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

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Whale oil beef hooked. Just minding my own business, logged in to see if there are any more knockout rounds to vote in, and saw this news. So much for my productivity this morning. My initial reactions:

1) Love the cover artwork. That's a Top-5 Eddie right there. Could they have put him in a jungle background with lots of other stuff going on? Sure. But I like the minimalism combined with a very detailed and meticulously drawn Eddie.
2) Very excited about a double-album. That's a lot of music. Worth the long wait.
3) Harris wrote at least one 13-minute track that turned out more than just a little okay. I assume this is similar to Rime in that it will be a literary reference to the Stendahl book (which I recommend and may reread in anticipation of this).
4) Funny how all of the shorter songs are co-written by Adrian.
5) Half of this is, in essence, a Bruce solo album.
6) Somewhat concerned that a few of the epics might be bloated and long for length's sake. But I have a hunch that "Book of Souls" will be great.
7) Overall, very pleased and excited.
 
I'm freaking the fuck out right now. I love the name, the theme (voodoo, african or south american tribe). I love the cover and unlike some on here, I love it's simplicity. I do see how some could find the cover "offensive" or "racist" in our hyper-sensitive society, with the likely african tribe theme to eddie. IM isn't a huge pop artist though, so perhaps it'll fly under the radar, like it should.

92 minute album
double album (although that doesn't really mean much in the world of itunes)
an 18 minute track. goodbye Rime of the Ancient Mariner. You've been replaced by a new king of long tracks. There's no way that Empire of the Clouds isn't epic as shit.
Not a single song shorter than five minutes (4:59 is close enough).
5 songs of 7 minutes or more.
I love the track titles too. They're very creative.

This is looking like an instant classic. I can't wait.

I've been slowly purchasing and listening to the entire maiden discography in order, with a new album every half a month. I'm currently listening to the X factor.
I'll be buying the final frontier on September 1st. This couldn't be more perfect timing for me personally. I can immediately go from final frontier to book of souls with no wait.

I'm very excited for my first maiden album released while i'm paying attention as a new fan. I love this band.
 
On a side note, I feel sorry for Slayer. They're releasing Repentless a week later and will be right behind an Iron Maiden album. That's gotta hurt.
 
Okay, let's see.
  • Album name is rather cheesy, but it's okay.
  • I don't like the artwork. Quite possibly my least favorite Maiden artwork to date, barring Dance of Death.
  • I was one of the people that would like to hear more straight forward, short songs. Instead, we'll have the longest Maiden album to date. A double album, too. Oh well.
  • Quite interested about the Bruce involvement on this album.
  • On the fence about the song titles. However, that usually is the case with any new album.
  • Three 10+ minute songs is a bit excessive.
Track by track:
  1. If Eternity Should Fail (Dickinson): Title is pretty exciting. Solely written by Bruce. A contender for one of the stronger tracks on the album at first sight.
  2. Speed of Light (Smith/Dickinson): I'm down with any Smith-Dickinson shorter track.
  3. The Great Unknown (Smith/Harris): Expecting a quite atmospheric song on this one.
  4. The Red and the Black (Harris): Please, no slow intro and song title repeating, 'Arry.
  5. When the River Runs Deep (Smith/Harris): A shorter Smith/Harris track. Don't know what to expect.
  6. The Book of Souls (Gers/Harris): The title track on Maiden albums more often turn out to be quite good. Hoping that last album was an exception to the rule.
  7. Death or Glory (Smith/Dickinson): Cheesiest Maiden song title to date? But again, down with any Smith-Dickinson short track.
  8. Shadows of the Valley (Gers/Harris): Fearing a long drawn out song on this one.
  9. Tears of a Clown (Smith/Harris): An even shorter Smith-Harris track. Again, no idea.
  10. The Man of Sorrows (Murray/Harris): Another Bruce solo rip-off. Not really, Dave Murray intro solo incoming.
  11. Empire of the Clouds (Dickinson): Now this is pretty interesting. An 18 minute song, written solely by Bruce. Could either turn out to be an instant classic, or a massive failure.
Kinda disappointed, surprised but excited like a motherfucker. Deliver the goods, Irons.
 
Death or Glory: another duplicated title... Motorhead song, Holocaust song, Heavy Load album, Running Wild song and album.

Actually, I'm surprised there aren't another half dozen power metal bands with that song title.
 
The Flash said:
Disappointed about it not featuring shorter, more straight-forward tracks and being a very long album, like I said in the very post that you've just read.
Click to expand...
I know (altho' you weren't clear about what you were disappointed about specifically), but just... wait. Maybe you'll be like it! :D
 
I infer that Flash is, on balance, excited about this. That inference is based on the subtle clue in his post, shortly after the word "disappointed":

"I am excited like a motherfucker."

It's a reach, I know.
 
I saw this on Facebook earlier today ... incredibly good news.


One of my main Final Frontier complaints was they toured in the US (outside of 2 dates) before the album came out, so we never really heard anything off the album except El Dorado

I like the cover, simple but cool and I can imagine some good stage effects to go with it

Double album is great ... and I am pretty confident this will be the album of the year
 
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