SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON

I am not a fan of Iron Maiden in general, but Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is a simply brilliant album! This is by far Iron Maiden's best and most progressive album. Indeed, it is probably one of the very best Metal albums of the 80's. One reason for this is that while all previous Iron Maiden albums were very much of their time, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son sounds timeless. The album is loosely based on a concept that really enhances the music without taking control of it. The lyrics are captivating and intriguing and never cheesy (as is too often the case in this type of music). Both the band themselves and the majority of their fans would probably deny it, but this is art! It is evident that the band here take their inspiration equally from Yes, Genesis, Queen and Jethro Tull as they do from Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Judas Priest. Whatever Punk influence there was present on earlier albums is wholly absent here.

The riffs, solos and vocal melodies are instantly and infinitely appealing to me and perfectly executed throughout. The drums are loaded and rather complex. Many interesting time and mood changes occur throughout the whole album. The excellent guitars are often augmented by symphonic keyboards that give the music a fuller, more symphonic sound than on earlier (and later) Iron Maiden albums. The previous album Somewhere In Time also had more keyboards than most other Iron Maiden albums, but on Somewhere In Time the keyboards sounded thin and had a much more typical 80's sound.

On a couple of songs acoustic guitar is used which gives the music a slight folky touch and brings more diversity to the whole. One thing that I really like about this album (and that helps to make the album a unified whole) is that is starts out with a short acoustic/vocal part that is repeated at the very end on the album. This is of course not an original idea but it works perfectly here.

This is not an album just for Prog Metal fans (which this reviewer is not!). This album is truly essential; a classic!

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