Opening up the night was the enthralling German band, Lord of the Lost. Readers may recall these from their recent stint in Eurovision, but we won’t hold that against them. Despite the notoriously daunting task of opening for the legends that are Iron Maiden, they graced the stage with a riveting presence. Their performance blended a unique mix of dark metal Goth with even a dash of Glam Rock, like a diverse sonic tapestry.
In 1981, after just four years and two studio albums, the limitations of Iron Maiden‘s fiery frontman Paul Di’Anno had already become terminal issues. Cracking under the pressures of touring, his performances erratic and his passion dwindling, the struggling singer had begun down a road of drug and alcohol dependency and was simply unable to give the band what they needed to take that next big step.
Iron Maiden has shared a new official animated film for the “Stratego” from their new album Senjutsu (BMG/Parlophone). Read our review here!
IRON MAIDEN- 2021 Photo copyright by JOHN McMURTRIE
Iron Maiden has shared a new single and incredible animated video/mini film for the “Stratego” from their new album Senjutsu (BMG/Parlophone). Read our review here!
When every superlative known to man has already been used a hundred times over, it’s difficult to find something to say about Iron Maiden that hasn’t already been said. Every lyric, song, album and music video has been rated and evaluated to within an inch of its life. Business dealings and interviews are scrutinized in microscopic detail, and the minutiae of every record cover examined and dissected like a hairy art project. The moment anything regarding the band is released, the global hive mind that is Maiden’s information-hungry fan base not only know about it but have already expressed their opinion.
Iron Maiden has shared a new single and incredible animated video/mini film for the “The Writing On The Wall!” The presumed title track of their forth coming album was composed by Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith and is a lengthy mid-tempo rocker with a great solo section! The song is also streaming at all DSPs. The video was conceived from a story by Dickinson and animated by BlinkInk. More news on the new album soon, but in the mean time – let’s rock!!
It was a drizzly, grey Saturday morning sometime in 1982 and I was being dragged around the shops by my parents. At some point, we ended up in a WH Smiths record shop. I wasn’t even into music then, of any description, but I flicked idly through the vinyl anyway just to pass the time. By chance, two tall, long-haired cavemen clad in denim and leather came and stood next to me. When one of them leaned over and picked up something called The Number of the Beast it grabbed my attention instantly, my ten-year-old face transfixed by the artwork on the front. As he lifted it out, I noticed more artwork, this time on the back of his jacket. Iron Maiden – Purgatory. It looked magnificent. I’d never even heard of Iron Maiden before then and I certainly didn’t know who or what a Purgatory was, but I knew I wanted to see more. Grabbing the next record in the section, my eyes didn’t leave the intricately painted sleeve until my parents came and literally pulled it out of my hands. Killers.
According to Blabbermouth.net, several online book retailers, including Google, Adlibris, Lehmanns, and various Amazon sites, are advertising an upcoming autobiography from Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith. Titled Monsters Of River And Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden’s Compulsive Angler, the 288-page book will be released in May 2020 via Ebury, the non-fiction specialists of Penguin Random House. Smith is not the first member of Iron Maiden to publish an autobiography. Back in October 2017, singer Bruce Dickinson’s What Does This Button Do? landed at No. 10 on The New York Times “Hardcover Nonfiction” best sellers list. It was released in the U.S. via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books), an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Continue reading
Thirty-five years ago this week, Iron Maiden released Piece Of Mind (EMI/Capitol) cementing their legacy as arguably the best band ever in heavy metal. Their second album with Bruce Dickinson, following the spectacular success of Number of The Beast, the band was certainly under pressure for the much-anticipated follow-up. After leader/bassist Steve Harris wrote most of Number, the group chose a more collaborative approach on the new album. In addition to new drummer Nicko McBrain (ex-Trust/Pat Travers) who’s powerhouse drumming has buoyed the band ever since. Continue reading
The arrival of a new Iron Maiden album is nearly always something to be celebrated. Probably the most consistently inventive and compelling heavy metal band of the past thirty years, the band’s new record, a double album effort, The Book of Souls (Parlophone/Sanctuary/BMG), is their 16th opus. For a band with such a celebrated history, it is a joy and delight to confirm that it stands resolute as one of the best things the band has produced. Ever.
