Last week, British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden released their sixteenth studio album, The Book of Souls. It has been thirty-five years since the release of the band's first album, and thirty-three since their most iconic release, 1982's The Number of the Beast, which cemented their status as one of the most important bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and catapulted them to worldwide success. Since then, the band has been rather unique amongst 80s metal bands in that they've continued to sell tens of millions of records with relatively minimal television or radio exposure and most importantly, without drastically altering the core of their sound or compromising their musical integrity in an effort to appeal to more mainstream audiences, a move that most bands usually find necessary at some point in their career. Maiden is unusual in that their determination to remain true to their heavy metal roots has positively rather than negatively affected their overall success.
Given that their fanbase is immense and rock solid in their loyalty to the band, and the success of a new Iron Maiden album virtually assured, one might expect a band of men in their mid-late fifties that's been playing for thirty-five years to be aging gracefully as they approach retirement, releasing solid records that relive or update their classic sound, probably without capturing the fire, energy, and creativity of their younger days, and shying away from experimentation that might anger their older fanbase. But not so with Iron Maiden. Following the 2000 reunion release of Brave New World, which aimed at recapturing the classic Maiden sound and feeling, albeit while displaying the band's increasing proclivity towards longer compositions, the band has steadily evolved their sound, beginning with the transitional and not fully-realized experimentation on 2003's Dance of Death, which toyed with experiments like an acoustic song, their first song to feature double-bass pedal, another song that was the first and only songwriting credit of drummer Nicko McBrain, and even more of a pop metal sound on the opening tracks. That album was followed by the notably heavier sound of 2006's A Matter of Life and Death, featuring a number of longer epics, a crunchy guitar sound, thundering rhythm sections, and dark lyrical themes of war and religious iconography that run throughout the album. 2010's The Final Frontier eschewed the thematic consistency of the previous album in favor of a more varied sound and increased flirtation with longer and more progressive-sounding tracks. Where does The Book of Souls fit in?
The Book of Souls certainly follows in the footsteps of its predecessor (80 minutes) in length. Remarkably, in the twilight of their career and in an era where many less successful bands are releasing more EPs and the like in order to get their music out, Iron Maiden chose to attempt their first double album, clocking in at 92 minutes. This was not the result of deliberate planning, but simply because it turned out all of the members of the band were creatively on fire for this album. Production-wise, this is probably the best-sounding album of the reunion, with the guitars and lead singer Bruce Dickinson's voice cutting through the mix powerfully where appropriate, but not to the detriment of the rhythm section; Harris' basslines in particular are a bit more prominent than on the recent albums, and McBrain's drumming is still a foundation of every song, even with more action from the guitars in the foreground. The overall sound of the album is heavier than on The Final Frontier, with guitarist Adrian Smith, author of the two most progressive tracks of the last album, turning his attention to writing the shorter, hard-hitting rockers of The Book of Souls. Whether it's better songwriting or the way they recorded the album, the primary difference between The Book of Souls and The Final Frontier is that the new album sounds far livelier than its predecessor. While it eschews some of The Final Frontier's progressive tones for a slightly more straightforward approach, the album contains more musical variety than the slightly monochromatic A Matter of Life and Death, and it also makes several lyrical and musical nods to prior songs, including Lord of Light (2006,) Sea of Madness (1986,) and even the instrumental Losfer Words (1985.) There is no unifying theme, but the soul, morality, and tragedy are recurrent themes that appear multiple times across the album.
More so than on any other Maiden album, Bruce Dickinson truly shines here in terms of both songwriting and performance. It is amazing that Dickinson recorded this album with throat cancer, even if it was minor, because The Book of Souls is his strongest vocal performance at least since Brave New World. The only place on the album where he can be noticed straining is the intro to When The River Runs Deep. For the first time since the 1980s, Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith co-wrote some songs without Steve Harris' direct participation, the shorter rockers Speed of Light and Death or Glory. Speed of Light evokes shades of early 90s Maiden, with more of a hard rock and blues-tinged sound, and Death or Glory is the most 80s sounding song on the album, and would have easily fit on Powerslave.
