great, and it is basically just the band excelling time and time again at crafting memorable moments. The flow is impeccable too. Monster album.

“Empire of the Clouds” is easily the best song though.
 
I love the Red and the Black, one of my, if not THE best song ever.
I also like the Steven Battelle cover - fantastic.

A gripe with the album is the two ballads, side by side. Not a fan of either of those songs, and side by side puts a massive drag on the album.
 
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For me this is between “The Book Of Souls” and “Empire Of The Clouds”, both excellent songs overall. The former suffers from some trademark Gers recycling at the beginning, but the second half is absolutely killer. And the latter is most certainly bloated, and its ambition exceeds its execution a bit; but I still really enjoy the song, a unique gem in their catalog.

At the end of the day, the stellar second half of “The Book Of Souls” has to seal the win.
 
The album is full of amazing songs (definitely one of the band's best albums as a whole piece and more than half of it are classic songs), but I voted for Shadows Of The Valley - one of Maiden's most underrated songs imo. It's also my favorite song from the album.
 
My least favourite reunion album together with DOD although the latter one has higher highs and lower lows. Voted for the obvious IESF.
 
Ghost of the Navigator.... one of the finest songs Janick ever wrote (but not the finest, that's coming later).

And here we are with The Book of Souls. As towering, majestic and awe-inspiring as the Mayan pyramids that inspired it, it trampled over nearly everything that came before it and became second only to The Evil That Men Do in my rankings.
 
The Book of Souls! The greatest song ever until (and unless) Janick and Steve bring a greater epic on album 18.
Curious info about the title track:

Steve: ''Well, that song was a fucking nightmare for me. I’d written these melodies, around the time we were making The Final Frontier, and somehow I lost them. I don’t know how it happened. I thought we were recording, but the machine just wasn’t working. It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me, in all these years. The problem for me is when I’m writing, I put so many melodies down, so by the time I get to the tenth melody I won’t remember the first one. But in the end, I wrote some new melodies for the song, and we combined this with some ideas that Janick had. It turned out really well''.

... I wonder what were the original melodies.

 
Strong album all in all, I think every song here delivers, but if I was have to find any lesser songs or such, I think for some reason The Man Of Sorrows has always left me a bit cold. The song starts melancholic and really promising but something ain't clicking for me.
The title track is majestic masterpiece, true classic from Janick and Empire Of The Clouds from Bruce is really special song, I think it's true adventure, ambitious song and it works really well.

But for me, I think the first song that stood out from the rest during the initial listening on the release date was:
The Red And The Black. Epic and really catchy song. Something in this song, the best parts and instrumental section gets to my feelings almost like some of their past songs. Like during the instrumental part in SSOASS after the speech thing in the middle and we're off to instrumental passage with the solos. I don't have any problems with the song or extended repeated things. This song was true pleasure to witness live in concert.

I could have picked any of these three songs here for this round but I choose The Red And The Black.
 
Difficult, but I chose "The Book Of Souls".
It's one of the heavier tracks on the album, has great, varied guitar work and I like Steve's striking bass lines that manage to give it something haunting, dangerous.
 
Curious info about the title track:

Steve: ''Well, that song was a fucking nightmare for me. I’d written these melodies, around the time we were making The Final Frontier, and somehow I lost them. I don’t know how it happened. I thought we were recording, but the machine just wasn’t working. It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me, in all these years. The problem for me is when I’m writing, I put so many melodies down, so by the time I get to the tenth melody I won’t remember the first one. But in the end, I wrote some new melodies for the song, and we combined this with some ideas that Janick had. It turned out really well''.

... I wonder what were the original melodies.

Thanks very much for the info. I would love to hear them as well. However, I'm not sure that the song would be better than what it is now.
 
The album is full of amazing songs (definitely one of the band's best albums as a whole piece and more than half of it are classic songs), but I voted for Shadows Of The Valley - one of Maiden's most underrated songs imo. It's also my favorite song from the album.
Great choice! happy to see SOTV getting recognition. my second favourite on the album and easily a top 10 song for me. Sadly, never got played live.
 
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