IRON MAIDEN LIVE IN SYDNEY

Sydney Entertainment Centre
February 24, 2011

With approximately half the audience still filling local bars or crowding the merch stalls, Rise to Remain opened tonight’s show, the second of Iron Maiden’s warm-up performances ahead of their Soundwave Festival appearances. Looking every bit like his father’s son, Austin Dickinson led his young troupe through some energetic if fairly standard metalcore. As much as they’ve played the past two years, Rise to Remain still has some way to go to really develop their own identity and looked a little self-conscious on the vast Entertainment Centre stage playing to almost no one. Nevertheless, they fared much better than Maiden’s openers on the last Australian tour (Steve Harris’ daughter Lauren and the awful emo band Behind Crimson Eyes).


Midway through Iron Maiden’s set, Bruce Dickinson acknowledged that tonight’s audience – unlike the massive sell out tour two years ago – was mostly the band’s old faithful, the die-hards who didn’t come along just to hear the "hits". Which was just as well for them. Fully half the set was drawn from the band’s post-2000 comeback era, none of which had ever been played to an Australian audience before. But that didn’t seem to matter, and it was great to see that a good majority of the crowd were able to sing along with the five Final Frontier tracks that were aired, four of which made up the first five songs of the set. Of those, the opening salvo of "The Final Frontier" and "El Dorado" got the warmest response as Maiden burst onto the stage but when the introductory riffing of "2 Minutes to Midnight" was unleashed, a massive roar like 9000 people going "ROOOAARRRRR!!!" almost drowned out the band.

"The Talisman" seemed like an odd choice to follow that, but as perhaps one of their most technically demanding songs I could understand it being played so early. This one seemed to split the crowd a bit, but the band of course pulled it off. "Coming Home" was an early highlight, and "Dance of Death" is a much better song live. One of the biggest reactions, however, was reserved for "The Wicker Man", a clear sing- along favourite being played in Sydney for the first time with the crowd almost lifting the roof off and the band reponding by pulling out every stop.

Unlike the previous tour, Dickinson only got into costume once, for the always ball-tearing "The Trooper" during which he must have run at least a mile waving two Union Jacks. Yet again, as usual, he proved himself to be metal’s – indeed, one of the entire rock world’s – consummate frontman. He engaged everyone in the crowd, pointing out sections for special attention, offered his "Scream for me, Sydney!" rally cry several times (not as often as last time though, thankfully) and always has something poignant, interesting or funny to say. He made jokes about Shane Warne as he tossed a pink bra into the crowd from where it had (apparently) come. He talked about playing in Singapore and in Indonesia, in front of Islamic "metal brothers" who don’t care about race or religion when they’re rocking out to Maiden and in a gesture that caused one of the biggest cheers of the night, dedicated "Blood Brothers" to our cousins suffering from the earthquake disaster in New Zealand. And he never stopped moving. Nor did guitarist Janick Gers, whose crazy dance steps and rubbery contortionist moves when he slips into his own zone are as much of a spectacle as the singer’s exuberant athleticism.

For their part, the rest of the band were hardly boring to watch either, for without a lot of extravagant props and flashy stage effects, Iron Maiden relied on their music and natural showmanship to keep the crowd engaged as the back half of the show was filled out with more familiar songs like "Fear of the Dark" and "Iron Maiden" that was, of course, the cue for a giant red-eyed alien Eddie to prowl the stage and engage in a guitar duel with Dave Murray.

"The Number of the Beast", "Hallowed be Thy Name" and "Running Free" were reserved for the encore, the second of which not only got the greatest cheer of the night but left me both with no voice and a very clear understanding of why I and thousands of others love this band so much. Iron Maiden were truly outstanding tonight and if anyone went away disappointed that they didn’t play "Run to the Hills" then they should kill themselves.



