"The Book of Souls" - Official pre-release thread (CONTAINS ALBUM SPOILERS)

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Chained Prometheus said:
I'm really curious to find out what it was that led to Steve being a bit more hands-off on this album than he's been the past several entries. Did Bruce and H just put their feet down and ask for some space, or was Steve just really impressed by the stuff that they composed without him and decided against putting in any input on the material?
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I need to correct myself here:
Forostar said:
This is the second time ever that Harris did not contribute to more than 3 songs on one album:

Powerslave (1984)
1. 2 Minutes to Midnight
2. Flash of the Blade
3. Back in the Village
4. Powerslave

The Book of Souls (2015)
1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. Speed of Light
3. Death or Glory
4. The Empire of the Clouds
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This is the third time since Harris did not contribute to more than 3 songs on one album. Because:

There are 5 songs without Steve Harris credits on Fear of the Dark. Then he did 7 out of 12, and now 7 out of 11 (and on Powerslave 4 out of 8). So he was the most hands-off since Fear of the Dark.

The least Stevized Maiden albums:
1) Powerslave
2) Fear of the Dark
3) The Book of Souls.

So, everybody who doesn't rank both Powerslave and Fear of the Dark (hi Perun!) among their favourite albums, you've got another thing coming. :D;)

What I think is that Bruce really wanted to create more stuff alone, because of what he had gone through. Difficult times can give extra inspiration. Maybe it turned out extra good. Who knows. He didn't have a solo album out for a very, very long time. So perhaps he had collected several older ideas as well.
 
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Forostar said:
There are 5 songs without Steve Harris credits on Fear of the Dark. Then he did 7 out of 12, and now 7 out of 11 (and on Powerslave 4 out of 8). So he was the most hands-off since Fear of the Dark.

What I think is that Bruce really wanted to create more stuff alone, because of what he had gone through. Difficult times can give extra inspiration. Maybe it turned out extra good. Who knows. He didn't have a solo album out for a very, very long time. So perhaps he had collected several older ideas as well.
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That's certainly a possibility, but the album was recorded last year... before Bruce was diagnosed, I think. I could very well be wrong though.
 
Forostar said:
What I think is that Bruce really wanted to create more stuff alone, because of what he had gone through. Difficult times can give extra inspiration. Maybe it turned out extra good. Who knows. He didn't have a solo album out for a very, very long time. So perhaps he had collected several older ideas as well.
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I think the (Bruce) "hasn't done a solo album in a long time" argument would seem to be the most plausible explanation for Bruce's high input here; as others, besides you Foro, have mentioned already. Incidentally, what if this 18 minute epic isn't... epic?
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I think the (Bruce) "hasn't done a solo album in a long time" argument would seem to be the most plausible explanation for Bruce's high input here; as others, besides you Foro, have mentioned already. Incidentally, what if this 18 minute epic isn't... epic?
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I agree that the "Bruce needing to do some solo work" argument is likely the most realistic explanation on the matter. I also wouldn't put it past Bruce to make such a long song and do something really avant garde, i.e. ten extra minutes of silence. However, considering the hype it's getting in the announcement article, I think it's indeed being intended to be an "epic." Just depends on how Bruce did with the songwriting itself.
 
Again - it's been probably said here, but when I try to remeber Maiden songs written solely by Dickinson, two come up: Revelations and Powerslave. And both are so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes. Combined with my recently found love for solo Bruce (DA CHEMICAL WEDDING, man), I am really looking forward to those compositions. Then again, as somebody else has written, I can imagine seven minutes of Empire of the Clouds, nine minutes of silence and some kind of two-minutes-acoustic-track/outro/"Hidden Track", but I don't really believe that's going to happen...
 
Forostar said:
What I think is that Bruce really wanted to create more stuff alone, because of what he had gone through. Difficult times can give extra inspiration. Maybe it turned out extra good. Who knows
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I thought about this too. Seems possible but the timing makes it unlikely. Of course these songs could've been altered after they went back to do "finishing touches". I hope we learn more about that either way.

We are definitely in for some surprises on this album, but I think we'll get a healthy amount of the familiar too. I expect the title track to follow the reunion albums tradition of Gers epics with long acoustic intros and heavy riffing in the middle, probably a storytelling lyric. The Man of Sorrows will probably be a mid paced rocker in the vein of Ben Breeg with lots of melodic guitar playing. Going off the title and placement on the album, I could see When the River Runs Deep being a Coming Home or Out of the Shadows esque ballad. Even if it's not that track, I'm sure that sort of song will be on the album somewhere. I think this bodes well for the album, hopefully there's enough familiarity to keep the album grounded, but plenty of unexpected things so there's no room to complain that the band has become formulaic. I thought TFF was good about this and I expect this album to be even better.
 
"Large part"?

He took one verse. Revelations is a seven minute song. It's not that large of a part. Steve Harris has stolen larger, giving less credit.
 
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Oh, I hope for more of Janick's soloing this time. The Final Frontier had far too few of his leads. Hope they'll even it out some on the new record.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if one the 6:30-7:30 long songs ends up being the first single. The first single from AMOLAD was Benjamin Breeg and that's 7:21 and El Dorado is 6:49.
 
Travis The Dragon said:
I wouldn't be surprised if one the 6:30-7:30 long songs ends up being the first single. The first single from AMOLAD was Benjamin Breeg and that's 7:21 and El Dorado is 6:49.
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That's a possibility. Heck, I wouldn't be too surprised if we get "If Eternity Should Fail" as a single or a music video, considering that we got "Final Frontier" back in 2010 (albeit a shorter version of it).
 
Maturin said:
Oh, I hope for more of Janick's soloing this time. The Final Frontier had far too few of his leads. Hope they'll even it out some on the new record.
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Really?I did not mind @ all.
 
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