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Our second music review brings us back eight years, to something of a classic album.

Hey guys, I am ThyToonyman, most of you won’t know me because I’m not able to make Youtube Poops due to a number of unfortunate events. I am your new Music Review dude and will review a number of albums, song and/or artists to recommend them to the people out there. To start I will review an album that contains a song that’s very important for me:

Brave New World by Iron Maiden (2000)

This album is a turning point in the history of Iron Maiden. After the 80s Iron Maiden’s music started to decline and the fans started to turn away form the band. When lead singer Bruce Dickinson left the band in the early 90s, Blaze Bayley was chosen as his replacement (more on him in a later review). This new singer wasn’t really well received by the fans due to his different voice range, which led to even more fans turning away. But many of them rejoiced and returned when the band announced that Bruce Dickinson would return in the late 90s. This album is the first of the new albums with Bruce Dickinson as singer and 3 guitarists in the band. While it revived some elements of the band’s 80s music, it also used much fresh matter. Let’s review the album song by song:

1. The Wicker Man (4:35)
This song set the tradition of following Maiden albums that the first song is a shorter, more mainstream oriented piece with an upbeat nature and a pretty complicated message. It has great instrumentalisation and a memorable sing along chorus. The solos in the middle are nice, but there are better. Overall a nice song.
8/10

2. Ghost of the Navigator (6:50)Iron Maiden has always been a band that used elements of Progressive music in their song. This song is a great example. It has shifting time signature and melodies, like in the chorus or the solo section. This song is a hidden gem, not many people know it, yet it has great melodies and the solo section is lovely. A very nice song, although it may need some time to sink in.
8/10

3. Brave New World (6:18)
This is the song that I mentioned before as being very important for me, as it led me away form mainstream techno music and introduced me to Heavy Metal and Rock music.
The song starts soft, grows powerful and heavy and climaxes into a genius solo section only to return to the softness from the beginning. It’s just incredibly powerful and full of energy and manages to put the meaning of the song (I hope you know the book by A. Huxley) into perfect music. This song ranks among the best not only from the album but also Maiden’s whole career.
10/10

4. Blood Brothers (7:14)
A wonderful and emotional ballad, although not as greasy as some other metal ballads. Wonderful melody and great solos, this song shows the softer side of Iron Maiden’s music.
Beautiful piece.
9/10

5. The Mercenary (4:42)
A shorter, simpler song, compared to the long songs that precede it. It’s something you’d call a “rocker”, it’s short and the melody quickly jumps into your brain. It’s a nice song with once again great soloing, but it’s a bit dull compared to others. It’s good nonetheless.
6/10

6. Dream of Mirrors (9:21)
This one’s for the Progfags among us. It’s a great epic with changing melodies, time signatures and an occult theme in the lyrics. The song gradually builds up until it climaxes in a faster rendition of the chorus and then slows down to reprise the beginning. As usual the solos rock and the drums are amazing. Wonderful epic, although it might be hard to digest for some people who dislike complicated or long songs.
9/10

7. The Fallen Angel (4:00)
Another more simple “rocker” typed song. If you like shorter ones more then you’ll probably like this one too, but it’s a bit generic for my taste. But the musical work is still good.
5/10

8. The Nomad (9:06)
This song lives from its atmosphere and musical work. The lyrics are pretty dull when compared to the others and the song is dragging in some places, but the atmosphere the music summons is amazing. It really puts your thoughts into the desert and makes you imagine nomads and the stuff. If you like atmospherical songs then you will love this one, otherwise you should skip it after a try.
9/10

9. Out Of The Silent Planet (6:25)
This song is great. It’s simpler than most of the longer ones, yet it features the same level of musical genius, especially the faster parts sound lovely. There isn’t much to say about this one, just try it and make your opinion.
8/10

10. The Thin Line Between Love And Hate (8:26)
The last song on this album is yet another powerful ballad, although it’s even more powerful than Blood Brothers. Wonderful and emotional, if you love ballad-like songs then you will like this one too.
9/10

Overall Score: 9/10

A wonderful Iron Maiden album. As with most Iron Maiden albums, the musicians do a great job. The guitar solos are very fitting and great and the rhythm section (bass and drums) does a great work aswell. I’d like to point out the greatness of the drumlins in the songs. Nicko Mc Brain is regarded as one of the best Metal drummers for a reason, he can play perfect double bass beats with only one foot, a thing that not many drummers can do. If you are a drum person, pay special attention to them, you’ll grow fond of them.

Article by ThyToonyman.