The intro is perfect. Huge, mysterious — maybe the best intro the band has ever done.
Bruce sounds magnificent and the lyric is so evocative and laden with images.
"Here is the soul of a man..."
"...black dog in the ruins is howling my name"
Great stuff.
Love the little rattlesnake bits of percussion slithering through the mix.
Chills
I rather like the outro too.
The acoustic guitar is somber and contemplative — something bad has happened and its import is slowly starting to seep in. Very Heaven and Hell
The multi-tracked vocals are suitably creepy.
In between, we get something that is quite good, but — and I am surprised to see it not remarked upon much here — musically kind of ordinary.
The Maiden gallop is pulled back to a canter. The rhythm section is tight, well-behaved and rather samey throughout. The guitar hooks rather simple, the instrumental break rather Maiden-by-the-numbers. Again though, the touches — the rolling drums to bracket the instrumental, the pick slide as they kick back into the chorus, the licks dancing around the final chorus — so tastefully and precisely done.
The thing is, the band can get away with pulling its punches because the composition is so strong.
The melodies are powerful and memorable, the pacing is excellent and the atmosphere...somehow bleak and grand at the same time.
It's exactly in Bruce's wheelhouse, and he delivers so well.
I'm going to compare this song to Revelations in that the mood and the melody render the lack of musical adventurousness moot.
