The "boring elements" are present many Iron Maiden songs. They are not the problem per se, they become part of the problem depending on how they use it.
As I stated elsewhere, Iron Maiden, and specifically Steve Harris, based their songwriting on one main strategy: use a limited number of melodies and, moreover, chord progressions, but make the most out of them.
For istance, the "bridge" of Caught Somewhere in Time (the guitar part after "let yourself goooo") is based on a riff which was already featured in Rime of the Ancient Mariner ("see, onward she comes", etc.), but the different arrangement (in Caught is faster and played by the guitars, and the second time is harmonized) gives to it a different mood, also thanks to the different mixing and mastering and the effect used by the guitars, and so on. Also regarding Caught: the chorus vocal line = the intro melody; the chord progression is the usual one: E, C, D, which modulates in the tonality of A for the vocal bridge ("tiiiime is always on my side"); the song is 7 and a half minutes long, but if you think about it, it has no guitar melodies other than these: all the rest are the break and the solos, which are very long for their standards but, on the other hand, are well structured and give the song some variety, in a certain way. Maximum output, minimum effort.
For another instance, think about Aces High: the main riff is based on the usual E F# G B scale (Phantom of the Opera, Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Trooper, later we have Infinite Dreams, etc.); the guitars follow the vocal line; wanna guess the chorus chord progression? Yes, it is E C D, then modulated in G, and they also use a very similar progression for the solos; add an intro, a bridge riff, another one which would introduce the solos and there we go.
This way of songwriting led them to produce 5 albums in 5 years from 1980 to 1984, a 6th album in 1986 (after having been on tour during half of 1985) and a 7th in 1988 (and again, Somewhere on Tour ended on May, and having the recording sessions of Seventh Son started on February 1988, they had 8 months to recover from the tour, live with their families and start writing new material - which isn't a few time, but also it isn't a lot). This routine is impressive, considering that all of the 7 albums are, objectively speaking, top class and they also had to face some line up changes in the early years.
Now, coming to Seventh Son (the song).
The point is: Iron Maiden used, and still use, to refer to progressions and melodies which, after all, resemble each other. But they used to enhance them. They used modulations and harmonizations, in order to give new moods to their melodies. This isn't what happens in this song.
During the verses, guitars play just one chord: a mid-tempo, galloping E power chord.
The bass does literally nothing more than follow the guitars: E, E-E-E, E-E-E, E-E-E, E-E-E, E-E-E, E-E-E again and again.
During the interlude, besides the fact that the chord change is the most predictable by them (E -> C), there is a guitar line which is, let's be honest, nothing special, but mostly the bass still plays what the guitars play. Steve was well known because of his bass lines, he used to put in fills and licks or drive the song itself (The Clairvoyant, The Prisoner bridge — "Now you see me, now you don't" —, Flight of Icarus, Infinite Dreams). But not here. Same for the chorus. This is not the first time they used the song title as a chorus (Run to the Hills, Caught Somewhere in Time, The Evil That Men Do), but the not-so-interesting vocal line, the obvious variations and the fact that the song is mid tempo makes it repetitive and kinda boring: "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son! Seventh Son of a Seventh So-o-o-on! Seventh Son of a Seventh Son! Seventh Son of a Seventh Son!" ok I got it, move on for God's sake!
Again, same applies for the rest of the song (= until the guitar line which leads to the arpeggio).
And again: it is always in the same tonality. And this is not a problem per se, but becomes a problem when the song is this long and when it is slow, because the perception of it is different. It is repetitive, it has no variations, no licks, no chord changes, and its mid-temponess leads the listener (at least, me) to hear all these things. It becomes heavier, but not in a good way.
The only time when Seventh Son becomes interesting to me is the instrumental coda: finally the tempo changes, finally the tonality and the rhythm change, finally we have some fresh ideas, finally we have the arrangement we expect from Steve: the riff which introduces us to the solos is based on the usual three notes, but it has some personality; the solo rhythm and the riff between Dave's solos are quite aggressive for their standards, and Adrian's solos are singularly sinister, given his usage of tremolo bar, harmonics, chromatisms and tritones. All of this is played in F# Phrygian (not the "normal" F#), instead of the usual E, and contains some musical solutions which are not that common in Iron Maiden music. Obviously there would be no point in analizing Steve's modulations* as he says he does not know music theory and composes by ear, but still.
It seems to me that Steve had the intro and the instrumental section, but he didn't want an instrumental in the album and so he wrote the remaining sections and used them to link what he had.
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* same applies for another song which I ranked 6.5/10, which is Only the Good Die Young. It rocks between C, Em, Am (bridge — “Time waits for no men”), Dm (first chorus — “Only the good die young and the evil seem to live forever”), Fm (second chorus — “Only the good die young! Only the good die young!”) and F# Phrygian (Adrian’s solo and Dave’s solo before the ending), which uses the Seventh Son’s solo progression but simplified). The F -> F# Phrygian modulation isn’t common, but it has to be pointed out that F# Phrygian adds only a # to the usual “Maiden tonality”, which is Em natural. (Even though, IIRC, Adrian puts in some natural Gs instead of G#s here and there in the solo.)
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