Book Of Souls: Rate each song out of 10, give an overall rating!

1. If Eternity Should Fail 5/5 - a fantastic start to the album, and I hope that they open the live shows with this one.
2. Speed of Light 4/5 - solid, up-tempo number, good crunchy riffs and nice solos.
3. The Great Unknown 2.5/5 - an okay song, not particularly memorable.
4. The Red and the Black 5/5 - a marvellous addition to the "mid-album epic" stable.
5. When The River Runs Deep 4/5 - I love the tempo of this song, and it has an excellent chorus. Good vocal performance from Bruce on this one.
6. The Book of Souls 4/5 - took a while to get into this one, as it does feel similar to several songs from previous albums. Very strong track.
7. Death or Glory 4/5 - this is such a fun track, I hope that it is played live. Bruce sounds like he is having a great time singing it.
8. Shadows of the Valley 2/5 - I struggle to get past the Wasted Years style intro, then the rest of the song is pretty innocuous. Nothing memorable here.
9. Tears of a Clown 4/5 - excellent song, great vocal performance. Superb solo from Adrian, but boy oh boy oh boy - the solo from Dave is absolutely terrible :-(
10. The Man of Sorrows 2/5 - meh. At least it is better than Bruce's Man of Sorrow.
11. Empire of the Clouds 5/5 - well, what have we here! Classic track, filled with drama and invention. Best instrumental section since the 7th Son album, Nicko's drumming is outstanding. If I could only pick one track from the album to hear live then this would be it. One of my favourite Maiden tracks (and I have been a fan since 1987).

Overall rating 4/5 - a couple of filler tracks, which is normal for Maiden, but overall the quality is astounding. Not quite as good as AMoLaD, but lightyears (heh) ahead of The Final Frontier. Magic stuff.
 
1. IESF 9/10 (phenomenal opener)
2. SOL 8/10 (good solid short rocker)
3. TGU 7.5/10 (I like it but feel I still need to get into it more)
4. RATB 9/10 (awesome riffage)
5. WTRRD 8/10 (another good short solid rocker)
6. TBOS 9.5/10 (my 2nd favourite song on the album)
7. DOG 8/10 (if the lyrics were better it would possibly be the best of the short ones but loses half a mark for lyrics)
8. SOTV 9/10 (seems to be getting a hard time on here cos H lent Janick and Steve the intro but I think it's a cracker)
9. TOAC 8.5/10 (wasn't convinced at first but has really grown on me)
10. TMOS 6/10 (nice intro from Dave but pure filler overall)
11. EOTC 10/10 (a pure Maiden classic, when I get to the end I want to listen to it all over again, already in my top 5 Maiden songs of all time)

Over all 9/10, best album since BNW.
 
DJMayes said:
01 - If Eternity Should Fail - 8/10
02 - Speed Of Light - 8/10
03 - The Great Unknown - 7/10
04 - The Red And The Black - 8/10
05 - When The River Runs Deep - 8/10
06 - The Book Of Souls - 7/10
07 - Death Or Glory - 8/10
08 - Shadows Of The Valley - 9/10
09 - Tears Of A Clown - 9/10
10 - The Man Of Sorrows - 7/10
11 - Empire Of The Clouds - 10/10

Averages out to just past 8 which is interesting given I rank this as my favourite Maiden album...
Click to expand...

Feel like updating this:

01 - 08/10 - If Eternity Should Fail
02 - 08/10 - Speed Of Light
03 - 08/10 - The Great Unknown (+1)
04 - 08/10 - The Red And The Black
05 - 09/10 - When The River Runs Deep (+1)
06 - 07/10 - The Book Of Souls
07 - 08/10 - Death Or Glory
08 - 10/10 - Shadows Of The Valley (+1)
09 - 09/10 - Tears Of A Clown
10 - 07/10 - The Man Of Sorrows
11 - 10/10 - Empire Of The Clouds
 
[QUOTE="Overall rating 4/5 - a couple of filler tracks, which is normal for Maiden, but overall the quality is astounding. Not quite as good as AMoLaD, but lightyears (heh) ahead of The Final Frontier. Magic stuff.[/QUOTE]

Exactly!!!!!
 