The Final Frontier
El Dorado
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Talisman
Coming Home
Dance of Death
The Trooper
The Wicker Man
Blood Brothers
When the Wild Wind Blows
The Evil That Men Do
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden

--

The Number of the Beast
Hallowed be Thy Name
Running Free

IRON MAIDEN: The Final Frontier

Produced by Kevin Shirley
Released: August 13, 2010

Iron Maiden's comeback from the realms of commercial and artistic stagnation that would have killed almost any other band has been remarkable to say the very least. It's a rare band indeed that could return from such a slump and go on to create material that ranks beside the classics of their past. Their fifteenth studio album sees that success curve continue as they maintain listener interest in spite of its prestigous length by throwing in a few curveballs and some of the best music of their career.


The Final Frontier starts off with a very un-Maiden sounding extended intro that is certainly one of the more interesting things the band has done in a long time. It kind of sets the stage for some of the other less-typical aspects they've sprinkled throughout. After the segue is the usual strong opener let down only slightly by one of Steve Harris' unimaginative, single-line choruses ("The final frontier! The final frontier! The final frontier!") but otherwise the lyrics are Maiden's typically celebral fare. "Mother of Mercy" is a particularly impressive track early on, followed by the surprising "Coming Home", a rare ballad from Iron Maiden and one that actually works. Then comes "The Alchemist", a reasonable effort but nothing these guys haven't done a few dozen times already.

The back half of The Final Frontier is introduced by the majestic Arthurian epic "Isle of Avalon" with "Starblind" showing off the band's rather more aggressive side. It is on these last five songs where Iron Maiden's progressive nature finally flowers with some of the arrangements and extended instrumental sections among the best they've ever done. The guitar work has always been brilliant, but some of the work Messrs. Smith, Murray and Gers do on this album is truly breathtaking. "When the Wild Wind Blows" is the only track on the album written by Harris alone. It's been hailed by some as the album's highlight but on analysis there's several bits and pieces from the band's back catalogue weaved into it, notably a large section of "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" at one point. Nevertheless, even at eleven minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome and really does show how magnificent a band Iron Maiden is when they set out to create something truly amazing.

The Final Frontier is not the easiest album to digest. The complexity and layering of the arrangements and production may mean it takes more than a couple of listens to penetrate, but the effort is worth it. This is Iron Maiden's best since the 80s and without a doubt one of the best albums of 2010.
 

1. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. Mother of Mercy
4. Coming Home
5. The Alchemist
6. Isle of Avalon
7. Starblind
8. The Talisman
9. The Man Who Would be King
10. When the Wild Wind Blows

Rating: 95%

IRON MAIDEN: Flight 666 - The Original Soundtrack

Produced by Kevin Shirley
Released: May 25

Most of Iron Maiden’s live albums since Live After Death have been hit and miss affairs and all of them feature pretty much the same songs, so the cynical might ask why they’ve deemed it necessary to release yet another one. Of course, Maiden isn’t a band to let a marketing opportunity pass them by, so the soundtrack album to the Flight 666 documentary was always going to be on the cards. At 101 minutes, it’s far shorter than the bloated Rock in Rio set, clocking in at almost the same time as their legendary 1985 document.

Yes, this has the same old standards all the others do (“Number”, “Hills”, “Hallowed”, “Iron Maiden”, “The Trooper”), but also a ton of others that haven’t been featured live in a long time: “Moonchild” and the glorious “Revelations” among them. Each song was recorded in a different city, but to be honest it’s difficult to tell. Anyone who saw the film or actually went to one of the shows on the tour would testify that Iron Maiden were absolutely on fire every night they played, so it could just as easily have been culled from one or two performances. The sound is amazing, possibly the best of any of the band’s live recordings, flawlessly capturing the seemingly unlimited energy of a concert behemoth that few if any of the bands their age can match. Bruce Dickinson struggles to find his range here and there, especially in “Aces High” where he sounds just terrible, and he even defers to Adrian Smith a few times, but it’s otherwise hard to fault this.

Being more or less a modern re-imagining of the classic Live After Death it’s perhaps fitting that it’s almost as good, surpassing all the others that have come in between.

