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

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Josh said:
There is a great band from PA that works as a very cool companion to Maiden. I don't know how many people here are aware of them but these guys have become a a top 5 favorite for me.



Skip to 3:16 on the second. You'll see what I mean.
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Love these guys


They remind me more of Manilla Road & Riot than Maiden though
 
First time I heard these guys I'm like...who are you and how is this possible? Being a die hard Maiden fan definitely helps too. But they still have their own sound.
 
Traveller is their best. No Doubt!


I am a space pirate, you know my name
Asteroid mining is a dangerous game
Imperial navy can't keep up my pace
Chasing a rock into Zhodani space!
 
Josh said:
First time I heard these guys I'm like...who are you and how is this possible? Being a die hard Maiden fan definitely helps too. But they still have their own sound.
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The first song i heard from them was "Warriors Dawn" on the Brütal Legend soundtrack
 
Time to start pushing people to other threads. This one closes tomorrow.

My copy arrived today. I was expecting it on Monday, which is to say I was expecting to not have it for weeks.
 
Got the album. Decided to stop at a store on the way to the listening thing (there are a few on the same street) and check if they were selling since I work all weekend and won't have time to get the album until at least Tuesday otherwise. Luckily they had it! first impressions:

  • Album is extremely dense, this is going to take a ton of listens. I'm actually kinda shocked that so many people have posted strong opinions about certain songs (both positive and negative) as early as the day of the leak. At this point there's so much to take in that I couldn't even tell you my favorite songs at this point.
  • IESF was really cool. I got a River of No Returns meets Toltec 7 Arrival vibe. I'd love to hear more in a Bruce solo album.
  • Red and the Black is very ambitious. It has a lot going on and at times was difficult to follow. Not that this is a bad thing, just means I need more listens to absorb the whole thing. This will probably go down as one of the bands more challenging epics. Definitely more so than Empire at least.
  • The short songs are great. I saw some mumbling so about Shadows of the Valley being filler or something but I enjoyed it a lot actually. Man of Sorrows had some really nice instrumental bits and Tears of a Clown lived up to some of the hype I saw. The only songs that didn't completely click yet are WTRRD and Death or Glory. They may be growers though.
  • Empire is quite the journey. Flows very well, doesn't feel disjointed. I'm very impressed. It sounds different for Maiden but it doesn't sound out of place at all. I'm not ready to call it a masterpiece yet, but like I said the album is very dense. Ask me about it in a couple weeks.
Overall, I enjoyed it! I don't know where it stands in comparison to other albums, but I liked what I was hearing.
 
I got the FLAC files, I streamed the album on Spotify. Still think the production is weak.more so for a metal album.
 
Donner said:
Roughly translated here -

Krone - Did you want Book of Souls to have a concept?

Bruce - No, this is not a concept album. Take the first song, IESF. That was completely written for a solo album of mine. I had 5 demos that were of interest to Steve and 2 from those could have been used for Maiden and one was IESF. The other song came from the Accident of Birth sessions. It was called "Nightmares" and was never recorded for the album. That one, however, was co-written by Roy Z so it could not be used for The Book of Souls. IESF is entirely my piece though and it's about a foreign machine that steals souls of men. The evil man in the tale is Dr. Necropolis and the good Professor Lazarus. They are in the spoken words near the end. Steve wanted the song for Maiden and I agreed but he wanted it to be longer. So I wrote an extra verse. It's the only song done in drop D.

That's the gist anyway.
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Thanks for this
 
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