Seventh Thread of a Seventh Thread

How good is Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album) on a scale of 1 - 10?

  • 10

    Votes: 13 61.9%
  • 9

    Votes: 7 33.3%
  • 8

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • 7

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    21

Diesel 11

As you scream into the web of silence...
Taken from the 100,000 posts thread:

So I couldn't find a general thread in which to discuss the entirety of SSOASS, so I thought I'd start one.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is the gem in Maiden's discography. There's no other way to say that. This album is a masterpiece.

It all starts off the "seven deadly sins" intro. Bruce over quiet acoustics. And then the synths kick in. Build-up. Slowly but surely. Electricity enters the scene. It gets a little faster. Drums and guitar, working together. Faster. Faster. Faster AND THEN - NOW! And is the payoff worth it? Yes it fucking is. Moonchild takes us on a trip through the devil's intentions with the seventh son. There is evil here. Good has no chance.

Then comes Infinite Dreams. This one is such an introspective piece. Why are we here? Is there an afterlife? Is Death the end? All the questions many people, including myself, have asked at one time or another. The scream loses this a little bit, but not by much. This song took a few listens to grow on me, but boy did it fucking grow. Amazing.

And once ID ends... Can I Play With Madness? Yes, let's! Such an underrated song. I'm not surprised that the band called it "a bit of magic" in interviews. That's what it is. The chorus is excellent. Such a light, fun little song interspliced amongst some of the biggest impacting songs in the band's career.

But the high of CIPWM is soon forgotten because The Evil That Men Do turns everything up to 11. Oh my god, if my heart wasn't racing already! I love this song, nay, I adore it. It's one of the greatest songs in the history of music. That chorus makes you wanna melt. My god.

And of course, then you're thrown right into one of the greatest epics in metal. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son has very little lyrics, but the few that you're given are just enough. Then of course, there's the middle section, reminiscent of ROTAM, only a little heavier. And finally, one of the greatest solos in Maiden's discography. Rivaled only by Powerslave and Alexander, in my mind.

The Prophecy is the only song that could be considered weak in any way, yet it still holds up. The beginning is calm and slow, but then it builds. The vocals are great, the solo is awesome, and the ending is just... wow.

The Clairvoyant and I have an interesting relationship, even more so than Juanita (see my list for context). Some days I'll think it's one of the best Maiden songs ever, other days I'll think it barely makes the Top 100. But at the end of the day, it's a great song with one of the best synopses in the catalogue.

And finally, if it couldn't get any better, Only The Good Die Young. God. The chorus is stellar, the music is amazing, and the ending, where it all comes full circle, is the final proof that this album is special.

Abigail and Operation: Mindcrime are the only two concept albums that can rival this one. Abigail, however, whilst having the best story of all three of them, falls short because the songs aren't as good as some others (title track being the exception). Operation: Mindcrime is the most blemish-free of them, combining an intriguing tale with great music. But SSOASS, which falls short only because there's too much focus on the first son on Side 1 and thus the second isn't given much of a chance to shine, is still nonetheless the best of the three as an album. As an album, it's a masterpiece. Plainly and simply, a 10/10.

Anyways, interested in seeing the thoughts of the rest of this congregation on one of the greatest albums in the history of music.

Also added a poll for fun and stuff.
 
For a long time, Seventh Son was my favourite Maiden album.

A lot of that had very little to do with it *sort of* being a concept album, or about what any of the songs were about. As far as that goes it's honestly not that well planned out, what with Moonchild and the title track sharing so much common ground and being so weirdly placed. Indeed, as far as concept albums go it doesn't even begin to hold a candle to Dream Theater's Metropolis Pt II: Scenes From A Memory, my personal favourite - or the very divisive The Astonishing, for that matter.

For me SSOASS stands solely on the average strength of its individual songs. Of the 8 songs, The Prophecy is the only one I'd ever skip if it came on shuffle - though I often skip the ending verse of Only The Good Die Young as well. It has a fantastic run of songs in the first five, and it does pick up again after The Prophecy, even if not quite to the same level as before. It's one of Maiden's most consistently entertaining albums, with only Somewhere In Time and The Book of Souls beating it in that regard. I wouldn't rank the former higher, because I think the best songs on SSOASS are better than the ones from SIT. As for TBOS...well, there's a reason I said SSOASS was my favourite "for a long time". :p
 
It's the 30th birthday of one of the most iconic albums in metal...