1. Aces High
2. 2 Minutes to Midnight
3. Revelations
4. The Trooper
5. Wasted Years
6. The Number of the Beast
7. Can I Play With Madness?
8. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
9. Powerslave
10. Heaven Can Wait
11. Run to the Hills
12. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden
14. Moonchild
15. The Clairvoyant
16. Hallowed be Thy Name

Rating: 85%

IRON MAIDEN: Brave New World

Produced by Steve Harris and Kevin Shirley
Released: 2000

With the "classic" line-up (plus Janick!) reunited after a decade of fluctuating fortunes for all involved, Brave New World was one of the most anticipated releases of 2000. Their world tour of the year before (which, as usual, skipped Australia) had apparently shown the magic was back, but Iron Maiden now had to prove it was there on record. While this turned out to be a hit-and-miss affair, Brave New World was easily the best thing Maiden had done since Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. By far.

Literary themes inspired some of the material, as expected, but like The X Factor there was also more personal tracks, namely Steve Harris' eulogy to his father, "Blood Brothers". The introduction of experienced producer Shirley brought back the enormous, bombastic sound of Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son, and there was a subtle usage of keyboards from Harris that was far better handled than on previous excursions. And instead of sounding cluttered, the three guitars idea works very well, with each giving the other plenty of breathing room.

As always, the album opens with a strong and catchy belter in the shape of "The Wicker Man" before going into a significantly more epic mode with "Ghost of the Navigator", the first real opportunity for Bruce Dickinson to show people who hadn't followed his solo career that he his voice had actually improved since his previous Maiden outing eight years before. It's the longer tracks that are really the highlights on here, in fact, particularly "Dream of Mirrors" (allegedly co-written by Blaze Bayley) and "The Nomad", one of Dave Murray's rare songwriting contributions. The second of these is quite a grower, with Murray's Eastern-sounding guitar lines adding an extra element. Adrian Smith's "Fallen Angel" is a gem, but often overlooked by being squeezed in between this pair of dinosaur-sized sagas.

The album's final track is a stand out simply because it's such an unusual one. With a meandering structure and constant outbreak of extended soloing, "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" (another Murray co-write) sounds more like a studio jam than the regular contrived Iron Maiden compositions, and thus remains one of the most remarkable tracks of their entire catalogue.

Elsewhere, "The Mercenary" is quite forgettable, "Blood Brothers" is overwrought and the big anthemic title track wears out its welcome after a few spins. Nevertheless, Brave New World as a whole was proof that Iron Maiden could come back from the wilderness in a way that few other major acts could manage and set them up for another decade of triumph.

1. The Wicker Man
2. Ghost of the Navigator
3. Brave New World
4. Blood Brothers
5. The Mercenary
6. Dream of Mirrors
7. Fallen Angel
8. The Nomad
9. Out of the Silent Planet
10. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Rating: 81%

IRON MAIDEN: The Number of the Beast

Produced by Martin Birch

Released: 1982

When Iron Maiden began work on The Number of the Beast they were on the verge of greatness. Two albums into their recording career and they were about as big as they could possibly get in their home market. A worldwide audience awaited and all Maiden needed was the album to give them. Killers was a fine album in its own right yet it lacked a true commercial appeal. Iron Maiden could have made more albums like it and still been a big band, but they had both the ambition and the talent to not only be big: they wanted to be huge. The Number of the Beast smashed onto the charts not only on both sides of the Atlantic, but everywhere, catapulting them from an emerging talent to global heavy metal superstars, and deservedly so. Maiden went on to make arguably better albums, but this one is still regarded as their certifiable classic.

