By 1988, Iron Maiden began to take themselves a little too
\nseriously.<\/p>\n
Always a band who were able to take obscure material (such as
\nSamuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner,” the boon
\nof sophomore English students across America) and turn it into
\nsongs you could happily bang your head to, Steve Harris and crew
\ndecided to try their hands at a concept album.<\/p>\n
The end result,
\nSeventh Son Of A Seventh Son<\/i>, is an album you either love or
\nhate. Me? When I first heard this record (bought it the day it came
\nout), I absolutely hated it. Even today, I have problems sitting
\nthrough this one (though I’m now working off of the 1998 CD
\nreissue). I can’t say I hate the album, but it sure as hell isn’t
\nthe masterpiece some fans want to make it out to be.<\/p>\n
The disc marked the final appearance of guitarist Adrian Smith
\n(at least until the recent reunion), and one had to wonder even
\nthen if his departure (the first in the Iron Maiden camp since
\ndrummer Clive Burr jumped ship five years prior) was a sign of
\nthings to come.<\/p>\n
The concept itself – the legendary powers of the “seventh son of
\nthe seventh son” and the tragedy they cause him – isn’t terrible,
\nbut the band tries to cram too much information into too little
\ntime. Maybe, had the story been expanded and the disc gone to a
\ntwo-record set, the story line would be much clearer. As it is now,
\nit feels like we’re listening to the Cliff’s Notes version.<\/p>\n
Musically, the band doesn’t always have the crispness they’d
\nbeen come to known for. The use of synthesizers – introduced an
\nalbum earlier – seems to take more of a starring role, though the
\ntwin guitar attack of Dave Murray and Smith is always right at the
\nforefront as well. The title track seems to have hints of the old
\nways, as does “The Clairvoyant,” but it makes you wonder why the
\nbulk of the disc doesn’t have this kind of freshness.<\/p>\n
In terms of songwriting, Iron Maiden sounds tired, and many of
\nthese songs have the feeling of “going through the motions” rather
\nthan trying to make an album of equivalent quality to some of their
\nearlier works. “Can I Play With Madness,” despite being a
\nsuccessful single for the band, is hardly on the same par as, say,
\n“Aces High” or “Wasted Years,” and set a dangerous precedent for
\nfuture Iron Maiden singles – namely, the weaker the track, the
\nbetter the chance it would be released as a single.<\/p>\n
Yet I do have to admit, parts of
\nSeventh Son Of A Seventh Son<\/i> have grown on me, especially as
\nI’ve been exposed to live versions of these tracks. As individual
\nsongs go, tracks like “The Clairvoyant” turn out to be pretty good,
\nbut lump them in with the whole scene, and it’s kind of like
\nwatching a car wreck.<\/p>\n
\nSeventh Son Of A Seventh Son<\/i> is sure to continually divide
\nIron Maiden fans into two camps: those who love the album, and
\nthose who loathe it. Fact is, Iron Maiden had done better work, and
\nthis was a step down in quality for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5725],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38099","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iron-maiden","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38099","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=38099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38099"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}