\nSomewhere In Time<\/i> marked a series of changes for Iron
\nMaiden. This was their first disc to utilize guitar and bass
\nsynthesizers – something akin to admitting publicly you cheated on
\nyour SATs, especially when earlier Iron Maiden albums had
\nemblazoned in their liner notes the words “NO SYNTHESIZERS!!!”.
\nThis also was the disc which marked their follow-up to their
\nsuperstardom, courtesy of
\nPowerslave<\/i> and
\nLive After Death<\/i>, so anything they would release would be
\nexamined with the musical version of the electron microscope.<\/p>\n
Going into this review (and I’m working off of the re-issue from
\n1998), I admit there’s a soft spot in my heart for this particular
\nalbum. It was the first Iron Maiden record I ever bought (probably
\nfollowed the next week by
\nLive After Death<\/i>), and was one of a handful of records which
\nmarked my embracing of the heavy metal genre as a teenager. So
\nwhile there are some people who view this disc as an unwelcome
\nchange for Bruce Dickinson and company, there’s a part of me which
\nwill always think highly of it.<\/p>\n
All of that said, nearly 20 years since its release,
\nSomewhere In Time<\/i> has held its own quite well, though there
\nis a bit of listlessness in it, especially in subjective
\nsongwriting. More on that in a minute.<\/p>\n
The major point of contention many people have with this disc is
\nthe use of synthesizers – and, had they been overused in the course
\nof the disc, I’d agree. But their introduction to Iron Maiden’s
\nsound – at least to my tired, old ears – actually helps to enhance
\nthings a bit. There’s no need to fear that the old Maiden sound has
\nbeen pitched into the trash along with the bell bottoms and Bay
\nCity Rollers 8-tracks; there’s plenty of bass thumping from Steve
\nHarris and fluid guitar solos from Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. If
\nanything, the controlled use of the synthesizers brings out the
\nindividuals’ importance in the band more than anything.<\/p>\n
The two hits off this disc, “Wasted Years” and “Stranger In A
\nStrange Land,” are indeed worthy of the attention given to them –
\nbut the true gem in this collection is “Heaven Can Wait,” a track
\nwhich has become a live staple of Iron Maiden’s show. This is
\nanother example of how Iron Maiden can write an epic song (if
\nmemory serves me right, this one clocked in at eight minutes)
\nwithout wasting a second on unnecessary fluff. Each note seems to
\nhave an urgency of its own, pushing the song to a frantic finale.
\nThe choral bridge (mostly made up of Dickinson’s vocals) is a
\nhaunting moment in this song.<\/p>\n
For all of the praise one can lavish on
\nSomewhere In Time<\/i>, there is a slight hint that the
\nfoundation might have had a hairline crack. Iron Maiden, to this
\npoint, had always been able to write songs with solid subject lines
\n– airplane dogfights, passage of the dead in Egypt, poems which
\nmade us gag in high school but they somehow made to sound cool. On
\nSomewhere In Time<\/i>, the subject matter grows a tad thin, as
\nsongs like “D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu” and “The Loneliness Of The Long
\nDistance Runner” just don’t have the same kind of snap that one had
\ncome to expect from the band by this stage in their career.
\nLikewise, while “Alexander The Great” is an entertaining song, it
\nalmost feels like the group tries to cram too much history into one
\nsong – anyone else remember Monty Python’s “Oliver Cromwell”?<\/p>\n
Still,
\nSomewhere In Time<\/i> has remained a solid Iron Maiden release
\nand, unlike many other albums from this period in time, sounds as
\nfresh today as it did when it was first released. Did it live up to
\nexpectations the band created thanks to
\nPowerslave<\/i> and
\nLive After Death<\/i>? No – but, in all honesty, it would have
\nbeen asking a lot to top that experience. What this album did do –
\nsomething no one realized at the time – was close out an important
\nperiod of Iron Maiden’s career, something one would discover just
\none album later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5725],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38095","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iron-maiden","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38095"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}