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This album is utterly perfect (despite being their most accessible and commercial effort to date, IMO). It's certainly the best album released in 1988 and one of the best ever, in addition to being Maiden's very best. For a long time, Powerslave was my favorite Iron Maiden album, until I heard Seventh Son... in its entirety for the first time. I immediately fell in love with it and never once looked back.
 
9,25

Some people dared to place it as 2nd(!) best album of 1988. The monotone Metallica album won that title.
 
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It's definitely tough to choose the best album - not because of ...AJFA, but because Operation: Mindcrime was also released in that year. Two of my all-time favourites.
 
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is a strange album in some respects. It doesn't have the endless classic tracks of other albums, with only 'The Evil That Men Do' still in the live set. Hardly anything else from this album has ever been played outside of this tour, so if it doesn't feature much live and doesn't contain classic tracks, doesn't that make it a poor album?

I can see why many people don't list this as their favourite album, but I think that you need to keep in mind a number of factors when judging this album. Iron Maiden had been steadily evolving since 1980, with increasingly complex songs and arrangements to match, so I think that instead of seeing this album as simply another album, you have to view it as the culmination of what they had been working towards since 1980 and certainly since 1982. Well crafted songs, perfectly constructed, with the incredible synergy of having two guitarists who knew each others styles as well as their own. Maiden by this point was a perfectly functioning Metal machine. I remember listening to this album for the first time and when it finally ended, I just sat there in silence, unable to articulate the incredible achievement of what I had just heard. This album may not have the classic songs of other albums, but it was the culmination of their journey and represented the pinnacle of their achievements. I remember being so stunned by this album that I just couldn't conceive of where they could go next to top that. Sadly, my fears were well founded as Maiden were about to nosedive very badly indeed.
 
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is a strange album in some respects. It doesn't have the endless classic tracks of other albums, with only 'The Evil That Men Do' still in the live set. Hardly anything else from this album has ever been played outside of this tour, so if it doesn't feature much live and doesn't contain classic tracks, doesn't that make it a poor album?

I can see why many people don't list this as their favourite album, but I think that you need to keep in mind a number of factors when judging this album. Iron Maiden had been steadily evolving since 1980, with increasingly complex songs and arrangements to match, so I think that instead of seeing this album as simply another album, you have to view it as the culmination of what they had been working towards since 1980 and certainly since 1982. Well crafted songs, perfectly constructed, with the incredible synergy of having two guitarists who knew each others styles as well as their own. Maiden by this point was a perfectly functioning Metal machine. I remember listening to this album for the first time and when it finally ended, I just sat there in silence, unable to articulate the incredible achievement of what I had just heard. This album may not have the classic songs of other albums, but it was the culmination of their journey and represented the pinnacle of their achievements. I remember being so stunned by this album that I just couldn't conceive of where they could go next to top that. Sadly, my fears were well founded as Maiden were about to nosedive very badly indeed.
This album is in my top 5. Most of my Maiden obsessed friends list it as their favourite or second favourite record. I think Americans are less into it for some reason. All the songs are 10/10. Every single one of them. Only the Good Die Young should have been a single. These are the best solos from H and Davey, along with their solos on SIT. I mean Seventh Son, the song, is on par with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner for God's sake. And the sound, the mixing, the tone, drums, vocals, bass... everyone in Maiden surpassed themselves on SIT and SSOASS.
 
What is curious about Seventh Son (apart from the fact that the songs are amazing) is that it's not a typical concept album - I mean, the songs are not more than 10 (double album), there are no short interludes with vocals or instrumental/s as separate songs (e.g. intro of ''Moonchild'', outro of "The Prophecy'' and ''Only The Good Die Young'', the middle part of the tite track), the closing song is not a longer piece (epic) and most of the songs are not epics. What can I say, Maiden succeeds in everything. An all time classic metal album and one of Maiden's finest.

It would have been curious if it was a double album, although it is perfect as it is.
 
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