The Book of Souls: individual album judgement by yours truly

Forostar

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
As done with all previous Maiden studio albums. Recently I've seen several updates by various members. It's a good moment since LooseCannon asked us to vote for all songs and revise (change the grade) if needed.

For examples, see the boards for the other albums and for more info, see the opening post of the debut album here.


- - - - - - -
This is mine for the new album. Even though the album is out for a while, I'm still uncertain about some of these grades:

01. The Man of Sorrows 10/10

02. Empire of the Clouds 9/10
03. Tears of a Clown 9/10
04. Death or Glory 9/10
05. If Eternity Should Fail 9/10
06. The Book of Souls 9/10

07. Shadows of the Valley 8/10

08. Speed of Light 7/10
09. The Great Unknown 7/10

10. When the River Runs Deep 5/10

11. The Red and the Black 4/10

Based on these ratings:
- The Book of Souls album score: 7,82
- The Book of Souls is my #14 Maiden album.
 
Last edited:
01. The Book Of Souls 10/10 (#1 Maiden song)

02. The Great Unknown 9/10
03. The Man Of Sorrows 9/10
04. Tears Of A Clown 9/10
05. If Eternity Should Fail 9/10

06. Speed Of Light 8/10
07. Shadow Of The Valley 8/10
08. Empire Of The Clouds 8/10

09. When The River Runs Deep 5/10

10. Death Or Glory 3/10
11. The Red And The Black 2/10

The Book Of Souls is my #3 Maiden album.
 
If Eternity Should Fail - 8
Speed of Light - 6
The Great Unknown - 8
The Red and The Black - 6
When The River Runs Deep - 6
The Book Of Souls - 8

Death Or Glory - 5
Shadows of the Valley - 7
Tears of A Clown - 7
The Man of Sorrows - 7
Empire of the Clouds - 8

6,9
 
The Book Of Souls 10
If Eternity Should Fail 10
Shadows Of The Valley 10

The Red And The Black 9
The Man Of Sorrows 9
Tears Of A Clown 9
Death Or Glory 9
Empire Of The Clouds 9

The Great Unknown 8
Speed Of Light 8
When The River Runs Deep 8

Average: 9
It occupies the 6th position on my Iron Maiden albums' ranking.
 
Last edited:
If Eternity Should Fail 10
Speed Of Light 7
The Great Unknown 8
The Red And The Black 5
When The River Runs Deep 7
The Book Of Souls 8
Death Or Glory 7
Shadows Of The Valley 6
Tears Of A Clown 8
The Man Of Sorrows 10
Empire Of The Clouds 9

Doesn't average great against my other rankings. Other rankings will also drop if I revisit them, used optimistic rounding method back then, if a song were to be a bit better than 7, given the mood of a moment it could score 8.
I was also critical about songs that I really don't like from the classic period, giving out 4's and such. That criteria should be even for all eras.
 
If Eternity Should Fail 10
Speed Of Light 8
The Great Unknown 8
The Red And The Black 6
When The River Runs Deep 7
The Book Of Souls 9
Death Or Glory 8
Shadows Of The Valley 7
Tears Of A Clown 9
The Man Of Sorrows 8
Empire Of The Clouds 6

7,8
The Book of Souls is my #13 album
 
Last edited:
Keep in mind that if your #13 album averages as 7,9 you're probably doing it wrong. IMHO
 
Pardon me, but I keep disagreeing with the illogical concept that is called relative ranking. Albums do not have to differ much in liking factor. (One of) the least favourite album(s) can (in theory) still be (a) very good, enjoyable listening session(s). Especially when Maiden is a favourite band and when there's a certain appreciation for every Maiden era (w/Paul, Bruce in 1980s, Bruce in 1990s, w/Blaze, current line-up era), this is possible.
 
Last edited:
It is possible.
My highest ranked album has 9,25 and my lowest has a 7.
A rather narrow margin, but they are my #1 band, which it should, and does indeed reflect rather clearly.

Even their "worst" album, by my ratings, is a very enjoyable one for me.

Does the margin between top and bottom have to be very broad in your opinion?
If so, I could offer that perhaps you misunderstood the concept:innocent:
But alas, no hard feelings. They are just the rankings of two, albeit, diferrent viewpoints.
 
Zare said:
Keep in mind that if your #13 album averages as 7,9 you're probably doing it wrong. IMHO
Click to expand...

Couldn't disagree more. Not when my number 13 Maiden album is in all likelihood among my 100 favourite albums of all time.
 
My rating system is simple: first I decide whether I think it's a good song or not. If it's a good song, it gets a 6 or a higher. A bad song is a 4 or lower. 5 is more indifference. From there I decide to what degree I like or dislike the song. There are only a handful of Maiden songs I dislike.
 
I don't have an opinion on this anymore. Once you guys work out how you want the ranking to be done, tell me and I'll do it.
 
mckindog, desolutory, forostar

we're on a Maiden forum, not a general music one. There's no need to show how much you like Maiden against other bands through these scores.
I'm just saying that if 95% of your individual song scores are 6-10 you have narrowed down the granularity from 10 to 4 points.

I did that in all my last scores, and there's a huge pool of songs scoring 8, with significant differences in quality for those songs.
In any case, just stating my (changed) opinion. Everyone scores by their own standards, no reason to force people into looking things from a different, and maybe even weird angle.
 
Zare, it's not worth rolling all this up again. I've had this discussion to such an extreme extent (latest incarnation here) that I ended up accepting that my opinion was wrong.
 
I was vaguely aware of that talk before, but I didn't follow. Let's move on
 
Zare said:
I did that in all my last scores, and there's a huge pool of songs scoring 8, with significant differences in quality for those songs.
Click to expand...
That's not good indeed. Good to correct that. My 8's (even if they are numerous) do not have significant differences in quality.
 
I'm going to have to do all this today. I fully intended to go through everything and write something meaningful, but hey, looks like I'll just dive straight in and vote. TBOS has if anything grown on me in the past year, so I can see it getting some high scores from me.
 
I still love the heck out of this album. Nearly a year has gone by and I still listen to it a few times a week. It hasn't quite eclipsed AMOLAD as my favorite from this era, but it still has some monster songs.

If Eternity Should Fail - 9
Speed of Light - 7
The Great Unknown - 7
The Red and The Black - 9
When The River Runs Deep - 7
The Book Of Souls - 10+

Death Or Glory - 8
Shadows of the Valley - 7
Tears of A Clown - 7
The Man of Sorrows - 6
Empire of the Clouds - 8
 
The Book Of Souls: my individual album judgement

If Eternity Should Fail - 10
Speed Of Light - 8
The Great Unknown - 5
The Red And The Black - 7
When The River Runs Deep - 8
The Book Of Souls - 10

...

Death Or Glory - 8
Shadows Of The Valley - 5
Tears Of A Clown - 8
The Man Of Sorrows - 9
Empire Of The Clouds - 10

These ratings all add up to a total of 8.0.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top