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

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Six weeks out, and the herd is already becoming restless.
Its touching though. One of the main reasons I joined this forum (besides the perpetual thirst for any album info) was because no one I know is a maiden fan, and its the hardest thing ever not to vent my unprecedented enthusiasm upon them regardless.
So it's so liberating to see a group of people as excited as I am. Even the 'negative' comments are sown from seeds of unbridled anticipation.

Regarding Maidens marketing strategy thus far (or lack thereof) It really does feel like they've taken the minimalism that permeates the cover and tried to keep every aspect of the album promotion in the same vein. I mean, correct me if i'm wrong, but this is the first post reunion album we've got where we were totally oblivious to the albums recording. Since they recorded it all prior to Bruce finding out he had cancer, it seems like this far more muted approach to promotion was going to happen regardless of whether that had happened or not.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have Judas Priest who did a shit ton of promotional video clips and what not prior to their albums release. So much so that I felt there was an over saturation of preview material and my anticipation waned as a result. Personally, i'd rather get nothing until album release than get too much too early and lose the magic of the build up....but that doesn't mean the wait hasn't been agony haha.
 
sjsaur said:
On the other side of the spectrum, you have Judas Priest who did a shit ton of promotional video clips and what not prior to their albums release. So much so that I felt there was an over saturation of preview material and my anticipation waned as a result. Personally, i'd rather get nothing until album release than get too much too early and lose the magic of the build up....but that doesn't mean the wait hasn't been agony haha.
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This happened with me too. There wasn't much anticipation for the actual release for me because it felt like the band was releasing everything already. I like to have some level of mystery for an album, it makes that first listen more special.
 
Mosh said:
This happened with me too. There wasn't much anticipation for the actual release for me because it felt like the band was releasing everything already. I like to have some level of mystery for an album, it makes that first listen more special.
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I agree, a single (two at the most is plenty). It is like a trailer, I want to get a feel for it, but not know huge chunks of the plot
 
Yea I have the same issue with movies. If a trailer reveals too much or they release a ton of scenes and stuff ahead of release, I lose interest.
 
I guess that by actually releasing something a bit early a group is creating a greater effect.Meaning that the radio would make it heard to more people who are not necessarily spend their time posting in Maiden threads. The internet era is not making it very easy to keep anything from leaking at some point. All I am trying to say is that they follow a very unconventional way of promotion(keeping in mind it is no longdr 1986).No diaries,no snippets early on and so on.
 
It works for them. Most bands need to give their fans incentive to buy the album, but Maiden has a dedicated fan base that will buy it regardless as well as a pretty solid group of casuals who will also buy it. All they really need is to release a single a few weeks ahead of time so it can be fresh in people's minds close enough to album release. Other bands like Queensryche need to start promotion way ahead and do more than release a single to get people to buy their album. Especially Queensryche who are still in the process of fixing a tarnished reputation.

Judas Priest seemed to be going out of their way to make sure people knew RoS would be a "classic Priest album" since Nostrodamus was such a a departure and had a very lukewarm reception. Which is why they released all those samples and band interviews and such. Maiden don't need to do that. Their album sales have been great and they've been seeing mostly positive reviews. They can sell an album on the sole merit that it's a Maiden album.
 
Mosh said:
This happened with me too. There wasn't much anticipation for the actual release for me because it felt like the band was releasing everything already. I like to have some level of mystery for an album, it makes that first listen more special.
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So, you just care about the first listen? How about the following 4 months of listening pleasure?
 
I'm not sure what you mean. I'll listen to the single beforehand and read some interviews, but that's all I need. What am I holding in?
 
This is a weird argument....

I'm pretty sure Mosh is trying to say that he'd rather hear one single and a few news tidbits than have every song released to streaming (or with a lyric video) for the entire two months before an album comes out. I agree. It kind of ruins the mystery.

I don't want to hear the band describe every second of every song and tell me what I should think about it before I even hear it. Likewise, I don't want to hear streaming quality versions of 7 out 12 songs on an album before it is released. Maybe I'm weird, but sequencing and mystery still hold some appeal for me.
 
I totally agree with @sjsaur and @Mosh and i might even, as I might have said before (I'm old, a little bit of alzheimer every now and then ;) ) skip this and other forums around the release just so I can make up my own mind of the record before hearing others opinion.
 
I'm going to ignore the single and wait for 4 September to ensure there is zero chance of my deep, dark subconscious mind cementing its opinion of the single without hearing it within the context of the album.

Not sure if Maiden has officially announced Speed of Light as the first single anyhow.

"Accept No Imitations!"
 
I thought about giving the single a miss, but I reckon I'll be too curious. Whether it gives a true flavour of the album is another matter. As much as they know they can and will sell the album to hardened fans, it wouldn't do them any harm to hook a few more fans, would it? ;) This could be the most slick and stylish song on the album, perfect for grabbing attention....

One thing that does put me off waiting until Sept 4 to hear anything at all is missing out on initial discussions. I'm sure there'll be a big debate and a listening/discussion session in the chatroom here come Sept 4, but also a chance that the single itself could be old news by them. That's what happened when I held off on listening to an album by another band last year. It leaked but I waited until I got the actual CD, and discussion had dried up by then.
 
Well,even if the single is not representative of the album it would at least show us what the production is like.
 
The Mid-Distance Runner said:
Not sure if Maiden has officially announced Speed of Light as the first single anyhow.
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it mentions it in the metal hammer article linked a few pages back. I'd class that as being close to an official announcement.

I'm still a bit worried they might change their mind about releasing this single, or that it might be some modern bullshit take on a "single", download only with no b-sides or some other load of bollocks.
 
srfc said:
it mentions it in the metal hammer article linked a few pages back. I'd class that as being close to an official announcement.

I'm still a bit worried they might change their mind about releasing this single, or that it might be some modern bullshit take on a "single", download only with no b-sides or some other load of bollocks.
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I doubt they will print it to CD. I'd be flabbergasted if they did.
 
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