SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON

Here it is. The album that IRON MAIDEN had been hinting at finally coming to fruition. Steve Harris' progressive rock influences had been showing themselves from the very first album and creeping their way into each album with an ever stronger presence until on "Powerslave" the fully formed progressive behemoth "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" reared its monstrous almost 14 minute head. Surprised was I that the next album "Somewhere In Time" was not the fully developed concept album hinted upon, but on SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON, the seventh deadly sinful studio album, all that progginess unleashes itself and in a truly satisfying way that makes this my absolute favorite MAIDEN album of their entire career and since I pretty much like every stage of their career (with the exception of the 90s) that is a major accomplishment in my book.

The story and album title comes from the 1987 novel "Seventh Son" by Orson Scott Card, upon which the concept is loosely based. In ancient western myths the seventh son of a seventh son (or daughters as well) supposedly possessed heightened occultic abilities such as clairvoyance, phophetic dreams and the like. The story unfolds starting with "Moonchild" where Lucifer tries to manipulate the parents of the seventh son as to harness his powers for his own evil. The rest of the album continues through the trials and tribulations of the father of the seventh son and son himself learning to control their powers and cope with the clairvoyant visions of their world slowly being decimated by evil forces. All in all the lyrics are vague and have a definite air of mystery which makes this an album that can be interpreted in many ways.

The real treat on this album is the music itself with extended song lengths, multi-segmented song structures, atmospheric keyboards added, progressive time signatures and just the fact that IRON MAIDEN didn't deviate from their sound or formulaic songwriting approach. They simply did what they were already so adept at laying out and simply let the music process progressively unfold when and where it made sense to do so. The result is a smashing success that still sounds like an IRON MAIDEN album but also doesn't at the same time. Unlike other metal bands who were also dabbling with keyboards at the time, MAIDEN used them only to embellish the music and not create a whole new instrumental section. One of my favorite albums of all time that sits well on the top of my huge heap of must-have releases.