Iron Maiden - Brave New World

An ambitious, but sometimes overlong epic Maiden album.

Brave New World is better than most comeback albums that bands come back with. Metal bands always say "we're returning to our roots!" or "we're going to really push the envelope and go all out with this!" Brave New World actually does a little of both. Iron Maiden shoots for a very epic sound while using the classic Maiden techniques. Some of the songs are a little slow at some points, but none are bad. These points are what brings the album down to only four stars. Maiden picked up the pace a bit in the two albums that followed though, especially in A Matter of Life and Death.

All in all, this is a great album that belongs in any Iron Maiden fan's collection.

Personal song picks:

The Wicker Man
Ghost of the Navigator
The Nomad
Out of the Silent Planet July 2, 2008

The Return Of Dickinson!

While most of hard rock & metal was stale as 2000 began, Iron Maiden roared back w/Bruce Dickinson once again piloting the vocals to deliver a superb album! Where to begin: The lead track, "The Wicker Man" is vintage Maiden as they roared through the opener. "Ghost Of The Navigator" is a beautiful piece, and "Blood Brothers" is perhaps their most moving song ever, in this reviewers opinion. The entire album is excellent, but for me, the best track is the final song, "The Thin Line Between Love And Hate." A very moving piece that once again shows Maiden has a beautiful quiet side to compliment their razor sharp metal side!

While Paul Di'Anno was good for the first two Maiden records as his voice was somewhat punk in approach, and Blaze Bayley did a commendable job for two records in the mid 90's, the true voice, the ONLY voice for Maiden shall be Bruce Dickinson as he remains one of the finest true "singers" in all of music, not just metal.

UP THE IRONS!! June 26, 2008

Brave new should have been.

I was disappointed with this collection of songs.
True its nice to see the MAIDEN boys trying again, however
the writing in this cd lacks initiative.
There are two pretty good songs on this being Ghost of the navigator
and Blood brothers.There are 10 songs on this cd and the worst one
would be The wicker man. I think that this song is just about as
bad as the Movie. So you win some and you lose some.

Check out BRUCE DICKINSON'S - Tyranny of souls cd. You wont be
disappointed! It is every thing that this album isn't.
April 15, 2008

If you are a metal fan, this CD is a must have.

I have been listening to metal since 1992. I was only 5 then. You name a metal band, I have probably heard them and can engage in discussion with you about them. And out of all the metal bands I have heard/seen, very few were not influenced by Iron Maiden. This band is the god of metal and in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, they invented metal.

Now that I have established a background, I should talk about his CD : )

Like in most albums, not all the songs in this album are great. I would say "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" and "Fallen Angel" are not masterpieces, but they are still very good. The other songs are pretty much amazing. You will, or should, instantly fall in love with "The Wicker Man", "Blood Brothers", "Brave New World", and "Dream of Mirrors". Those are Maiden classics. They are brilliantly composed, and if you are a guitar player, they are really fun to pick up! "Out of the Silent Planet" and "The Nomad" take a while to grow on you, but are equally great songs. The composition and variety they present are definitely worth every minute you spend analyzing them!

Overall, this CD is amazing. I highly recommend it. This album is equally attractive to non-metal listeners as well. February 19, 2008

Maiden come soft on what amounts to their praise

The album starts off strong with the two opening tracks, "The Wicker Man" (which sounds a bit more like Green day if you ask me) and "Ghost of the Navigator". Then we go into generic Alternative rock with "Brave New World", which is an OK track but nothing really special.

This is the first album to feature Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson in a long time since FotD. As weak as that albums are and stronger than the ultra-awful "X Factor" and "Virtual 11", This is a step up from all 3 of those albums but not by much.

Some of the other tracks on this album I really like are "Dream of Mirrors", which is a song that definitely is the best song on a virtually weak album. I also like "The Fallen Angel", which is a great track and Bruce's vocals really shine on this track. "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" is a song that running in at over 8 minutes, is worthwhile all the way through. "Blood Brothers" is an epic track with an orchestra and great lyrics.

The rest drags this album down. "The Nomad" is their lame attempt of re-creating something off of "Somewhere in Time", "The Mercenary" is OK but hearing the line 'Show them no fear, show them no pain' like 5000 times gets boring and almost as boring and repetitive as their utterly-awful abortion entitled "The Angel and the Gambler". "Out of the Silent Planet" is an awful song that I can't even believe it was released as a single at all.

Overall this album is sadly Ok. January 7, 2008

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