Some new curious things from this review:
The title track - great riff, keyboards floating over the chorus, powerful vocals and unrelenting fury of the rhythm.
''Lost In A Lost World'' - the track has delay and layering on Bruce's vocals to lend a unique flavor. The interactions between drums, bass, and guitars bear many similarities to the structure of ''Infinite Dreams
''. Really, weirdness only happens in the last two minutes of the track, when Bruce goes on a wandering vision quest tempo rubato.
''Days Of Future Past'' - comes in with jarring, almost atonal guitar chords being chopped out on the strings, before a signature Adrian ''The Wicker Man
'' sort of riff takes us straight into Bruce's verses. Keyboards during the chorus (again) and a tidy solo from Adrian in the middle. Worth noting is the interesting outro, going back to Adrian's dystopian guitar chords and some creative jazzy drumming from Nicko.
''The Time Machine'' - unusual vocal structure and melody and guitar lead melodies (a la ATSS). Crazy little meltdown around
4:30, with unusual riff structure and even some wild guitar leads. Somewhere in the five-minute range it goes back into something resembling the usual Maiden, with some well-executed guitar solo tradeoffs, before Bruce sings us to the disc's conclusion.
''Darkest Hour'' - the song begins with clean guitars and Bruce's singing. Structurally, there are several parts of the song which seem to invoke elements of ''Wasting Love''
. The highlight of the song may actually be where it sounds like Adrian takes one lead, and then trades off with Dave, like the very best of the golden age.
''Death Of The Celts'' - after a minute or two of Bruce singing matching vocals to follow with a guiding melody provided by bass, clean guitars, and keyboards, the drums and distortion kick in and the verses carry on with a bit more energy. The verse structure continues until what seems to be an Adrian lead section before the song structure changes completely, to go into an instrumental section like the very best of Maiden multi-part epics, although there is definitely a fun Gaelic sort of lift to the melody, combined with some of the feel found in ''Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)''.
''The Parchment'' - start with bass (like the previous song), hard-hitting riff, interplay of vocal verse and lead guitar and impressive instrumental portion. Ten minutes in, Bruce takes another break so the band can do some more rocking (in fashion that really wouldn’t be out of place for bringing HBTN to a close, complete with really nicely harmonized guitar parts).
''Hell On Earth'' - opens with bass, modest tempo and Bruce follows the guitar melody. After a few rounds of verse, we are treated to a few exchanges of leads between Adrian, Dave, and Janick before everything drops out so bass guitar can once again take spotlight for a moment and clear the way for Bruce to deliver layered, almost hushed rapid lyrics, before the whole band comes crashing in again for a blistering instrumental section. Eventually the song reprises the clean and calm introduction, which eventually fades into the album's end.
Maiden delivered one of their strongest albums of the last twenty years.
The production is great.
