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

Mosh said:
I usually don't mind Maiden recycling ideas, they've been doing that since the beginning
Click to expand...
Actually, I think that may be a tad exaggerated: as far as real "shocking", obvious recycling is concerned, it started only with "The Clansman" (1998), and its "Infinite Dreams"-sounding guitar opening, unless I miss something before that.
 
Bruce's vocals (to be precise: the vocal melodies) in the verses in Shadows of the Valley are different from anything else we've ever heard.
These struck immediately when I first heard the song. Later, the recycling moments started to appear. Still no filler though.
 
Brigantium said:
No coincidence there, I think, this sound sounds like it fits right in with D0D to me. (And part of the reason I like it).
Click to expand...
Yea it does actually. It has the same sort of folksy melodies. I find the stuff on DoD to be more interesting and inspired though.

Black Bart said:
Actually, I think that may be a tad exaggerated: as far as real "shocking", obvious recycling is concerned, it started only with "The Clansman" (1998), and its "Infinite Dreams"-sounding guitar opening, unless I miss something before that.
Click to expand...
Obvious recycling for sure, but I was also thinking less obvious things like recycling rhythms and chord progressions. I really don't think it's inherently bad as long as they do something new or interesting with it, which they usually do.
 
If Eternity Should Fail - 10/10
Speed of Light - 9/10
The Great Unknown - 10/10
The Red and the Black - 8/10
When the River Runs Deep - 7/10
The Books of Souls - 10/10
Death or Glory - 9/10
Shadows of the Valley - 9/10
Tears of a Clown - 9/10
The Man of Sorrows - 6/10
Empire of the Clouds - 10/10

Album Rating - 8.8/10
 
Black Bart said:
Actually, I think that may be a tad exaggerated: as far as real "shocking", obvious recycling is concerned, it started only with "The Clansman" (1998), and its "Infinite Dreams"-sounding guitar opening, unless I miss something before that.
Click to expand...

I'd have said it actually started with Infinite Dreams recycling Genghis Khan, but there you go...
 
BOS has finally I think been around long enough to grade properly. Nothing perfect here.

I'd give 9s to: shadows, speed of light and great unknown . These are great Maiden songs!!!

8s for WTRRD , BOS , empire./ river is way underrated!!

6s are tears and man of-sorrows.

As for the rest:facepalm:...

Don't love DOG.. It's a 5 Then there are in my opinion, the most boring Maiden songs since the reunion began. TRATB 4 and IESF a 4 also...:( But barely ... By maiden standards these two just fail to me . To long and parts I genuinely do not like. Which hardly ever happens for me and Maiden. Overall the album gets around a 7 in "our" catalogue. Still a great album, (no filler') but my least favorite of the reunion.
 
Last edited:
If Eternity Should Fail - 7,5/10
Speed of Light - 5/10
The Great Unknown - 8,5/10
The Red and the Black - 10/10
When the River Runs Deep - 7,5/10
The Books of Souls - 9,5/10
Death or Glory - 8,5/10
Shadows of the Valley -8,5/10
Tears of a Clown - 9/10
The Man of Sorrows - 8,5/10
Empire of the Clouds - 7,5/10

8,3
 
If Eternity Should Fail - 9,5/10
Speed of Light - 7/10
The Great Unknown - 8,5/10
The Red and the Black -6/10
When the River Runs Deep - 6,5/10
The Books of Souls - 9,5/10
Death or Glory - 7/10
Shadows of the Valley -4/10
Tears of a Clown - 9/10
The Man of Sorrows - 9/10
Empire of the Clouds - 10/10
 
If Eternity Should Fail 8/10

I really like this song, but it could be so much better. I don't understand why the chorus was repeated so many times at the end. This song could benefit from a little brevity.

Speed of Light 8/10

The Great Unknown 10/10

I really, really like this song. I love how it starts off softy and builds up, then abruptly ends softly. While I didn't really care for the Force Awakens, this song kinda conjures images in my mind similar to Kylo Ren in the snow scenes on the Starkiller Base. I can't figure out why this song isn't that well liked by many Iron Maiden Fans.

The Red and the Black 8/10

When the River Runs Deep 2/10

When I hear this song I can't help feeling this is a revised version of Bruce's solo song The River of No Return. Since I had a Star Wars analogy earlier, it's like George Lucas adding crappy revisionist special effects to the original Star Wars trilogy and I just can't get into them.

The Book of Souls 8/10

Death or Glory 10/10

Shadows of the Valley 7/10

It's not a bad song, but it reminds me too much of Fallen Angel with a Wasted Years-ish intro.

Tears of a Clown 4/10

I think this song is rated higher by many because of it's connection to Robin Williams and less because of the quality of the actual song.

Man of Sorrows 5/10

Both this song and Tears of a Clown seem too similar to me (lyrically). I think my rating of both songs is affected by the similarities I perceive between them.

Empire of the Clouds 9/10

Okay so this is probably my favorite song on the album, but I can't give it a perfect rating. The lyric about the R101 (731 ft long) being bigger than the Titanic (883 ft long)...and the truth of the matter bother me. I also think this song could be a bit shorter and there's an abrupt change in the instrumental section that just doesn't seem to flow right to me.

Overall 8/10
 
Last edited:
Agree on the great unknown being overlooked. It could stand another verse, but a song leaving you wanting more is usually a compliment.
As for IESF: yes it drags on way tooo looong. It could stand a few less repeated choruses, and shave off the ugly monkey talk at the end.
My criticisms of Eternity don't end there. It seams to be too slow; up the tempo a tad. I don't think the instrumental parts blend well with the verses/ chorus either. As with The red and the black, it seams like spare parts assembled to form the song.
TRATB is far more guilty of this though. I've given it 100s of listens and still get nothing. In my opinion the album would be far more enjoyable with SOL being the opener and the aforementioned 2 songs left off entirely . Great unknown and SOTV are knocking on the door of top ten reunion songs for me however ! Awesome stuff...
 
IESF - 8/10
Speed of Light -7/10
Great Unknown 6/10
TRATB - 9/10
WTRRD - 6/10
TBOS 10/10
Death or Glory - 8/10
SOTV - 7/10
TOAC - 9/10
Man of Sorrows 5/10
Empire - 8/10

7.5/10
 
I'm not sure how this got bumped, but there's an entire section in the Song and Album Commentary forum for rating Book of Souls.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top