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

Dick Brucinson

Dick Brucinson

The TRUE Dick Brucinson
Rate the songs of Book of Souls best (top) to least good (bottom)

Here's my rating:

Shadows Of The Valley (yes, I really love that one) (10/10)
Empire Of The Clouds (9/10)
If Eternity Should Fail (9/10)
Death Or Glory (8.5/10) (this one has significantly grown from a bottom tier to one of my faves)
The Man Of Sorrows (8/10)
The Book Of Souls (7/10)
The Great Unknown (6/10)
The Red And The Black (5/10)
Tears Of A Clown (4/10)
When The River Runs Deep (3/10)
Speed Of Light (2/10) (the only letdown of the whole album imho)
 
Without going into too much detail, my favorite 5 in order:
1. The Red and the Black
2. The Great Unknown
3. The Book of Souls
4. Shadows of the Valley
5. Empire of the Clouds
 
Empire of the Clouds
The Book of Souls
If Eternity Should Fail
Death or Glory
The Red and the Black
The Great Unknown
Shadows of the Valley
Speed of Light
When the River Runs Deep
The Man of Sorrows
Tears of a Clown
 
The Book of Souls > Shadows of the Valley > If Eternity Should Fail > The Red and the Black > The Great Unknown > Speed of Light > Empire of the Clouds > Where The River Runs Deep > Death or Glory > Man of Sorrows > Tears of a Clown
 
The Book of Souls (10/10) the best song ever, along with Dance of Death
Shadows of the Valley (10/10)
The Red and The Black (10/10)
Empire of The Clouds (10/10)
If Eternity Should Fail (10/10)
The Great Unknown (6.5/10)
Speed Of Light (6.5/10)
When the River Runs Deep (6.5/10)
Death or Glory (6/10)
Tears Of A Clown (4/10)
The Man of Sorrows (3/10)
 
1 Book of Souls - all time Maiden classic.
2. Speed of Light
3. If Eternity Should Fail
4. The Red and The Black
5. All the other ones.

Strange album for me. Was very excited by its energy and ambition at first but ten years on I can barely listen to much of it.

Man of sorrows is such a waste. Starts with amazing potential to be something special then nosedives into a total chore of a song.

'Now we need to know the truth now.' Hmmmmmmm.
 
1. The Book Of Souls
2. The Red And The Black
3. Empire Of The Clouds
4. If Eternity Should Fail
5. When The River Runs Deep
6. Shadows Of The Valley
7. The Great Unknown
8. Tears Of A Clown
9. Death Or Glory
10. THE Man Of Sorrows
11. Speed Of Light

1-4 are all-timers, 5 and 6 amazing. 7 pretty good, 8 and 9 are okay. 10 is pretty weak, 11 one of my all-time least favorites.
 
The A-list:

If Eternity Should Fail
The Red and The Black
The Book of Souls
Death or Glory
Empire of the Clouds

The B-list:

Speed of Light
Shadows of the Valley
Tears of the Clown
The Man of Sorrows (yeah it's got its own problems, but overall I don't hate it)

Fillers:

The Great Unknown
When the River Runs Deep
 
First and last were very easy. Everything else was tough

1. The Red and the Black

2. Shadows of the Valley
I really love the instrumental part through the Into the valley of Death, fear no evil parts too. An underrated triumph of the album. Too overshadowed by the Wasted Years self-plagiarsm - even if it's far from the only one in this album

3. When the River Runs Deep
There are lots of little things that makes this a very fun song.

4. The Book of Souls
I wasn't a big fan of this first, but the second half is amazing

5. Tears of a Clown
The best short track on this one. I like the lyrics and the theme of this.

6. Empire of the Clouds
There's something before the end part of it that becomes too much. It makes it barely miss out on top 5 here. Otherwise a great big piece. I love the SOS Morse drum parts through the instrumental parts of this.

7. If Eternity Should Fail
Best possible opener of this album. The last couple of choruses in this one is the best part of this one.

8. The Great Unknown
Fun melodies and good cadences on this one. This one loses at the shift at the last solo.

9. Death or Glory
There's something between the verses and the choruses that loses. Not the lyrics else, but there's something about the flow of those parts.

10. The Man of Sorrows
It takes long before something happens in this one after the intro. Great choruses on this one

11. Speed of Light
Shadows in the stuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhs
 
  1. The Book of Souls
  2. The Red and the Black
  3. If Eternity Should Fail
  4. When the River Runs Deep
  5. The Great Unknown
  6. Empire of the Clouds
  7. Death or Glory
  8. Speed of Light
  9. Man of Sorrows
  10. Tears of a Clown
  11. Shadows of the Valley
 
Abas said:
2. Shadows of the Valley
I really love the instrumental part through the Into the valley of Death, fear no evil parts too. An underrated triumph of the album. Too overshadowed by the Wasted Years self-plagiarsm - even if it's far from the only one in this album
Click to expand...
Dick Brucinson said:
Shadows Of The Valley (yes, I really love that one) (10/10)
Click to expand...
Happy to see there are fans other than me, who like this song too much. There is absolutely much more to the song than the intro that resembles Wasted Years. I still cannot understand why it was not played live. It could have worked much better than The Great Unknown or Tears of a Clown. There is a good singalong part, great melodies and catchy riffs, and not to mention the solos (especially Janick's solo- which is his 2nd best after Blood Brothers IMO).
 
The title track might be my favourite every maiden song

Top
The book of souls
If eternity should fail
Red and the black
Empire

Mid
the others

Skip
When the river runs deep
Man of sorrows
 
01. The Book Of Souls 10/10

02. If Eternity Should Fail 9/10

03. Speed Of Light 8/10
04. Tears Of A Clown 8/10
05. The Great Unknown 8/10
06. The Man Of Sorrows 8/10

07. Empire Of The Clouds 7/10

08. Shadows Of The Valley 3/10

09. When The River Runs Deep 2/10
10. Death Or Glory 2/10
11. The Red And The Black 2/10
 
Eternity. BOS. Empire.

Don’t care for any of the others, not enough variety, too many lifts from their previous catalogue (title track also does that), the mix sounds flat.
 
  1. The Book of Souls
  2. The Red and the Black
  3. Tears of a Clown
  4. If Eternity Should Fail
  5. Speed of Light
  6. Empire of the Clouds
  7. Death or Glory
  8. Shadows of the Valley
  9. The Great Unknown
  10. When the River Runs Deep
  11. The Man of Sorrows (sorry Dave :confused:)
 
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