It takes time to digest this album, because it’s a huge ninety-two minute minster of a double album, but once you do this, you’ll undoubtedly reach the conclusion that IRON MAIDEN are still very much in love with their music. They seem to be enthralled by the opportunity to take their fans on yet another journey. From the full-metal stomping lunacy of the opening track “If Eternity Should Fail” to the monstrous soon to be live classic “The Red And The Black”, balls-out sprinting “Death Or Glory” and on through a clutch of astonishing epics like the self-titled track and yank-the heartstrings eighteen minute long elegy “Empire Of The Clouds” dedicated to the tragic fate of the Aircraft R101 in 1931 (the shortest eighteen minutes in my life, I must confess), it’s simply one of the best, not to mention bravest, albums that IRON MAIDEN have ever made.  

But if any of you require a bit of persuasion to fully embrace this incarnation of MAIDEN, even if everyone else went cheerfully batshit at their current release, I would recommend you to go straight to “Tears Of A Clown” (inspired by the late actor Robin Williams) and “The Man Of Sorrows”. These two explore a whole range of musical territory beyond the usual MAIDEN parameters, but are still metal with a capital “M”. 

 

“The Book Of Souls” has its imminent shortfalls though. At this length it’s simply not possible to avoid them. Most of them are little déjà-vu moments such as the introduction of “The Great Unknown”, which is very similar to the beginning of “The Isle Of Avalon” and the intro of “The Book Of Soul” that resembles “The Talisman” both from “The Final Frontier” (2010). Even more interesting is that it’s the same people who wrote those songs - Smith and Harris did the first pair, and Gers and Harris did the second two songs. The album’s least compelling song “Speed Of Light” (an odd choice of advance single) sounds a bit like “El Dorado” from the previous album and is written by the same team (Smith and Dickinson) with the exception of Harris. 

 

And while there might be some worrying tendencies that the phenomenal resurrection is probably coming to an end, “The Book Of Souls” is more than a triumph. It’s a vision of fearlessness and sheer force of will to deliver pure fucking heavy metal and beyond. We’re unbelievably lucky that this legendary band is still around after this many years and is still capable of crafting such a breathtaking art.