Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The daddy has been threatening to come and take pretenders to the throne to the woodshed for so long that it was beginning to feel like an empty threat. The oh so nears, the very superb last live album giving the respect the band deserve, but the studio albums setting the world on fire but not demolishing it to smithereens as they did between 1983 and 1988, now arguably Iron Maiden, with everything that has gone on behind the scenes in the intervening years, have released the best studio album of their career since Seventh Son of A Seventh Son and one that doesn’t just growl in the dark, it rages with constant delight.
The Book of Souls is uncontainable, it is the sealed chamber that encloses all that many would have listeners believe they should never be allowed to hear, the huge production, the feeling of being progressive, of meaty vocals and gigantic sound, everything an Iron Maiden and British Heavy Metal fan could ever wish for but had long feared that the days of such an event happening were long gone.
The Book of Souls is not just the daddy, it is the whole family bearing down and taking out the heathens and the nay-sayers as one and for Bruce Dickinson especially, this is a kind of nirvana reached after all his health has been through in recent times. The vocals on the album have somehow reached a point where they can be compared favourably with the period between Number of the Beast and the Seventh Son… albums and whilst that hair raising siren like delivery that graced that period cannot be touched through age and Time, the strident oral charm blasts through the foundations and with some gut pulling bass guitar work by the also rejuvenated Steve Harris, The Book of Souls is Iron Maiden back to what they do best; giving substantial entertainment but with insanely clever lyrics and a musical heartbeat that shivers with joy and expectation all the way through.
The double album, in itself a rarity for the band, is blistering, intense with subtly and never relinquishes the hold it has on the mind from the opening track, If Eternity Should Fail, and only lessens the grip when it believes the willing participant in the cosmic journey has finally kicked their last and the beautiful blazing conscious is completely won over.
With stand out songs such as The Great Unknown, When The River Runs Deep and the heavy artillery like album title track taking apart any resistance, it is no small wonder that the heart breathes a deep sigh of grieving the last colossal note that departs into the ether until the brain remembers that this is not the end, that The Book of Souls has the capability and capacity to keep giving for all time.
A towering return after five years away from the studio; Iron Maiden are Kings of the East End and beyond once more.
Ian D. Hall