BRAVE NEW WORLD

Well, I'm afraid I have to offer a dissenting view and rating of this album than most reviewers. With this album Maiden tried to recover from the maelstrom they went through during the nineties. The lesson learned is the employment of simple themes in mid-tempo, repeated over and over again. There is very few inspiration to be found in this album, simply stated. And not even all of the few ideas are good. So I found this album particularly frustating. After listening to this album I knew how long 67 minutes can feel. The disaster song by song:

WICKER MAN: decent length, nice chorus, the ending section is unmotivated, the rest is mediocre (2/5).

GHOST OF THE NAVIGATOR: reminiscent of the old days because of the good ideas. Some themes change abruptly which makes the song sound a bit unfinished (4/5; with my evil eye closed).

BRAVE NEW WORLD: two or three simple themes in alternation, has a slight hypnotic feel to it (3/5).

BLOOD BROTHERS: basicly built like the preceding song, but weaker since Maiden seem now to elevate supporting ideas to main ones. (2/5)

THE MERCENARY: totally uninteresting metal. (1/5)

DREAM OF MIRRORS: repetitions all over the place. Greetings from Krautrock. Obviously the band was determined to reach the 9 minute mark somehow. No good music, just the easy way. (1/5)

THE FALLEN ANGEL: this one sounds like one of the weaker tracks of Piece of Mind (1983). Published in Y2K. Obsolete. (1/5)

THE NOMAD: another 9 minute thing, the same problem as with the other one. Feels slightly better to me than Dream of Mirrors (2/5).

OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET: repetitions some more. Not great, not completely useless. Enticing at first, but unnerving after a (short) period of time. (2/5)

THE THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE & HATE: The drum figure in this song has been heard all to often in Maiden albums and almost ruins the song. Otherwise this is the most interesting track of the album. With more imaginative drumming this could have been 4 stars (3/5)

There's better music out there - by Maiden as well as other bands. Buy it cheap if you're a fan or collector. 2 stars.