The Book of Souls: General album discussion

My perfect mix would be like this:

1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. Speed of Light
3. The Great Unknown
4. The Red and the Black
5. Death or Glory
6. Shadows of the Valley
7. The Man of Sorrows
8. The Book of Souls

Wow, what a strong album that would be! I have to give this playlist a listen, but I wouldn't like to get used to an unofficial song order.

I have to mention, though, that the title track doesn't really feel like the final song of the album. At the end of it you just want more, but there's no song (in my cut) that would work after this. Even The Red and the Black fits best in the first half. If only Empire was a 9-minute ballad...
 
If you bought the amazon mp3 lp, they now have the x-ray lyrics loaded for the first two songs. Hopefully working on the rest.

UPDATE: Amazon has now added x-ray lyrics to THU, TRatB & EofC to the MP3 LP. Working on the rest I guess.
 
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So after two (well, three for most of you) weeks of reading opinions there seems to be a sizeable consensus on the forum that this is a good album. But there is not much of a consensus yet on a song to song basis:

Eternity: this may the only one that virtually everyone seems to think is a good song.
Speed: seems to have settled into "not my favourite, but not bad for a single"
Unknown: this one seems to have been overlooked by most on first impression, but has grown a little on people.
Red and Black: the most divisive song on the album. Most seem to think it is flawed, but a lot of a people love it anyway.
River: maybe the most dismissed track, but it's not without its fans.
Souls: gets mentioned a lot as a favourite. Very few seem to dislike it.
Glory: generally considered lightweight - fun for some, fluff for others.
Shadows: a dark horse with a growing groundswell of support
Clown: too mainstream for some, but generally well-loved
Sorrows: seems to be another divisive one - very high or quite low on most lists.
Empire: got a high wow factor, but still being absorbed and analyzed by many
 
mckindog said:
So after two (well, three for most of you) weeks of reading opinions there seems to be a sizeable consensus on the forum that this is a good album. But there is not much of a consensus yet on a song to song basis:

Eternity: this may the only one that virtually everyone seems to think is a good song.
Speed: seems to have settled into "not my favourite, but not bad for a single"
Unknown: this one seems to have been overlooked by most on first impression, but has grown a little on people.
Red and Black: the most divisive song on the album. Most seem to think it is flawed, but a lot of a people love it anyway.
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The divisiveness of TRATB is quite puzzling. I don't see what could possibly be wrong with that song. Long solo?
 
I would have this

1. If eternity should fail
2. Death or Glory
3. The Red and the Black
4. Man of Sorrows
5. Shadows of the Valley
6. Book of Souls
7/ Tears of a clown
8. Empire of the clouds
 
At the moment, I'm still digesting a lot of the album, but my ratings have to be:

1. Empire of the Clouds
2. Tears of a Clown
3.The Man of Sorrows
4.If Eternity Should Fail
5. Death or Glory
6. The Red and the Black
7. The Book of Souls
8. Speed of Light

I'm finding it difficult getting into the other three tracks, they're not doing anything for me.
 
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If we're choosing a set of 8 to make into a sub album, I'd go with this:

1) If Eternity Should Fail
2) Speed Of Light
3) When The River Runs Deep
4) The Red And The Black
5) Shadows Of The Valley
6) Death Or Glory
7) Tears Of A Clown
8) Empire Of The Clouds
 
Best Iron maiden album since BNW and easily one of the top 5. Here is what i love about Iron Maiden: Every song is an epic adventure. There is no other band in the history of music to be so awesome in the art of storytelling. The only weakness of the album is the voice of Bruce Dickinson that i felt it was somehow strained(no surprise here since he is 60).
 
John13 said:
Best Iron maiden album since BNW and easily one of the top 5. Here is what i love about Iron Maiden: Every song is an epic adventure. There is no other band in the history of music to be so awesome in the art of storytelling. The only weakness of the album is the voice of Bruce Dickinson that i felt it was somehow strained(no surprise here since he is 60).
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He's strained in some parts but still less strained than on the final frontier
 
John13 said:
Best Iron maiden album since BNW and easily one of the top 5. Here is what i love about Iron Maiden: Every song is an epic adventure. There is no other band in the history of music to be so awesome in the art of storytelling. The only weakness of the album is the voice of Bruce Dickinson that i felt it was somehow strained(no surprise here since he is 60).
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The straining is only noticeable in The Great Unknown. Other songs are too good to pay attention to that.
 
Forostar said:
Looks like we three are divided on Death or Glory (liked by Zare and Forostar), The Great Unknown (liked by Zare and Cosmiceddie) and Shadows of the Valley (liked by Cosmiceddie and Forostar), but we have in common that the absence of TRATB and WTRRD would improve the album.
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Don't feel confused if I give WTRRD a relatively high score in rankings. I like this song. I just feel it maybe doesn't flow well with the rest of the record. SOTV and WTRRD, for me are major downs in record's flow. And Cosmiceddie listed his 8 songs so I replied with 8 too.
 
The only two songs that I'm still not getting are TMOS and WTRRD.
They are both hovering around the 7/10 mark while the rest are 8's, 9's or 10's.
 
Liveone said:
The only two songs that I'm still not getting are TMOS and WTRRD.
They are both hovering around the 7/10 mark while the rest are 8's, 9's or 10's.
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This is where I am too, with TMOS slightly lower and WTRRD slightly higher than 7/10.
 
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