Have you ever wanted to hear the intro to a bunch of Iron Maiden songs played in succession? Well now you can! It’s interesting to hear themes repeat throughout them, but given that most of these were written/performed by the same core guys, it makes sense.
As a fun game, play it in another tab, and when there’s a shift to a new intro, try to guess it. I think I got like 8 right. One of them is from the Blaze Bayley era, that threw me off.
Hey so someone made an animated Iron Maiden Christmas card thingie, involving all the Eddies, and it’s pretty cool. And since it is real actual Christmas you get to real actually see it. Also I guess their world tour starts up in January, so if you haven’t gotten tickets yet, get to it.
NEW IRON MAIDEN!!!! The album comes out September 4th! So they released the video for Speed of Light to get everyone amped. I’m pretty amped. The song is a bit more rollicking, like a 70s hard rock type track, and Bruce sounds ready to rock.
The solo has the right amounts of noodly, precision, and handing off to the next guitarist that is a staple of a good Maiden track. Who knew having three guitarists who can shred would lead to amazing solos.
Anyway, the video is peppered with callbacks & easter eggs, so give it a watch.
Hey did you nerds know there’s a new Iron Maiden album coming out? Because there is. I’m stoked as hell for it. It’s called The Book of Souls, and apparently it clocks in at a whopping 92 minutes. I’ve started to align myself with the Metalsucks & Angry Metal Guy stance that an album hits diminishing returns after about 45-50 minutes recorded.
Here’s the track listing so far. Great to see a lot of Harris tracks on there. I’m not sure about an 18 minute song about clouds, but if anyone can make it awesome, it’s Iron Maiden.
Disc 1
1. If Eternity Should Fail (Dickinson) 8:28
2. Speed Of Light (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:01
3. The Great Unknown (Smith/ Harris) 6:37
4. The Red And The Black (Harris) 13:33
5. When The River Runs Deep (Smith/ Harris) 5:52
6. The Book Of Souls (Gers/ Harris) 10:27
Disc 2
7. Death Or Glory (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:13
8. Shadows Of The Valley (Gers/ Harris) 7:32
9. Tears Of A Clown (Smith/ Harris) 4:59
10. The Man Of Sorrows (Murray/ Harris) 6:28
11. Empire Of The Clouds (Dickinson) 18:01
No songs are available yet. But in the process of searching one out I found out there’s a band called Attick Demons that sound REALLY similar to Iron Maiden. And now I’m grumpy because I was almost tricked.
Anyway, Attick Demons sound pretty solid so I might as well share their song here.
Hey nerds, did you know that Bruce Dickinson was suffering from tongue cancer? Did you know that he just got an MRI and an all-clear to resume being a kickass metal singer. In time for their return to the studio to work on a new album. Yes. There is a new Iron Maiden album in the works.
New Maiden! Last album came out in 2010, and it had some good tracks up in there. I’d like to hear something like Dance of Death again. With the gates. And the walls. Of Montsegur.
So until juicy cuts from the album start popping up on the internet, give this 2-hour set from Rock am Ring a spin. There are SO many people there. That is awesome, and should happen more often. Starting a set with Moonchild is awesome.
Were you aware that Iron Maiden is totally awesome? And that they still had access to their original masters? And that some enterprising gents have taken the original masters, transferred them to digital (because who knows how long magnetic tape lasts), and then released remasters of their studio catalog? Well you are now!
The albums are available in the iTunes store, or if you’re a wicked nerd, there are 24-bit FLAC versions at the Onkyo Music Store. Personally I’m tempted to grab the FLACs and transcode to high quality MP3 just so I can hear them. But hang onto the FLACs forever. For.ev.er.
I’ve heard clips, and I’m still waiting for wave-form analysis & comparison to the other releases, but so far these sound great. One of the fears with remasters is they just wreck the sound by turning everything up; you end up with a wave form of the track that’s just one black bar. But from the Iron Maiden clips, these sound solid and nuanced and you can hear the bass just like always. Because if you can’t hear Steve Harris doing a gallop rhythm, what’s the point.
Anyway, the guys putting the remasters together released a video explaining the process, including the fact that they had to bake the reels to make sure they could pull the audio. That’s crazy, and I like it.
HELLO TO ETERNITY, I LIVE FOR EVERY BREATH! And a gigantic Eddie! And the big balloon things from the Prisoner!
Bands change from time to time, it’s a thing, sometimes people go in different directions. But for Iron Maiden, replacing Bruce Dickinson with Blaze Bayley was a low point to many metalheads. Bruce’s side work was pretty great, I’m still waiting for Chemical Wedding to be a movie, but it just wasn’t the same. Blaze Bayley was the weekday dad in this situation.
So when it was announced Bruce was coming back, and they were releasing a new album, there was a combination of excitement & trepidation. Think about all the times Ozzy returned to Sabbath, there was precedent that it might not be “just like old times.”
