(1988)
Steve, Dave, Bruce, Adrian and Nicko.
2. Infinite Dreams (Harris)
3. Can I Play With Madness (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
4. The Evil That Men Do (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
5. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Harris)
6. The Prophecy (Murray/Harris)
7. The Clairvoyant (Harris)
8. Only the Good Die Young (Harris/Dickinson)
The synths are still around, but less prominently than Somewhere In Time, and they now compliment the music perfectly instead of being a bit much in some places and not enough in others as with SIT. A flat-out keyboard was used for the opening, and it works fine.
As an album opener, you could say that Moonchild is flawed. You'd be wrong, of course, but you could say that. It does take a while to get to its point and get going properly, but once it does, it's as good as any other album opener Maiden have ever had. In fact, I'd very much like the next few tours to open with either Moonchild or Caught Somewhere In Time, because they rule that much. Observe Maiden England, and you'll see that Moonchild is an awesome live opener.
Infinite Dreams is another song that desperately needs to be played live once more. From it's subtle buildings until it suddenly erupts in a fury of screaming and powerful riffs, it's clear that we have a winner on our hands here. Infinite Dreams is without a doubt the best song on the album, and strongly challenges Wasted Years as best song of this new synth direction (and I fucking love Wasted Years).
Next is Can I Play With Madness, the weakest, yet it's an excellent live number. It all depends on your mood. The Evil That Men Do is probably the second best on the album, and once again, look to Maiden England to see it performed to perfection (or Rock In Rio). The opening guitars are masterful, as is Steve's bass, and the chrous is outstanding.
Then we come to the title song, and it seems odd that the album's epic should be right in the middle. Works fine though, and the song actually reminds me of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in that it virtually stops in the middle and goes into a quite bit, then explodes again. This time though, the last part of the song is purely instumental, and watching Maiden England presents this song in its greatest light.
The Prophecy is a little number that's never been played live, yet it's one of Maiden's most beautiful songs. The superb acustic outro is the best thing about the song by far. Steve is on top form as he starts the next song, The Clairvoyant, which has, in my opinion, one of Maiden's strongest ever chrous'. Maybe it's just me.
The album ends with yet another should-be classic, Only the Good Die Young, which again has one of the best openings ever. It would have benefitted from having a longer instrumental section to close before it ends how Moonchild began, bringing the whole album full circle.
All in all, Seventh Son is an absolutely brilliant album, with a number of classic songs and a full sense of continuity between tracks - the concept angle worked a treat. What a shame then, that this was Adrian's final farewell to the band until he returned with Bruce for Brave New World. He's one of the best guitarists in the business, and I still matitain that his masterpiece, Wasted Years, is one of the best songs ever written. This was also the last album where we have Bruce on top form, bafore he started to change his style for the next albums.
Still, despite it generating a few bad memories (particually at the time, I'd imagine), it remains Maiden's second best album ever and is a truly excellent piece of music. But why are there ripples in the ice on the cover?!