Having had another day and multiple listens to absorb the song, I wanted to point out a few things I've observed. And yea, this song is still fucking awesome as far as I'm concerned.
1. Bruce's vocals sound quite similar (can't you seem the ridiiiiin) to his work on Tattooed Millionaire. But I can also hear that his higher notes sound a lot cleaner, which is what I was expecting especially as good as he sounded on the first leg of the LotB tour.
2. Anyone who says it "doesn't sound like Maiden" is a crazy person. It sounds like nothing but Maiden, though the western-ish motif is a bit new. But Maiden has made a career of writing songs that take their basic sound and stretch it into something new. Satellite 15 doesn't sound like Maiden. Neither does Fear is the Key. Or Strange World. Etc. Yet they ALL sound like Maiden, just stretching a bit into more territory than strictly metal.
3. I like how, as the band gets older, they allow themselves more leeway into sounding like their own influences. Thin Lizzy, UFO, Golden Earring, etc, these bands are much more apparent in Maiden's sound than when Maiden was starting out, and that's only a good thing.
4. I see lots of weird confusion about Adrian writing the lyrics. This is not the first time Adrian has written lyrics. Pretty sure Wasted Years, Sea of Madness, and Stranger in a Strange Land were all penned by Adrian. (If I'm wrong about him writing these lyrics, I'll stand corrected.)
5. And now for the best mind fuck of all: A longer amount of time has passed between this song, and the reunion album Brave New World, than from the band's first album to Brave New World. That means the "reunion" lineup has lasted longer now than all prior lineups (starting with the debut album) combined. That blows me away. I was 20 when BNW came out. I'm almost....27 now. Getting older.
6. One more thing...I also see comments here, Youtube, Facebook, etc, that Maiden are writing songs like this because they are older. This is a silly notion. Maiden write songs like this because they want to. They've written slower and more steady songs ever since their inception, and they're as likely to play another song just as fast as they ever did. This isn't a case of old people not being able to play as fast. It's a case of people just doing what they want, fast, slow, medium, whatever. Book of Souls should've proven that they can still tear shit up when they want to, as that album has a lot more power and speed than it's two predecessors.
I think I'm done.