But when you heard the opening riff on The Wicker Man, you knew things were going to be alright.
YOU WATCH THE UNIVERSE EXPLODING EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!
That’s not a song, but Metal Hammer readers have voted Steve Harris the best metal bassist ever. Which seems pretty apt, that guy is nuts on the bass.
I think it also helps that he’s writing a lot of Iron Maiden’s songs. Means he gets hands-on with the structure of the songs and how the bass fits into it. A hell of a lot better than most metal bands just tuning the bass out of the mix.
So today we’ll scope out songs I think really show off his chops.
The Duelists: Listen to the guitar solo around the 4 minute mark, you can hear the bass line providing a support structure the whole way through. It fills out the sound nicely
The Trooper: This one is in Rocksmith. And as someone learning to bass, I thought I’d give it a try. It took a few tries before I could do the gallop rhythm while finger picking. But once I got it, it felt awesome. I don’t think I was playing all the notes that are in the song, but I enjoyed the ones I did play.
Hallowed Be Thy Name: Even live the bass is in there kicking ass. Just watch his hand. It looks like he’s picking, that’s all fingers. I have to imagine he doesn’t have fingerprints anymore. Or they spell out “IRON MAIDEN.”
Iron Maiden has a beer! Or Iron Maiden Have a beer! I don’t know which tense is appropriate. Anyway, Robinsons in England has teamed up with Bruce Dickinson to create a beer with the might and majesty of all that is Iron Maiden. It’s called the Trooper, and it’s a sessionable bitter/ESB kind of beer. I do enjoy it quite a bit, it’s light yet has a full flavor. The only bummer is, since it’s shipped across via flaming chariot covered in skulls, it has import pricing, putting it up in line with crazier stouts and double IPAs. It has been on tap from time to time at the Up and Up, and kegs are much tastier than bottles. But if you haven’t had it, go get it!
And to commemorate that great beer, here is the song which helped name the beer. I now imagine during the Crimean War, British soldiers were drinking this after battles.
I have a buddy. At one point, when I was first getting to know him, he told me he had grown out of Iron Maiden. This was in response to me listening to Number of the Beast on loop June 6th, 2006. Apparently he had moved on to industrial or something. I can understand when people’s tastes change, but I feel like that poor bastard is missing out on some of the most well put together music in the universe because apparently he decided he was too old to listen to metal.
That sad anecdote goes here because Seventh Son is not necessarily an album that people immediately associate with “great” Iron Maiden. As though Iron Maiden can make something that isn’t great (with Bruce on vocals). This album dives into the occult with a skill that turns lead into gold. That’s right. Iron Maiden are musical alchemists.
Bruce Dickinson starting the album singing about the seven deadly sins on the intro to Moonchild and it’s just great framing. Then the guitar intro kicks in and you know this album is going wail. Moonchild starts the album off with a fantastic interplay between bass and guitar, helping reinforce the foreboding feel of the song and album in whole. I am pretty sure I’ve spent more time scoping out the occult on Wikipedia while listening to this album than any other.
In one of their live albums, I think it’s Death on the Road or something, the intro to Can I Play with Madness sounds like Bruce yelling “CAN I PLAY WITH AGNES” which I cannot unhear now. I’m okay with that, because Can I Play with Madness is rife with the greatness you expect from an Iron Maiden track. The drum work between each vocal phrase acts as a fantastic break and smacks of the kind of work you see in their later, proggier work. There’s even some cowbell during the verses!
In terms of general rhythm and feel, The Evil That Men Do is the most “Iron Maiden” track on the album. There’s a slow burn on the intro that drops into a gallop rhythm that Bruce rides like a vocal genie. And during the choruses, you can hear the chord shifts to match his changes in pitch. I think that’s what really helps Iron Maiden stand out among many other metal bands. It’s not just that everyone in the band is a phenomenal musician, but they are great at composing music. Every part fits together in a greater whole that creates an ambiance that many bands struggle to achieve.
Only one song can make me think of Perry Como and Lew Dawson at the same time. I don’t think of Lew Dawson too much though. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son pairs with Moonchild phenomenally as a foreboding song about mystical and mythical occurrences. And it really lets Bruce Dickinson’s vocal abilities shine during the bridges between phrases. The first time I heard this song I kind of wished I was a seventh son, so I could maybe have a seventh son. I bet he’d be magic as shit.
There’s a reason Iron Maiden has been melting faces and selling out stadiums for over thirty years. These guys are some of the most talented musicians touring, and they have fun doing it. Their music pulls from multiple sources, including historical record, poetry, and the occult, and they do it in a way that is readily accessible to those who are interested. CAN I PLAY WITH AGNES?
Key Tracks: Moonchild, Can I Play with Madness, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son