Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son review
Band: | Iron Maiden |
Album: | Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son |
Style: | New wave of British heavy metal |
Release date: | April 1988 |
Disc I
01. Moonchild
02. Infinite Dreams
03. Can I Play With Madness
04. The Evil That Men Do
05. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
06. The Prophecy
07. The Clairvoyant
08. Only The Good Die Young
Disc II [1995 reissue bonus CD]
01. Black Bart Blues
02. Massacre
03. Prowler 88
04. Charlotte The Harlot 88
05. Infinite Dreams [live]
06. The Clairvoyant [live]
07. The Prisoner [live]
08. Killers [live]
09. Still Life [live]
Among Iron Maiden's studio albums 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' to me is the second best. It has the most famous songs of the band on one album. Of most albums you might know (if you're not a fan!) two or three songs, this album contains at least 6 songs that you should know, if not you have never lived.
Talking about a very special limited edition here we go with disc one, the original studio album 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son', as mentioned above with the most famous tracks on it, because of being played live more often than other 'not so famous' songs on other albums. Everybody knows 'Moonchild' and 'Infinite Dreams', 'Can I Play With Madness' and 'The Evil That Men Do', 'The Clairvoyant' and maybe 'Only The Good Die Young'. All these make the albue outstanding and thus it should be considered as one of the best among all of Iron Maiden's records, which is quite hard to tell because they made so many great ones! To me it's number two in my personal ranking right behind 'Somewhere In Time'. If I had to decide which is my favorite track among these great songs I'd surely pick 'The Evil That Men Do', which makes my favorite Iron Maiden song together with 'Wasted Years', my all time favorite Maiden tunes. The title track is of epic length, close to ten minutes, and yes I know there have been longer songs recorded by Maiden, thinking of 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner', but believe me 10 minutes is long enough on af album that runs only 44 minutes.
Summing it up, because telling it for each song in detail is quite hard because of a certain complexity, S.S.O.A.S.S. is much deeper in sound than other Maiden albums, the Keyboards and synthesizer effects create a deep atmosphere (i.e. Infinite Dreams, has a special sound that makes you think of real dreams in which feelings are mixed and pictures from different things flow into each other) and make it very diverse and special. This is already worth the full 10 points.
Now to the bonus disc:
Can I Play With Madness? Yes you can! I can gladly say that I'm the mad fan who bought all the rare (and of course official!) remastered limited edition double cd albums in 1995/96! Yes, bacause that way I got me an 88 minutes instead of 44 minutes 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son'. In fact disc 2 is quite an album itself consisting of 9 tracks, 4 studio and 5 live tracks. Yeeha, here's a tracklist for it:
01) Black Bart Blues
02) Massacre
03) Prowler '88
04) Charlotte The Harlot '88
05) Infinite Dreams (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
06) The Clairvoyant (Live at Donington '88)
07) The Prisoner (Live at Donington '88)
08) Killers (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
09) Still Life (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
Track one is an overlenght, but not too good track made for the purpose of being funny, a bit of music ' The black bart blues' and lots of blah blah? So the real album begins with song number two 'Massacre' a great cover of the Thin Lizzy original, next are the '88 versions of songs originally recorded with Paul Di'Anno, now with Bruce on the mic, really really nice. The five live tracks were all recorded during the tour to the 'S.S.O.A.S.S.' album, even featuring the rarely live played 'Still Life'. All live songs have an outstanding quality. This is already worth 10 points, but regarding the fact that it's only disc 2 that enhances a 10 points-worth album I'd say I'd have give it a 20/10! Haha?
Rating:
10
10
Rating: 10 |
You're probably wondering why I wrote a review of an almost twenty year old album; the answer is quite simple: because it is my absolute favourite album and one of the best Heavy-Metal-albums of all time. "Seventh Son..." was the last album that was recorded with Adrian Smith until 2000's "Brave New World." It's a concept album telling the story of a gifted child, a so called "seventh son of a seventh son," and how his gift carries with it many burdens and problems. The concept itself is not what carries the album but it adds a different touch to the lyrics and surely the music as well. Read more ›› |
Rating:
10
10
Rating: 10 |
What is there to say about Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son? It's my absolute favourite album ever made. In fact, it's the only album I personally consider flawless. Read more ›› |
Rating:
8.9
8.9
Rating: 8.9 |
Seeing the 80s and the band's golden era out, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is a high note to go out on. The band took a tighter embrace of their progressive tendencies but managed to balance this with their pennant for creating catchy tunes like they had for the decade up until then. Iron Maiden find a golden ratio that they have spent much of the rest of their career trying to replicate. Read more ›› |
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