Dickinson solely wrote two songs for this album; the first, If Eternity Should Fail, is the album opener, and was originally written for a solo project of his before he decided to give it to Maiden. While it does sound like his solo work, especially the outro which is very much in line with Dickinson's lyrical interest in the occult, the song is still ultimately very much Maiden, and is surprisingly accessible and fast-paced. His other solo composition for the album is the closer, Empire of the Clouds, an 18-minute epic that features Dickinson playing the piano throughout as he recounts the tale of the R101 airship disaster in 1930. I'm not even sure how to describe this song, other than to say it is absolutely incredible and probably the most unique thing Iron Maiden has ever recorded. The song doesn't even feel like half of it's length, and shows Bruce Dickinson at his best in terms of performance, songwriting, and as a storyteller. The song is the highlight of the album.
The other members certainly were not slacking off either. Guitarist Janick Gers wrote the music for two songs on the album, the title track and Shadows of the Valley, with lyrical assistance provided by Steve Harris. The title track is monstrous, an epic ode to the Mayan civilization with the most killer riffs on the album. I was expecting a Latin-American tinged version of the song Dance of Death, but instead of going the easier and more stereotypical route, Gers wrote some uniquely heavy yet ethereal sounding music for the title track, resulting in something that sounds a bit like a slower and more mystical take on the song Powerslave. The song may be overshadowed by the two longer epics of the album, but it should not be, as it is one of the strongest songs on the album. The same is true of Gers' other contribution, Shadows of the Valley, a more mid-tempo song with a driving beat and very melodic guitars that musically evokes Brave New World while paying lyrical homage to 1986's Somewhere in Time. The song features a powerful riff and haunting melodies, and is my personal favorite of the more mid-length songs on the album, excluding perhaps the opener.
Guitarist Adrian Smith, in addition to co-authoring Death and Glory and Speed of Light with Bruce Dickinson, also co-wrote the album's other more mid-tempo songs, When the River Runs Deep and The Great Unknown with Steve Harris, as well as the album's shortest song, Tears of a Clown, a riff-driven song with reflective and moody lyrics about Robin Williams. When The River Runs Deep is surprisingly catchy but it lacks impact and does the least for me out of any of the album's songs so far, and the Great Unknown is a solid Maiden song with a great performance from Bruce and smoothly flowing melodies that only suffers from being eclipsed by others on the album. Tears of a Clown, while short, is absolutely drenched with feeling. The shortest song of the album is perhaps the most efficient in accomplishing what it sets out to do, with poignant lyrics and managing a balance between heaviness and accessibility.
The longtime heart and soul of the band, bassist Steve Harris, dominates this album's songwriting process the least out of any Maiden album, but just because the other members get to shine doesn't mean his contributions have grown any less. In addition to co-writing all the songs mentioned previously, he co-wrote The Man of Sorrows with guitarist Dave Murray, with the lyrics apparently inspired by the fact that two of Harris' friends died in the past year. This song will probably be an overlooked gem on the album, positioned between the more instantly memorable Tears of a Clown and Empire of the Clouds, but it is a splendid track in its own right, rife with feeling, melodic guitar leads, and a surprisingly jazzy but melancholic outro. In addition, Harris also contributed his usual solo-written epic, The Red and the Black, a 13-minute epic that features lyrics about gambling, some "woah-ohs" that are just begging to be done by a live audience, and a lengthy, thunderous instrumental section. It does not hang together as well as Empire of the Clouds, feeling like a jumble of ideas thrown together in the general shape of a Harris epic, but it's surprisingly catchy for a 13-minute song, is a nice variation on Harris' standard style of epic since Sign of the Cross, and is a worthy part of the album that would probably be great live.
The album as a whole showcases an Iron Maiden that, far from fading slowly away from the metal scene, is at the peak of their creative prowess. The Book of Souls pays homage to classic Maiden of the 80s and of the reunion period, and manages to simultaneously feature a more classic sound and vibe to the album while continuing to expand the band's increased preference for longer and more intricate epics. There is something for every Maiden fan here; songs like Death and Glory and Speed of Light recall the fast-paced rockers of the 80s albums more effectively than prior reunion rockers, while Shadows of the Valley offers callbacks to Somewhere in Time and Brave New World. The Great Unknown and When The River Runs Deep would not have respectively been out of place on A Matter of Life and Death and Dance of Death, and the title track and the Red and the Black are classic Maiden epics evoking the mid 80s/early 90s period and the Harris epics of the mid-90s-reunion period, respectively. But while many past flavors of Maiden are present, The Book of Souls is ultimately a very unique part of the Maiden catalog. While I for one hope that this is not the last hurrah for Iron Maiden, The Book of Souls would be a fitting epilogue for their storied career.