The teaming of Iron Maiden with Bruce Dickinson was a stroke of genius on a number of levels and on The Number of the Beast it finally gave the band the heroic sound they had been aiming for. His soaring vocal style was a perfect fit with the band's killer twin guitar pairing and Steve Harris' penchant for epic songwriting. It's unlikely that "Hallowed be Thy Name" would have become the immortal and almost insurmountable classic that it is with anyone else singing it. One of the greatest metal songs of all time, "Hallowed be Thy Name" towers over the balance of the album like a colossus and while it remains to this day the best song Iron Maiden has ever written, The Number of the Beast is by no means bereft of great songs. "Run to the Hills" is almost gloriously over-the-top, three and a half minutes of screaming, galloping metal mayhem. "22 Acacia Avenue" contains perhaps Adrian Smith's all-time greatest lead break. "Children of the Damned" is uncharacteristically menacing and "Invaders" is pure speed metal with both owing something of a debt to early Judas Priest. "The Prisoner" and the oft-maligned "Gangland" stand out as most obviously the weakest cuts on the album. Much discussion has ensued between Maiden fans over the decades as to whether the latter should have been left off in favour of "Total Eclipse", a song recorded during the album sessions that was used as the B-side to the "Run to the Hills" single (the remastered CD version of this album now includes this track). In retrospect "Gangland" isn't really as bad as it's painted and if they weren't overshadowed by so many other great songs, both these tracks would be highlights too.

The Number of the Beast started a dynasty for Iron Maiden that would last for the rest of the decade and established a legacy that continues to this day. Without this album, heavy metal may never have attained the worldwide popularity it still enjoys 26 years later.

1. Invaders
2. Children of the Damned
3. The Prisoner
4. 22 Acacia Avenue
5. The Number of the Beast
6. Run to the Hills
7. Gangland
8. Hallowed be Thy Name

Rating: 96%

IRON MAIDEN: Virtual XI

Produced by Steve Harris and Nigel Green

Released: 1998

Over the years fans have leapt to defend Iron Maiden's 11th studio album but the truth is that the 90s were lean years for Metal's Greatest Ever Band™ and Virtual XI seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the group that seemed unable to take a wrong step a decade before. While certainly more upbeat and uplifting than the harrowing and patience-testing The X Factor, there was no getting around the fact that by now, with two of its major songwriters long gone, Iron Maiden was not just completely out of ideas but virtually devoid of inspiration. From the ridiculous cover art to the stupidly over-long and obesely self-indulgent second track, Virtual XI is Iron Maiden merely playing by numbers.

Unfairly, Blaze Bayley was long scapegoated for Maiden's failure to fire on both the albums he recorded with them but from a songwriting point of view he was responsible for what is one of VXI's better (and most over-looked) tracks, the Falklands War requiem "Como Estais Amigos" as well as "Futureal", one of the band's shortest and best flat-out rockers. Compared to his performance on the previous release where he often seemed to be struggling, Bayley does admirably with the material he was given here. Indeed, while he doesn't quite carry it off the way Bruce Dickinson would later do, he does give his all in the rousing "The Clansman", the album's clear high point and possibly the best track from this era of the band. Elsewhere though even his best efforts can't save "The Angel and the Gambler" with its ludicrous 9 minute plus running time and seemingly endless chorus repetitions (more than 20) that more than any other song proves that Iron Maiden really was running almost on its reputation alone by 1998.

The rest of the tracks are mostly OK without being truly memorable in any way. It was clear that for this band to continue it would have to change something to get some of the magic back, and less than a year later they did.

1. Futureal
2. The Angel and the Gambler
3. Lightning Strikes Twice
4. The Clansman
5. When Two Worlds Collide
6. The Educated Fool
7. Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
8. Como Estais Amigos

Rating: 43%

IRON MAIDEN LIVE IN SYDNEY

ACER ARENA, February 9, 2008

Iron Maiden's first Australian tour since 1992 was perhaps one of the most anticipated events for a large part of the local metal community since it was announced in September. 14,000 tickets for the first Sydney show had sold out within five minutes of the official release date and it looked like at least half of those people were crowded in to the Homebush Bay Brewery before the gig, singing along to any song that was even remotely heavy metal.