Given the backdrop to the arrival of this record, notably lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson’s unexpected brush with cancer, one could be forgiven – and forgive the band – if you thought that, given the turmoil, something sub-par might turn up. Not a bit of it. Far from The Book of Souls being a “will this do?” contractual obligation effort, The Books of Souls sees the band in ridiculously fine fettle, delivering an album with heart and chutzpah in equal measure. It is a record of heft, of innovation and invention. It is an album to cheer from the rooftops.
The first two songs on the album are Dickinson only compositions and, perhaps more so than any Iron Maiden album even since his debut on 1982’s The Number of the Beast (EMI) his personality and musical talent positively radiates and dominates the record. ‘If Eternity Should Fail’ and ‘Speed of Light’ are both superb tracks, full of power and emotional range, substance and guile. On ‘The Great Unknown’ and ‘When the River Runs Deep’, the creative and intelligent interplay between Adrian Smith and Steve Harris is much in evidence. Harris’s role as a key driving force in Maiden has never been in doubt; Smith’s song writing is taught and focussed as ever, his musicianship breathtakingly accomplished. It’s a performance of valediction.
For an album that lasts the length of a movie but contains only eleven tracks it is perhaps inevitable that much of the focus on The Book of Souls will revolve around the album’s epic songs: ‘The Red and the Black’, ‘The Book of Souls’ and ‘Empire of the Clouds’.
‘The Red and the Black’ is a Harris-penned song and his only solo effort on this album; however, when it is as powerful and inspiring as this, you need not worry. This is a magnificent composition, fourteen minutes of atmospheric, captivating metal that is so brilliant put together that you can only sit back and admire the artistry at work. Whether it’s the infectious wo-oh-ohs, the cheeky and cunning nods to ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ on parts of the musical interludes, or the sheer bloody joy of it all, it scarcely matters. This is Maiden at their most epic, most versatile and most bellicose.
Photo from www.ironmaiden.com
The album’s title track is similarly effortlessly brilliant. A continent-sized riff eases the listener into one of those epic, universe spanning classics that lets Bruce and his not inconsiderable lung power free. It’s familiar, alien, exotic, defiantly Maiden. The middle part sounds awfully like ‘Losfer Words’, the instrumental track off 1984’s Powerslave (EMI) but, as with the rest of the record, this sounds more like a band embracing their heritage rather than plundering it.
It’s the piano that initially knocks you sideways on the stunning coda that is ‘Empire of the Clouds’. Dickinson’s retelling of a British R101 Airship disaster of 1930 is, simply, majestic. This is historical narrative set to a Maiden soundtrack, passionate in its re telling the tale of human frailty and human heroism. This is progressive music at its very best: complex without indulgence, structured but not arch. Above all, it’s a song that for all the talk of it being eighteen minutes long, is actually something that would benefit from being longer. It’s an extraordinary way to end what is, let’s not be coy here, an extraordinary record.
The Book of Souls is everything that you hoped it would be and more. In this world of short attention spans, the announcement that Iron Maiden’s new album was going to be a proper double, weighing in at a hefty 92 mins felt like some statement of intent. Iron Maiden have never been ones to follow the vagaries of fashion and given their history and their collective sense of purpose they were deeply unlikely to start that kind of nonsense at this stage in their career.
An album that works on a number of levels – the strength of the songwriting, the collective and individual musicianship, the range and power of the entire album are all deeply impressive. This is a record about confronting mortality in an adult and mature way but it is no maudlin self-indulgence and is resolutely in favour of life and resolutely life-affirming.
The Book of Souls is the collective endeavour of a band still resolutely in love with music and still gracious and humble enough to want to share that with its audience. Happy and glorious, from epic start to bombastic end.
10/10
MAT DAVIES