I still the whole of the album especially the longer tracks need a bit of surgery. I'll take the songs one by one

Eternity -8
SOL -6
TGU - 6
Red -8.5
RIver -7
Book -9.5 baby
DOG - 5
Unknown -7.5
Tears -8
Sorrows -7
Empire. Perfect 10
 
Updated list...,,

IESF 10
SOL 8 (+0.5)
TGU 10
TRATB 9
WTRRD 7
TBOS 8
DOG 9
SOTV 8
TOAC 10
TMOS 7 (-0.5)
EOTC 10'

Overall 10/10
 
IESF - 10
SOL - 8
TGU - 9
TRATB - 10
WTRRD - 9
TBOS - 8
DOG - 7
SOTV - 8
TOAC - 8
TMOS - 9
EOTC - 10

Over all 9/10

This album to me is definitely superior to The Final Frontier and Dance Of Death, but not as good as AMOLAD and Brave New World overall.
 
1. If Eternity Should Fail 9
2. Speed of Light 6
3. The Great Unknown 8
4. The Red and the Black 10
5. When The River Runs Deep 8
6. The Book of Souls 10
7. Death or Glory 7
8. Shadows of the Valley 8
9. Tears of a Clown 3
10. The Man of Sorrows 4
11. Empire of the Clouds 5
 
1. If eternity should fail - 8.9
2. Speed of light - 7.1
3. The great unknown - 7.2
4. The red and the black - 8
5. When the river runs deep - 7
6. The book of souls - 9.4
7. Death or Glory - 7.8
8. Shadows of the Valley - 8.2
9. Tears of a clown - 8.2
10. The man of sorrows - 8.2
11. Empire of the clouds 9.3
 
IESF - 8/10
SOL - 5/10
TGU - 6/10
TRATB - 8/10
WTRRD - 5/10
TBOS - 9/10
DOG - 7/10
SOTV - 8/10
TOAC - 6/10
MOS - 7/10
EOTC - 8/10

Overall = 8/10
 
deslock said:
Ranking a week ago (after a couple days of listening):
  1. The Red And The Black: 10
  2. The Book Of Souls: 9
  3. Empire Of The Clouds: 9
  4. Shadows Of The Valley: 8
  5. When The River Runs Deep: 8
  6. The Great Unknown: 8
  7. Death Or Glory: 7
  8. If Eternity Should Fail: 6
  9. Speed Of Light: 5
  10. The Man Of Sorrows: 5
  11. Tears Of A Clown: 4
Today:
  1. The Red And The Black: 10
  2. The Book Of Souls: 9
  3. Shadows Of The Valley: 8
  4. When The River Runs Deep: 8
  5. Empire Of The Clouds: 8 (dropped 1 point and 2 spots)
  6. The Great Unknown: 7 (dropped 1 point, same spot)
  7. Death Or Glory: 7
  8. If Eternity Should Fail: 6
  9. Speed Of Light: 5
  10. The Man Of Sorrows: 5
  11. Tears Of A Clown: 4
Tonight, I finally gave up on "Tears of a Clown" and created a playlist of the album without it. "The Man Of Sorrows" is close to being eliminated too.

Overall ranking: 9 (since we still have a full album's worth of excellent music even after dropping the weakest 4-6 tracks).
Click to expand...
Shortly after dropping "Tears of a Clown", I also removed "The Man Of Sorrows", "If Eternity Should Fail", and "Speed Of Light" from my playlist.

Since then, I've continued listening to the rest of the new album exclusively, something I typically do with new Rush and Maiden albums for a few weeks (that the new material lasted more than a month is a testament to how dense and strong it is).

