IRON MAIDEN — Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (review)

IRON MAIDEN — Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album cover

Album · 1988 · Heavy Metal

5/5 · 2010-09-26
friso

I got into Iron Maiden as a child. I was eleven years old when I was convinced this music touched my very soul. When I was 13 I knew their discography by heart, Iron Maiden almost being the only band I listened to. Since I discovered progressive rock not before I was seventeen, I never looked at it that way. I recently bought a vinyl version of this admired Maiden album, which is the reason I'm writing this review.

Iron Maiden and progressive. Seventh son of a seventh son has a dark, heavy feel with some goth influences on the titletrack. On other tracks the Britisch wave of new heavy metal also get accompanied by some synths. I admire Iron Maiden for being the ONE band that had this strange idea to get progressive in times the word was used as a curseword in the metal/rock scene. Though change had appeared in the Maiden sound, the recognisizeble guitar solo's are there, we have a very enthousiast Bruce Dickinson (as driven as Peter Hammil maybe!) and the always great basslines of Steve Harris. The latter has it's main moments on Infinite Dreams (listen carefully to those basslines!) and The Clairvoyant. An interesting fact is that the lyrics of this record are better then all of their other records. The themes are interesting and the lyrics fit so damn perfectly with the feel of the music. The production is perfect (on a lp version that is).

Moonchild, the darkest song of Iron Maiden to date opens up the dark magic world of Sevent Son of a Seventh son. Bruce Dickinson has done a great job in exploring the possibilities of his vocals! The heavy guitars and the dark themes make this an exceptional Iron Maiden classic.. play it live! Infiite Dreams is a bit downtempo. This emotional touchy song has one of the strongest chorusses of the album. De soloparts are also very worth while! It took me some time, but this is defenitely a great track! Can I play with Madness is the weak point of this album. The song is too simple and catchy, however the nice story told in the lyrics make it acceptable. The Evel that Men do is a Maiden classic. I like everything about this hardrocker, the speed, the melodies and it's perfect live versions on the many live records of Iron Maiden. Seventh Son of a Seventh son is the title track that is of most interest to those who seek real progressive music. The first part is symphonic with some goth influences with Bruce singing spooky and dark. The middle section with the spoken words are legendary. Iron Maiden sure did something special here! The guitars with echo's accompanied with the choir vocals on this part are perfect! The shook me as a kid and they make me shiver still. The solopart after the middle section are great! The typical Iron Maiden treat with a lot of melodies changed, rythm changes and double guitar solo's. The Prophecy is a song that I didn't like till recently. The sung parts are a bit to strange for me, the solo's in the middle section are great and the outro with the acoustic guitars is very nice also. The Clairvoyant is one of my favourites of all time! Changing from happy to dark a couple of times. Everyting is great here. A lot of energy come from the perfectly fitting lyrics. "I wonder why I wonder how... But it seems their power is getting stronger every day!" Onlyl the Good die young has a very strong couplet. The songs is good, but not a great ending song for a record as they did before.

This is a great record that will get a lot of progressive listeners warm. An influential album on a lot metalscenes maybe. I classic from my youth. My girlfriend won't get any attention as soon as a Maiden record like this lies on the turntable. Though this is an essential metal/heavy rock record, it's also a great addition to a prog music collection. So.. five stars wel deserved. Get this you metalguys out there!