Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

After various listens I think it is a very good album. My fears have been eradicated.

S.D. wrote:

I'm liking the 3-LP configuration.  The switching sides, switching discs puts some nice little intermissions in there and allows me a second or two to absorb what I just heard before moving onto the next.  

I do that with every album, CD included. Usually listen to about 3 tracks and then stop. Then either replay the same songs or move forward (or stop listening, if I ran out of time).

Still loving the new album, picking up stuff I missed the first few listens. Empire is a great track.

For the record, loved The Final Frontier but I would rank Book Of Souls higher.

There hasn't been a post-reunion Maiden album I haven't liked. I'd rank em like this:

A Matter of Life and Death
Brave New World
Dance of Death
The Final Frontier

I don't know where Book of Souls fits in yet though. Maybe second?

I would go:

Brave New World
Dance of Death
The Book Of Souls
A Matter Of Life And Death
The Final Frontier

It should be noted that I really do love the Final Frontier, and it's bottom position doesn't reflect a poor album in my eyes. It was the first time I can vividly recall a new Maiden album coming out and it holds a special place in my mind.

While I've come to appreciate their post-reunion albums over time, The Book of Souls is the first Maiden album that I really liked right out of the box since Brave New World. Those other albums really took some time to sink in.

Since I had a gift card for Best Buy, I ordered the deluxe hardbound book edition so it didn't cost me anything, but now that I have it, I think it's a bit of overkill as far as packaging goes. It's neat and all, but I could've probably went with the standard 2-disc edition. Oh well.

After several listens now; I think The Red And Black is my favorite. Such an epic tune!

bgsully wrote:

After several listens now; I think The Red And Black is my favorite. Such an epic tune!

That, and If Eternity Should Fail.

But I've only played the first disc so far.

The Red and the Black sounds like it could be off of the X-Factor.

Lari wrote:

bgsully wrote:

After several listens now; I think The Red And Black is my favorite. Such an epic tune!

That, and If Eternity Should Fail.

But I've only played the first disc so far.

The Red and the Black sounds like it could be off of the X-Factor.

If Eternity Should Fail is quickly becoming one of my favorite Maiden tunes.

The only underwhelming tracks for me would have to be Man of Sorrows and Shadows of the Valley. It's also a little difficult to hear the second movement of the title track and forget Losfer was ever written ha-ha. Otherwise it's solid and gets better with repeat listening.

Given the pattern they've set, I'm sure live versions of a bunch of these songs will be available on a new record immediately following the tour. I'll be especially interested in hearing those considering the production on this album often makes the power of three guitars sound like one at best.

I was listening to the album and noticed the way Shirley balances the guitars in the mix. He has one guitar panned hard left, then the other 2 guitars are panned hard right. Then add to that the 2 guitars in the right channel have very similar tones and aren't EQ'd differently to make them stand apart from one another and basically what should sound like 3 guitars ends up sounding like 1 guitar on the left and 1 louder guitar on the right.

Why on earth he didn't pan 1 guitar hard left, 1 guitar center and 1 guitar hard right is anybody's guess. But hell, I don't understand most of Shirley's choices regardless.

corplhicks wrote:

The only underwhelming tracks for me would have to be Man of Sorrows and Shadows of the Valley. It's also a little difficult to hear the second movement of the title track and forget Losfer was ever written ha-ha. Otherwise it's solid and gets better with repeat listening.

I agree about Shadows, that's the only song I feel I could do without. I really like Man of Sorrows though, it took a few listens to fully hit me but it's a cool, dark track.

Still only played the first disc. I think by this coming weekend I'll feel like I can move on to the second disc. It's been two weeks by that time!

I've had a lot of other stuff on my platter, too. I ordered a bunch of CDs from Amazon. Didn't get a chance to do a proper "first listen session" with disc 2 of the Maiden album yet. But I refuse to rush it. For all we know it's the last Iron Maiden album we'll ever get. I'll enjoy mine with perfect peace and mindset.

Lari wrote:

Still only played the first disc. I think by this coming weekend I'll feel like I can move on to the second disc. It's been two weeks by that time!

I've had a lot of other stuff on my platter, too. I ordered a bunch of CDs from Amazon. Didn't get a chance to do a proper "first listen session" with disc 2 of the Maiden album yet. But I refuse to rush it. For all we know it's the last Iron Maiden album we'll ever get. I'll enjoy mine with perfect peace and mindset.

Man, I give you a ton of credit for that kind of discipline. Seriously. I all but use my teeth to chew the wrapper of most new releases.

S.D. wrote:

I was listening to the album and noticed the way Shirley balances the guitars in the mix.  He has one guitar panned hard left, then the other 2 guitars are panned hard right.  Then add to that the 2 guitars in the right channel have very similar tones and aren't EQ'd differently to make them stand apart from one another and basically what should sound like 3 guitars ends up sounding like 1 guitar on the left and 1 louder guitar on the right.  

Why on earth he didn't pan 1 guitar hard left, 1 guitar center and 1 guitar hard right is anybody's guess.  But hell, I don't understand most of Shirley's choices regardless.  

tin ear: ‎(plural tin ears) Insensitivity to and inability to appreciate the elements of performed music or the rhythm, elegance, or nuances of language.

Minor nitpick, but i find this album cover to be Maiden's worst. Just a static picture of eddie, which is a shame as there are pictures in the booklet itself that would have made a better cover (in paticular the one in the middle with eddie's head between the two columns.

Hadley wrote:

Minor nitpick, but i find this album cover to be Maiden's worst. Just a static picture of eddie, which is a shame as there are pictures in the booklet itself that would have made a better cover (in paticular the one in the middle with eddie's head between the two columns.

You know, I never give much thought to the cover of albums, but in this case, I agree with you. Those pictures in the lp version are much better and any of them would have made a better cover. Oh well.

Hadley wrote:

Minor nitpick, but i find this album cover to be Maiden's worst. Just a static picture of eddie, which is a shame as there are pictures in the booklet itself that would have made a better cover (in paticular the one in the middle with eddie's head between the two columns.

No way. Virtual XI is the worst and Dance of Death sucks as well.

Book of Souls cover could've been better, judging by some of the pics they used elsewhere, but yea, Dance of Death was terrible. The concept was cool, but the final product was lacking. It looks like an unfinished CGI rendering from 1995.

The cover of Book Of Souls looks great on LP. The cover is primarily b&w (which makes the original Maiden logo jump out printed in white) but then you open up the tri-fold cover and there's all this color on the inside, makes for a cool juxtaposition. One of the best looking LP designs I've seen in awhile.

'Empire of the Clouds' is about the R101 airship that crashed back in the 30's. It's sorta like the British version of the Hindenberg. Interesting story for those that care...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101

I actually looked it up last Saturday the first time I heard the song. When Bruce said the "R101" I immediately headed over to Wiki. I am on "Tears of a Clown" now, so, 2 more songs and I revisit the tragedy of the great ship.

After listening to the album a few times, I don't think it's any better than Brave New World or any other post reunion album. Just longer...