It's noted that the continued change in sound from Iron Maiden's previous album, Somewhere In Time remained prevalent in their final release of the decade, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. The problem with this is that I didn't hear said change in the previous album.
At this point, I think I've hammered home that my overall experience with the band has not really paid off. The music's been a bit lackluster, especially in the wake of Bruce Dickinson taking over vocal duties of Paul Di'Anno. They've not become a favorite of mine, and candidly, I haven't seen the appeal to this legacy act of thrash metal.
Regardless of my opinion, Iron Maiden has proved time and time again to be a powerhouse in the industry, producing top charting albums, and sales certifications ranging between gold and multi-platinum. The point being, as much as I consider myself an 80's music aficionado, I fully understand that tastes vary, and opinions are subjective.
The band approached their 1988 album as a concept, basing it on the 1987 novel Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card. It would be their first to include keyboards, played by both Steve Harris and Adrian Smith. Singer Bruce Dickinson would also get reinvigorated, with his ideas being embraced and included in the material. You may recall from yesterday's post that all the ideas he brought to the tale for 1986's Somewhere In Time were all rejected by the remaining members.
Following suit of previous releases, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son shot up the charts in multiple countries, becoming their next number one in the UK, and peaking at number twelve on the Billboard 200 in the USA. A support tour was inevitable, seeing the band perform one hundred three shows, including the West Germany, Netherland, Italy, Spain, and France portions of Monsters Of Rock. Michael Kenney would be brought in to perform the keyboard portions for the tour.
Having zero expectation, I fired up the album, prepared to spend the next forty-five minutes half listening, and half twiddling my thumbs. "Not so fast," said Iron Maiden. "Check this out!"
Moonchild starts with a strumming acoustic guitar before delivering a synthesizer intro, overlaid by guitars and drums. From there, the beat kicks in, and the song takes off. Wait, what was happening? I was into it, hook, line and sinker.
From there, the album just kept punching me in the face with solid track after solid track. So many, that while I initially began jotting down tunes of note, Infinite Dreams, Can I Play With Madness, it soon became apparent that I was actually enjoying the whole thing. Where the heck has this Iron Maiden been?
I'm sure many metal purists were rolling their eyes at the inclusion of synthesizers, but for me, I think it's the missing piece that previous albums didn't have. Thrash metal meets synthpop rock. Iron Jovi. That's what I'm talking about.
If you haven't reached the conclusion yet, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son was a great album. It's a definite high note to end it all on, and yet, at the same time, sad that I didn't get this from previous records. Frankly, it makes me want to go back and listen to them again and see what I may have missed out of prejudice. Unfortunately, time won't all for that any time soon.
Upheaval soon reared its head for the band. Thing began unknowingly with guitarist Adrian Smith releasing an album with ASAP in 1989, and singer Bruce Dickinson beginning a solo career with Janick Gers on guitar. While all of this was going on, the band celebrated their tenth anniversary with a compilation release.
Returning to the studio for what would become their next album, 1990's No Prayer For The Dying, during pre-production, Smith would quit. It would later be stated that he disagreed with the stripped-down sound that founding member, and bassist, Steve Harris was leaning towards. Dickinson would suggest he be replaced by Gers, who became the first new member in seven years.
Iron Maiden once again joined Monsters Of Rock and were even joined by Smith who made an appearance to perform with the band. However, as things would have it, issues with Dickinson then began occurring. This began with their 1992 album, Fear Of The Dark, where rather than work with Harris on tracks, which he had done in the past, he instead worked with Gers. Feeling creatively restricted, Dickinson would leave the band in 1993.
After listening to thousands of tapes, the band chose Blaze Bayley, formerly of the band Wolfsbane, to fill the spot of lead vocalist. With his different vocal style from Dickinson, the band received mixed criticism for their next two albums, The X Factor (1995), and Virtual XI (1998). Bayley would be asked to leave in 1999 after a series of poor performances. In hindsight, Gers would say that it was the band's fault for expecting him to perform songs outside of his vocal range.
The band met with Dickinson, and negotiated his return, and following this, phoned up Smith, who also rejoined. Rather than ask Gers to leave, Iron Maiden now encompassed three guitarists, who they nicknamed the Three Amigos. Though there have been ups and downs, success has continued for the band with the lineup of Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adiran Smith, Janick Gers, Steve Harris, and Nicko McBrain. They're continued the legacy of Maiden and released six more albums between 2000 and 2021. While rumors suggest a new album is in the works, nothing has been concretely confirmed.
As for Eddie, the mascot which has appeared on every Maiden album to date, well, he's still around too. He not only remains the face of the band, but as of 2024 has even made the transition to toys from Funko.
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