YES! I like it!

The video is just great haha. No other band would have a music video like this. There's things in it that remind me of Star Wars with the asteroid field. Lord of the Rings looking down onto the planet. Reminds me or Mordor. Indiana Jones with the relic. It's so good!

The Video is awesome no doubt, but the song is as crappy as the other one. Iron Maiden is dead to me

Iron Maiden can lick my sweaty nuts.

This seems like a pretty honest track-by-track review, which confirms my belief that the album will be okay, with some amazing bits and some good songs and a few not-so-good songs!

http://www.radiometal.com/article/new-i ... ck,1140/en

And here's Classic Rock's 9/10 review! http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h14/6 ... an0001.jpg

For all the naysayers who like to claim that Maiden have lost it after listening to a couple of minutes of a new song, take note of the last paragraph. Perhaps that's the problem for fans of the classic enjoyment; Iron Maiden are no longer the band whose songs you can listen to for first time jumping and running and galloping around everywhere - now they're a band you have to sit down and listen to (as proven by the fact the songs they try and write in the former style aren't very good anymore). This is true of the last two or three albums (although the 2 or 3 shorter rocky songs on BNW were still amazing), and I guess it will be true of this one too. I'm very excited about writing a massive essay on it which many people will probably not read, when it comes out. Hooray!

Saw Maiden in Chicago last night. Excellent gig. They played a bit too much newer stuff for my liking, but there's no question Bruce can still hit every note he needs to. And someone should tell Jannick his guitar's not plugged in.

phodg wrote:And someone should tell Jannick his guitar's not plugged in.

No they shouldn't!

Fuck my bum bum!

Very bad quality samples... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvt_gdUXy_c
EDIT UP THE BUM: This one's a bit better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9GTuJndzLw

Good quality ones were put up on the net earlier but were taken down I think, so here's the only other one I found, I don't know how long it'll be up though.

But I have to fucking christ, it gets me very excited! The intro sounds really cool. The song after El Dorado sounds like it might amazing (I think that's Mother of Mercy). Coming home sounds ok, but perhaps The Obligatory Heavy Ballad (TM). The fast one (The Alchemist) sounds a bit obvious but wonderful fun. Isle of Avalon sounds really fucking amazing and very much like Seventh Son a bit even though it's just a build up that's played. Starblind sounds really bloody cool. The Talisman sounds very much like the intro to The Legacy on AMOLAD, and it sounds amazing like a little medieval folk story. The Man Who Would Be King sounds quite lovely. When The Wild Wind Blows is the only one solely written by Steve Harris, and therefore has the quiet E/C/G/D chord progression intro, but everyone's been going mad about how good that song is, so hopefully it's amazing.

So all in all, it's got me far more excited than the samples from AMOLAD did when they came out! And it does actually sounds like El Dorado is the worst song of them all, which is good news. Then again, most of the songs are ten years long and this is only a few seconds of each one, but still, it sounds a lot more glorious than El Dorado and The Final Frontier would suggest.

It's leaked!

IIIIIITT'S LLLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAKED!!!!!!!!@!3REIR2341H431RF

Yes and it's bloody amazing! seriously good, I was NOT expecting it to be this good.

FUCK ME UP MY ARSE, PLEASE WOULD YOU.

If I was a journalist, that's the headline I would write for my review of this album.

Okay okay, I'm going to calm down and not go mad, otherwise no one will believe anything I say.

So, you've all heard El Dorado. Luckily, none of the songs sound anything like it, and the whole album is way better than this song. I don't even know why they wrote this track, it's a shame it's on the album at all, but nevermind.

What the goodness can I say, well this is definitely their most ambitious album since Seventh Son. It's not as solid and consistent as Brave New World, but it's miles ahead of the last two. Somehow, for their longest album to date, it flies by a hell of a lot quicker than AMOLAD and The X Factor, for example. There's so much going on all the time, you can't possibly comprehend it all in one sitting. I don't think Maiden have ever made an album like that before.

The first half of the album is the 'easy half' I'd say. With the exception of the intro. The intro is mad! Really experimental and mad for Maiden, I really love it. The Final Frontier you all know, it's actually good fun without the stupid sound effects, and believe it or not it's the only chorus that repeats the chorus over and over again. In fact, even though I applaud Maiden for being a lot more adventurous this time round, I feel there's a distinct lack of singalong choruses - that would be one of my very few criticisms of the album. The other criticisms would be the muddy production (as expected), the fact that the playing is not always very tight (I blame Janick) and... El Dorado.

And the most important facts about the album....

ONLY ONE SONG HAS AN ACOUSTIC OUTRO!

ONLY TWO SONGS USE THE E/C/G/D CHORD PROGRESSION!

That's right boys and girls. A few songs have soft intros, but this time round they're all really interesting and lovely to listen to. Isle of Avalon's intro is more of a dynamic progressive build up intro, rather than just a soft bit before the heavy bit intro, which happens a couple of times. But the thing is, this time it's okay, because they don't overuse anything like they did on the last album.

Mega powerful highlights are Isle of Avalon, Starblind, and, goodness me I don't believe it, The Talisman, which is one of the best songs I've heard from them in aaaaages. It's amazing. The intro is medieval and utterly hilarious, but very atmospheric and musically it is so so lovely, and when the song kicks in, it blows your balls up your bum, and Bruce wails your face off! Truly a glorious song. It proves that whilst Janick is a bit of a clown, he's probably the best songwriter in the band, along with Adrian Smith. Where The Wild Wind Blows may be an amazing song, but that one needs a few more listens. The Alchemist is a fast song and very fun indeed. Coming Home is the ballady type song, but it is good and much better than Out of the Shadows from the last album.

So all in all, it's impossible really to rate it on the first listen, but I'd give it 8/10 right now. This may increase with time, or it may slightly decrease. I've hyped this album up so much for myself, but unlike Inception, it didn't disappoint me. But still, my mind may be clouded by the hype! However, I have no worries about admitting when I think Maiden are being crap, so I don't think I'm being particularly biased. I can tell a crap Maiden album apart from a good one (no matter how much I still enjoy the very, very few crap ones), and this is definitely a good one.

So all you people who think Maiden are now crap, don't judge them on El Dorado and The Final Frontier. There's soooo much more awaiting you on this most marvellous of heavy metal glories! But beware: this is not an album of catchy hooks. This is an album of brilliant music.

How amazing is this album!? You're right... Looks like the easy songs areon the first half of the album. Coming Home is my favourite so far! I can imagine this being amazing live! WAA The Alchemist! How amazing is this hahaha! My word... Each song keeps betting better and better as the album goes on.

I went to wedding on sunday. My table was called IRON MAIDEN.

Creeping Dan wrote:How amazing is this album!? You're right... Looks like the easy songs areon the first half of the album. Coming Home is my favourite so far! I can imagine this being amazing live! WAA The Alchemist! How amazing is this hahaha! My word... Each song keeps betting better and better as the album goes on.

Did The Talisman blow your bloody mind?

I have to say the only mild disppointment so far out of the songs that were supposed to be amazing is Where The Wild Wind Blows. It's more an 11 minute collection of nice bits, but the structure isn't great and it doesn't really build up into anything. Still, it's all enjoyable and it doesn't like an 11 minute song at all, I just wish it made me want to cry for joy as much as The Talisman does. That's definitely my favourite of the album.

It made me very happy! It just felt like the album keeps getting better and better.

Where The Wild Wind Blows does have the most memorable riff of the whole album though. Cos I remember I must have heard it from those samples and when the song came on it was just very familiar and I felt like I could just start singing along straight away. I'm going to put it on again soon!