So I'm sick today and meh. This is a really good classic Maiden album and features some awesome lyrical themes. In fact it is influenced of a series by one of the best authors of all time, ORSON SCOTT CARD. Just read some of his stuff, a lot of people really love him, notably Enders Game is one of his finer works. Anyway, back to metal, this is a classic Maiden album showing off all of the amazing things that make Maiden, Maiden. Theres a lot of great singing here and some amazing stuff on the guitar that continues to blow me away. There is a lot of deep philosphical stuff here which I will discuss later. This is an amazing album thats more of Iron Maiden being the best metal band in the world. Also as a side note, this is one of the few Maiden albums to have keyboards, just in case you're curious.
The music is mostly typical Maiden, having found their niche and how they were supposed to sound by this point. The songs are very progressive, building up from a simple acoustic bit into an amazing and explosive guitar song. The previously mentioned keyboards sound really cool on the track Infinite Dreams providing a shimmering noise underneath the loud and angry guitar. The guitars of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray compliment each other really well. I learned recently in an interview I saw with Adrian that he plays the heavier tapping solos while Murray plays the more rythmic stuff. That provides an interesting insight to this album. The sound comes out in a wall that just blows you over and makes your body move even when you are not expecting it. The bass of Harris on this album sounds nice but does not come through as much as it could on some tracks. The drums of Nicko McBrain are incredible as they just drive the music and provide a headbanging feel, he is a god of the drum kit.
The vocals are loud and gritty and typical Dickinson, his singing can be both ominous and scary and also loud and headbanging, often in the same verse. He is the perfect vocalist for Iron Maiden. The lyrics in this album are very philosophical. Most of the lyrics are dealing with things like good vs. evil, the afterlife and prophetic vision. Good vs. Evil is seen in the Maiden classic The Evil that Men do. The prophetic vision theme comes to the forefront of the music in the tracks Can I Play With Madness and The Clairvoyant. There is also some mystic ideas like those seen in Seventh Son of a Seventh son which discusses the magical and superhuman powers that this man who is a Seventh son of a Seventh Son has.
Overall this is a classic heavy metal album that shows off a lot of guitar talent and some amazing vocals and most of all the brilliant lyrics that make Maiden a cut above most other metal bands. This is one of the greatest albums of the 80s and is Maiden at its peak. Anyone into Maiden would love this album. (Actually I believe that everybody loves Maiden they just don't know it yet XD). I would recommend you going out to buy this album and rocking it out to it, I know there are a couple songs I want to learn from this album. So yeah, listen to this its a really good album, might post later on today.
OVERALL 9/10
(Also, just a disclaimer, i get some inspiration for what to write about from wikipedia, i dont copy wikipedia i just use some of the concepts on their to fuel the blog posts)
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