Inside Acer Arena, Steve Harris' little girl Lauren was opening the show. I'm not sure if many people saw her set as I can't find anyone who did; I certainly didn't catch it.

Of all the bands that could have followed, apparently Iron Maiden chose Behind Crimson Eyes. In other countries, where Maiden has gone out with acts like Funeral for a Friend, this may have worked. But Australian metal audiences are ridiculously parochial, and BCE quickly learned that an Iron Maiden show was no place for them to be. Despite the fact that they are awful, Behind Crimson Eyes gained a modicum of respect from me just for trying. As a totally inappropriate choice of opening band, to their credit they tried to make it work - sometimes way too desperately - and their cover of "Ace of Spades" was diabolical. They received possibly the worst reception from any crowd I've ever seen but somehow they battled through it. It was major level ownage, but maybe Behind Crimson Eyes will take something away from it. No longer calling themselves a metal band might be a good place to start.

After that the anticipation was simply incredible, and when the stage lights went down to the tune of UFO's "Doctor Doctor" there was an enormous roar that almost drowned out the intro. Then with a blast of flame and a high-kicking leap from Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden was on stage, ripping into "Aces High" and for the next two hours the capacity crowd at Acer Arena was treated to one of the most dynamic live bands in the world. In front of their gigantic movable backdrop and classic ancient Egypt set, Iron Maiden played through their best known songs and the whole room sang along.

On stage, Iron Maiden is amazing, a spectacular, well-oiled machine. Even without all the trappings they would be an incredible band to watch. Liveliest of all is Bruce Dickinson, who is never still for a moment and the focus of the band's entire show. While the others criss cross the stage and Janick Gers carries on with his wild acrobatics, Dickinson is singing, running, leaping, flag-waving and even changing costumes throughout. The set list was a non-stop parade of classics, faintly echoing the running order of Live After Death, the DVD of which has just been released (and shot to No.1 according to Dickinson) but with a few others thrown in to the mix. This is of course meant that the sublime "Revelations" got an airing, one of my favourite songs of all and done brilliantly. The immense "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was also rolled out once again, at long last. It was one of the highlights of the World Slavery Tour and it was again tonight, with a massive backdrop of a rotting ship looming above the band and smoke filling the arena. Before it began however, one of those transcendental concert moments happened: as the band paused for Dickinson to do his introduction, the entire crowd began to spontaneously chant, clap and stomp, completely unbidden. For a long moment, it seemed even the mighty Iron Maiden was overawed and Dickinson, for once, was completely speechless. It's rare when something the crowd does can be the high moment of a show, but this was one of those times.

"Heaven Can Wait" was another high point when a huge group of competition winners got to join the band on stage, and it was great to hear "Wasted Years" get a run too, along with "Moonchild" that opened the encore.

If there was one criticism, it lies with the mix, which was remarkably uneven throughout the show, but most noticably during "Powerslave" where the guitars were incredibly muddy and virtially non-existent for much of the first verse. My only other beef was with Eddie, whose cameo during "Iron Maiden" seemed terribly lame. That could be just a minor nit-pick however, because otherwise the whole performance was pretty much flawless. The band looked like they were truly enjoying themselves, and it would have been hard not to have been revved by Acer's vast crowd tonight, who were clearly relishing every moment.

Bruce said at least twice that Iron Maiden will return to Australia again soon, and after the reception they got tonight it would be hard to argue against it. They may have left it a long time to come back, but they tonight they almost made it worthwhile.

Full set:

• Transylvania (recorded intro)
• Churchill's speech/Aces High
• 2 Minutes to Midnight
• Revelations
• The Trooper
• Wasted Years
• Can I Play With Madness?
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Powerslave
• The Number of the Beast
• Heaven Can Wait
• Run to the Hills
• Fear of the Dark
• Iron Maiden
• Moonchld
• The Clairvoyant
• Hallowed be Thy Name

IRON MAIDEN: Piece of Mind

Produced by Martin Birch

Released: 1983

Tomorrow evening Iron Maiden will be playing their first Sydney concert since 1992 and I will be there somewhere screaming and pumping the air with my fist like 15,000 other people. So what better time than now than to examine the album that is arguably their best?

