By Andrew Bansal
Exactly 25 years ago, British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden unleashed their 7th studio album, ‘Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son’. That was during the period popularly known as Iron Maiden’s ‘golden years’. They were releasing albums for fun back then. They put out six albums from 1980 to 1986. ‘Somewhere In Time’ was the last of those albums, and the band followed its release with a massive tour, as usual. But so what? They said, ‘let’s make another album immediately, a concept album no less!’ Despite being so successful with their early albums, they never rested on their laurels and wrote the same album twice. That was the beauty of Maiden, and still is to this day. There was something new on every album. But even for their own lofty standards, this particular album was an audacious effort in every sense of the word.
They used guitar synth and bass synth on the Somewhere In Time, but took it to a whole another level on Seventh Son. The bass and guitar synth sounds became even more prevalent, there was also the use of keyboards, and the song structures had elements of progressive rock which was something Maiden had never done at the time. But the best part about it is, Steve Harris and co clearly felt it would fit in well with Maiden’s signature 80s sound, and they were definitely right. Even with these newer, ‘non-Maiden’ elements, it never came across as the kind of album that would turn off old-school Maiden fans. On the contrary, the fans gleefully embraced the enhanced Maiden sound, and the album is now a true classic, boasting of some of the band’s most epic tunes.
To start with, the opening tune ‘Moonchild’ emphatically proves that Maiden never lost touch of who they were as a band and what they represented musically pre-1988. Their previous albums had absolutely amazing opening tunes, the likes of ‘Prowler’, ‘Wrathchild’, ‘Invaders’, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Aces High’ and ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’, and Moonchild certainly lives up to that pattern and sets up the Seventh Son album perfectly.
After Moonchild, the listener is treated to some of Maiden’s greatest tunes, all on one album. ‘Infinite Dreams’, the fantastic title song ‘Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son’, and ‘The Clairvoyant’ are hailed as three of Maiden’s finest, and are still the most popularly demanded songs in live Maiden set lists. The rest of the album is by no means inferior either, with shorter, simpler rockers like ‘Can I Play With Madness’, ‘The Evil That Men Do’, ‘The Prophecy’ and ‘Only The Good Die Young’. All in all, the album always was, still is, and always will be considered as one of the most brilliant pieces of heavy music.
The band followed the album’s release with the legendary ‘Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour’, which comprised of the ‘Maiden England’ video recording done at the NEC in Birmingham in ’88. It was released only on VHS, and eventually became the most famous Maiden bootleg floating around on the internet. Finally, the band released the official Maiden England DVD earlier in 2013, and are continuing to revisit that 88 tour for the younger fans, by playing most of the same set list at their shows this year. All this falls right into place with the album’s 25th anniversary, and there is simply no better time to get to know this album. Hence I leave you with its full stream. Up The Irons \m/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVwA5HSGEU
Track Listing:
0:00 – 5:40 Moonchild
5:41 – 11:49 Infinite Dreams
11:50 – 15:20 Can I Play with Madness
15:21 – 19:53 The Evil That Men Do
19:54 – 29:48 Seventh Son of the Seventh Son
29:49 – 34:53 The Prophecy
34:54 – 39:20 The Clairvoyant
39:21 – 43:37 Only the Good Die Young