Tyranny Of Souls
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Abduction kicks off the proceedings & is very Maiden with galloping guitars & huge chorus. In fact it mostly reminds me of the Somewhere In Time album which is a little odd as Bruce didn't actually write for that one. Hmm!
Soul Intruders starts off really heavy. I'm so glad Bruce recruited Roy Z again for this album. It's certainly a winning combination. This is a very catchy track.
Kill Devil Hill reminds us that Bruce is flying mad. He's done countless aviation type songs. Let's hope he doesn't run out of ideas & do a song about Easy Jet. I really like this song.
Now, to the best track on the album - Navigate The Seas Of The Sun. This sounds (as does a fair bit of the album) like it could have been on Maiden's last album Dance Of Death. Though I consider that a fairly hit & miss album this certainly would have enhanced it had it been included on there. Knocks the stuffing out of their acoustic-esque Journeyman.
Next up is River Of No Return. I love the intro to this song, it's real good old fashioned metal which is how it should always be - fantastic! Had it not been for the last track this would have been my favourite of the album.
The Power Of The Sun starts off with Bruce sounding like that annoying Crazy Frog. I thought Jamster had hijacked my CD for a while. Once I got over that though I found this to be a blistering track. Once again big, catchy chorus & a good ol' guitar solo. Brilliant!
Devil On A Hog (don't you just love metal track titles?) reminds me of way back to his solo debut album. This wouldn't have been out of place on Tattooed Millionaire. An album that's constantly dismissed as throw away & not as important or intellectual as his subsequent offerings. It'll always be a favourite of mine though - great catchy tracks with lots of humour. I'm glad Bruce has done a track like that again. Good fun rock. Go Bruce!
Now, you could be mistaken for thinking Bruce is advertising the muscle pulling cream Ibulieve in this next song, but no. It gets eerie here with BeliEvil (ya see what he did with the title there, d'ya see?!?). This is incredibly dark, possibly the darkest track I can remember him doing. Carcass stirring & rusting (at the same time!), lava streaming, molten flesh - oh dear, it's a bit scary! Towards the end it uses the very same piece of music used in Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Maiden very best album!). Now some people will tell me it isn't the very same but for all you people don't don't believe me & are geeky enough to try this go to 8.38 on SSOSAS. It's the same!
Teasing aside this is a great track & all these so called "evil" bands of today should give this a listen. Makes Slipknot sound like Take That.
I like the title track being the last track.Don't know why I just do. Tyranny Of Souls thankfully isn't forgettable like many last album tracks. Not much I can say about this one though other than it's just classic Bruce really.
Some people say it's unfair to compare this to his previous albums & even more so Maiden but I can't help it so will continue to do so! It certainly doesn't "flow" so well as The Chemical Wedding did & the tracks aren't quite up to the standard of that either. However, I believe that to be his "Sergeant Pepper" album - he ain't ever gonna top it! This one certainly knocks the spots off of Accident Of Birth, Balls To Picasso & Skunkworks (still a dirty word amongst many Maiden fans!). Though I still cling lovingly to Tattooed Millionaire, yes technically this is far superior to that too.
He's done it again - Bruce is THE metal God. No wonder he's a cocky sod (that wasn't meant to rhyme!)
10 out of 10
Best tracks - River Of No Return, Navigate The Seas Of The Sun, Soul Intruders, Devil On A Hog
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