Lacking a title track and with its comparatively understated cover art, there was some initial concern that Iron Maiden's fourth album wouldn't catch on. Of course, the concern was unfounded, because where The Number of the Beast had opened the gates of the world to Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind blew them off their hinges. On this album, the band's creative talents truly flowered and the material benefited from the input of four songwriters for the first time. With the exception of one track, Piece of Mind is as flawless an album as Iron Maiden would ever make. It is here that the band not only finally developed its signature sound, but perfected it, and it could be argued that they never quite matched this ever again.

As usual, primary songwriter Steve Harris took as his inspiration an eclectic group of influences, from avant-garde French cinema, to the Charge of the Light Brigade, to the pulp war fiction of Alistair Maclean. Tempering this was some fine contributions from Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. Dickinson's majestic "Revelations" is almost spiritual, a glorious rebuttal of the accusations of devil-worshipping levelled against the band by America's lunatic fringe after the previous album. Murray's portrait of insanity "Still Life" has a haunting quality and is nicely slotted into the running order after the typical Harris gallop of "The Trooper". On "Die With Your Boots On", the boys sound like they're simply having a blast as they poke fun at wanton prophecy-makers and their faithful. "Flight of Icarus" is Maiden at their catchiest, with an awesome vocal display from Dickinson as he holds his note over half of Smith's climactic solo. The oft-overlooked "Sun and Steel" is also something of a gem, an uncharacteristically simple song with a massively catchy chorus.

The album's only real fault lies in the lyrical awkwardness in some of the songs, most particularly the infamous "Quest for Fire", the only bonafide filler track on Piece of Mind. Almost redeemed by some typically nifty guitar work from the incomparable Murray and Smith, it still fails because almost every line is nothing short of embarassing absurdity. Bruce Dickinson has conceded in interviews that he often took Steve Harris to task over some of his lyrics. I can't imagine the argument that must have taken place when he skimmed his eyes over babies like "They fought a vicious, angry battle" and "In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth", but I'm sure it must have been a doozy. The album's closing epic, "To Tame a Land" suffers from lyrical excruciation also, but considering the subject matter, Frank Herbert's overblown and almost incomprehensible sci-fi saga Dune, that is perhaps understandable. Despite this, "To Tame a Land" remains one of Maiden's best long songs, with Murray and Smith conjuring up some nice Middle Eastern-inspired motifs and Dickinson again shows the incredible power of his voice, even if the task of trying to fit words like "He is the Kwizach Hadarach/He is born of Caladan/And will take the Gom Jabbar" into a workable metre must have had him pulling out his (then) considerably long hair.

While Piece of Mind was to be eclipsed by the monumental Powerslave and the incredible two-year tour that accompanied it, it remains debatable as to whether Iron Maiden ever actually bettered this album. No matter if they did or not, Piece of Mind is easily one of the best heavy metal releases of all.

1. Where Eagles Dare


2. Revelations


3. Flight of Icarus


4. Die With Your Boots On


5. The Trooper


6. Still Life


7. Quest for Fire


8. Sun And Steel


9. To Tame a Land

Rating: 98%

IRON MAIDEN: Iron Maiden

Produced by Wil Malone

Released: 1980

Already the leading band of the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement with a UK Top 40 single behind them by early 1980, it was clear that Iron Maiden was a band with a future ahead, though no one could really have said how big. After this album appeared on April 14 that year, surely none but the foolish could have denied they had the potential to go very, very far indeed. Along with the debuts of Def Leppard and Raven, Iron Maiden is perhaps the best example of NWOBHM ever made. While the production is ordinary, even for the early 1980s, Maiden's songwriting, energy and enthusiasm blazes through with every second of the playing time.

