Iron Maiden's Reviews
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Average Rating: 9.00 out of 10)
Maidens Supposed Dark Side Of The Moon (Rated this album with 8 out of 10)
Reviewed by
tonyhawk900
from LA
Before I listened to this CD I had high expectations coming in. Judging from reviews on this sight this was supposed to be an epic concept-album and Maiden's greatest moment. I was expecting, from a lot of high reviews and some low reviews, that this album is going to be a masterpiece or a pretentious synth-laden mess. I actually found a little of both. This album is sure overated. No way this is better than the immortal " Powerslave " or even better than its predeccesor " Somewhere In Time " This is still a great album to buy after you've bought " Number Of The Beast ", " Piece Of Mind ", " Powerslave ", " Somewhere In Time, and the awesome " Brave New World " It's supposed concept isn't well put together. Even for a concept album it's pretentious. You don't even notice the story while listening to the songs except for in the beginning and in the title track. It's also dissapointing that there's no epic songs on this album. Sure the title track is almost 10 minutes, but 2.5 minutes of a song with an insanely repetive chorus plus pretentious chanting plus 7 minutes of wankery, very good wankery though, does not an epic make. This album is also notable in that it was Maiden's commercial peak. It spawned an unprecedented 4 singles, 1 which was classic, 1 which was great, 1 which was good, and 1 which was an embarassing slice of cheese. Anyway heres my grades. Song Grades 1. Moonchild-The " 7 deadly sins " intro is a great moment, it also closes out the album, but this, while a good opener, isn't as good as " Where Eagles Dare ", " Aces High ", or " Caught Somewhere In Time " The D & D lyrics also bring this song down and they could have made a better chorus. Still a rockin' tune though. Final Grade-B 2. Infinite Dreams-Every Maiden album, except for the two Bayley albums has a masterpiece song on it and this one takes the cake on this one. This " Revelations " like energetic semi-ballad is perhaps Dickinsons finest vocal performance. They would rehash the subject matter of this song on " Dream Of Mirrors " on " Brave New World " This is Maidens best song ever released as a single. Final Grade-A+ 3. Can I Play With Madness-Here comes the first mistep on the album. Sure this got them some radio-play, but this embarassing cheeze-fest is still one of their worst songs. The chorus (is bad) and the lyrics sound like Poison using fantasy lyrics. " Flight Of Icarus " was a little cheesy too, but at least it was emotional and had great guitar. It wasn't ruined by the synths as this song was. Not that great to begin with anyway. Final Grade-D+ 4. The Evil That Men Do-It isn't the greatest song in the world, but its sung in such an energetic way and it has a great haunting chorus that you can't help but like it. I can't get the " Living on a razors edge, balancing on a ledge, you know... " chorus out of my head. It's the 2nd best song on the album. Great choice for a single. Final Grade-A- 5. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son-You could view this either of two ways. If you view it as a song, it fails. If you look at it as a good mood piece on a concept album like " In The Flesh " from " The Wall " it's great. I'm still a little disappointed because as the title track it should be the best or close to the best song on the album. All of Maidens other title tracks are excellent by the way. Final Grade-C+ 6. The Prophecy-This is a pretty underated song. If they made better lyrics for this song it could have become a Maiden classic. The lyrics though bring it down. Final Grade-B- 7. The Clairvoyant-Great guitar in the beginning. This was one of their big singles from this album. I really like the chorus on this song. This is a good song, but not as good as previous singles like " The Trooper " or " 2 Minutes To Midnight " Final Grade-B 8. Only The Good Die Young-This song should have been released as a single instead of the retarded " Can I Play With Madness. The only problem I have is that as an album closer they could have made this song longer and more epic. This song had the potential. Could have made it into another " To Tame A Land " Final Grade-B+ I feel that Maiden should have kept only the good material they wrote from 85-88. Then they would have had a tremendous album. They should have kept " Caught Somewhere In Time ", " Infinite Dreams ", " Heaven Can Wait ", " Alexander The Great ", " The Evil That Men Do ", " Sea Of Madness ", " Wasted Years ", and " Only The Good Die Young " Imagine what a great album that would have been.
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