[WHYBLT?] What Have You Been Listening To?

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls - yup, it leaked.

Full disclaimer: I'm about as massive a Maiden fanboy as you can get. I grew up listening to Maiden, and it remains my one true love in metal. That out of the way, here's my review:

After listening to Speed of Light, I think a lot of fans had a pretty solid idea of what The Book of Souls was going to sound like, and they aren't wrong. It's about what I was expecting based off Speed of Light - solid, absolutely Maiden through and through. Catchy riffs, operatic vocals, boundless energy that should be surprising in a band as old as they are - that is, if of course, of it wasn't Iron Maiden we're taking about here. Fanwank aside, Disc one did sound...uninspired in places, with the first 4 or so songs even sounding boring. That said, while the album starts off merely OK it continuously gets better as it goes on - disc two is fantastic. The overall sound reminds me of the best of Dance of Death, mixed with the deeper, longer style you hear at the end of The Final Frontier in songs like When the Wild Wind Blows.

My personal favorite songs are:

When the River Runs Deep - hard and fast, this is the song that found me unconsciously headbanging to the main riff. You can practically see Bruce running about on stage belting it out. I'm very excited to hear it live.

Death or Glory - Any song that contains the line 'climb like a monkey out of hell where I belong' is amazing in my books. Sounding like a sequel to Aces High, this song is rocking with a soaring chorus that remains playing in your head on repeat long after the song ends.

Empire of the Clouds - whatever I expected going in, it wasn't a near 20 minute song about the Hindenburg. That said, Maiden absolutely saved the best for last. While this is the only song on the album I would call truly epic, it's epic in spades. Not only easily the best song on the album, this is one of the best post-2000 Maiden songs period.

Honorable mentions - Tears of a Clown, Shadows of the Valley.

Overall I'm giving the album a 3.5 - 4 out of 5. While solid overall, I feel the excellent second half is bought down by the dragging start to the album a little too much.

/r/Metal Thread