Iron Maiden opens with the wailing dual guitars of "Prowler" and from that moment is a certifiable classic. Simply trying to get such a catchy track out of one's head in a hurry is a pointless exercise. Even this early, Iron Maiden had laid a key cornerstone for their further success: the ability to write intrinsically catchy riffs and melodies into any song regardless of how elaborate the arrangement. Few could listen to the twin harmonies immediately before and after the guitar solos in album centrepiece "Phantom of the Opera" -- the prototype for the mighty epics Maiden would later write -- and not remember them for a long, long time. Most of the tracks are deceptively unpretentious compared to many of those that would appear on later albums, but every one of them is a clear cut if a somewhat unpolished gem. Will Malone's minimalist production (the band claims he did almost nothing during the recording sessions) and Paul Di'anno's snarling vocals lends something of a raw, punkish character to proceedings, but the playing and execution is very much heavy metal. Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton trade solos with an almost deviant glee, in "Transylvania" the band lays down a blueprint that every melodic death metal act from Gothenburg would later copy and it's possible that songs like Metallica's "Fade to Black" may never have been written had it not been for "Remember Tomorrow".

Iron Maiden is undeniably one of the most important metal albums of all. Not only was it the debut for one of the genre's greatest bands but its combination of rawness, speed and melody has provided the inspiration for two generations of music fans ever since.

1. Prowler


2. Remember Tomorrow


3. Running Free


4. Phantom of the Opera


5. Transylvania


6. Strange World


7. Charlotte the Harlot


8. Iron Maiden

Rating: 90%

BRUCE DICKINSON: Tyranny of Souls

Produced by Roy Z

Released: 2005

In the eyes of many of his fans, Bruce Dickinson’s solo work easily eclipsed just about everything Iron Maiden did since the beginning of the 1990s; certainly Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding were vastly superior to Maiden’s releases from the same period and when he rejoined his old friends there was some small sighs of despair that Bruce’s solo career was at an end. Seven years and three Maiden albums later, Tyranny of Souls relaunches that career for one of the greatest metal singers of all.

Taking things at his own pace, Dickinson spent a long time on this album and the end result is one of the most diverse recordings he has ever made. This time chief colloborator Roy Z handled all the guitar work, and his production lays on some fine crunch in that area, making for a nicely heavy sound. With that said, Tyranny of Souls is not a complete triumph. There are definite highlights, but there is also some too-familiar generic moments and overall it doesn’t match the heights that Bruce’s two previous solo efforts attained.

After the strange spoken word intro “Mars Within” that doesn’t seem to serve a purpose, “Abduction” kicks in as the opener proper, a nice melodic and catchy track but one that isn’t too far removed from Dickinson’s contributions to Maiden albums over the years. The next two songs are somewhat better, with that aforementioned guitar crunch and heaviness, and some stellar work from Roy Z. “Soul Intruder” is easily one of the heaviest songs Bruce Dickinson has ever recorded and “Kill Devil Hill” has a nicely sinister feel. Another highlight is “Devil On a Hog”, which has a surprisingly rocking Judas Priest feel to it and isn’t that far removed from the demon-on-a-Harley thing Rob Halford likes to sing about.

The real surprise however is right in the middle of the album. “Navigate the Seas of the Sun” is a stripped-back acoustic track that shows a remarkably mellow side to Dickinson’s normally histrionic vocals. While it suffers a little from lyrical repetition, this works far better than Dance of Death’s “The Journeyman” and raises the question of whether there should be more songs like it. The rest of the cuts aren’t bad but they don’t really stand out either; nevertheless, Tyranny of Souls is without doubt an above average release and maintained Dickinson’s strong record for quality solo efforts.

1. Mars Within


2. Abduction


3. Soul Intruders


4. Kill Devil Hill


5. Navigate the Seas of the Sun


6. River of No Return


7. Power of the Sun


8. Devil on a Hog


9. Believil


10. A Tyranny of Souls

Rating: 78%