Rate the songs of Book of Souls in order best to least good

I don't get why The Man Of Sorrows gets so much hate. I personally love the first "and their light is their darkness no more" lin, and the 1980s vibe to it. May not be among their BEST songs, but anyway...
I love how it starts, it teases going into something epic and memorable but immediately stumbles into a droning, repetitive verse.

The melody is verging on non existant, it's not melodic enough to sing along to and not complex enough to be challenging or interesting.

The lyrics also feel like placeholders that they never got round to changing.

Very similar for me to Lost in a Lost World. Something that starts interesting and different but flops as soon as the song kicks in.

The darkness no more and the guitar bits after that are pretty cool which makes the rest of it more frustrating for me. It's been a while so maybe need to give that whole album a spin to see if I'm being unfair.
 
All on the 'maiden scale', ie. marked out of ten based on Maiden's own standards. As you can see,I can't get into Empire at all.

The Red And The Black (9/10)
The Book Of Souls (9/10)
Shadows Of The Valley (8/10)
If Eternity Should Fail (8/10)
The Man Of Sorrows (7/10)
When The River Runs Deep (7/10)

Tears Of A Clown (7/10)
Speed Of Light (6/10)
Death Or Glory (5/10)
The Great Unknown (5/10)
Empire Of The Clouds (4/10)
 
Empire Of The Clouds (4/10)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I've heard people calling it meandering, aimless and in need of editing, but 4/10 seems quite harsh without context. No worries, this isn't about to turn into a debate or anything :D I just like hearing opinions about art, especially when they are wildly different to mine.

Just a little mental excursion to another Maiden album: It's the exact same case with me regarding Hell On Earth.
I could ask the same about this one, would love to hear what your issues with HOE are.
 
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I've heard people calling it meandering, aimless and in need of editing, but 4/10 seems quite harsh without context. No worries, this isn't about to turn into a debate or anything :D I just like hearing opinions about art, especially when they are wildly different to mine.


I could ask the same about this one, would love to hear what your issues with HOE are.

I don’t have a general problem with HOE, it’s actually a nice song. But I don’t understand the hype around this track. Not in the slightest. From the "I wish I could go back"-part onwards, it starts sounding like traditional German hiking songs to my ears. And later on, the "love in anger, life in danger" part just doesn't work for me. For me, HOE is one of the weaker songs on Senjutsu.
 
  1. The Book Of Souls 9/10
  2. The Red And The Black 8.5/10
  3. If Eternity Should Fail 8/10
  4. When The River Runs Deep 8/10
  5. Death Or Glory 8/10
  6. The Great Unknown 8/10
  7. Tears Of A Clown 7.5/10
  8. Empire Of The Clouds 7/10
  9. Speed Of Light 6.75/10
  10. The Man Of Sorrows 6/10
  11. Shadows Of The Valley 5.5/10
 
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