IRON MAIDEN — Somewhere Back In Time: The Best Of 1980-1989 (review)

IRON MAIDEN — Somewhere Back In Time: The Best Of 1980-1989 album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 2008 · NWoBHM

2.5/5 · 2010-11-26
The Block

Can I play with madness…?

Maybe…

Once again a band has come to me through a compilation. First with Dream Theater, and also with Iron Maiden. It says it’s the best of the 80’s, but woe to thee who agrees. Granted it does have some pretty good songs, like “Can I Play With Madness” and “Powerslave”, but wouldn’t you just want to listen to the real album? Even though it does not have all their good songs it does have a majority of them.

“Can I Play With Madness” off of Seventh Son is definitely one of my favorite Maiden songs and I am glad that they included it on this album. To starts off with it has a great beat to it and has a nice heavy riff throughout. Bruce Dickinson really belts it out which leads into great lines and a great chorus. This, sadly, is one of the only high spots on this CD besides Maiden classics like “Number of the Beast”, “Hallowed by Thy Name”, “The Trooper”, “Powerslave”, “Children of the Damned”, and “Aces High”.

One other bad thing about this album is Churchill’s Speech which offers nothing to the compilation, and has nothing to do with anything else on the album. But, Fr a compilation it’s not bad considering it is Iron Maiden. For their timeless sound they at least deserve 2.5 stars.

more than 2 years ago
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Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

"I was on a HUGE Maiden streak this summer. That was literally ALL I listened to for 3 months straight! It was absolutely amazing! haha"

That sounds like the first couple of years of my early teens. ;-)

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I was on a HUGE Maiden streak this summer. That was literally ALL I listened to for 3 months straight! It was absolutely amazing! haha

Since I've become a reviewer at Sea of Tranquility, I really only review new releases nowadays. It's cool, but I still wish I had more time for other reviews. As a little sidenote, I am working on doing all the Faith No More albums right now. I have a few in my back catalog.

Pekka wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I took on a quest like that at some point and got lazy after Killers I think :P But then in about a week I went through all the rest of them, it was good fun (now you could check the dates of my reviews and tell me I'm talking crap, but well, my memory is what it is). I'm thinking about listening to the early stuff tomorrow perhaps...

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Exactly. As far as I remember, I think I started listening to Maiden with A Matter of Life and Death and some crappy compilation :-P

Which reminds me... I was going to review their entire discography, but I've kinda gotten lazy after Piece of Mind. I'm gonna have to get to Powerslave at some point.

Pekka wrote:

more than 2 years ago

...with the occasional live album in between ;) But I myself started with Brave New World and the best Maiden compilation there is, Best of the Beast 2CD version, so there's a place for some compilations as well. But not 25 of them.

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm kinda indifferent about that... I got used to hearing Aces High on the Powerslave album, so it's not essential for me to hear Churchill's Speech beforehand. Regardless, this compilation is pretty mediocre IMO. The studio albums are the only way to go when it comes to Maiden. :-)

Up the Irons!!! :-D

Pekka wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I beg to differ on the Churchill's Speech point, if there's a live version of Aces High it absolutely needs the legendary intro from the World Slavery Tour ;) But that's the fanboy in me speaking, I guess it doesn't offer much or tell anything to a newcomer. Hopefully you'll go on to obtain all their studio albums from this era :)