The ranking/ratings haven't changed:
  1. The Red And The Black: 10
  2. The Book Of Souls: 9
  3. Shadows Of The Valley: 8
  4. When The River Runs Deep: 8
  5. Empire Of The Clouds: 8
  6. The Great Unknown: 7
  7. Death Or Glory: 7
As far as I'm concerned, the other songs are b-sides.

I just resumed playing other Maiden albums too... will see how the new stuff holds up.
 
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CycleMotion said:
01 - If Eternity Should Fail - 10/10
02 - Speed Of Light - 7/10
03 - The Great Unknown - 10/10
04 - The Red And The Black - 9/10
05 - When The River Runs Deep - 10/10
06 - The Book Of Souls - 10/10
07 - Death Or Glory - 8/10
08 - Shadows Of The Valley - 8/10
09 - Tears Of A Clown - 10/10
10 - The Man Of Sorrows - 9/10
11 - Empire Of The Clouds - 10/10

Overall 9.5/10
Click to expand...

After some time and many plays result is different and more realistic:

01 - If Eternity Should Fail - 9/10
02 - Speed Of Light - 7/10
03 - The Great Unknown - 8/10
04 - The Red And The Black - 8/10
05 - When The River Runs Deep - 8/10
06 - The Book Of Souls - 10/10
07 - Death Or Glory - 8/10
08 - Shadows Of The Valley - 8/10
09 - Tears Of A Clown - 10/10
10 - The Man Of Sorrows - 7/10
11 - Empire Of The Clouds - 10/10
 
1.If Eternity Should Fail - 10/10
2. Speed of Light - 10/10 (Yeah it's fucking brilliant)
3. The Great Unkown - 6/10
4. The Red and The Black - 7/10
5. When The River Runs Deep - 5/10
6. The Book of Souls - 9/10
7. Death or Glory - 9/10
8.Shadows of the Valley - 4/10
9. Tears of a Clown - 8/10
10. The Man of Sorrows - 8/10
11. Empire of the Clouds - 10/10

Overall, a great album, but there a few quite bad fillers, WTRRD and SOTV in particular.

:)
 
I'm not good at grading songs, so I'm going to do this Eurovision style: each song gets different point (exception - 2 songs are going to have same grade).

And the 10 points go to: When the River Runs Deep
9 points: The Red and the Black
8 points: Book of Souls
7 points: If Eternity Should Fail
6 points: Tears of a Clown
5 points: Speed of Light
5 points: Death or Glory
4 points: The Great Unkown
3 points: Shadows of the Valley
2 points: Empire of the Clouds
1 point: The Man of Sorrows

Average - 5,45 (seems about right)
 
10. The Great Unknown: 4/10
9. The Man of Sorrows: 4/10
8. Shadows of the Valley: 5/10
7. When the River Runs Deep: 5.5/10
6. The Red and the Black: 7/10
5. Death or Glory: 7/10
4. Empire of the Clouds: 8/10
3. Speed of Light: 8.5/10
2. If Eternity Should Fail: 9/10
1. The Book of Souls: 9.5/10

Average: 6.75/10
 
If Eternity Should Fail - 10
Speed of Light - 7
The Great Unknown - 9
The Red and the Black - 10
When the River Runs Deep - 8
The Book of Souls - 9
Death or Glory - 9
Shadows of the Valley 8.5
Tears of a Clown - 8
The Man of Sorrows - 6.5
Empire of the Clouds - 10

There's a short, "filler" song on recent albums that I seem to like a lot more than others. Gates of Tomorrow, The Pilgrim, The Alchemist and The Great Unknown are all great tracks in my opinion.
 
First song since the Dance of Death album that I frequently skip when playing the album.
 
I don't know. I don't really understand the hate. It's got all the makings of a classic maiden song. I like it more than every song on AMOLAD. And I love that album!
 
It's not really hate, I don't think it's a bad song. It's just all stuff I've heard before, literally. I usually don't mind Maiden recycling ideas, they've been doing that since the beginning, but on this song it's too much. Plus it just doesn't really go anywhere, it plods on for 7 minutes and feels way too long. Just seems like filler to me.
 
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