The opening track is a cracker. "If Eternity Should Fail" does all the right things, moving along at a pace that Maiden's music deserves with Bruce's vocals hitting all the right places, and enough places within the song for each member to showcase their wares. Bruce has mentioned in interviews that this song was written with a view to putting it on a solo album of his, and it does have the feel of a Bruce Dickinson solo type song. It has an easy flow throughout the song, from the almost-spoken beginning into the starting verses and through the solo sections. Unlike other songs on the album, it doesn't feel as long as its eight and a half minutes suggests. It's a great track to open the album.
"Speed of Light" follows, and was the first song released from the album prior to it being released. It is one of two songs co-written by Bruce and Adrian Smith on the album. It increases the tempo on the album, playing on the words of the song title to speed along at a good clip. "The Great Unknown" is perhaps too tied up in a similar sounding riff and singing style through the first half of the song, where the style gives off the impression of repetitiveness that isn't quite accurate. This is redeemed by the solo section through the second half of the song, where the musicianship again helps to paper over the small cracks. Steve Harris'' "The Red and the Black" runs to over thirteen and a half minutes, and as a result it would be easy to criticise it for being overlong and perhaps losing its impact because of it. Here though once you have taken the time to listen to the song a few times you can take in the structure of the song, and not just hear the same repeating rhythms of the core. It also has the in-built crowd anthem of Bruce chanting "WHOA-OH-OH-WOAH-OH!" to raise the adrenaline. When I first got the album I did have reservation about this song, but it has grown on me through taking in all of the complexities within.
"When the River Runs Deep" has the typical characteristics of a Harris and Smith co-production. It starts off in a mid-tempo range as the start of the song is built, before exploding through the middle of the song in the faster chorus and then the solo bridge that has Nicko McBrain alternating the speed of the song brilliantly by switching from a slower emphasised 4/4 time to the quick and blinding 2/4, allowing the guitars to do their piece over the top in synchronicity.
If there is a speed hump on the album for me, it probably comes with the title track, "The Book of Souls", and with the second song of the second disc in "Shadows of the Valley". Both songs have their moments, where the music comes in the right flavour, but for the majority I feel they are just average songs without that kick to bring them up to a Maiden level. "The Book of Souls" feels like many songs from Dance of Death with the keyboards holding out in the high ground such as "Dance of Death" and "Face in the Sand".
Sandwiched between them is one of my favourite songs on the album, the second Smith/Dickinson composition "Death or Glory". In interviews, Adrian was quoted as saying that they deliberately tried to write shorter, faster songs, to replicate songs that they had previously written together such as "Can I Play With Madness?" and "2 Minutes to Midnight". It's a no-win situation, but the style of both of these new songs is certainly noticeable from everything else on the album, and do channel some of the energy of their previous work. "Tears of a Clown" was apparently written about Robin Williams, and no doubt others like him, and his sad suicide through depression. Bruce emotes beautifully throughout the song, and perfectly highlights the lyrics as written. The start of "The Man of Sorrows" probably doesn't do this song justice, because once you get into the heart of it, it is a triumph, though again not in a traditional Maiden way, but of the new era, with the keyboards enhancing the atmosphere created by the guitars and Bruce's vocals soaring in harmony. It sounds wonderful, and though it won't please everyone the unique style of the song shows off the progressive side of Maiden's evolving music perfectly.
The closing track, apart from its length, is one of the most un-Maiden songs to ever be released by the band. Of course, this is a matured band now, as has already been mentioned, and yes their musical style has become more progressive over recent years
I guess it would be easy to be scared off by the piano and the violin, to suggest that this is just too much change to be able to accept as a pat of the Maiden sound. Strangely enough, these same thoughts were floated around when the band introduced guitar synths with the Somewhere in Time album, and it appears to most that that album was a success. Sure, this is another step in a far reaching direction, but given that it is done well there should be no cause for alarm. "Empire of the Clouds" is written about the maiden voyage of the R101 airship and its disastrous demise. Written by Bruce Dickinson, he has already shown a penchant to be able to write and perform songs such as this in his solo works, with songs like "Tears of the Dragon" and "Navigate the Seas of the Sun". This is much more ambitious, and at over eighteen minutes in length if it didn't work it would be seen as indulgent and perhaps even Spinal Tap-ish. But there is nothing to fear. This is an amazing song, a musical in itself. The piano and violin only add to the drama and subtlety of the song. The middle section, where the band really comes to life, is incredible, and topped off by the dramatic and superlative drumming from Nicko throughout, never taking centre stage but almost the key element. It will not surprise to find a big minority can't get this song, and will not enjoy it, and will not rate it. I personally think that in the modern Maiden era it showcases everything you need to know about the band and where it stands.
Probably not for the first time in Maiden's latter career, the album for the majority is carried by Bruce Dickinson's vocal chords. This is Maiden's fifth album of the millennium, from when both Bruce and Adrian re-joined the band after an absence of some years, and whenever there have been soft spots, holes or even chasms during that time, when there are songs that juts don't seem to be of the highest calibre that the band wrote in the first half of their career, you can always rely on just listening to Bruce singing, and enjoy every moment of that. Trust me, it works. As I've said on numerous occasions over the course of many years, and in countless reviews, you can forgive practically anything the second Bruce Dickinson opens his lungs and vocal chords and begins to sing. It takes a special talent to be able to claim that, and Bruce is one of the few I've ever encountered who can do it in any situation.
If you are going to try and compare this album with the work that this band did through the 1980's then you are never going to accept the wonderful things on offer in The Book of Souls. It is a false facade in doing so. Try comparing Black Sabbath's 13 to Paranoid. Try comparing Scorpions Return to Forever with Love at First Sting. Try comparing Redeemer of Souls to Painkiller. Try comparing anything Metallica release in the next couple of years to anything from that same 1980's era. Any album not from a band's 'great era' will rarely stand up against them, and that is the way it should be, and always will be. These are different men from 30 years ago. They are older, and they have seen and experienced the world since then. For lack of a better word, the music on this album shows a maturity that comes with age and a comfortableness in their lives and with themselves as songwriters. For the most part, the ferociousness may not be as prevalent in their music anymore, but their style and formula is still there to hear. Perhaps you won't jump around and headbang as much to this album as you do some others, but I'm 30 years older too, and I can appreciate what the band has written and recorded here. I put this album on, and I am still carried away by "If Eternity Should Fail", "Death or Glory", "Tears of a Clown", "The Man of Sorrows" and "Empire of the Clouds" - in a different way than early Maiden did to me, absolutely, but carried away nonetheless. Just to hear the way Nicko puts together his drumming, the little things he adds that create so much of a song but can be overlooked. To listen to the majesty of the guitars of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers when they play in harmony, and then split to create their own defining sound in their individual solo pieces. To hear that rumbling bass from Steve Harris that is still the lifeblood of the band. And of course, the magnificence that is Bruce Dickinson, his vocals that still lift every song he is involved in, and still sends shivers down my spine when I hear him soar in a way I can only ever dream to repeat.
This is Iron Maiden. Rejoice in the past. Accept the present. It is more than worth it.
Rating: Waiting in line at the ending of time, if eternity should fail. 4/5
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